Aya Batraoui

Aid groups say they're concerned about its implications on local staff and note that Israeli forces killed more than 400 aid workers in the war in Gaza.

In addition to ordering non-emergency U.S.

staff and their families to leave Israel, the U.S.

Embassy advised that other Americans may also wish to consider leaving while commercial flights are available.

A similar order was issued for non-emergency U.S.

staff to depart Lebanon earlier this week.

Despite these precautionary orders and a continued U.S.

military buildup in the region, Iran and the Trump administration continue to hold indirect talks.

The latest talks were in Geneva on Thursday and included the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency that monitors nuclear enrichment.

Aya Bhattarawi, NPR News, Dubai.

The Trump Organization this week launched a golf course, hotel, and residential community on the outskirts of the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

It will be built within a sprawling new development owned by Saudi Arabia's Sovereign Wealth Fund, which is run by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Sadman.

The company also announced a new Trump Plaza in Jeddah, the second to be built in the Saudi coastal city.

The Saudi company developing these projects, Dar Global, says the new projects are worth $10 billion.

The Trump Organization also has multi-billion dollar real estate projects under development with Dar Global in Qatar, Oman, and the UAE.

The projects reflect a rapid expansion of the family-run business and other financial dealings in the Gulf following President Trump's first term in office.

Aya Batraoui, NPR News, Dubai.

Saudi Arabia publishes information on executions as they happen, naming the crime and the nationality of the person killed.

Based on these announcements, Human Rights Watch and other rights groups, including the UK-based Reprieve, say foreign nationals convicted of non-violent drug crimes drove the surge in executions last year.

The rights groups say 240 out of 356 executions in the kingdom were for drug-related crimes, most of them foreign nationals.