Middle East Experience

The time has come for the OHCHR to publicly acknowledge the scale and gravity of human rights violations being committed by the Chinese government..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: China: UN visit falls short of addressing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang

Data collected from 1956 to the present shows how sex affects fitness, what common injuries to look for, and how the "doggy style" position affects the spine. The findings might surprise you.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: How much does sex really contribute to health, and what’s the most dangerous position?

A 65-year-old man, a 40-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy were all killed in a car accident on Highway 90 on Saturday afternoon.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Four dead in fatal car accident in Israel's south

The outbreak in 11 countries where it is not endemic is highly unusual, according to scientists. More than 100 confirmed or suspected cases have been reported, most of them in Europe.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: WHO working on more monkeypox guidance as cases rise

Russia's Gazprom on Saturday halted gas exports to neighbouring Finland, the Finnish gas system operator said, the latest escalation of an energy payments dispute with Western nations.“Gas imports through Imatra entry point have been stopped,” Gasgrid Finland said in a statement.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Imatra is the entry point for Russian gas into Finland.Finnish state-owned gas wholesaler Gasum on Friday said Gazprom had warned that flows would be halted from 0400 GMT on Saturday morning.Gasum also confirmed on Saturday that the flows had stopped.“Natural gas supplies to Finland under Gasum's supply contract have been cut off,” it said in a statement.“Starting from today, during the upcoming summer season, Gasum will supply natural gas to its customers from other sources through the Balticconnector pipeline.”Balticconnector links Finland to neighbouring Estonia's gas grid.Gazprom Export on Friday said flows would be cut because Gasum had not complied with the new Russian rules requiring settlement in roubles.The majority of gas used in Finland comes from Russia but gas only accounts for about 5% of its annual energy consumption.Most European supply contracts are denominated in euros ormdollars and Moscow already cut off gas to Bulgaria and Poland last month after they refused to comply with the new payment terms.Gasum, the Finnish government and individual gas consuming companies in Finland have said they were prepared for a shutdown of Russian flows and that the country will manage without.“The Finnish gas system is in balance both physically and commercially,” Gasgrid said on Saturday.Finland on Friday said it had agreed to charter a storage and regasification vessel from U.S. based Excelerate Energy to help replace Russian supplies, starting in the fourth quarter this year.The vessel turns supercooled, liquefied natural gas (LNG), which arrives on ships, back into regular gas.Read more:Russia may cut gas to Finland soon: Energy group
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Russia stops Finland gas flow over payments dispute

Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister of Defense Prince Khalid Bin Salman met with US Special Envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking to discuss the latest developments in the Taiz conflict, the Yemen war and the need for UN-backed peace proposals, among other bilateral issues, a tweet from the Saudi minister on Saturday said.“I affirmed to him the Saudi led Coalition’s backing of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council and its supporting entities, and our aspirations for reaching a comprehensive political resolution to the crisis that will lead Yemen into peace and prosperity,” he said.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.He also “reaffirmed the need for the United Nations and the international community to pressure the Houthis into reopening the roads of Taiz, deposit revenues of the Hodeidah port, and engage with peace proposals,” according to the same tweet.US Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg had earlier said separate talks would be held to open roads in disputed Taiz region, but no progress has yet been reported.A Yemeni minister recently said the Iran-backed Houthi militia is undermining efforts to reach complete peace by violating the agreed-upon ceasefire terms, according to an official Saudi Press Agency report citing the Yemeni state-run news agency.The claim was made by the Yemeni Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Moammar al-Eryani, who said that the militia continues to “avoid its commitment to lift the seize on Taiz governate.”A two-month truce between the Arab Coalition and the Iran-backed Houthi militia that runs the north went into effect on April 2, coinciding with the holy month of Ramadan, and has largely held up.Prince Khalid Bin Salman arrived in Washington on Tuesday and has met with senior defense and state department officials.The Saudi minister met with the US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan who reaffirmed President Joe Biden's commitment to “help Saudi Arabia defend its territory”. Sullivan also underscored the longstanding partnership between the two nations.The senior Saudi official also met with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin where they discussed the strategic relations between the two countries, in addition to reviewing the Saudi-US partnership and aspects of strategic cooperation in the existing and future defense and military fields.Prince Khalid also headed the Saudi side in the meeting of the Joint Strategic Planning Committee between the Ministries of Defense in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Colin H. Kahl headed the US side.During the meeting, the latest developments and the rapid regional and international changes were discussed, in addition to discussing many issues and files as part of the two countries' vision to defend common interests and maintain international peace and security.The two officials also spoke about the US approach to China “as its pacing challenge.” They also touched on the war in Yemen, maritime threats, and violent extremist organizations.Iran’s destabilizing actions in the region were also a topic of discussion. The pair agreed to increase cooperation and work to counter the smuggling of illicit weapons to violent non-state groups in the Middle East.The Pentagon said Kahl praised the transformation process at Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense, “a top priority for Saudi Arabia and for the United States.”Al Arabiya English’s Jennifer Bell and Joseph Haboush contributed to this reportRead more:Amnesty urges Yemen’s Houthis to free journalists on death rowUS reaffirms commitment to helping Saudi Arabia defend itself from external threatsYemeni minister claims Iran-backed Houthis undermining peace efforts
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Peace, Taiz in focus as Saudi deputy defense minister meets US special envoy to Yemen

In what would be its biggest victory yet in the war with Ukraine, Russia claimed to have captured Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege that reduced much of the strategic port city to a smoking ruin, with over 20,000 civilians feared dead.Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin the “complete liberation” of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol — the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance — and the city as a whole, spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Friday.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine.Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti quoted the ministry as saying a total of 2,439 Ukrainian fighters who had been holed up at the steelworks had surrendered since Monday, including over 500 on Friday.As they surrendered, the troops were taken prisoner by the Russians, and at least some were taken to a former penal colony. Others were said to be hospitalized.The defense of the steel mill had been led by Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, whose far-right origins have been seized on by the Kremlin as part of an effort to cast its invasion as a battle against Nazi influence in Ukraine.Russia said the Azov commander was taken away from the plant in an armored vehicle.Russian authorities have threatened to investigate some of the steel mill's defenders for war crimes and put them on trial, branding them “Nazis” and criminals. That has stirred international fears about their fate.The steelworks, which sprawled across 11 square kilometers (4 square miles), had been the site of fierce fighting for weeks.The dwindling group of outgunned fighters had held out, drawing Russian airstrikes, artillery and tank fire, before their government ordered them to abandon the plant's defense and save themselves.The complete takeover of Mariupol gives Putin a badly needed victory in the war he began on February 24 — a conflict that was supposed to have been a lightning conquest for the Kremlin but instead has seen the failure to take the capital of Kyiv, a pullback of forces to refocus on eastern Ukraine, and the sinking of the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet.Military analysts said Mariupol's capture at this point is of mostly symbolic importance, since the city was already effectively under Moscow’s control and most of the Russian forces that were tied down by the fighting there had already left.In other developments Friday, the West moved to pour billions more in aid into Ukraine, and fighting raged in the Donbas, the industrial heartland in eastern Ukraine that Putin is bent on capturing.Russian forces shelled a vital highway and kept up attacks on a key city in the Luhansk region, hitting a school among other sites, Ukrainian authorities said. Luhansk is part of the Donbas.The Kremlin had sought control of Mariupol to complete a land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and free up troops to join the larger battle for the Donbas.The city's loss also deprives Ukraine of a vital seaport.Mariupol endured some of the worst suffering of the war and became a worldwide symbol of defiance.An estimated 100,000 people remained out a prewar population of 450,000, many trapped without food, water, heat or electricity. Relentless bombardment left rows upon rows of shattered or hollowed-out buildings.A maternity hospital was hit with a lethal Russian airstrike on March 9, producing searing images of pregnant women being evacuated from the place. A week later, about 300 people were reported killed in a bombing of a theater where civilians were taking shelter, although the real death toll could be closer to 600.Satellite images in April showed what appeared to be mass graves just outside Mariupol, where local officials accused Russia of concealing the slaughter by burying up to 9,000 civilians.Earlier this month, hundreds of civilians were evacuated from the plant during humanitarian cease-fires and spoke of the terror of ceaseless bombardment, the dank conditions underground and the fear that they wouldn't make it out alive.As the end drew near at Azovstal, wives of fighters who held out at the steelworks told of what they feared would be their last contact with their husbands.Olga Boiko, wife of a marine, wiped away tears as she said that her husband had written her on Thursday: “Hello. We surrender, I don’t know when I will get in touch with you and if I will at all. Love you. Kiss you. Bye.”Natalia Zaritskaya, wife of another fighter at Azovstal, said that based on the messages she had seen over the past two days, “Now they are on the path from hell to hell. Every inch of this path is deadly.”She said that two days ago, her husband reported that of the 32 soldiers with whom he had served, only eight survived, most of them seriously wounded.While Russia described the troops leaving the steel plant as a mass surrender, the Ukrainians called it a mission fulfilled. They said the fighters had tied down Moscow's forces and hindered their bid to seize the east.Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described the defense of Mariupol as “the Thermopylae of the 21st century” — a reference to one of history’s most glorious defeats, in which 300 Spartans held off a much larger Persian force in 480 B.C. before finally succumbing.Read more:Russia likely facing Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles shortage: UKRussia stops Finland gas flow over payments disputeUS says diplomats not ready for talks with Russian counterparts over Ukraine war
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: In biggest capture yet, Russia claims victory in Mariupol

The plan endorsed Friday includes several measures that are prerequisites to unlock funds from a preliminary deal with the IMF agreed in April..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Lebanon cabinet passes financial recovery plan

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi called Friday for the body of the poet to be repatriated by ministerial aircraft..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Iraq’s rebellious poet Muzaffar al-Nawab dies aged 88

Critics of the urban development plans say they are at odds with the government’s targets under the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Egypt’s street trees fall foul of urban development drive