Middle East Experience

The annual growth of the olive tree is not a simple story.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Weizmann scientists date Santorini eruption with modern olive branch

Just days after US President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter,….
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Israel's Netanyahu removes staple Trump image from Twitter account as US ally faces impeachment

Erdan wrote a letter of complaint. In the OCHA’s next report, it spoke this way of the attack.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Erdan pressed UN to classify Horgan as terror victim

Ireland’s second ODI against the United Arab Emirates has been postponed for a third time due to coronavirus cases in the UAE camp..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: UAE-Ireland ODI postponed for third time

‘You cannot disconnect our response from the political situation’
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Israeli, German, Swedish experts speak about learning from virus mistakes

Recent diplomatic moves among Gulf states closely align with efforts to attract new investment.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Diplomacy in the Gulf follows the money

President Donald Trump was impeached by the US House for a historic second time Wednesday, charged with “incitement of insurrection” over the deadly mob siege of the Capitol in a swift and stunning collapse of his final days in office.With the Capitol secured by armed National Guard troops inside and out, the House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump. The proceedings moved at lightning speed, with lawmakers voting just one week after violent pro-Trump loyalists stormed the US Capitol, egged on by the president’s calls for them to “fight like hell” against the election results.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Ten Republicans fled Trump, joining Democrats who said he needed to be held accountable and warned ominously of a “clear and present danger” if Congress should leave him unchecked before Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration Jan. 20.Trump is the only US president to be twice impeached.The Capitol insurrection stunned and angered lawmakers, who were sent scrambling for safety as the mob descended, and it revealed the fragility of the nation’s history of peaceful transfers of power. The riot also forced a reckoning among some Republicans, who have stood by Trump throughout his presidency and largely allowed him to spread false attacks against the integrity of the 2020 election.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invoked Abraham Lincoln and the Bible, imploring lawmakers to uphold their oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign “and domestic.”She said of Trump: “He must go, he is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love.”Holed up at the White House, watching the proceedings on TV, Trump took no responsibility for the bloody riot seen around the world, but issued a statement urging “NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind” to disrupt Biden’s ascension to the White House.In the face of the accusations against him and with the FBI warning of more violence, Trump said, “That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers.”Trump was first impeached by the House in 2019 over his dealings with Ukraine, but the Senate voted in 2020 acquit. He is the first to be impeached twice. None has been convicted by the Senate, but Republicans said Wednesday that could change in the rapidly shifting political environment as officeholders, donors, big business and others peel away from the defeated president.The soonest Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell would start an impeachment trial is next Tuesday, the day before Trump is already set to leave the White House, McConnell’s office said. The legislation is also intended to prevent Trump from ever running again.McConnell believes Trump committed impeachable offenses and considers the Democrats’ impeachment drive an opportunity to reduce the divisive, chaotic president’s hold on the GOP, a Republican strategist told The Associated Press on Wednesday.McConnell told major donors over the weekend that he was through with Trump, said the strategist, who demanded anonymity to describe McConnell’s conversations.In a note to colleagues Wednesday, McConnell said he had “not made a final decision on how I will vote.”Unlike his first time, Trump faces this impeachment as a weakened leader, having lost his own reelection as well as the Senate Republican majority.Even Trump ally Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, shifted his position and said Wednesday the president bears responsibility for the horrifying day at the Capitol.In making a case for the “high crimes and misdemeanors” demanded in the Constitution, the four-page impeachment resolution approved Wednesday relies on Trump’s own incendiary rhetoric and the falsehoods he spread about Biden’s election victory, including at a rally near the White House on the day of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.A Capitol Police officer died from injuries suffered in the riot, and police shot and killed a woman during the siege. Three other people died in what authorities said were medical emergencies. The riot delayed the tally of Electoral College votes that was the last step in finalizing Biden’s victory.Ten Republican lawmakers, including third-ranking House GOP leader Liz Cheney of Wyoming, voted to impeach Trump, cleaving the Republican leadership, and the party itself.Cheney, whose father is the former Republican vice president, said of Trump’s actions summoning the mob that “there has never been a greater betrayal by a President” of his office.Trump was said to be livid with perceived disloyalty from McConnell and Cheney.With the team around Trump hollowed out and his Twitter account silenced by the social media company, the president was deeply frustrated that he could not hit back, according to White House officials and Republicans close to the West Wing who weren’t authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.From the White House, Trump leaned on Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to push Republican senators to resist, while chief of staff Mark Meadows called some of his former colleagues on Capitol Hill.The president’s sturdy popularity with the GOP lawmakers’ constituents still had some sway, and most House Republicans voted not to impeach.Security was exceptionally tight at the Capitol, with tall fences around the complex. Metal-detector screenings were required for lawmakers entering the House chamber, where a week earlier lawmakers huddled inside as police, guns drawn, barricade the door from rioters.“We are debating this historic measure at a crime scene,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.During the debate, some Republicans repeated the falsehoods spread by Trump about the election and argued that the president has been treated unfairly by Democrats from the day he took office.Other Republicans argued the impeachment was a rushed sham and complained about a double standard applied to his supporters but not to the liberal left. Some simply appealed for the nation to move on.Rep. Tom McClintock of California said, “Every movement has a lunatic fringe.”Yet Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. and others recounted the harrowing day as rioters pounded on the chamber door trying to break in. Some called it a “coup” attempt.Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., contended that Trump was “capable of starting a civil war.”Conviction and removal of Trump would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which will be evenly divided. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania joined Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska over the weekend in calling for Trump to “go away as soon as possible.”Fending off concerns that an impeachment trial would bog down his first days in office, Biden is encouraging senators to divide their time between taking taking up his priorities of confirming his nominees and approving COVID-19 relief while also conducting the trial.The impeachment bill draws from Trump’s own false statements about his election defeat to Biden. Judges across the country, including some nominated by Trump, have repeatedly dismissed cases challenging the election results, and former Attorney General William Barr, a Trump ally, has said there was no sign of widespread fraud.The House had first tried to persuade Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to invoke their authority under the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. Pence declined to do so, but the House passed the resolution anyway.The impeachment bill also details Trump’s pressure on state officials in Georgia to “find” him more votes.While some have questioned impeaching the president so close to the end of his term, there is precedent. In 1876, during the Ulysses Grant administration, War Secretary William Belknap was impeached by the House the day he resigned, and the Senate convened a trial months later. He was acquitted.Read more:US Senate’s McConnell hasn’t decided how he will vote on Trump's impeachmentTrump on verge of 2nd impeachment after Capitol siegeNew York City to cancel business contracts with US President Trump
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Trump becomes first US President to be impeached twice

The United States accused Abu Fadak of involvement in kidnappings and of attempting to align Iraq's security institution's with Iran's foreign policy.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: US labels deputy head of Iraq’s PMU a terrorist

Saudi Arabia warned its citizens on Wednesday against traveling to 12 countries without obtaining permission from the relevant authorities as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus, the Ministry of Interior said on Twitter.For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.“The ministry warns against traveling to a number of countries without obtaining prior permission from the concerned authorities, in light of the security conditions and instability prevailing in a number of countries, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19), and the spread of a new mutated strain of the virus,” the tweet read.The countries that Saudi Arabian citizens have been advised against visiting are: Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Turkey, Armenia, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Somalia, Belarus, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Venezuela.Saudi Arabia last week announced that it will be lifting travel restrictions and resuming international flights starting on March 31 after a months-long ban due to the outbreak.The ministry has also urged its citizens to refrain from traveling to countries where the coronavirus has not been contained, or that have reported cases of the new more infectious strain of the disease.The United Kingdom and South Africa detected two mutated strains of coronavirus in December, and they quickly spread to other parts of the world. Up to 70 percent more transmissible than the previously dominant strain, countries across the globe are desperately trying to contain their spread.Citizens who are in the high-risk countries should immediately register with the Saudi Arabian embassy, the interior ministry advised.Saudi Arabians who wish to travel to permitted countries must make sure they follow all precautionary measures against the coronavirus disease and stay away from areas considered unsafe, the ministry added.Read more:Saudi Arabia to resume international travel, lift restrictions on March 31Coronavirus: Saudi Arabia’s FM Prince Faisal bin Farhan receives COVID-19 vaccineCoronavirus: Saudi Arabia launches ‘Health Passport’ for vaccine recipients
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: COVID-19: Saudi Arabia warns against travel to 12 countries without permission

Lebanese hunkered down indoors Thursday on the first day of a strict 11-day lockdown imposed in a bid to slow down a sharp uptick in novel coronavirus cases.For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.The heightened restrictions, which include a 24-hour curfew until January 25, come after some hospitals started to run out of beds to treat Covid patients.In the capital, a trickle of trucks and cars ventured out onto the roads on Thursday, after state media reported caretaker health minister Hamad Hasan was admitted to hospital for treatment for Covid-19 the previous evening.Under the new measures, non-essential workers are barred from leaving their homes, and supermarkets will operate delivery services only.The restriction has raised fears of food shortages in impoverished and remote regions where deliveries are not readily available.For several days, Lebanese have flooded supermarkets and chemists in a desperate bid to stock up.Some are worried the new restrictions will pile additional suffering on the country’s poorest.Charity Save the Children said it accepted the need for a strict response to the coronavirus uptick, but said it was “very concerned that vulnerable families and their children will be left to deal with a catastrophe on their own”.Lebanon, a country of more than six million, was already grappling with its worst economic downturn in decades when the pandemic hit.Previous lockdowns have forced businesses to close and deprived daily wage earners of an income in a country where more than half the population lives in poverty.The World Bank Group on Tuesday approved a $246 million aid package to help 786,000 vulnerable Lebanese, but it is unclear when that assistance will arrive.Recent days have seen Lebanon register record daily Covid-19 caseloads in one of the steepest increases in transmission worldwide.In total, it has announced 231,936 cases since February last year, including 1,740 deaths.Cases skyrocketed after authorities loosened restrictions during the holiday season, allowing restaurants and night clubs to remain open until 3:00 am, despite warnings from health professionals.A partial lockdown in place since January 7 has failed to halt the spread of the virus.Parliament is expected to convene Friday to examine a bill to allow the import and use of Covid-19 vaccines, which authorities have previously said will arrive in Lebanon by February.Read more:Coronavirus: Lebanon’s health minister Hamad Hasan tests positive for COVID-19Lebanon records highest single day coronavirus deaths, cases re-surgeCoronavirus: Lebanon prepares for complete COVID-19 shutdown amid panic buyingA caretaker administration is overseeing the country’s Covid-19 response.The government resigned after a devastating port explosion last summer, but a deeply divided political class has been unable to agree on a new cabinet to launch urgently required reforms.
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Coronavirus: Lebanon kicks off 24-hour curfew as COVID-19 cases surge