Middle East Experience

Lebanon’s worsening economic crisis, which culminated with the tiny nation defaulting on its debt this year, is making it increasingly difficult to attract investors for the country’s ailing electricity sector, the energy minister said Thursday..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: No investors for Lebanon's ailing power sector: Ghajar

It is believed the ICC will regard the list of names as state admission of the officials' complicity in the alleged crimes..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Israel compiling secret list of up to 300 officials to face ICC prosecution: report

Total of 663 service members have been diagnosed with the virus; military says troops on furlough can't meet in groups of over 5 people
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: IDF reopens facility in Ashkelon for soldiers sick with coronavirus

Air raids by Saudi-led coalition hit residential homes in northern al-Hazm district, killing women and children..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Air strikes kill civilians in Yemen's al-Jawf province

Jordan’s top court has dissolved the country’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist organisation, an official said Thursday, citing the group’s failure to “rectify its legal status”..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Jordan top court dissolves Muslim Brotherhood

"I think that's very relevant to the current situation. In times like this we all need to remember that we can rely on those around us for a helping hand."
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: A song of support in the time of coronavirus and the 'three weeks'

Qatar’s Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani, the youngest brother of Qatar’s current Emir, broke the rules and potentially committed a crime while a student at the University of Southern California (USC), according to an investigative report by the Los Angeles Times.The report, published under the title “The true story of the heartthrob prince of Qatar and his time at USC,” went viral on Thursday after it revealed Sheikh Khalifa tried to bribe his way into a university, often missed classes, spent time gambling in Las Vegas, and was potentially involved in a federal crime linked to buying a human organ.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.LA Times reporters spoke to former employees, USC professors and deans, and a person claiming to be a “sherpa” or guide whom the Qatari sheikh paid to help him gain his bachelor’s degree.‘His Highness doesn’t like to hear no’ Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad, born November 1, 1991, is the youngest son of Qatar’s former emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa and his second wife Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. He is the brother of the current Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.He had initially moved to California in 2011 where he began his undergraduate career at L.A. Mission College, a community college that has an overwhelmingly Latino and low-income student body.Sometime after his freshman year, the sheikh’s royal entourage had approached the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where they met with Alessandro Duranti, who was then the dean of social sciences at the university. They met Duranti for a meeting to discuss al-Thani’s possible admission at UCLA bearing with them “a set of golden camel statues and a few other gifts.”“I told them repeatedly that first of all, as a dean, I did not handle admissions at all; and that we cannot admit somebody because of some special status,” Duranti told the LA Times.According to Duranti, al-Thani’s entourage had pushed for an hour and that he recalled one of them telling him that “His Highness doesn’t like to hear ‘no.’”Al-Thani then refocused his efforts to USC where he would eventually transfer to study political science.“Once classes began, Al Thani displayed little enthusiasm for his studies, according to people who worked for him. He spent much of the day in his suite at the hotel, playing video games with his entourage and working out with a trainer, former employees said,” the LA Times investigative report read.Despite rarely attending classes, the royal made the dean’s list three times during his degree.Read more:Qatari Emir’s brother accused of murder, sodomy and misconduct in new US lawsuit‘This is my world:’ Qatar Emir’s brother killed driver, ordered murders, says lawsuitDid Sheikh Khalifa outsource his degree? The report attributed Sheikh Khalifa’s academic success to Juvenal Cortes, a graduate student at USC who quickly took on the role of meeting with the prince’s professors to discuss attendance exemptions and his grade expectations for the semester.During a meeting with the dean of USC’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Steven Lamy, Cortes said that he was working for Sheikh Khalifa “to make extra money.”Cortes often arranged meetings with professors on behalf of the sheikh to inform them that the royal would not be attending classes due to “security reasons.”“He was acting as a sort of guide [or] sherpa for this emir’s son,” Lamy told the LA times.At least eight employees at the Beverly Hills Rent-A-Car, which often rented out cars to the royal and arranged luxurious trips, said that a partner and others working in the company had said that an unnamed person was being paid to do the prince’s schoolwork.Former employees told the LA Times that the company billed Qatar for the cost of a Mercedes SUV as a way to partially compensate the person.But David Sajasi – the partner who oversaw Sheikh Khalifa’s account – denied their statements, saying “People that have worked in lower jobs make things up because they are juicy.”A professor told the LA Times that the prince had a chauffeur deliver him his final paper in a bag alongside a Rolex watch.Despite giving back the watch and telling Sheikh Khalifa that it was “completely unacceptable,” the chauffer returned a year later with the gift.Possible crimes Sheikh Khalifa, known for his love for luxury sports cars, currently has an active warrant for his arrest in Los Angeles for reckless driving.In 2014, the prince and a group of his entourage were given a citation for speeding down a freeway after they returned from a trip to Las Vegas, the article reported.Also read: Inside the palace: Al Arabiya’s documentary on Qatari royal’s criminal lawsuitsSheikh Khalifa was only given a citation, but after failing to attend his arraignment, a warrant for his arrest was issued.But the speeding ticket was not the only crime the Qatari royal was reportedly involved during his time at USC.When a member of Sheikh Khalifa’s entourage needed a kidney transplant in 2014 after falling ill due to heavy usage of steroids, the prince funded the operation.Mado Khaled, a competitive bodybuilder from Lebanon who had traveled to LA to work for Al Thani, received the kidney from a man who was brought in from Egypt.Throughout the process, Khaled had shared several images on his Instagram page with his doctor at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as well as of Sheikh Khalifa.“I’ll never forget the help and the support. Not today, not tomorrow and not even in a thousand year. Thanks God and thanks for sheik Khalifa bin Hamad al Thani,” Khaled wrote in a 2014 Instagram post of the prince.The surgery, paid for by Qatar, was the only transplant operation in which a noncitizen received a kidney from a nonrelative conducted at the hospital that year, federal records obtained by the LA Times showed.In the US, where transplants are heavily regulated and patients often wait for years before finding a viable donor, paying for an organ is a federal crime.When asked whether the prince played a role in the transplant, Sheikh Khalifa’s lawyer David G. Keyko refused to answer questions and said the allegations were “a serious allegation which appears to be unfounded and lacking in both evidence and connection to our client.”The Qatari government has not answered the LA Times’ request for an interview with the prince.
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Qatari royal offered bribes, broke rules, committed alleged crimes in US: Report

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is in need of significant reforms if it is to remain relevant, said Saudi Arabia’s nominee to the role of director-general in a press conference Friday.Mohammad al-Tuwaijri is one of eight candidates who have been appointed by various member-states of the WTO.The process to pick a new director-general began earlier this year after incumbent Roberto Azevedo said he would leave the position a year early. Press conferences are currently being held with each of the candidates for WTO members to understand each candidate and their agenda before a final decision on director-general will be taken.“I fully realize the significant demand at this point of time for a fully dedicated director-general for the WTO … who should bring in a very solid necessary reform agenda, based on evidence, based on track record and on actual delivery of mandates,” al-Tuwaijri said during the press conference.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the appThe next WTO chief will take the position during a difficult time for the organization. Ongoing trade disputes between US and China, and rising protectionism, a dynamic that the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated, have brought the efficacy of the WTO into question.“There has been some good successes in the past, however the world has changed and has changed significantly and particularly in the last few years,” al-Tuwaijri said.Al-Tuwaijri noted several times the importance of establishing a set of performance indicators for the role of director-general to ensure that members can see progress being made by the WTO.“I think the director-general in his mandate for the next few years should focus on delivery, should focus on process enhancement, should focus on building key performance indicators and design those so actually members can see progress and measure progress and see why we are not moving,” he said.Speaking of his own experience in the private sector, al-Tuwaijri noted that this is a situation to which he is familiar, having spent 25 years working in some of the biggest banks in the world.Saudi Vision 2030 experienceIn addition, al-Tuwaijri also recently served as Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Economy and Planning between 2016 and 2020, where he oversaw part of the Kingdom’s ambitious economic transformation under the umbrella of the Vision 2030 plan.His experience in working with Vision 2030, which aims to wean Saudi Arabia off oil, transform the economy, and prepare the Kingdom for a post-hydrocarbon age, makes him an ideal candidate for the head of the WTO while it is in need of reform, al-Tuwaijri explained.“I was part of probably part of the biggest reforms that took place in recent history, a major transformation with the essence around economic diversification, job creation, and the private sector, very much the original goals of the WTO,” he said.“I can bring from that experience hot from the oven to the WTO … the management and leadership are very similar,” al-Tuwaijri explained.The coronavirus pandemic has created an unprecendented global economic slowdown, likely causing the biggest recession in nearly a century. Al-Tuwaijri sees this as an opportunity for the WTO, however, and a chance to reform the organization into something more successful.“If we think about now we have the uncertainty of COVID-19, so why not rethink some of the rules, some of the processes, introduce some new ideas to the members, get this ship moving,” he said.All of the director-general nominees will have concluded their press conferences on Friday, after which various bodies within the WTO will get together to consult with the WTO’s members and assess their preferred candidate. Eventually, the last candidate remaining from this process will become the director-general. This is the longest part of the process, but will last no more than two months, according to the WTO’s website.“The director-general should come in as a facilitator, as a compass, if the organization is drifting away from its true north … We need to dig deep and find out what the root causes are of this drift and how can the members be aware of these root causes, and how can we in the future, which is my key point, have key performance indicators to ensure the organization doesn’t drift again,” al-Tuwaijri concluded.Read more:Here’s how the WTO will decide on its new Director-General and who’s runningMeet Mohammad al-Tuwaijri: Saudi Arabia’s WTO director-general nomineeSaudi Arabia nominates former minister Mohammad al-Tuwaijri for WTO director-general
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: World Trade Organization in need of reforms, says Saudi Arabia’s nominee al-Tuwaijri

The UAE detected 293 new cases of the novel coronavirus after conducting over 48,000 COVID19 tests, which raises the total number of confirmed infections in the country to 56,422, the Ministry of Health and Prevention announced on Friday.For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.Two people died due to complications caused by COVID-19, bringing the virus-related death toll to 337.Meanwhile, the number of recoveries in the UAE rose to 48,448 after 1,036 people recovered.The country has been leading the global fight against the deadly coronavirus pandemic in recent days, with an Abu Dhabi-based healthcare company beginning to perform the first phase 3 trials in the world for a coronavirus vaccine developed in partnership with a Chinese pharmaceutical group.Read more:Coronavirus: Stem cell therapy boosts UAE recoveries as 275 new COVID-19 cases emergeCoronavirus: Abu Dhabi hosts phase 3 trials of COVID-19 vaccine
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Coronavirus: UAE conducts over 48,000 tests, confirms 293 new COVID-19 cases

The Saudi Human Rights Commission (SHRC) launched HRC International, a new platform dedicated to fostering engagement between the Kingdom and the international community on human rights, according to SHRC head Dr. Awwad bin Saleh Al-Awwad.In a video launch published on the SHRC official Twitter page, the SHRC board chairman Dr. Al-Awwad linked the launch of the new platform to recent and ongoing reforms in the Kingdom.“As the government forges ahead with its reform agenda, it is essential that we continue to broaden our engagement with the international community, to further promote the importance of human rights, and build an environment conducive to better cooperation. This is why I am proud to announce the establishment of HRC International, a platform under the Human Rights Commission dedicated to doing just that,” said Dr. Al-Awwad.Reform in Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia has enacted major reforms under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, including abolishing the religious police, granting women the right to drive, and a range of structural legal and economic reforms.Dr. Al-Awwad described these reforms as “tremendous.”“When you think about the amount of change that has taken place in a historically short span of time, it is tremendous across the board: economically, social-culturally, and structurally. In such a short amount of time, many items that have been pending for nearly years [have been] passed in an assertive way,” he said.Dr. Al-Awwad was appointed by royal decree to head SHRC with the rank of minister in late August, 2019. He previously served as ambassador to Germany and as an adviser to the Crown Prince, as well as deputy governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA).This week, a court in Saudi Arabia ruled in favor of a woman who was on trial for living and traveling on her own to Riyadh without her father’s permission, in a case seen as a landmark trial for women’s rights in the Kingdom.“A historic ruling was issued today, affirming that independence of a sane, adult woman in a separate house is not a crime worthy of punishment,” tweeted Abdulrahman al-Lahim, one of the lawyers involved in the case.Read more:Saudi Arabia’s historic ruling for woman living independently without permissionWorld Trade Organization in need of reforms, says Saudi Arabia’s nominee al-TuwaijriSaudi Arabia calls on UN to outline plan to defeat growing IslamophobiaQatari royal offered bribes, broke rules, committed alleged crimes in US: Report
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Saudi Arabia launches HRC International to foster dialogue on human rights