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Items by Thomson Reuters Foundation
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Palestinian tech firms adapt to survive as war hits business
Before the Israel-Palestinian war, the women of the occupied West Bank-based tech non-profit Female Innovators and Investors of MENA (FINOMENA) had grand plans. Some were honing their coding skills ahead of a hackathon in partnership with Microsoft. Others were planning excitedly to travel to a networking event in Dubai...
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Palestinians lose jobs as Israeli firms seek foreign replacements
When Taha Amin-Ismail Khalifeh dialled into a conference call with his Israeli employer last month, the Palestinian hotel worker expected a briefing on how the Israel-Palestine war was affecting business. Instead, he and 40 others were laid off. Khalifeh, who lives in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, had worked as...
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Gaza's tech 'window to the world' shattered by Israel-Palestine war
If the internet was once Gaza’s window to the world, that window has now slammed shut and the Strip’s nascent tech industry has gone from incubator to grave in six weeks of all-out war. Some of Gaza’s brightest brains have died in the punishing Israeli bombardment, much of the Strip’s...
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In the Middle East, poor miss out as 'faulty' algorithms target aid
Asma Ibrahim, an unemployed woman who lives in a cramped shack in northern Lebanon, has no idea why she was refused a welfare benefit for the country’s poorest people – money that would prevent her five children from going to bed hungry. “People in need are not receiving anything,” she...
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Turkiye fishermen fight to save wetlands as water scarcity bites
They won a pioneering climate change lawsuit earlier this year – but few fishermen in the Turkish village of Tekelioglu feel hopeful that an ongoing battle in the courts can revive the dried-out lake where they have worked for generations. “I don’t feel anything anymore,” retired fisherman, Suleyman Pekkara, who...
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Afghan women take protests online as Taliban crush dissent
Days after the Taliban administration in Afghanistan announced in July that all women’s beauty salons must be closed within a month, videos on social media showed groups of women protesting on the streets in Kabul, as well as in their homes, with many holding signs that read: “Bread, justice,...
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In a world of competing conflicts, Sudan struggles for attention
In a world of competing conflicts, Sudan ranks low when it comes to getting the outside help its population so badly needs. Three months into factional fighting that has upended life – shutting hospitals and schools, emptying shelves and banks – foreign donors have coughed up only half the funds...
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Migrants in UAE turn to crypto to send remittances home
Muhammed Bilal used to have to wait his turn outside a money transfer office in the scorching heat of Dubai to send home $1,000 to his wife and parents in Pakistan each month, at a cost of about $7 per transfer. He has, since, switched to an app that allows...
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Shining example: Solar power boosts struggling Tunisia school
A decade ago, the Makthar Boarding School in northern Tunisia had little clean drinking water or heat, poor food and no electricity for its nearly 570 students. But now, solar water heaters ensure hot water for showers and solar panels produce enough electricity, not only to power the school and...
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Baghdad youth reclaim their city, 20 years after US-led invasion
Mouayad Mohsen is appalled by the ways of the modern world, and the 58-year-old Iraqi soldier-turned-painter is on a mission to teach his neighbours some manners. “No one says hello anymore, especially the youth,” he said, enjoying a tea at a cafe near his home in Baghdad Gate, a walled-off...
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CCTV cameras will watch over Egyptians in new high-tech capital
The gleaming tower blocks and high-tech facilities of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s flagship new capital are a far cry from Cairo’s congested streets and crumbling facades. In the New Administrative Capital that is taking shape in the desert, lamp-posts double up as WiFi hotspots, key cards grant access to buildings...
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Decline of the Tigris spells doom for Iraq fishermen
Every morning at sunrise, Iraqi fisherman, Ahmad Hassan Lelo, emerges from his shack on the banks of the Tigris River in the heart of Baghdad, and every morning his heart breaks at the sight before him. The once mighty river that meandered past his home is a shadow of its...
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Egypt farmers fear rising social tensions over scarce water
For three decades, brothers Ramadan and Mamdouh Othman have grown summer crops of maize, olives and cucumbers on their Nile Delta land in Egypt’s northern governate of Fayoum. But, over the past year, the amount of water in the canal that supplies their sandy 3-acre (1.2-hectare) farm in the village...
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In Iraq's Babylon, age-old building techniques heal climate scars
At the temple of Ninmakh, the Sumerian mother goddess, Iraqi archaeologists are using 7,000-year-old techniques to protect the monument, and the rest of the ancient city of Babylon, from salt seeping into its heart and destroying it from within. With carefully made desalinated mud bricks, they are repairing the ruins...
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Saudi snitching app turns citizens into social media police
A Saudi app that lets ordinary people “play the role of a police officer” may have alerted authorities to the tweets of a student whose sentencing to 34 years in jail has drawn international condemnation. Just weeks after the verdict against Salma Al-Shehab – a doctoral candidate at Britain’s Leeds...
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Saudi 'surveillance city': Would you sell your data to ‘The Line’?
In the desert sands of Saudi Arabia’s deep north-west, thousands of workers are building a futuristic city that the Kingdom says will be like no other. Out of the ancient sands will emerge a high-tech urban centre called “The Line”: zero-carbon, with flying drones for taxis, holographs for teachers and...
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Well-paid jobs lure Lebanon's demoralised teachers to the Gulf
Forced to teach the wrong subjects, scrape by on decimated wages and even buy their own chalk, demoralised Lebanese teachers are heading abroad – many lured by well-paid jobs in the United Arab Emirates. Lebanon’s three-year-old economic crisis has caused havoc in the country’s schools, with teachers’ strikes closing many...
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Rising heat drives crippling sandstorms across the Middle East
Over the past two months, Iraqis have been living, working and breathing in thick clouds of dust, as at least nine sandstorms – lasting up to several days each – have hit the country, blanketing everything in grit. Hospitals have reported a surge in admissions, with thousands of patients coming...
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Besides Britain, which nations send asylum seekers overseas?
Britain is pressing ahead with a policy to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, despite a last-minute intervention by the European Court of Human Rights that stopped the first plane from departing for the East African nation last week. Home Secretary (Interior Minister), Priti Patel, said preparations for more flights had...
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Facebook's 'double standard' on hate speech against Russians
Facebook’s decision to allow hate speech against Russians due to the war in Ukraine breaks its own rules on incitement, and shows a “double standard” that could hurt users caught in other conflicts, digital rights experts and activists said. Facebook owner, Meta Platforms, will temporarily allow Facebook and Instagram users...
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Ukraine war ripples to Yemen where ‘no funds, means no food’
Ali’s brittle legs stuck out awkwardly from a gray onesie that hung off him, although it was meant for his age. At three months old, the Yemeni infant has already spent a third of his life fighting to keep it. Ali was treated for acute malnutrition free of charge at...
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Ukraine war threatens to make bread a luxury in the Middle East
The war in Ukraine may be unfolding several thousand miles away, but 32-year-old Ilham fears her family will feel its consequences on their dinner table in Yemen. Conflict between Ukraine and Russia, which provide more than a quarter of the world’s wheat exports, has sent global prices to a 13-year high – causing...
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Young Lebanese driving crypto 'revolution' after banks go bust
On a recent afternoon, Lebanese cryptocurrency trader Mario Awad was sorting out the details of a $2 million deal with a high-profile customer – complete with a hotel stay and the promise of a lively night out. “I have officers, politicians, media personalities, everyone is buying crypto,” he told...
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Deported from the UAE, Cameroonians face returning to war
Just months ago, Cameroonian migrant Wilfred Christopher had a home and stable job as a pastry chef in Abu Dhabi. Now, the 26-year-old fears for his life after authorities in the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) deported him to Cameroon – where his home region is mired in...