Middle East Experience

In April, he and his wife donated NIS 50 million for purchasing medical equipment for 22 hospitals in Israel.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Baron Benjamin de Rothschild dies at 57 after suffering heart attack

Government to vote on extending lockdown this week
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Coronavirus: Serious cases in Israel’s 60+ population on the decline

Israel will be the 21st country under CENTCOM.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Regional ramifications as Trump seeks to include Israel in CENTCOM

Due to the high levels of rain the past several years, in addition to this winter's rain, the Kinneret water level is 3.055 meters above the lower red line level.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Kinneret levels rising due to increased rainfall in Israel

The announcement of May elections comes more than 15 years after Palestine's last polls..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: What's behind long-awaited Palestinian polls?

Sourasky Medical Center to increase coronavirus staffing, reduce patients in other areas of the hospital.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: 47-year-old COVID-19 patient dies after ventilator tube detaches

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and its militias in Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria, are trying to avoid further losses from suspected Israeli airstrikes by redeploying, hiding inside residential neighborhoods in large cities and putting their strategic weapons in underground tunnels.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Iranian forces in east Syria redeploy after airstrikes

Residents of the UAE’s Dubai took to Twitter and other social media platforms to share pictures and videos of Sunday morning’s thick, heavy fog that was seen across the city.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Dubai Media Office (DMO) shared photos of the fog that “blanketed the Dubai skyline this morning.”On Saturday, the UAE’s National Center of Meteorology said it expected the weather to be “wet and foggy on Sunday in coastal areas of the country in the morning and generally clear and sometimes partly cloudy,” according to Emirates News Agency (WAM).Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) said that “low visibility in fog reduces your sense of vehicle speed.”“We advise you to lower speed and use fog lights for your safety and that of others on the road,” RTA added.Read more:IN PICTURES: Saudi Arabia’s picturesque Tanouma cradles between greenery and fogVIDEO: Dense fog causes dozens of cars to pile up on Abu Dhabi highwayIN PICTURES: Thick fog covers the UAE prompting flight delays
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: In pictures: Thick fog covers city of Dubai

While governments race to distribute COVID-19 vaccines within their borders, public health experts have cautioned that global consensus is a must for ensuring that the critical medicine reaches all places and prevents needless loss of life.With the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines well under way, there is a huge risk and many more lives on the line if countries don’t work together, COVAX Managing Director, Aurelia Nguyen, told Al Arabiya English.Management of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, seen by many as both a scarce resource and the primary way for the world to return to normalcy, has already caused some to worry that poor countries have been pushed to the back of the queue in favor of richer countries.Nguyen also said there is clear temptation for governments to isolate and retreat within their borders while trying to secure COVID-19 vaccines, as many global societies and countries are under strain, which would cause “needless loss of life.”Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.COVAX is the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI), The Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) and the World Health Organization (WHO), in partnership with global vaccine manufacturers, the World Bank, and others.Covering over 90 percent of the world’s population with 190 countries signed on, COVAX is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries, according to CEPI.Quick vaccine rollout is essential to halting the pandemic, however vaccine logistics has proven to be more difficult in practice than on paper.While the group has already secured two billion doses for 2021, COVAX is yet to start the vaccine rollout to the most vulnerable.Getting COVID-19 vaccine logistics up to speedThe past year has witnessed unprecedented scientific and medical breakthroughs with an inflow of funding for vaccine research and an overwhelming interest of the general public to participate in clinical trials, resulting in the emergency approval and rollout of several candidates.In an attempt to prevent vaccine nationalism and unfair distribution, COVAX was created in the early months of the pandemic to ensure that the whole world is included in life-saving inoculations.According to Nguyen, the world is right at the beginning of moving “from the scientific challenge to the delivery challenge.”When asked about the vaccines that are to be included in the COVAX portfolio, Nguyen said that the facility welcomes all COVID-19 vaccines that are safe and effective, regardless of origin.“No single vaccine or no single manufacturer will be the one solution,” added Nguyen.CEPI is leading on the COVAX vaccine research and development portfolio with the goal to support development of safe and effective vaccines which can be made available to the participating countries.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines under COVAX means that all 190 participating and eligible countries will be able to access doses to protect their vulnerable groups in the first half of 2021. The initial group to be inoculated, covering around 3 percent of each country’s population, is likely go to health care workers, according to WHO.“We're aiming [to inoculate] the three percent, which is the number of health care workers to be vaccinated across the first half of 2021 and then across the rest of 2021, a very rapid scale up to be able to protect the most at risk populations,” added Nguyen.At least 1.3 billion donor-funded doses will be made available to 92 middle- and lower-income countries that cannot fully afford to pay for COVID-19 vaccines, targeting up to 20 percent population coverage by the end of the year.However, with an ambitious aim for the 2021 vaccine distribution, poor countries that have not been able to secure bilateral deals with vaccine manufacturers are bracing for the rollout to start with no concrete date in sight.“COVAX is making every possible effort to have COVID-19 vaccines available as early as possible to all participants but as of today there is no confirmation of quantities and timelines for vaccine delivery,” Wayne Boelt, media relations representative at the World Health Organization (WHO), told Al Arabiya English earlier this month.Preparing for the next pandemicParallel to the rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, global communities have witnessed a surge in misinformation, coupled with conspiracy theories related to the nature of the vaccine, resulting in increased vaccine hesitancy across the globe.In the midst of the pandemic, the world has also been going through an “infodemic,” stressing the importance of reliable sources of information that people can easily access and understand, Nguyen explained.“Unfortunately, [misinformation] hurts our efforts to defeat the pandemic. If we have a vaccine, that is our best hope for ending the acute phase,” added Nguyen. “As we have seen that vaccines in the past have been the key to eradicating diseases like smallpox.”Going forward, COVAX says its preparation plans for the next pandemic will go hand-in-hand with addressing misinformation and strengthening global alliances against vaccine nationalism.For now though, Nguyen is hopeful for the future, noting that the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is in sight.“Already vaccinating with two billion doses will mean that we can reopen our economies and trade and tourism can start up again,” she concluded.Read more:Coronavirus: Dubai hopes COVID-19 vaccines, rapid testing keep Expo 2020 on trackCoronavirus: Saudi Arabia’s first COVID-19 vaccine seeks nod for clinical trialsVaccine nationalism to increase COVID-19 deaths, prolong pandemic: Experts
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Lives on the line if world fails with COVID-19 vaccine logistics, warns COVAX chief

Egypt’s parliament elected Hanafy Ali el-Gebaly as its new speaker, raising controversy as Gebaly chaired the Supreme Constitutional Court that validated an agreement under which Egypt agreed to transfer the strategic Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Egyptian who ruled in favor of ceding key islands to Saudi Arabia voted parliament speaker