Environment and nature

This picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency shows a view of the fire in the forests of Chalus on Nov. 21, 2025.

Analysis

Iran’s mismanagement in focus as fires ravage 25-million-year-old forests

Prolonged wildfires are raging across Iran's northern Hyrcanian forests, highlighting mismanagement, insufficient resources and climate stress, and forcing volunteers and foreign aid to intervene.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

France's President Emmanuel Macron and Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa look on during a bilateral meeting within the framework of the COP30 UN climate conference in Belem, Brazil, Nov. 6, 2025.

Syria attends Brazil’s COP30 as most Middle East leaders skip talks

Two years after the UAE and Egypt hosted back-to-back climate conferences, global headwinds are threatening climate action as talks begin in Belem amid notable absences.

United Arab Emirates

Residents of the city of Gabes carry placards during a demonstration on Oct. 15, 2025, to demand the closure of chemical factories.

Over 200 hospitalized in Tunisia’s Gabes as anger over pollution crisis grows

President Kais Saied is facing one of his biggest challenges yet as demands for the closure of the city’s phosphate processing plant increase.

SABUR RASHID/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Drought-stricken Iraq sends delegation to Turkey to discuss water cooperation

Turkey recently agreed to release more water to Iraq amid the drought in the country, indicating improving coordination on resource management after years of tensions over Turkish dams.

Latest News

Wildfires ravage Syria’s Latakia for 4th day in row: What to know

Residents of the village of Shatha watch as a wildfire rages on the nearby hills, in the western Hama countryside in west-central Syria on Aug. 15, 2025.

Egypt’s Sisi talks water security with Rwanda's president in wake of Ethiopia’s megadam debut

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi greets his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame in Cairo, Sept. 23, 2025.

Over 1,000 dead in Darfur landslide as Sudan war hinders relief efforts

People inspect the debris following a landslide that devastated the village of Tarasin, in Sudan's Jebel Marra area, on Sept. 2, 2025.

Tehran’s dams at 19% as Iran water crisis worsens: What to know

The Amir Kabir dam and its outflow along the Karaj River in Iran's northern Alborz mountain range are pictured on June 1, 2025.

An undated image of the FSO Safer.

Analysis

World looks away as oil disaster looms off Yemen’s coast

Time is running out to prevent what Yemen envoy Tim Lenderking warns will be a "massive oil spill the likes of which the world has not seen."

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

A woman carries a quilt as she crosses a field in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz on March 13, 2020, a year after the fall of the Islamic State's (IS) caliphate.

Culture

Women in north Syria collect wild plants, medicinal herbs to sell

Women in northern Syria, especially those who became the sole breadwinners for their children after losing their husbands during the war, are collecting wild plants and medicinal herbs to make ends meet.

Spring

Culture

Israeli actions threaten historic spring near Jericho

Ain al-Auja spring in the Jordan Valley is threatened with settlement expansion after Israel announced a plan to take over lands surrounding the area.

A male houbara bustard dances in order to attract females.

Culture

Egypt, UAE work to protect rare bird

Under a project carried out in cooperation with a conservation fund in the UAE, Egypt's Ministry of Environment released 2,000 Houbara bustards into a nature reserve to conserve the threatened bird species.

Rosenblum

Culture

Israel's EcoOcean to tell UN meeting of its work to clean Mediterranean

Participating at the United Nations Ocean Conference in Portugal, head of the Israeli NGO EcoOcean Arik Rosenblum explains the actions that they are taking to clean the seas and to protect marine ecosystems.

A Syrian beekeeper picks honey from his hives.

Culture

Beekeepers feel sting in northern Syria

Beekeeping in northwest Syria, which was once a traditional industry, faces challenges due to the war and its repercussions amid a lack of support.

This picture taken on Sept. 4, 2018, shows an anchor attached to a coral reef.

Sharm el-Sheikh gets $7 million to become green city for COP27

The Egyptian government, the UN Development Programme and the Global Environment Facility are aiming to transform Sharm el-Sheikh into a green city in the lead-up to the international climate conference in November.

Signature ceremony of the memorandum of understanding between Israel, Egypt and the European Union for the export on natural gas to Europe, EMGF 7th ministerial meeting, Cairo, Egypt, June 15, 2022.

Israeli energy minister inks deal to export gas to Europe via Egypt

Energy Minister Karine Elharrar hailed the signature this morning of a trilateral memorandum of understanding between Israel, Egypt and the European Union on the export of natural gas as a historic event.

An undated image of the FSO Safer.

US envoy urges funding for Yemen’s ‘ticking time bomb’

Envoy Tim Lenderking called on donor governments and the private sector to help prevent a dilapidated tanker in the Red Sea from spilling its cargo of oil.

Trucks drive in and out of the Bee'ah waste management company in the Gulf emirate of Sharjah.

Analysis

Explainer: Waste-to-energy plant opens in UAE

Masdar's new facility in the Emirati city of Sharjah will burn garbage to produce electricity. Some observers believe the process is relatively harmful to the environment due to its carbon emissions, but others say it is a good way to reduce landfill waste.

Adam Lucente

By Adam Lucente

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Israeli Knesset

Israeli legislator promotes cooperation with Palestinians on climate

Knesset committee chair Emilie Moatti is hosting meetings on cooperation with Palestinians in the fields of water treatment, climate change, agriculture and environmental protection.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi presents his national statement.

Egypt invests more than $1 billion in green projects ahead of COP27

Egypt is expanding its implementation of green projects ahead of hosting the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference.