Middle East Experience

In a statement, the Israeli army said Muhammad Jaradat and others had carried out the recent fatal shooting of a Jewish settler in the West Bank..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Israeli forces kill Palestinian teen in West Bank clashes

Erdogan arrived in the capital Abu Dhabi, where he was greeted by Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Erdogan seeks better domestic standing with visit to UAE

Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Russian mercenaries with spy links increasing presence in Ukraine – Western sources

On Saturday, US President Biden spoke on the phone with Russia’s Putin, trying to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis. But this call did not yield any significant progress
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Financial and personal sanctions: What's in the US toolbox for Russia?

Following parliamentary elections, the deal now needs approval from a new Iraqi cabinet, including new oil and finance ministers, who will not be in place until at least the end of March..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Iraq's multi-billion dollar Total deal risks being binned

The Riyadh Season festival in Saudi Arabia’s capital city has been awarded another Guinness World Record title, the Saudi Press Agency announced on Monday.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The latest record was awarded for the most simultaneous holograms, also known as pepper’s ghost illusions.It was achieved during a Mohammed Abdu concert on January 14, where five holographic versions of the Saudi singer appeared on stage before the real performer was revealed.A giant slide at Boulevard Riyadh City had previously garnered two world records for the festival.The ‘Avalanche’ slide is the tallest fun slide on earth and has the most lanes, with 24.Riyadh Season also displayed another world record-holder: The largest Formula One car made out of Lego bricks.It was originally built in Jeddah to coincide with the Formula One event in the city in September and was constructed out of 500,000 Lego pieces over the span of a week.The final piece was laid by Prince Khalid bin Sultan al-Abdullah al-Faisal in a ceremony at the Red Sea Mall.The record-breaking model car was displayed during the Riyadh Motor Week in November.It is not the only Lego-related record that has been broken in the Kingdom.In 2018, the largest Lego brick word – the Arabic word for ‘peace’ – was spelled out at the grand opening of Riyadh Park Mall.Read more: Saudi Arabia’s economic growth at near decade-high on oil price reboundSaudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season 2021 receives two Guinness World Record certificatesSaudi Arabia to develop local tourism with new ‘Digital Tourism Strategy’
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Saudi Arabia’s ‘Riyadh Season’ awarded another Guinness World Record

Yemen’s army took control of several sites south of Marib on Monday, ousting members of the Iran-backed Houthi militia, an army spokesperson said.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“Units of the army and the popular resistance launched a qualitative attack, during which they managed to liberate the positions of Yameen al-Raddah and al-Faliha, where the Iranian Houthi militia were stationed,” according to the army’s media center.A number of Houthis were reportedly killed and wounded during the attack, and several of the group’s military vehicles were destroyed.Military sources told Al Arabiya that 40 Houthis were killed in operations to the west and south of Marib on Monday.The Giants Brigade also repelled attacks from the Houthis on positions in Mala’a.Houthi offensives on Marib have intensified in recent weeks as the militia targets the oil-rich region held by the internationally-recognized government.Yemen’s army is supported by an Arab Coalition comprising the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which intervened in 2015 following the Houthi uprising the previous year.Yemen’s army spokesperson praised the role of the coalition in his statement on Monday.At least 12 people were injured on Thursday after an attempted drone attack claimed by the Houthis was intercepted above the southern Saudi airport of Abha. Debris from the intercepted drone fell into the airport premises.Houthis have also launched unprecedented attacks on the United Arab Emirates in recent weeks.The first such strike on January 17 killed three foreign workers. Later strikes were intercepted by UAE and US defenses without injury.Read more: Arab Coalition strikes target satellites station in Yemen’s Sanaa: ResidentsFighting eases in Yemen’s Marib as Arab Coalition revamps forcesArab Coalition destroys missile launcher in Yemen: Statement
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Yemeni army makes gains south of Marib

A Syrian army soldier was killed, and 11 others were wounded when an explosive device planted in a military transport bus went off in Damascus on Tuesday, state media reported, quoting a military source.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for what was a rare bombing in the Syrian capital and which the report said happened at 7:25 a.m., the report said.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.A decade of conflict in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands of people and left the country fractured.However, attacks in Damascus have been rare since the army crushed rebel enclaves around the city with backing from Russia and Iran-backed forces in 2018. Helped by his allies, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad now controls most of the country.A bomb attack on an army bus in Damascus on October 20 killed at least 14 people.Read more:Iran, militias it backs have increased threats against US troops in Syria: PentagonPalestinians start aid campaign for Syrian refugeesSyrian boy kidnapped three months ago freed after ransom paid
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Explosion kills one soldier, wounds at least 11 in Damascus

Saudi Arabia has recorded 1,982 new COVID-19 cases and one virus-related death in the last 24 hours, according to the Kingdom’s Ministry of Health.A total of 732,596 COVID-19 cases and 8,975 virus-related deaths have now been recorded in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the pandemic.Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.In the last 24 hours there were also 3,372 recoveries, bringing the total number of recoveries to 698,842.The Kingdom has administered 59,722,826 vaccine doses to its population of approximately 35 million, the health ministry said.Authorities in the Kingdom are offering booster vaccine shots to people immediately after recovering from the virus. It is also available three months after the second dose for those who have not tested positive.The Ministry of Interior now mandates that citizens traveling outside the country must take a third dose.Exceptions to this rule include those younger than 16 years of age and citizens who have an exempt status on the Tawakkalna application.Booster shots are required to be considered “immune” in the country’s contact-tracing Tawakkalna app for people over 18 who were vaccinated more than eight months ago.Read more:Unvaccinated Djokovic could skip French Open, Wimbledon if asked to take jabCanada's Trudeau invokes emergency powers to quell protestsKuwait lifts many COVID-19 restrictions, allows travel abroad
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Saudi Arabia records 1,982 new COVID-19 cases, one death in 24 hours

Amid a recent upsurge in scams, criminals have been resorting to using “psychological tactics” to defraud people, United Kingdom-based bank Barclays has said, according to a BBC report published on Tuesday.The bank’s chief behavioral scientist Dr. Pete Brooks told the BBC that some of the most-used tricks included creating an illusion of product scarcity or pretending to be “an authority to ‘socially engineer’ victims.”For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Brooks added that scammers have been resorting to dating apps to target people by creating “emotional connections” with them over the course of a few weeks, preying on people’s biases and personality traits.The types of scams happening today had not changed a great deal over the past couple of decades, but the technology that is widely available nowadays is helping criminals become more sophisticated in their scams as they are now able to use “many more channels” to target people, he added.An example of this would be the use of dating apps where people can use “psychological tactics” on victims, by connecting with them emotionally and developing a relationship over time before exploiting peoples’ personality traits for monetary gain.“Most of us by default are trusting,” said Brooks, adding that the so-called “purchase scams” where products or services bought online do not really exist or never actually arrive, were the most common types of scams.Such crimes involved fraudsters creating “a perceived scarcity and therefore ‘value’ in what they are selling to motivate consumers to act quickly and not rely on their better judgement,” he said.An example of such a scam was seen on a recent Netflix documentary entitled “The Tinder Swindler” which has gained a lot of online attention over the past few weeks. A man who went by the name of Simon Leviev, was posing as the son of an Israeli diamond tycoon and defrauded several women across the world after matching with them on Tinder, forming an emotional connection and taking them out on a private jet and ultra-extravagant dates, before asking them for their credit card details to deal with some temporary financial complications, and “his enemies.”Barclays told the BBC that the average amount a person loses through purchase scams totaled 980 GBP (approximately 1,330 USD). However, recent research has found that scams targeting people investing led to the highest amount of money being lost.The bank’s findings included a survey involving just over 2,000 people.Investment scams saw victims lose an average of 15,788 GBP (approximately 21,400 USD) over the last three months, Barclays said.“[Scammers are] experts at exploiting the fact people want to grow their assets, and that we can sometimes put our better judgement aside for a high return opportunity,” the BBC quoted Brooks as saying.Findings on the matter showed a 15 percent increase in all reported scams over the last three months and conning attempts increased by 70 percent in the final three months of last year.Impersonation scams, such as when scammers pose as a well-known institution like a bank or the police, tended to be the riskiest as more than a third of the people surveyed in the UK for the Barclay’s study said they were more likely to comply with a request from such an institution, Brooks added.“In these situations, scammers will harness that sense of authority to instill fear in their victims,” he said.“Perhaps suggesting their bank account has been compromised, they are overdue a payment or that they will be fined if they do not pay the full amount. Psychologically, many of us will take these at face-value if they're coming from what we believe to be a reputable institution.”Barclays said that banks would never ask customers to share their security information, pin number or to transfer money to a “safe account,” advising people to “always question whether something appears too good to be true, and not to be afraid to be suspicious.”The bank also warned that almost a third of the people they surveyed admitted they “wouldn’t know what to do if they found themselves being targeted.”Read more:Saudi authorities arrest influencer selling counterfeit designer products on SnapchatTicket scammers prey on Dubai Coldplay fans after free Expo 2020 concert fully-bookedNine-member ‘gang’ guilty of money laundering in UAE referred to court
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: ‘Psychological tactics’ being used to con people out of cash as scams rise globally