Middle East Experience

Lebanon registered 302 coronavirus cases and four deaths in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry reported Monday..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Lebanon registers 302 COVID-19 cases, four deaths in last 24 hours

The French president is heckled as he promises reparations for Algerians who fought for France..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: France's Emmanuel Macron heckled asking Algerian veterans for forgiveness

The West Bank and the Gaza Strip are atop a barrel of gunpowder that could explode at any time.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: West Bank city of Jenin roils as Israel prepares for possible escalation

The Egyptian Ministry of Environment rolled out a program to track changes in sharks’ behavior and their attacks on humans, following allegations that a shark attacked a diver in the Northern Coast.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Egypt investigates alleged shark attack off northern coast

Amid the stalled negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Egypt fears will reduce its water supply, Cairo is working on multiple projects to use its water most efficiently.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Egypt develops ambitious projects to meet growing water needs

For 170 years, World Expos have shaped the course of human history, showcasing the possibilities of tomorrow and an opportunity for history-making innovations to be unveiled to the planet.First opening in London in 1851 and quickly spreading to countries across the globe, Expos – also known as World Fairs - have brought far-flung nations together to explore inventions and ideas.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.It has consequently been the birthplace of some of humankind’s greatest inventions, with the computer, television, and even tomato ketchup being among the hundreds of thousands of life-changing creations passed through the hallowed halls of World Expos over the years.This year the United Arab Emirates will host Expo 2020 Dubai – the first event of its kind in the Middle East.As the countdown continues, here are the top 10 legacies of World Expos.France, 1889: The Eiffel TowerThe Eiffel Tower, the iconic Parisian monument, was built for the 1889 Expo in France.The brainchild of entrepreneur Gustave Eiffel and his team of engineers, its construction was opposed by French artists and intellectuals who referred to it as a “stupefying folly.”However, it drew more than two million people coming to see it during the Expo.Taking more than two years to build, the landmark was never intended to be a permanent structure. Only meant to exist for 20 years, the role it played as a base for scientific experiments and transmitting radio signals guaranteed its survival.During World War II, Hitler is said to have ordered for the tower to be destroyed. However, his instructions were ignored.Since then, the Eiffel Tower has survived a fire and everything the elements have thrown its way. A symbol of France, more than 300 million visitors from around the globe have visited it since 1889.London, 1851: The fax machineThe first iteration of the fax (short for “facsimile”) machine was unveiled in 1851 at the Great Exhibition in London.Known then as an “image telegraph,” the machine was invented by English physicist Frederick Bakewell, who built on a theoretical concept developed by Alexander Bain, a Scottish mechanic, 10 years earlier.It used synchronized rotating cylinders with a stylus to transmit images via an electric current.Live demonstrations at the 1851 Expo wowed the audience, but it was only in 1863 that the first commercial model of a fax machine was produced.Some 100 years later, the machine would become an office staple.Philadelphia, US, 1876: The telephone (and tomato ketchup)Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his contraption at the Expo in the US, after being granted a patent for the technology just a few months before. He had registered his patent just hours before competing inventor Elisha Gray. There followed a bitter legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell subsequently won.At Expo, Bell showcased his communication system which had two ends: a transmitter and a receiver.It wowed the audience, with one witness, Brazil’s Emperor Dom Pedro II, reportedly exclaiming: ”My God, it talks,” as he put the receiver to his ear, according to the New York Times.It subsequently led to the invention of the smartphone which, as of 2021, has approximately 6.4 billion users, a figure that is expected to climb to 7.5 billion by 2026.The Expo also paved the way for other inventions. Many food creations have tickled tastebuds and debuted at World Expos, in 1896 that included including popcorn and the now-famous Heinz Ketchup.Paris, France, 1878. The Statue of LibertyA colossal structure, the Statue of Liberty has stood on Liberty Island in New York Harbor as a universal symbol of freedom since 1886.However, the copper statue was a gift from the people of France to the people of the US and was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi who exhibited part of the structure at the 1878 Paris Expo.Visitors could enter and explore Liberty’s hollow head via interior stairs.The idea for the symbolic statue came from French historian Édouard de Laboulaye, who wanted to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the USA’s Declaration of Independence and the end of slavery.The iconic statue, seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea, took nine years to complete and cost $250,000 (around $6 million today) to make, but in 1885, the completed statue – now 151 feet tall and weighing 225 tons – was shipped to New York City.Chicago, US, 1893: The Ferris WheelA staple of amusement parks worldwide, the Ferris wheel was first unveiled at the Chicago Expo in 1893.Following the Eiffel Tower’s success, the US set about creating its own unmistakable landmark.Designed by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., the wheel was 264 feet tall -- almost double the height of the world’s first skyscraper.The wheel rotated on a 71-ton, 45.5-foot axle comprising what was at that time the world’s largest hollow forging, manufactured in Pittsburgh by the Bethlehem Iron Company and weighing 89,320 pounds, together with two 16-foot-diameter (4.9 m) cast-iron spiders weighing 53,031 pounds.The Exposition ended in October 1893, and the wheel closed in April 1894 and was dismantled and stored until the following year. It was then rebuilt on Chicago’s North Side, near Lincoln Park, next to an exclusive neighborhood.The tradition of Ferris wheels at World Expos has lived on: Japan constructed two in the 1980s, while Dubai has built the Ain Dubai -- nearly triple of the height of the Chicago original, it will be the world’s tallest when it opens in October.New York, US, 1939: Live televisionIn 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first US president to be broadcast on live TV at the New York World’s Fair.As he declared the event open, the ceremony was filmed by NBC and transmitted from a mobile van to an aerial atop the Empire State Building.The at-home audience would have been limited -- there were only a 100 or so television sets in New York City at the time -- but visitors to the fair could also watch Roosevelt’s speech on the televisions scattered across the 1,200-acre site in Queens.It marked a new era of mass communication.Seattle, US, 1962: The Space NeedleThe iconic observation tower was built in the Seattle Center for the 1962 World’s Fair, which drew over 2.3 million visitors. Nearly 20,000 people a day used its elevators during the event.The 605-foot tower opened in the year the Soviets launched two spacecraft in two days, the US conducted its first planetary flyby, and the first communications satellite was launched. It began life as a napkin doodle by Expo organizer Edward E. Carlson, with the final design only agreed on a year and a half before the event.Space was integral into every aspect of the project: Its chief engineer had designed rocket gantries for NASA, the viewing deck was modeled on a flying saucer, and even the colors it was painted in were known as “Astronaut White,” “Orbital Olive” and “Galaxy Gold.Today it is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world and “one of the most photographed,” according to its website.Osaka, Japan, 1970: The wireless phoneOne of the most used inventions of our time, the star attraction at the Osaka Expo 1970 was a piece of technology that revolutionized society and brought in a new age of communication: the wireless phone.At the fair, visitors to the Electronic Communications Pavilion could sit in plastic pods and make calls to anywhere in Japan via a large cordless phone.Today, the number of smartphone users in the world today has exceeded 3.8 billion, which translates to 48.16 percent of the world’s population owning a smartphone. In total, the number of people that own a smart and feature phone is 4.88 billion, making up 61.85 percent of the world’s population.Hanover, Germany, 2000: Clean energy carsAfter interest in World Expos waned in the 1990s, the event returned at the beginning of the millennium in Hanover, Germany.There, a major milestone was reached in the automobile and clean-tech industry.It was BMW that first thought to free the industry from the tyranny of oil dependence, with the introduction of the first hydrogen-powered clean-energy car at Hanover’s Expo.The innovation caused seismic changes in the automobile industry, urging more manufacturers to create their own clean-energy vehicles once they saw the market demand for the alternative. Although it marked the first foray into clean energy cars, it was certainly not the last.Shanghai, China, 2010: Car podsGeneral Motors’ EN-V was an all-electric personal vehicle concept designed for the city of 2030.Unveiled at Expo 2010 Shanghai, this battery-powered, two-person pod could travel 25 miles on a single charge and was loaded with GPS and vehicle-to-vehicle communication to prevent collisions and allow autonomous routing.After the Expo, work continued developing the concept under the Chevrolet badge. In China, a pilot program of second generation EN-Vs at Shanghai Jiao Tong University logged nearly 35,000 journeys and close to 56,000 miles between 2015 and 2017.Read more:Expo 2020 Dubai: Official song ‘This is our time’ unveiledDubai Expo 2020’s star-studded opening ceremony: All you need to need to knowDubai’s Emirates Airline ramps up US flights from Oct. ahead of Expo 2020
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Eiffel Tower, ketchup, live TV: Top 10 world fair inventions ahead of Dubai Expo 2020

Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok said the plotters have been arrested.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Sudan fends off military coup, government says

Iran said on Tuesday that talks with world powers over reviving its 2015 nuclear deal would resume in a few weeks, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.“Every meeting requires prior coordination and the preparation of an agenda. As previously emphasized, the Vienna talks will resume soon and over the next few weeks,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said, according to IRNA.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The world powers held six rounds of indirect talks between the United States and Iran in Vienna to try and work out how both can return to compliance with the nuclear pact, which was abandoned by former US President Donald Trump in 2018. The talks stopped in June, pending the start of Iran’s new government.Read more:World powers to meet with Iran at UN to push for return to nuclear talks: FranceBiden could strike a deal with Iran, but US law poses obstacles at homeIran will never obtain a nuclear weapon, should return to JCPOA talks: US official
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Iran says nuclear talks with world powers to resume in a few weeks

US President Joe Biden told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that America is “opening a new era of relentless diplomacy” following the end of the war in Afghanistan.Biden also said the United States would be prepared to use force “if necessary” but that military power must be a “tool of last resort.”For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“The mission must be clear and achievable, undertaken with informed consent of the American people and whenever possible in partnership with our allies,” he added.
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Biden says US starting ‘era of relentless diplomacy’ after Afghanistan

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged the United States and China to engage in dialogue, warning of an increasingly divided world.“I fear our world is creeping towards two different sets of economic, trade, financial and technology rules, two divergent approaches in the development of artificial intelligence – and ultimately two different military and geopolitical strategies,” Guterres said as he opened the annual UN General Assembly.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“This is a recipe for trouble. It would be far less predictable than the Cold War. To restore trust and inspire hope, we need cooperation,” he said.“We need dialogue. We need understanding.”The summit will feature the first speech to the world body by US President Joe Biden, who has described a rising and authoritarian China as the paramount challenge of the 21st century.Chinese President Xi Jinping is also set to address the United Nations but by video in light of Covid restrictions.Guterres said that divisions between the two powers set back efforts on other key priorities including reversing coups.Since February, militaries have seized control both in Myanmar and Guinea and Afghanistan’s Western-backed government collapsed to the Taliban.“We are also seeing an explosion in seizures of power by force. Military coups are back. The lack of unity among the international community does not help,” Guterres said.“Geopolitical divisions are undermining international cooperation and limiting the capacity of the Security Council to take the necessary decisions.”Read more:World leaders return to UN for first time in two years amid escalating crisesOne in three children with coronavirus can suffer from long-COVID: ExpertWorld powers to meet with Iran at UN to push for return to nuclear talks: France
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: UN chief Guterres urges US-China dialogue, warns of divisions