Tired of candidates who offer splashy, unrealistic promises, many citizens lost faith in the electoral process. That discontent showed in the election turnout.
A snap election in Turkey, announced earlier this month, briefly put residents of Northern Syria on edge ahead of a threatened incursion by Turkish forces. Now, it's back to life-as-usual.
Voters mostly stayed home for the country's first elections in nearly a decade, and in the end, the same families remained in power.
In the West Bank, complications continue to fracture an already maligned health-care system.
In Israel, many African asylum-seekers find themselves in a country that refuses to offer them a home.
Ahead of elections next week in Lebanon, it's looking like corruption as usual.
Two landmark Supreme Court rulings made clear that juvenile life sentences are unconstitutional. Yet hundreds remain in prison, many of them without access to educational programs.
In pursuit of mental-health and drug addiction treatment that works.