The Takeaway: Would Hamas complicate US plans for reset with Palestinians? Also: the back story on the spat between Israel and Jordan; Gulf post-COVID economic trends; Turkey’s Kurds; Egypt and Somalia; and more! Originals
Egypt sentences activist Sanaa Seif to 18 months in prison Seif, who had been in pretrial detention since June, was convicted Wednesday of spreading false news and misusing social media. Egypt
Ukraine rejects Iran's final report on downed passenger plane The Iranian government said last year's shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was the result of a human error. Iran
Palestinians receive first batch of vaccines through COVAX More than 60,000 doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived in Ramallah on Wednesday. Palestine
Meet the mother of three who is Egypt's first female maestro Eman Genedy has conducted several orchestras and made a name for herself in a conservative society that frowns upon women singing, let alone conducting an orchestra. Egypt
Jordan likely to attend Bahrain summit despite reservations A US official recently said that Jordan, along with Egypt and Morocco, will attend the Bahrain economic workshop aimed at attracting investments to the Palestinian territories, but Jordanian officials have yet to confirm the reports. Palestine
Iranian hard-liners praise taxi driver for booting passenger over 'poor' hijab Divisions in Iranian society over the country's hijab laws are being exposed in a massive backlash over a taxi driver's clash with a female passenger he found in violation of veiling norms. Iran
Iran’s Reformists teetering on electoral boycott as polls approach Faced with declining social capital, Iran’s Reformists are wary of electoral participation without requisite political authority. Iran
Annexing East Jerusalem, first step before annexing the West Bank? According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan, Israel will exclude some Palestinian neighborhoods from the Greater Jerusalem municipality, while annexing other East Jerusalem neighborhoods. Palestine
Egypt to launch another round of Palestinian negotiations Egypt is willing take another shot at unifying Palestinian factions, but no one seems to be getting their hopes up about the outcome. Palestine
Egypt’s Al-Azhar retreats from fatwa on beating women Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb ruled that women cannot leave the house without their husbands’ permission and may be beaten as long as no bones are broken, sparking an uproar in Egypt. Egypt
Elections expose the Pandora’s box of Israel’s religious right The ideological differences and open hostility among the national religious and ultra-Orthodox parties exposed by the April elections could backfire on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to call for new elections, in September. Israel
How Russia plans to take part in building Syria's IT sector As Syria seeks to restore some of its damaged IT facilites and build "an information society" in the country, Russian companies consider opportunities to chip in. Syria
Erdogan seeks lifeline from Trump to salvage US-Turkey ties It will take Donald Trump to close a deal with Turkey on a Syrian "safe zone." Syria
Furious Iranian officials claim sabotage in tanker incident After the United States accused Iran of being behind the attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman, Tehran accused Washington of "sabotage diplomacy." Iran
Iran’s central bank tightens grip on national payment system Iran’s central bank is increasingly closing loopholes in the country’s payment system that allowed for destabilization of the monetary and foreign currency markets. Iran
