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Items by Reuters
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How deep are Egypt’s economic troubles?
Egypt’s economy has come under severe pressure over the past year, with the Egyptian pound tumbling, foreign currency drying up and inflation soaring. What caused Egypt’s economic woes? Some of the causes date back decades, such as failed industrial development and export policies that created a persistent trade deficit....
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Netanyahu balancing act got harder after post-summit violence
The US-brokered summit has barely ended with pledges to calm violence and slow Israeli settlement in the Occupied West Bank when Palestinian homes were set ablaze by Jewish settlers in retaliation to a deadly Palestinian gun ambush. Hopes for a calming effect of the meeting hosted by Jordan in the...
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Israel West Bank settlers ‘sing and dance’ after outpost recognised
Drama therapist, Yael Drori, left bustling Jerusalem 16 years ago to live in an unrecognised outpost in the Israeli Occupied West Bank. As a youth, she was active in the Israeli settler movement, supporting new communities in the West Bank and protesting against Israeli disengagement from Jewish communities in...
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Egypt model prison rife with abuses, inmates’ families and activists say
A new prison, which Egypt touted as a model for reform and which holds some of its most prominent prisoners, denies inmates healthcare and subjects them to punitive treatment including isolation, relatives of those inside and rights groups say. Many of the inmates now in Badr prison on the...
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Children plucked from ruins days after earthquake, but death toll tops 22,000
Rescue crews saved a 10-day-old baby and his mother trapped in ruins of a building in Turkiye on Friday, and dug several people from other sites as President Tayyip Erdogan said authorities should have reacted faster to this week’s huge earthquake. The confirmed death toll from the deadliest quake in the region in...
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Turkiye quake and other major natural disasters this century
On Monday, two massive earthquakes, just hours apart, which devastated cities and towns across a huge swathe of southern Turkiye and north-west Syria, are rapidly becoming one of the worst disasters this century, with the death toll already more than 16,000. Indian Ocean Tsunami A 9.15 magnitude earthquake off...
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‘Move away from hypocrisy’: Global South demands energy justice
Rich countries should stop throwing up roadblocks to poorer ones trying to secure energy supplies and do more to help them make the green transition, officials from Global South nations told the India Energy Week conference on Tuesday, Reuters reports. The criticism highlights the gaping political fault lines in...
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Palestinian teenager dreamt of being a chef before attack, teachers say
In the middle of last week, 13-year-old Palestinian Mahmoud Aleiwat was pressing his teachers for the school report he needed so he could go to a Jerusalem college to train as a chef. Three days later, he was lying unconscious in hospital, accused of opening fire at a group...
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Ancient Egypt mummification ingredients came from far-flung locales
The ancient Egyptians employed a host of exotic ingredients – some apparently imported from as far away as south-east Asia – to mummify their dead, as revealed by a new analysis of containers unearthed at an embalming workshop more than 2,500 years old. Researchers, on Wednesday, unwrapped the results...
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The Beirut Port blast: Why has there been no accountability?
Lebanon’s top Public Prosecutor, on Wednesday, charged the judge investigating the 2020 Beirut Port explosion that killed at least 220 people, of stymieing his effort to hold members of the ruling elite accountable. Public Prosecutor, Ghassan Oweidat, who rejected Judge Tarek Bitar’s decision to resume the inquiry, also ordered the release...
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Why is Turkiye blocking Swedish and Finnish NATO membership?
Swedish and Finnish hopes of quickly joining NATO have run into an obstacle in the form of objections by Turkiye, which holds veto powers over accession to the military alliance. The three nations reached an agreement on how to proceed in Madrid last June, but Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said...
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Iraq PM walks diplomatic tightrope in crackdown on dollars smuggled to Iran
Under pressure from Washington to stem the flow of dollars into Iran, Iraq’s Prime Minister sent elite counter-terrorism forces more accustomed to battling Islamist militants to shut down dealers smuggling the currency to the Islamic Republic. Saturday’s raids in Baghdad represent an early test for Prime Minister, Mohammed Al-Sudani,...
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Davos 2023: Big oil comes in from the cold on energy transition
A different type of energy transition has taken place at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting. Unlike 2021’s COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, where oil and gas executives were personae non gratae, fossil fuel chiefs and renewable energy bosses sat cheek by jowl in Davos. Activists like Greta Thunberg do...
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Egypt soaring prices drive home economic pain
In better times, Om Mohamed’s family used to take holidays at resorts on Egypt’s Red Sea coast. Now there is no money for vacations. Om Mohamed, 61, and her husband, who live with two grown-up sons in an apartment near the Cairo Ring road, are cutting back on items...
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The probes into Lebanese Central Bank Chief Salameh
European investigators are in Beirut quizzing witnesses as they probe suspected money laundering and embezzlement by Lebanese Central Bank Governor, Riad Salameh, who denies any wrongdoing and still enjoys support from powerful Lebanese factions, Reuters reports. Their arrival marks progress in one of several probes into Salameh, whose three decades...
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Iran and Britain history of strained relations
British-Iranian relations, which have been strained for decades, were back in the spotlight after Iranian authorities sentenced to death British-Iranian national, Alireza Akbari, for spying, charges he denies. Here is a timeline of main developments since the 1950s: 1953 – Britain and the United States help orchestrate the overthrow...
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New Arab allies face quandary as Israel shifts hard-right
Israel’s sharp tilt to what is likely to be the most hard-right government in its history puts its new Arab allies in the awkward position of having to deal with ultra-nationalists while trying to do more than just pay lip service to the Palestinian cause. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s...
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Why are oil tankers stuck in Turkiye waters?
Turkiye’s Maritime Authority said on Thursday it would continue to block the passage of oil tankers that do not carry appropriate insurance letters, adding that insurance checks on ships in its waters were a “routine procedure”. The logjam is creating growing unease in oil and tanker markets and comes as...
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At World Cup, Saudi Crown Prince moves back on to global stage
When Saudi Arabian Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, took his seat next to the FIFA President at the World Cup opener in Qatar, it capped a remarkable turnabout in his fortunes – even before the Saudi team put a new feather in his cap by beating Argentina on Tuesday. Sitting...
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Mediterranean marine heat waves threaten coastal livelihoods
A decade ago, Tunisian fisherman, Ahmed Chelli’s nets bulged with fish and octopus that he sold at the local market in the Kerkennah islands. Today, he pulls up only “Isis” — the name locals have given to the blue crabs that have invaded their fishing grounds in the fast-warming...
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Alaa Abdelfattah, the jailed Egyptian-British dissident on hunger strike
Alaa AbdElfattah, an Egyptian-British software developer and blogger from an activist family who rose to prominence in the Arab Spring uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak is now a symbol of suffering during the repression that followed. The 2011 revolution gave hope to a generation of activists in Egypt and...
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As Netanyahu returns, concerns grow over far-right ally
Triumphant in this week’s election, Benjamin Netanyahu faces a new test forming a government with an ultra-nationalist party whose sudden rise has many at home and allies abroad alarmed at the potential implications for Israeli democracy. Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister and dominant political figure, Netanyahu, 73, is on course...
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Arabs view revived Netanyahu with concern but as balance against Iran
Benjamin Netanyahu’s likely return to power will fuel concern about deepening tensions with Arab neighbours, but Gulf States which forged ties with Israel under his leadership will see him as a regional balance against Iranian power. Arab leaders were largely silent on Wednesday over Netanyahu’s triumph in Israel’s election. Lebanon’s caretaker...
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What happens now that Lebanon is without a president?
Lebanon entered an unprecedented government crisis on Tuesday, with no president, a caretaker cabinet with limited powers and a deeply fragmented Parliament. The country is still struggling with a record-making financial meltdown that has impoverished most of the population. What makes electing a president so difficult, what’s at stake...