France’s special envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, met Wednesday in Beirut with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri as he visits Lebanon in an attempt to help the parliament elect a president — a position that has been empty for more than two years amid sharp political and sectarian divides.

Lebanon’s parliament is scheduled to meet on Thursday to elect a president. Le Drian will attend the session at the invitation of Berri.

President-elect Donald Trump is dispatching his incoming special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, to Qatar this week for talks aimed at a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of some 100 Israeli hostages.

Trump speaking at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday reiterated his threat that there will be “hell to pay” in the Middle East if the hostages are not released prior to his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Israel’s foreign minister was in the United Arab Emirates for talks with his Emirati counterpart.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that Gideon Saar discussed “regional developments and the bilateral relations between the two countries” in his talks with Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza killed at least 17 people late Tuesday, nearly all of them women or children, the territory’s Health Ministry said.

Five kids were killed in the same tent as they sheltered together in a camp for displaced Palestinians in Muwasi, said Ahmed al-Farra, director of the child ward at Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis. Their bodies were among the eight children and five women brought to the hospital.

Serious flooding swamped parts of England on Tuesday and snow forced three airports to close temporarily as wet and icy weather combined to extend travel chaos that has plagued the U.K. since the start of the year.

Areas of the Midlands in England remained under water and more than 200 flood warnings were issued as waters that overtopped riverbanks continued to inundate villages and drown farmland.

The U.S. Defense Department has added dozens of Chinese companies, including games and technology company Tencent, artificial intelligence firm SenseTime and the world's biggest battery maker CATL, to a list of companies it says have ties to China's military, prompting some to protest and say they will seek to have the decision reversed.

In recent years, Washington has sought to restrict sharing of advanced technology, including semiconductors and AI, deeming it to be a threat to national security.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France's far-right National Front who was known for fiery rhetoric against immigration and multiculturalism that earned him both staunch supporters and widespread condemnation, has died. He was 96.

A polarizing figure in French politics, Le Pen's controversial statements, including Holocaust denial, led to multiple convictions and strained his political alliances.

The Israeli military launched a wave of raids across the occupied West Bank overnight and into Tuesday, killing at least three Palestinians it said were militants a day after a deadly shooting attack.

The U.S. has eased some restrictions on Syria's transitional government to allow the entry of humanitarian aid after Islamist insurgents ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad last month.

The U.S. Treasury issued a general license, lasting six months, that authorizes certain transactions with the Syrian government, including some energy sales and incidental transactions.

Visiting U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said Israeli forces began withdrawing on Monday from a south Lebanon border town more than halfway into a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.