The European Union on Monday began easing energy and transport sanctions and banking restrictions against Syria, aiming to help breathe life into the conflict-torn country's economy if its new leaders work toward a peaceful future.

The EU started to impose asset freezes and travel bans on Syrian officials, banks, agencies and other organizations in 2011, in response to then-President Bashar Assad's crackdown on protesters, which festered into a civil war.

The low-cost carrier FlyDubai announced Monday it earned a record-breaking profit of $611 million in 2024, buoyed by higher passenger numbers and lower fuel costs.

FlyDubai had revenues of $3.5 billion through the year, as compared to $3 billion in 2023. Profits were $572 million in 2023.

President Donald Trump welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron to the White House for talks on Monday at a moment of deep uncertainty about the future of transatlantic relations, with Trump transforming American foreign policy and effectively tuning out European leadership as he looks to quickly end Russia's war in Ukraine.

The two leaders were starting their day by taking part in a virtual meeting with fellow leaders of the Group of Seven economies to discuss the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will not allow Syria's new army or the insurgent group that led the ouster of former President Bashar Assad to "enter the area south of Damascus" as his government made clear Israeli forces would stay in parts of southern Syria for an indefinite period.

Netanyahu's comments Sunday at a military graduation led to new concerns over the Israeli presence, and sway, in a swath of southern Syria as Damascus' new leaders attempt to consolidate control after years of civil war.

Hundreds of thousands of people packed into a stadium in Beirut and nearby streets on Sunday for the funeral of Hezbollah's former leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Nasrallah died after Israel's air force dropped more than 80 bombs on the militant group's main operations room in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, dealing a major blow to the Iran-backed group and political party that he had transformed into a potent force in the Middle East.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Beirut early Sunday to attend the funeral of Hezbollah's former leader, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital.

In the run-up to the funeral, giant portraits of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and his slain successor Sayyed Hashem Safieddine have been plastered on walls and bridges across south Beirut.

U.S. Republican Representative Joe Wilson has criticized Lebanese politicians who are planning to attend the funeral of slain Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday.

"Any Lebanese politician who attends the funeral of the murderous terrorist Hasan Nasrallah is standing with the Iranian Regime," Wilson said on X.

Nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike, thousands of supporters of the longtime leader of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah have flown into Beirut for his funeral on Sunday.

Nasrallah was killed on Sept. 27 when Israel's air force dropped more than 80 bombs on Hezbollah's main operations room in Beirut's southern suburbs. It was the biggest and most consequential of Israel's targeted killings in years.

The United States has proposed a draft U.N. resolution that stops far short of a competing European-backed statement demanding an immediate withdrawal of all of Moscow's forces from Ukraine.

Both are timed to the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which falls on Monday, when the U.N. General Assembly will vote on the nonbinding resolutions.

U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy to Ukraine and Russia said on Friday that he had held "extensive and positive discussions" with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky about the three-year war with Russia and praised the Ukrainian leader as an "embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war."

Retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg — who traveled to Kyiv on Wednesday and whose planned news conference with Zelensky on Thursday was changed at the last minute to a simple photo opportunity — struck a positive tone after what he said on the social platform X was "a long and intense day" of talks with Ukraine's senior leadership.