Ashleigh Hallam teaches English as a second language at her local library in Indiana. Soccer is now teaching her Spanish as a second language.

For her, this World Cup couldn't make more sense.

France has finally returned 23 Syrian archaeological treasures that remained in the country for about 15 years after being loaned for an exhibition. Their return coincided with French President Emmanuel Macron's landmark visit to Damascus — the first by a major Western leader since the ouster of Bashar Assad in late 2024.

The artifacts, flown aboard Macron's presidential aircraft on Tuesday and returned to Syria's National Museum, include Roman bronze objects, Byzantine and Islamic-era pieces and a richly colored mosaic panel that once adorned the Umayyad Mosque. The collection was loaned in 2011 to an exhibition of Syrian antiquities at the Arab World Institute in Paris.

France's Notre Dame cathedral on Tuesday got a unique memento of the fire that ravaged it seven years ago -- an electric guitar made from wood scarred by the flames.

In 2019 a fire tore through the storied cathedral in central Paris, badly damaging the UNESCO world heritage site.

Before becoming one of the Middle East's most acclaimed cooks and food writers, Anissa Helou had no intention of either path. She entered the world of cooking and writing almost by accident when she was in her late 30s.

Now 74, Helou has a wide following in the region and elsewhere and has released nearly a dozen books since the 1990s about food in the Middle East and beyond. Last month she received Britain's prestigious Guild of Food Writers Lifetime Achievement Award.

An organization has begun restoring Damascus' main Jewish cemetery, the group's founder told AFP on Tuesday, as members of Syria's dwindling community seek to revive their heritage after ex-ruler Bashar al-Assad's ouster.

Decades later, Samar Kabouli still fondly recalls gathering with women in her family and sipping cardamom-spiced coffee as they embroidered fabric with colorful threads in traditional Palestinian patterns.

Born in Lebanon to Palestinian refugees, Kabouli had never seen her parents' homeland. But more than just making pretty designs, the threads in her needle were stitching a connection to her heritage.

Ashoura comes as many of the more than one million displaced Lebanese people are trying to return to their villages in southern Lebanon. Cities and towns had held sermons and events in the buildup to the holy day surrounded by buildings reduced to rubble and ruins.

Ashoura, a holy day symbolizing sacrifice and martyrdom, holds special significance for many this year in Iran and Lebanon.

The dust has barely settled in Tyre after weeks of Israeli airstrikes on the ancient city along Lebanon's Mediterranean coast.

Despite the relative calm, life remains largely at a standstill.

Donald Trump explained the appeal in one sentence: "Versailles is not gold leaf — Versailles is the real deal."

For Emmanuel Macron, that was precisely the point.

Hezbollah supporters gathered Wednesday at the grave of former leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut to hear a speech by Hezbollah new leader Sheikh Naim Qassem marking Ashoura, when Shiite Muslims commemorate Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

In his speech, Qassem urged Lebanese authorities to take advantage of a "pivotal" moment following a U.S.-Iran deal to end the Middle East war.