Archives for February, 2023

A general view of the 18th hole during the LIV Golf Invitational Bangkok.

Culture

Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf begins second season in Mexico

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund-backed league's 2023 season will include three events at Trump golf courses as the legal battle with the rival PGA Tour heats up.

Palestinians have been gathering to take photos in the ruins of the house targeted during an Israeli raid in Nablus in the occupied West Bank

Defiance grows in Nablus after latest Israeli raid

Agence France-Presse

Arslan Berri, the sole survivor of his immediate family after the February 6, 2023 earthquake, later died from crush injuries

Syria rebel rescuers urge help after child dies of quake injuries

Agence France-Presse

SYLVIE LANTEAUME/AFP via Getty Images

US transfers Pakistani brothers from Guantanamo Bay

Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani and Mohammed Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani are being repatriated after nearly two decades in the US military prison. Their departure brings the remaining number of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to 32.

Washington Pulse

People fish from the Galata bridge, near Suleymaniye mosque (backround) in the Eminonu district of Istanbul, on January 10, 2023. (Photo by OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images)

Scientists: Time running out to save Istanbul from major earthquake

Seismologists are calling for urgent measures to prepare Istanbul for a major earthquake expected in the near future, warning of catastrophic destruction in Turkey’s most populous city and economic capital.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men bake Matzoth (unleavened bread) at a bakery in the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh, on April 11, 2022. Religious Jews eat Matzoth during Pesach holiday (Passover). According to biblical narrative, due to the haste with which the Jews left the land of Egypt, the bread prepared for the journey did not have time to rise. To commemorate their ancestors' plight, religious Jews do not eat leavened food products throughout Passover. MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox seek to prohibit Passover non-Kosher food in hospitals

Back in the coalition and in greater force, ultra-Orthodox parliamentarians exploit their political clout to advance religious legislation.

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

Visitors inspect the Halcon Shadow 25 "kamikaze" drones at the EDGE pavilion at IDEX in Abu Dhabi

UAE spends billions on home-grown arms at defence fair

Agence France-Presse

Activists from of the Lebaanon’s LGBTQ community take part in a protest outside police station in Beirut on May 15, 2016, demanding the release of four transsexual women and calling for the abolishment of article 534 of the Lebanese Penal code, which prohibits having sexual relations that "contradict the laws of nature". (ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

Culture

Lebanon's LGBTQ community faces digital exploitation, blackmail

Lebanon's LGBTQ community is being targeted through social media platforms and dating apps, and the perpetrators are acting with impunity.

People lay flowers at a makeshift memorial for the victims of the Nov. 13 explosion at the busy shopping street of Istiklal, Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 14, 2022.

Turkey says it killed major Istanbul bombing suspect in Syria drone strike

The drone strike came a week after a Turkish prosecutor indicted 36 suspects including a top Syrian Kurdish commander, over their alleged links to the bombing attack in 2022.

Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement to the media on the Iranian nuclear issue at the Foreign Ministry, Jerusalem, Sept. 9, 2019.

Israel steps up military planning against Iran’s nuclear program

Recent reports on Iran accelerating its uranium enrichment are pushing Israeli leaders to inspect concrete plans.

A picture taken from the east Jerusalem Palestinian Shuafat refugee camp shows a view of the settlement of Pisgat Zeev (C), in the northern part of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, and the Palestinian area of al-Ram in the occupied West Bank (background), Feb. 23, 2023.

Israel's Netanyahu government advances settlement expansion

Israel's High Planning Committee advances plans approved by the government Feb. 12 for thousands of new housing units in West Bank settlements.

The vast expanse of crypts, vaults and catacombs is located near the mausoleum of the revered Imam Ali, the founding figure of Shiite Islam

Vast cemetery in Iraq echoes 14 centuries of life and death

Agence France-Presse

Karaj

Iran claims 'military exercises' behind Karaj explosions, gunfire

Iranian state media said there was a military training exercise in the area, near the city of Karaj. The news follows an Iranian attack on an Israeli-linked ship and a suspected Israeli attack on an Iranian factory.

Sham pictured on a hospital bed in the rebel-held Syrian city of Idlib, on February 17, 2023

Quake girl Sham leaves Syria for treatment in Turkey

Agence France-Presse

Taiwanese navy launches a US-made Standard missile from a frigate during the annual Han Kuang Drill, on the sea near the Suao navy harbor in Yilan county on July 26, 2022. (Photo by Sam Yeh / AFP) (Photo by SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images)

US bolsters human rights criteria for arms sales

The arms transfer policy takes into account how US weapons sales could be used to commit rights abuses.

Washington Pulse

Boxes of foreign aid arrive at Damascus international airport two weeks after a deadly earthquake

EU eases Syria sanctions to speed up quake aid

Agence France-Presse