Middle East Experience

The United Arab Emirates signed a deal with Israel to buy wine produced in the settlements of the occupied Golan Heights, prompting a wave of anger among Palestinians and the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Israel boycott movement furious at UAE over deal to import wine from occupied Golan Heights

Polling stations opened in New York, New Jersey and Virginia early Tuesday, marking the start of US Election Day as President Donald Trump seeks to beat forecasts and defeat challenger Joe Biden.The vote is widely seen as a referendum on Trump and his uniquely brash, bruising presidency that Biden urged Americans to end to restore “our democracy.”Read more: US elections begin with 12 voters in New Hampshire hamlet casting votesUS President Trump wraps up reelection campaign in MichiganJoe Biden ends US election rally with call to ‘take back’ democracyThe long road to Election DayNearly 100 million Americans voted early, and now it falls to Election Day voters to finish the job, ending a campaign that was reshaped by the coronavirus and defined by tensions over who could best address it. Each candidate declared the other fundamentally unfit to lead a nation grappling with COVID-19 and facing foundational questions about racial justice and economic fairness.Biden entered Election Day with multiple paths to victory while Trump, playing catch-up in a number of battleground states, had a narrower but still feasible road to clinch 270 Electoral College votes. Control of the Senate was at stake, too: Democrats needed to net three seats if Biden captured the White House to gain control of all of Washington for the first time in a decade. The House was expected to remain under Democratic control.Voters braved long lines and the threat of the virus to cast ballots as they chose between two starkly different visions of America for the next four years. The record-setting early vote - and legal skirmishing over how it will be counted - drew unsupported allegations of fraud from Trump, who refused to guarantee he would honor the election’s result.Fighting to the end for every vote, Biden was headed to Philadelphia and his native Scranton on Tuesday as part of a closing get-out-the-vote effort before awaiting election results in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. His running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, was visiting Detroit, a heavily Black city in battleground Michigan. Both of their spouses were headed out, too, as the Democrats reached for a clear victory.Trump, after a morning appearance on his favored network, Fox News Channel, planned to visit his campaign headquarters in Virginia. He invited hundreds of supporters to an election night party in the East Room of the White House.The hard-fought campaign left voters on both sides eager to move on.“I just want it to be done,” said Starlet Holden, a 26-year-old medical biller from New York City, who planned to vote for Biden but spoke for many on both sides of the campaign.Read more: What should we expect if Biden is elected president?Disputed mechanismsOn their final full day on the campaign trail, Trump and Biden broke sharply over the mechanics of the vote itself while visiting the most fiercely contested battleground, Pennsylvania.The Republican president threatened legal action to block the counting of ballots received after Election Day. If Pennsylvania ballot counting takes several days, as is allowed, Trump claimed without evidence that “cheating can happen like you have never seen.”In fact, there are roughly 20 states that allow mail-in ballots received after Election Day to be counted - up to nine days and longer in some states. Litigation has centered on just a few where states have made changes in large part due to the coronavirus.Read more: US elections: General says military will not be involved in resolving disputed voteCompeting visionsBiden told voters in Pennsylvania that the very fabric of the nation was at stake and offered his own election as the firmest rebuke possible to a president who he said had spent “four years dividing us at every turn.”“Tomorrow’s the beginning of a new day. Tomorrow we can put an end to a president that’s left hardworking Americans out in the cold!” Biden said in Pittsburgh. “If you elect me as president, I’m gonna act to heal this country.”Trump argued, at a stop in Wisconsin, that Biden was “not what our country needs.” He added: “This isn’t about - yeah, it is about me, I guess, when you think about it.”For Trump, the election stood as a judgment on his four years in office, a term in which he bent Washington to his will, challenged faith in its institutions and changed how America was viewed across the globe. In a country divided along lines of race and class, he often acted as an insurgent against the very government he led, undercutting its scientists and bureaucracy and doing battle with the media.Read more: How Trump and Biden have different economic plans for the US
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: US Election Day: Polls open in New York, New Jersey, Virginia as Biden takes on Trump

Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum received a coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, according to a post by the sheikh on Twitter."We wish everyone safety and great health, and we are proud of our teams who have worked relentlessly to make the vaccine available in the UAE. The future will always be better in the UAE," said the sheikh.Sheikh Mohammed is also Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates.Read more: Coronavirus: UAE FM latest official to receive COVID-19 vaccineSinopharm vaccine in the UAEThe UAE has conducted Phase III trials for a vaccine by the Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm.Earlier this month, the government issued emergency approval for the use of the vaccine for front line workers helping treat coronavirus patients.So far, dozens of officials have been vaccinated, including the Minister of Health.The UAE has urged children, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with chronic health issues to get the vaccine, and people who fall in one of these categories will receive the vaccination for free.Read more:Coronavirus: UAE to trial Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, says KremlinAs Pakistan reports polio cases, UAE vaccine campaign reaches over 28 millionCoronavirus: UAE approves COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use for front line workers
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Coronavirus: Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum receives vaccine

Demonstrations against French President Emmanuel Macron were staged in Tel Aviv, Jaffa and Jerusalem, and now east Jerusalem shopkeepers are boycotting French products.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Arabs in Israel join anti-French demonstrations, boycott

Austrian police have arrested 14 people in raids linked to Monday's deadly attack in Vienna and have found no evidence that a second shooter was involved, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said Tuesday."There have been 18 raids in Vienna and Lower Austria and 14 people have been detained," Nehammer told a televised press conference.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The minister added that police believe that the attack in central Vienna was carried out by a lone gunman, Kujtim Fejzulai, a 20-year-old ISIS sympathizer who was killed by police on Monday night.The video material evaluated by the police "does not at this time show any evidence of a second attacker," Nehammer said.Fejzulai, a dual Austrian and Macedonian national, was convicted of a terror offence in April last year for trying to travel to Syria.He was sentenced to 22 months in prison, but was freed on parole in December.Nehammer said he had been on a de-radicalization program and had managed to secure an early release."The perpetrator managed to fool the de-radicalization program of the justice system, to fool the people in it, and to get an early release through this," the minister said.Asked whether the program had failed, Nehammer said there was a “fracture” in the system.While he said he did not want to “point fingers... we must look very closely at what can be improved.”Read more:Vienna gunman tried to join ISIS in Syria, released early from jail due to young ageSix locations in Vienna targeted in apparent terror attack; 4 dead, 15 wounded
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Vienna attack: Austria police detain 14, reveal new details on ‘lone gunman’

A Biden win could lead to more crude on the market..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Biden win could see oil glut over Iran deal

In 1970, Algeria became the first country in the Arab world to see one of its films win an Oscars – the Algerian-French production “Z” directed by Costa Gavras. Now, the North African country is hoping to repeat this achievement with the film “Heliopolis”, which narrates part of the history of the Algerian revolution..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Algerian film to compete for 2021 Oscars

David, Tamar, Mohammed and Maryam were the most popular names.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: What were the most popular baby names in Israel in 2019?

While the official results may not be clear for some time, we do know exactly when the polls close in each state.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: US elections: When do polls close in each state?

A 20-year-old Austrian-North Macedonian dual citizen, shot by police at the scene, is the chief suspect in the attack which left four dead and at least 22 injured.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: 14 arrests made in connection with Vienna terror attacks