Middle East Experience

Channelrodopsins are an essential tool used by neuroscience and optogenetics.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Viruses control algae behavior with stolen protein, study finds

While Israel first approved medical cannabis exports almost two years ago, issues with Ya'acov Litzman's 2017 reform have caused the process to stall
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Israel's first commercial medical cannabis export lands in Australia

Britain expects to start rolling out the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine just before Christmas if it is declared safe and effective, health minister Matt Hancock said on Monday.For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.“We’re working very closely with the company,” he told BBC TV. “We’ll be ready to roll it out as soon as it comes, we’ll be ready from the first of December..., but more likely is that we may be able to start rolling it out before Christmas.”Asked how many vaccines Britain would need, he said it depended on how effective they were at preventing transmission.Forty million dosesOn Monday Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman announced the government expects to have 10 million doses of the vaccine available by the end of the year if regulators approve it.The spokesman said that Britain had now ordered 40 million doses of the candidate vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, one of six that the government has agreed supply deals for.“In total we have procured 40 million doses of the Pfizer candidate vaccine with 10 million of those doses being manufactured and available to the UK by the end of the year if the vaccine is approved by the regulators,” the spokesman said.Cold temperature neededThe vaccine’s complex and super-cold storage requirements are an obstacle for hospitals and may impact when and where it is available.The main issue is that the vaccine, which is based on a novel technology that uses synthetic mRNA to activate the immune system against the virus, needs to be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 F) or below.“The cold chain is going to be one of the most challenging aspects of delivery of this vaccination,” said Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, discussing the challenges rolling out the vaccine in the US.Read more:UK’s Boris Johnson ‘full of beans’ and will govern via Zoom after COVID-19 contactCoronavirus: UK’s PM Boris Johnson self-isolating after COVID-19 contactCoronavirus: UK reports 24,962 new COVID cases, 168 deaths
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Britain expects to roll out Pfizer coronavirus vaccine before Christmas: Minister

A ‘new face’ of Saudi Arabia has been revealed through the Kingdom’s first ever professional women’s golf event, held days before the country is set to host the G20 summit.The Saudi Ladies International Golf Tournament, which kicked off Thursday, brought international female golf stars to the Kingdom for a four-day competition including Moroccan athlete Maha Haddioui.Read more: Saudi Arabia’s G20 presidency years in the makingAs the first Arab woman to play professionally on the Ladies European Tour, Haddioui said the event is a “new page” for both women and women’s golf in Saudi Arabia.“Saudi is opening to the world, opening to women,” said Haddioui during a press conference ahead of the event, adding that she was “very surprised” when she first visited Saudi Arabia.“You hear a lot of things and think it’s more conservative than it really is…I think it’s about time the world sees this new face of Saudi,” she added.The event, sponsored by Saudi Aramco, spotlights the female face of a traditionally male-dominated sport and intends to encourage women in the Kingdom to try golf – and overcome gender bias.“For Saudi women to see themselves the outstanding Ladies European Tour golfers in action, we believe it will open up the sport to women in Saudi Arabia,” said Aramco senior vice president of human resources and corporate service Nabeel Jama in an interview with Al Arabiya English.Read more: US policies in the Middle East: An in-depth analysis of Biden’s plans“Beyond the obvious physical benefits of participating in golf, or any other sports, there are multiple benefits including building self-esteem, overcoming gender stereotypes, providing opportunities for leadership, and encouraging younger generations of women to become more competitive and motivated to achieve greatness,” said Jama.In tandem with the event, the Kingdom launched a comprehensive national golf sustainability strategy that includes opening multiple new golf courses in Saudi Arabia and the establishment of the Ladies First Club, which will provide 1,000 complimentary golf course memberships to women in the Kingdom.“We are showing our support and commitment to women’s inclusion in sports, in keeping with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 to empower the Kingdom’s female population,” said Jama.Spearheaded by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Vision 2030 aims to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy beyond oil and gas and to promote private sector growth and entrepreneurship.It includes the goal of increasing women’s labor force participation from 22 percent to 30 percent.A World Bank report released this year found that Saudi Arabia’s economy had made the biggest progress globally toward gender equality since 2017.In 2019, Saudi Arabia enacted “groundbreaking” reforms that allowed women greater economic opportunities, according to the World Bank’s “Women, Business and the Law 2020” study.Now, 2020 is shaping up to be the year of landmark female sports participation in Saudi Arabia, from the Ladies International Golf Tournament to the Kingdom’s Dakar Rally, which featured an all-female team.Read more:Bahrain’s FM to meet with Netanyahu, Pompeo in IsraelOn anniversary of Iran’s protests, Pompeo vows more US action against Iranian regimeUAE to grant ‘golden’ 10-year visas to certain professionals, degree-holders, student
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: ‘New face of Saudi’: Women golf tournament drives home female empowerment in Kingdom

Saudi Arabia “didn’t allow COVID-19 to hold us back,” said Fahad al-Mubarak, Saudi Minister of State and Saudi Arabia’s G20 Sherpa, on Monday at a media briefing ahead of the summit, titled “Welcome to Riyadh.”“We were able to execute our full agenda,” he added.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“We are honored to hold the [G20] presidency for this year. We had a very busy year, we held over a hundred meetings of deputies and ministers throughout the year,” al-Mubarak said.The upcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit will begin on Saturday, November 21, as Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz will virtually welcome leaders of the world to the summit, according to a press release.“2020 is an exceptional year. COVID-19 has taken the world off guard, and the whole world economy went into a real pause. However, Saudi Arabia has done a great job in steering its direction of the G20," said Dr. Majid al-Qasabi, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Commerce and Investment.“We hoped people could attend the G20 physically, so that they can be introduced to Saudi Arabia. Hopefully, this can happen in coming years,” al-Qasabi added, pointing out that the Kingdom is the first Arab country to host the G20.Earlier in September, the Kingdom announced it will hold the G20 summit virtually in November, instead of having leaders of the world’s richest nations converge in Riyadh as planned before the coronavirus forced plans to change.According to a statement, the Saudi G20 Presidency says it seeks “to deepen global cooperation around the theme of ‘Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All.’”The summit will focus on three essential pillars which it says are “vital to the world’s success.” Main topics include:• Empowering people by creating the conditions in which all people – especially women and youth – can live, work, and thrive.• Safeguarding the planet by fostering collective efforts to protect our natural resources.• Shaping new frontiers by adopting long-term and bold strategies to share the benefits of innovation and technological advancement.Last month, Saudi Arabia issued a new 20-riyal banknote to mark the occasion of the Kingdom’s presidency of the G20 Summit this year, according to an announcement by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA).Read more:Saudi Arabia’s FM discusses G20 Presidency agenda, road ahead for Riyadh SummitSaudi Arabia issues new twenty-riyal banknote to mark G20 presidencySaudi Arabia to host G20 meeting to discuss labor policies, women, youth empowerment
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Saudi Arabia ‘didn’t allow COVID-19 to hold us back’ says G20 Sherpa ahead of summit

Moderna Inc said on Monday its experimental vaccine was 94.5 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 based on interim data from a late-stage clinical trial, becoming the second US company in a week to report results that far exceed expectations.For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.Together with Pfizer Inc’s vaccine, also shown to be more than 90 percent effective, and pending more safety data and regulatory review, the United States could have two vaccines authorized for emergency use in December with as many as 60 million doses of vaccine available by the year’s end.Next year, the US government could have access to more than 1 billion doses just from the two vaccine makers, more than needed for the country’s 330 million residents.The vaccines, both built using new technology known as messenger RNA or mRNA, represent powerful new tools to fight a pandemic that has infected 54 million people worldwide and killed 1.3 million. The news also comes at time when COVID-19 cases are soaring, hitting new records in the United States and pushing some European countries back into lockdowns.“We are going to have a vaccine that can stop COVID-19,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in a telephone interview.Moderna’s interim analysis was based on 95 infections among trial participants who received either a placebo or the vaccine. Of those, only five infections occurred in those who received the vaccine, which is administered in two shots 28 days apart.A key advantage of Moderna’s vaccine is that it does not need ultra-cold storage like Pfizer’s, making it easier to distribute. Moderna expects it to be stable at standard refrigerator temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 48°F) for 30 days and it can be stored for up to 6 months at -20 degrees Celsius.Pfizer’s vaccine must be shipped and stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius, the sort of temperature typical of an Antarctic winter. At standard refrigerator temperatures, it can be stored for up to five days.Read more:Coronavirus: Moderna COVID-19 vaccine tests 94.5 pct successful, all you need to knowBritain expects to roll out Pfizer coronavirus vaccine before Christmas: MinisterThe data from Moderna’s 30,000 participant-strong trial also showed the vaccine prevented cases of severe COVID-19, a question that still remains with the Pfizer vaccine. Of the 95 cases in Moderna’s trial, 11 were severe and all 11 occurred among volunteers who got the placebo.Moderna, part of the US government’s Operation Warp Speed program, expects to produce around 20 million doses of the vaccine for the United States this year, millions of which thecompany has already made, and is ready to ship if it receives FDA authorization.“Assuming we get an emergency use authorization, we’ll be ready to ship through Warp Speed almost in hours,” Hoge said. “So it could start being distributed instantly.”
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Coronavirus: Moderna says COVID-19 vaccine 94.5 pct effective

Moderna Inc’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine is more stable than expected at temperatures that ordinary refrigerators can provide and can be distributed using existing cold-chain shipping and storage infrastructure.That opens the door for its early use in hard to reach places that might not be appropriate for Pfizer Inc’s vaccine which needs ultra-cold storage.Here are details of how it could be distributed.Read more: Coronavirus: Moderna says COVID-19 vaccine 94.5 pct effectiveHow cold is cold storage?Moderna’s vaccine is stable for up to six months at a temperature of minus 20 degrees Celsius (-4 F), about home freezer levels, when shipped and stored.The company said it expects the vaccine to be stable when kept at standard refrigerator temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for 30 days, up from an initial projection of 7 days.The vaccine will be distributed in 10-dose vials and can be kept at room temperature for up to 12 hours after thawing.By comparison, Pfizer’s vaccine can be transported and stored for up to 6 months at minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 F). It can be stored at standard refrigerator temperatures for up to five days.When will it be shipped, to whom?Moderna’s vaccine will be distributed by the US government’s Operation Warp Speed program. US health officials have said that at first they are most likely to distribute vaccines to healthcare workers, people who are in nursing homes, first responders and those with health conditions who are high-risk.Most Americans will be inoculated in May or June, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.Under Operation Warp Speed’s distribution plan, the first group of shots will likely be distributed to and administered in closed settings, like hospitals and nursing homes.After January, as supply increases, those shots will start to be available in pharmacies, doctors offices and clinics as well as mobile clinics, the plan shows.Health officials have said it will be easier to use Moderna’s vaccine in these settings than Pfizer’s.How well does the Moderna vaccine work?Moderna on Monday said its vaccine was 94.5 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 based on early results from large studies. That is similar to Pfizer’s which the US drugmaker has said is more than 90 percent effective.Moderna data also showed the vaccine was capable of helping prevent severe cases of COVID-19, and it represented volunteers from diverse communities.Read more: Britain expects to roll out Pfizer coronavirus vaccine before Christmas: Minister
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Coronavirus: Moderna COVID-19 vaccine tests 94.5 pct successful, all you need to know

Egypt’s parliament has approved controversial new amendments to a law allowing the dismissal of public servants with alleged ties to terrorist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Egypt to dismiss public servants with alleged ties to Muslim Brotherhood

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced Oct. 24 that it will convert the 15th century Wakala al-Sultan Qaytbay into a heritage hotel after its restoration.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Cairo to turn 15th century sultan's caravansary into heritage hotel to boost tourism

The city’s traditional fall art season is underway as curators take new approaches to exhibit work safely and sustainably during the coronavirus pandemic, despite confusing government restrictions about what would be allowed to go ahead.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Art perseveres in Istanbul despite coronavirus