Middle East Experience

Israeli company Redefine Meat announces breakthrough in food technology as cultured meat innovators prepare for commercial launch
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: World’s first 3D-printed ‘steak’ to hit Israeli restaurants this year

Police moved to retake the zone after Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan declared the gathering in and around the police department's East Precinct and Cal Anderson Park an "unlawful assembly," police said.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Seattle police clear protest zone after flares of violence

Coral reefs are sensitive ecosystems that rarely survive sea temperatures above 32 degrees Celsius, yet coral reef fauna thrives in the Persian Gulf, where scientists hope to find clues about climate change survival.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Biologists dive for secrets of coral reef that survives hot Gulf waters

A bipartisan group of 30 US lawmakers sent a blanket letter to all European Union member states Thursday asking them to designate the entirety of Lebanon’s militia-cum-political party Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Intel: Congress pushes European Union to fully designate Hezbollah as terrorist group

The United Nations' World Food Program director told the AP more Syrians will flee the country unless the international community steps in with additional aid.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Syria risks another wave of migration, UN food agency warns

Private companies from Israel and the United Arab Emirates plan to cooperate on developing technologies to battle COVID-19.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Netanyahu announces anti-coronavirus cooperation between Israel, UAE

The remarks from the Iranian ambassador to the UN follow a US proposal to the UN to extend an arms embargo on Iran.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Iran slams US efforts to reimpose arms embargo, UN sanctions

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan will agree a deal to fill the giant Blue Nile dam in two to three weeks, Ethiopia's water minister said on Saturday, following mediation by the African Union to broker a deal to end a decade-long dispute over water supplies.Tortuous negotiations over the years have left the two nations and their neighbor Sudan short of an agreement to regulate how Ethiopia will operate the dam and fill its reservoir, while protecting Egypt's scarce water supplies from the Nile river.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Ethiopia's water minister, Seleshi Bekele, said that consensus had been reached to finalise a deal within two to three weeks, a day after leaders from the three countries and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who chairs the African Union, held an online summit.The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is being built about 15 km (nine miles) from the border with Sudan on the Blue Nile, the source of most of the Nile's waters.Ethiopia says the $4 billion hydropower project, which will have an installed capacity of 6,450 megawatts, is essential to its economic development.Ethiopia's Prime Minister's Office said that the three countries agreed that the Nile and the Grand Renaissance Dam “are African issues that must be given African solutions.”The deal to delay the filling, brokered by the African Union, ends months of stalled negotiations and signals the intention to solve the issue without foreign intervention.Ethiopia's statement said the African Union, and not the UN Security Council, will assist the countries in the negotiations and provide technical support.Cairo had appealed to the Council in a last-ditch diplomatic move aimed at stopping Ethiopia from filling the dam. The Council was expected to hold a public meeting on Monday to discuss the issue.Read more:Nile River dam project to be delayed after tripartite agreement announced by EgyptEgypt hopes international pressure will help resolve row over Ethiopia Nile damEthiopia will not beg Egypt and Sudan to use its own water resource: FM
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan to finalize Nile dam agreement in two to three weeks: Minister

Egypt on Saturday lifted many restrictions put in place against the coronavirus pandemic, reopening cafes, clubs, gyms and theaters after more than three months of closure, despite a continued upward trend in new infections.Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.Authorities also allowed the reopening of mosques and churches and lifted the nighttime curfew.President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's government has been keen to save the Egyptian economy that was hit hard by the virus outbreak.On Friday, the International Monetary Fund approved another $5.2 billion loan for Egypt, to be added to the $2.8 billion the fund had already promised to stave off the pandemic’s worst economic effects.Before the pandemic, Egypt had just emerged from a three-year economic reform program that came with securing a $12 billion IMF loan in late 2016.In Cairo, a sprawling and bustling metropolis of some 20 million people, coffee shops reopened to receive in-house customers for the first time since mid-March. But “sheesha,” the hookah waterpipe so popular in the Middle East, are no longer offered widely over sanitary concerns.Cafes have been allowed to reopen at only 25 percent seating capacity, according to Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly.Mosques and churches will also not be allowed to hold their weekly main services, when large crowds traditionally gather for worship. The government has banned Friday’s Muslim prayers at mosques and Sunday masses at churches, Madbouly said.Wearing face masks, worshippers Saturday poured into mosques for the fajr, dawn, prayers, for the first time in months.“People were looking forward to that day,” Reda el-Sayed said, the prayer leader of a mosque in Giza. “They miss the mosques.”The reopening has met with criticism, not least because Egypt is still recording relatively high new coronavirus infections and deaths, raising concerns the country’s healthcare system could soon become overwhelmed. The Egyptian doctors’ union warned last month the country was careening toward a catastrophe.Egypt’s health ministry has reported 62,755 infections, including 2,620 deaths — the highest death toll in the region.However, the actual numbers of infections and deaths from COVID-19, like elsewhere in the world, are thought to be far higher due to a number of reasons including limited testing.The government is also planning the reopening of select tourist destinations to international charter flights starting Thursday, allowing travelers from around the world to return to parts of the country less hard-hit by the coronavirus.Those include the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula, home to the major resort and beach destination of Sharm el Sheikh, the Red Sea resort areas of Hurghada and Marsa Alam, as well as Marsa Matrouh, on the Mediterranean coast.The national carrier, EgyptAir, said it would resume its non-stop flights to more than 29 international destinations starting July 1.The destinations include 17 in Europe, 4 in Africa, 4 in the Middle East, and 3 in North America in addition to Guangzhou in China, EgyptAir said.Egypt’s economy depends heavily on tourism, which accounts for some 12 percent of the gross domestic product. The government fears a prolonged lockdown could be devastating economically, as the grounded international flights and empty hotels have taken a heavy toll.Before the pandemic threw millions of casual laborers out of work, one in three Egyptians was already living in poverty, according to government figures.Read more:Egypt’s hotels set up on-site clinics for domestic tourists Coronavirus cases up in Egypt, but some worry about cost of wearing maskEgypt shuts hospitals, quarantines villages to slow spread
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Coronavirus: Egypt eases restrictions as cases continue to increase

Egypt has executed Libyan militant Abdelrahim Mohamed al-Mesmari, the mastermind behind the 2017 terrorist attack in the western desert area Wahat, the Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Al-Mesmari was captured in 2017 during a raid on a group blamed for a deadly attack in which authorities have said 16 policemen were killed. The Military Criminal Court in 2019 sentenced the Libyan national to death and another 32 individuals were sentenced to life in prison for their role in the attack. Twenty others were found to be innocent.A group called Ansar al-Islam claimed responsibility for the attack, posing a new threat to Egyptian security forces who were battling a stubborn ISIS insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula since 2013.Upon being captured, al-Mesmari told authorities that he adopted extremist ideas following the revolution on former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. He later joined a group in Egypt headed by former Egyptian army officer Emadeddine Abdulhamid, also known as Sheikh Hatem. Both men were reportedly working for officer-turned- extremist Hesham Ashmawi, who was executed in Egypt in March 2020.Watch: The moment Egypt’s ‘most wanted terrorist’ was arrested in LibyaRead more:Libyan militant captured in Egypt claims al-Qaeda linkDeath toll rises in attack on Egyptian police officers in GizaEgyptian officer-turned-extremist Hesham Ashmawy executed: Military
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Egypt executes Libyan militant al-Mesmari, 2017 terrorist attack mastermind: Ministry