Saudi Arabia plans to tap Islamic bond market to raise funding for Neom Neom aims to shore up $1.3bn from Islamic bond sale as megacity ambitions are scaled back MEE staff Wed, 04/17/2024 - 20:42 Artist view of the 'Mirror Line', a 170km horizontal skyscraper, announced as a landmark in Neom, north of Saudi Arabia (Reuters) Saudi Arabia is looking to raise over a billion dollars for the Neom megacity project from the sale of Islamic bonds, following reports that ambitions for the desert project have been scaled back. Neom is looking into a plan to raise as much as $1.3 billion from Isla ..read more

'Googler Against Genocide': Tech giant orders arrest of workers protesting contract with Israel Internal anger over Google's $1.2bn Project Nimbus contract with Israel has grown amid Israel's war on Gaza MEE staff Wed, 04/17/2024 - 18:43 Activists and Google workers held protests at Google in New York City and Sunnyvale, California, on 16 April 2024 (X/No Tech for Apartheid) Several Google employees were arrested Tuesday evening at the company’s offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, California, after the company called police to break up a protest against Google’s work with the Israeli gov ..read more

Democrats want proof that Israel isn't using US weapons to violate international law More than two dozen House Democrats are calling on Biden to show what assurances Israel gave Washington about whether its complying with international law MEE staff Wed, 04/17/2024 - 17:41 US President Joe Biden joins Israel's prime minister for the start of the Israeli war cabinet meeting, in Tel Aviv, on 18 October 2023 (Brendan Smialowski/AFP) More than two dozen House Democrats, including the co-chair for US President Joe Biden's reelection campaign, have sent a letter to the Biden administration calling ..read more

Columbia University students stage Vietnam-style anti-war encampment for Gaza The latest student-led action is aimed at forcing administrators to divest from companies and institutions they deem to be profiteering from Israel's war and occupation Azad Essa Wed, 04/17/2024 - 15:55 The Gaza solidarity encampment at the heart of Columbia University's campus, on 17 April 2024 (MEE/Azad Essa) Hundreds of Columbia students have staged a Vietnam-style encampment inside the main campus of the university in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, in defiance of what they say is repression of pro-Palest ..read more

Gaza detainees 'urinated on, made to act like animals' by Israeli forces, Unrwa says Palestinians released from Israeli custody report widespread ill treatment to UN agency Alex MacDonald Wed, 04/17/2024 - 15:39 A Palestinian man receives treatment at Rafah's Al-Najjar hospital after being released by Israeli forces on 12 January 2024 (AFP/Mahmud Hams) The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said it received reports of mass ill treatment of Palestinians taken captive from Gaza by Israeli forces, including detainees being urinated on and made to act like animals, and childr ..read more

UK imam's alleged input in school prayer ban case causes stir Headteacher said imam of London Central Mosque told her pupils could make up missed prayers later in the day, an issue contested among Muslim scholars MEE staff Wed, 04/17/2024 - 15:07 Muslims kneel at London's Central Mosque in Regents Park during Friday's prayers on 15 July 2005 (AFP/Carl de Souza) A London mosque imam reportedly said it was permissible for Muslim students to defer obligatory afternoon prayers, according to court documents from a recent legal case over a school’s ban on prayers has shown. The opinion, which ..read more

War on Gaza: Erdogan likens Hamas to Turkish independence fighters The Turkish leader has been a vocal critic of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, which has killed more than 33,000 people Ragip Soylu Wed, 04/17/2024 - 15:57 Erdogan (right) and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of the republic (AFP/Ozan Kose) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has compared the Palestinian armed movement Hamas to the Turkish revolutionary forces, which helped expel foreign armies from Anatolia in the 1920s. The comments to parliament on Wednesday are the strongest public endorsement of Hamas by the ..read more

Tunisia: Leading regional figures launch campaign to help secure release of Ghannouchi Former speaker of parliament, 82, was jailed a year ago on suspicion of plotting against state security, a charge his supporters and family deny MEE staff Wed, 04/17/2024 - 13:53 Rached Ghannouchi, head of Tunisia's Ennahda party, arrives at office of Tunisia's counter-terrorism prosecutor in Tunis, on 19 July 2022 (Reuters) A former Tunisian president and several former regional leaders have launched a new international body in solidarity with Tunisia's imprisoned former speaker of parliament, Rached Ghan ..read more

War on Gaza: Israeli drones lure Palestinians with crying children recordings then shoot them Locals report Israeli quadcopters drawing people out of their houses by playing sounds of women and children in distress Maha Hussaini Wed, 04/17/2024 - 12:15 An Israeli quadcopter is seen over Gaza in 2018 (AFP/Said Khatib) Israeli quadcopters are employing a "bizarre" new tactic of playing audio recordings of crying infants and women in order to lure Palestinians to locations where they can be targeted. On Sunday and Monday night, residents of the northern parts of Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp wok ..read more

Syria: Kurdish forces accused of torture and 'mass death' in prisons Amnesty says at least hundreds of detainees have died from mistreatment and inhumane conditions in US-facilitated detention system for people 'linked' to Islamic State Simon Hooper Wed, 04/17/2024 - 11:32 Men accused of being affiliated with the Islamic State group sit on the floor in a prison in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah in 2019 (Fadel Senna/AFP) Hundreds of detainees have died as a consequence of torture and inhumane treatment in Kurdish-run prisons in northeast Syria for people suspected of links to the Isl ..read more