Lyse Doucet

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Three weeks in to the worst Gulf crisis in decades, questions are still being asked about why unprecedented diplomatic and economic sanctions were imposed on the state of Qatar by its powerful neighbours.

Now even Washington is expressing doubt.

"We hope the list of demands will soon be presented to Qatar and will be reasonable and actionable," was the diplomatically phrased message of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

His polite nudging came a day after an unusually blunt statement from Washington over a delay in providing details that had "mystified" state department officials.

"At this point, we are left with one simple question: Were the actions really about their concerns regarding Qatar's alleged support for terrorism, or were they about the long simmering grievances?"a spokeswoman asked.

Someday, what seems like Syria's forever war will end. Then the focus will shift to rebuilding a country shredded and scarred by conflict. A husband and wife, both architects, who witnessed their city's devastation are already thinking about how to restore it.

"It's not easy to rise from the ruins, it's not easy," reflects Marwa al-Sabouni.

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In the final days before the Basque separatist group Eta gave up its guns, mediators spoke of "jitters" over whether this long-awaited moment would go according to plan.

And as we drove into San Sebastian, in the heart of Spain's Basque region, we were halted by road blocks and stern faced police in black uniforms, guns pressed against their chests.

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Fariha remembers the exact moment when Islamic State fighters shattered her life in Palmyra.

"It was a quarter to five in the morning. We were asleep and heard a knock on the door," she tells me as we sit on thin, grey mattresses in an abandoned school in Homs, 160km (99 miles) from her home.

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Ask about change in Saudi Arabia.

The reply used to be: it will come, in its own way and in its own time, in the conservative kingdom.

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There's a new venue, new brokers, and new negotiators, but can Syria talks here in Astana resolve the old intractable problems?

"Everything has changed since Aleppo," says a Western diplomat who's been engaged on Syria for the past several years. "There's a new equation."

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A biting winter's chill seeps through embattled Aleppo as a city braces itself for what could be the worst months of a war approaching its sixth year.

Driving into government-controlled west Aleppo, through military checkpoints, a landscape of skeletal buildings is a monument to Syria's spiral into violence.

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A president-elect who prides himself on the "art of the deal" is about to confront a mire in the Middle East where deals are sorely needed, but so very hard to clinch.

Across the Middle East and beyond, many are pondering Mr Trump's declarations in the heat of the campaign, his still sketchy comments in sit-down interviews, and his first choices for his team in White House Inc.

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Russia has launched a major new assault on what it calls "terrorist targets" in Syria as a brief calm around Aleppo is shattered by devastating air strikes.

Moscow says its first warplanes to take off from its aircraft carrier now stationed off the Syrian coast did not target Aleppo itself.

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Talk to people who know Antonio Guterres and you hear the same refrain - the newly elected UN secretary general is a very good listener.

"He has this ability to stand his ground on important issues but still make you feel he's heard and understood your point of view," reflects Ninette Kelley who now heads the New York office of the UN's Refugee Agency, UNHCR.