Mohammad Bakri, a Palestinian director and actor who sought to share the complexities of Palestinian identity and culture through a variety of works in both Arabic and Hebrew, has died, his family announced. He was 72.

Bakri was best known for "Jenin, Jenin," a 2003 documentary he directed about an Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank city the previous year during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising. The film, focusing on the heavy destruction and heartbreak of its Palestinian residents, was banned by Israel.

A meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump will happen "in the near future," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday, signaling progress in talks to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.

"We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future," Zelensky wrote on X.

Before setting out for the wide, white mountain, Ana Lia González Maguiña took stock of her gear: A chunky sweater to guard against the chill. A harness and climbing rope to scale the 6,000-meter summit of one of Bolivia's tallest mountains. Aviator glasses to protect from the bright highland sun.

And most crucially, a voluminous, hot-pink skirt.

After a half-century immersed in the world of trade, customs broker Amy Magnus thought she'd seen it all, navigating mountains of regulations and all sorts of logistical hurdles to import everything from lumber and bananas to circus animals and Egyptian mummies.

Then came 2025.

Clashes erupted between Syrian security forces and Kurdish fighters on Monday as top Turkish officials visited Damascus ahead of a deadline to implement a deal between the government and Kurdish-led forces in the country's northeast.

Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported that two civilians were killed and 15 were wounded by shelling, and that dozens of families fled two neighborhoods of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, which has seen previous outbreaks of violence.

Mohamed Salah got Egypt off to a winning start in the Africa Cup of Nations by scoring late for 2-1 against Zimbabwe on Monday.

Salah captained the team in his first start for nearly a month and fired inside the bottom corner in stoppage time to spare Egypt embarrassment against a team ranked 129th in the world.

Yemen's internationally recognized government and the Iran-backed Houthi group have reached an agreement to free around 2,700 detainees held throughout the war in Yemen, according to Saudi and Houthi officials.

Saudi Ambassador Mohamed AlJabir said in a statement on X that the agreement was signed under the supervision of the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen and the International Committee of the Red Cross, "which will enable all detainees to return to their families."

A former close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that immediately following the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered Israel's two-year war in Gaza, the Israeli leader instructed him to figure out how the premier could evade responsibility for the security breach.

Former Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who faces trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the press, made the explosive accusation during an extensive interview with Israel's Kan news channel Monday night.

France's fractured parliament is debating an emergency bill Tuesday designed to prevent a U.S.-style government shutdown next week, after negotiations on a 2026 budget collapsed.

With just days left before the new year, President Emmanuel Macron and his Cabinet met Monday night to present the brief draft law. It aims "to ensure the continuity of national life and the functioning of public services," including collecting taxes and disbursing them to local authorities based on tax and spending levels in the 2025 budget, the Cabinet said.

Initial drafts of U.S. proposals for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia meet many of Kyiv's demands, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, although he suggested that neither side in the almost four-year war is likely to get everything it wants in talks on reaching a settlement.

"Overall, it looks quite solid at this stage," the Ukrainian leader said Monday of recent talks with U.S. officials who are trying to steer the neighboring countries toward compromises.