FinPol Digest

 Israel and Bahrain agreed on Monday to seek to sign a free trade agreement between the two countries by the end of the year, Anadolu News Agency reports. This came during a meeting between Israeli Economy Minister , Orna Barbivai, and Bahraini Industry and Commerce Minister, Zayed Alzayani, in Israel, according to the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. Both ministers agreed to accelerate the process in order to reach the signing of a free trade agreement before the end of the year, the daily said. An Israeli delegation is expected to arrive in the Bahraini capital, Manama, in mid-November to complete the talks on the free trade deal. Alzayani's visit to Israel is the third since both countries normalized their relations in September 2020. In 2021, the trade volume between Israel and Bahrain stood at $7.5 million. In May, Israel signed a free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to expand economic relations between the two countries.

Saudi billionaire Al Waleed Bin Talal, one of the owners of Twitter, joined the new private Twitter company announced by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk after acquiring the world's most famous micro-blogging site. This was reported on Friday in a statement by the Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) and the private office of Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal. KHC and the private office of Al Waleed Bin Talal announced the transfer of their stake in the current Twitter shares, amounting to 34,948,975 shares valued at $1.89 billion, to the new Twitter company led by Musk. The statement added that KHC and the private office of Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal are the second largest shareholders after Musk. Earlier, Bin Talal expressed his belief that Musk would be an excellent leader and maximize Twitter's potential. This comes after a rejection of a previous offer by Musk to buy Twitter, as the Saudi prince responded: "The offer is not close to the intrinsic value of Twitter." On Thursday,...

 A Tunisian judicial official revealed that the Italian authorities refused to return the Tunisian child, Linda, to Tunisia. He also pointed out that the Tunisian judiciary had decided to ban her family from travelling to Italy, while a lawyer talked about the formation of a "human rights commission" to pressure the Italian authorities to return Linda to Tunisia. A week ago, Linda (4 years old) arrived alone on the Italian island of Lampedusa via a secret immigration boat, following which the Italian authorities put her in a shelter in Palermo. At the same time, the Tunisian authorities detained her family, which was unable to join the boat. Farid Ben Jeha, the spokesman of the Courts of Monastir and Mahdia, confirmed that the Italian authorities assigned a lawyer and accused him of refusing to return the child, Linda, stressing that "the representative of the protection of children will appear on Friday before the Italian judiciary to prove that the judicial authoritie...

 Displays of popular support for the son of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could be a cause of concern for current President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. Gamal Mubarak attended the funeral of a well-known lawyer this week and news of his presence went viral on social media. For the second day running, #GamalMubarak has topped social media, with pictures and video clips showing people rushing to shake his hand. This has prompted observers to suggest that this support is an expression of public discontent about Egypt's political and economic situation. "The images can be read from two angles," explained journalist Massad Al-Barbary. "The first is that the Egyptian people were under Mubarak's rule for three decades and were influenced by it. His son was likely to succeed his father, which is why it is not strange for some to flock to him. The second is that the scenario may have been set up by a group that supports the Mubarak era." Barbary told Arabi 21 tha...

 Riot police have been deployed in force in Tehran and other major Iranian cities as Wednesday marks 40 days since a young Iranian woman died in police custody, Anadolu News Agency reports. According to eyewitnesses, small groups of protesters took to the streets in the Iranian capital, mostly at busy roundabouts in central Tehran, chanting anti-government slogans. A demonstration was also held outside the Tehran University campus, where students rallied in large numbers, carrying posters of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini , a student told Anadolu Agency. Traffic was also disrupted due to the heavy police deployment in the area. It has been 40 days since Amini died, after being held by the country's morality force for allegedly wearing "inappropriate dress". Amini, hailing from a small town in western Iran, was at the time visiting her relatives in Tehran when she was detained outside a subway in north Tehran. Her family alleges that she was beaten in police custody, which result...

 More than half of professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have contemplated leaving their current job over a lack of a work-life balance, a recent survey has found. According to the survey entitled "Work-Life Balance in the MENA Workplace" carried out by the region's leading job portal Bayt.com, 52 percent of those surveyed said they had thought about quitting in search of a better work-life balance at least once during the past 12 months. Around 23 percent of respondents also felt they had neglected their personal and family obligations due to being overworked, while 47 percent said they worked between 40 and 60 hours per week. Sixty percent of those polled said the family was the most important factor that influenced their happiness, while 30 percent chose their job and seven percent cited hobbies and activities. However, the survey also found that 84 percent of MENA professionals said company management respected their time and work-life balanc...

 A Tunisian organization specializing in transparency and combating corruption has called on President Kais Saied to disclose his property after three years in power, noting that Saied dissolved the Tunisian Anti-Corruption Authority (INLUCC) to avoid declaring his gains. In a statement issued on Friday, the I Watch organization stated: "Today, October 21, 2022, marks three years since Kais Saied assumed office as president of the republic. On October 21, 2019, he declared his gains for the first time before the INLUCC on the occasion of his assumption of Presidency. This was according to the provisions of Chapter 5 of Law No. 46 of 2018 dated August 1, 2018, relating to the declaration of gains and interests and the combating illicit enrichment and conflict of interests." According to Chapter 10 of the same law: "Every person subject to the obligation to declare shall submit a new declaration every three years if this person continues assuming positions requiring decl...

 Travelers from India are increasingly choosing to visit the Middle Eastern coastlines. The travel website Agoda reports that the number of searches for accommodations in Dubai has increased by 26%.  Additionally, there has been a 20% surge in the broader region, including Riyadh, Jeddah, Al Khobar, Dammam, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, and Manama, ahead of the eagerly anticipated world football tournament taking place in Qatar from November 20 to December 19. Continue reading to learn more information. Agoda, a travel provider, has developed incredible ideas to make vacations memorable and comfortable in response to the rise in Middle East destination searches among Indian tourists. Champion Deals are also being implemented. Football is popular all across the world, and Indians and Asians are eager to watch the huge event that is taking place this year in their own backyard, according to Krishna Rathi, Country Director for India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal at Agoda.  Furthermore, they ar...

 Siemens Energy announced its participation at COP 27, as a supporting sponsor of the 27th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Sharm El Sheikh, Utilities Middle East reports. According to the report, Ambassador Achraf Ibrahim, Assistant Foreign Minister/General Coordinator for COP27 Organisational and Financial Affairs, and Layla El Hares, the Managing Director of Siemens Energy in Egypt signed the participation Memorandum of Understanding at the Ministry of Foreign affairs on Wednesday, 12th October. "The major role played by the international private sector in promoting sustainable business models and supporting the agreed climate goals, including through the built environment," Ibrahim said. Moreover, he assured us that a warming planet is a major challenge to sustainable development. Siemens Energy is one of the world's leading energy technology companies with Net-Zero targets. The company supports the energy transition to a more sustaina...

 French cement maker Lafarge has pleaded guilty in the US to supporting Daesh and other terrorist groups in Syria and has agreed to pay a $777.8 million penalty. According to Reuters, the company which was bought by Switzerland's Holcim Group in 2015, made the admission yesterday in a New York federal court, making it the first time a company had pleaded guilty in the US to aid terrorists. Prosecutors had accused Lafarge and its Syrian subsidiary of Lafarge Cement Syria of paying Daesh and Al-Nusra Front (since rebranded as Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham) via intermediaries the equivalent of approximately $5.92 million between 2013 and 2014 in order to continue running its factory and using their checkpoints. This enabled the company to earn $70 million in revenues from its plant operating in Jalabiya near the Turkish border, the prosecution said. Lafarge eventually evacuated the plant in September 2014 after Daesh took control of the town and the factory and sold it for the equivalent of $...

 The Lebanese army said, Tuesday, an Israeli gunboat had violated the country's territorial waters, in the second such incident this week. A military statement said the incident took place in an area in the Mediterranean Sea opposite Ras Al-Naqoura. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli authorities on the claim. On Sunday, the Lebanese army said two Israeli gunships had violated Lebanon's territorial waters off the Ras Al-Naqoura area. The incident occurred days after both Beirut and Tel Aviv reached a US-brokered deal to demarcate their maritime borders. Lebanon's Parliament Deputy Speaker, Elias Bou Saab, said Sunday that the maritime border deal will be signed within ten days. Lebanon and Israel have been locked in a dispute over a maritime area of 860 square kilometers (332 square miles) rich in gas and oil, according to maps sent by both countries to the UN in 2011. Negotiations over the territory in the Mediterranean Sea, which contain part of the Karish g...

More and more Egyptians online are calling for anti-government protests on 11 November to coincide with COP27 as human rights abuses in the country continue. Over the last several month human rights defenders have ramped up pressure on the Egyptian government to drastically improve the rights situation in the country as the UN climate summit approaches. But thousands remain behind bars, subject to travel bans and prohibited from accessing adequate medication, sunlight, and reading material. Among the people calling for protests are whistleblower Mohamed Ali and actor Khaled Naga, who was kicked out of the actors' union in Egypt after criticizing Sisi. In September 2020, dozens of anti-government protesters took to the streets holding banners calling on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to stand down. One year earlier Egyptians took to the streets as discontent over human rights abuses and strict austerity measures plunged hundreds of people into poverty. This year's call...

  The EUTELSAT HOTBIRD 13F satellite was successfully placed into geostationary transfer orbit by American space launch company SpaceX on October 15 at 1:22 p.m. Eastern time, according to a statement from Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) (corresponding to 5.22 am UTC and 7.22 am CET on October 15th). After a 35-minute flight, the all-electric satellite separated, and the spacecraft's systems were successfully initialized over the course of three hours. One of two satellites produced by the manufacturer Airbus Defence and Space is the EUTELSAT HOTBIRD 13F. Based on the Eurostar Neo communications satellite platform, EUTELSAT HOTBIRD 13F was created as part of an ESA Partnership Project with Airbus to support innovation and competitiveness in the European space industry. Once in position and in orbit, the satellite EUTELSAT HOTBIRD 13F will strengthen and improve the distribution of more than a thousand television channels into households throughout Europe , Northern A...

 Mahsa Amini, 22, died while being held in detention in Tehran on September 16, prompting a number of protests in Iran and other nations. An increasing number of women are showing their support for the anti-hijab demonstrations in Iran, and one woman from Noida, Uttar Pradesh, has joined them. Dr. Anupama Bhardwaj, a resident of Sector 15A in Noida, can be seen in a video chopping her hair in support of Iranian women protestors. Recall that Mahsa Amini was killed while being imprisoned against her will by morality police who were "enforcing draconian hijab laws" in Iran. Amini was a Kurdish woman from the Kurdistan area of the country who was in Tehran. The "Gasht-e-Ashab," the morality police, detained her on the grounds that she was "immodestly clad." Iranian women have started burning their hijabs and shaving their heads in public to raise attention to the restrictive laws in their country. They are calling for an end to the three-decade tyranny of the...

 Egypt has voted in favor of a UN resolution condemning Russia's move to annex the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia. The resolution says that instead these regions are temporarily occupied by Russia as an act of aggression. The UN yesterday passed a resolution calling on countries not to recognize the four regions of Ukraine which Russia has claimed and demanded that Moscow reverse its "attempted illegal annexation." One hundred and forty-three member states voted in favor, five voted against, and 35 countries abstained. Russia, Syria, Belarus, Korea, and Nicaragua all voted against it whilst most countries abstaining were African states as well as China and India. Russia initially called for the 193-member body to conduct a secret ballot on the move, but the General Assembly decided it would hold a public vote. Moscow held referendums to annex the four partially occupied regions in Ukraine, but the move was denounced by Ukraine and its al...

A photography exhibit was launched in the besieged Gaza Strip yesterday to showcase Israel's violations against Palestinian journalists. 'Yes to Protecting Journalists' includes more than 40 pictures of journalists being abused by occupation forces. The exhibition was set up by Gaza-based Press House whose Director, Bilal Jadallah, said: "This exhibition sheds light on the increasing Israeli violations targeting Palestinian journalists." "It comes as part of a wide-scale media campaign aiming to attract attention to protecting journalists that includes a tweet storm with the hashtag: Yes to Protecting Journalists." The exhibition includes pictures showing Palestinian journalists being exposed to different forms of Israeli violations. Jadallah called for protection to be provided to Palestinian journalists. Photographer Ashraf Abu Amra, whose pictures are on display at the exhibition, said: "The Israeli occupation always attempts to hide its crimes...

 A student body at a liberal women's university in the US called for the liberation of Palestine and to boycott the occupation, especially in Boston, Massachusetts, where the university is located. The student body at Wellesley College of Liberal Arts, which dates back to 1870, published an article calling for the "liberation of Palestine " and listed companies supporting the Israeli occupation in an effort to encourage students to boycott them. The article described companies doing business with Israel as "pro-apartheid." Israel's Jerusalem Post newspaper noted that the student body at the university supported this project as one of the ways to stop the injustice of the occupation in the Palestinian territories, by boycotting everything related to Israel. The university administration has said it does not support the project, calling it anti-Semitic, after a widespread Israeli media attack that accused the education institution of becoming "a beacon o...

 The number of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike inside Israeli jails rose to 50 after 20 prisoners joined the open-ended hunger strike yesterday, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club (PPC) said. According to the PPC, 30 prisoners have been on hunger for 16 days in protest of their unfair detention without charge or trial. The PPC said 28 of the 30 hunger strikers had been placed in solitary confinement in the Israeli prison of Ofer since they started the hunger strike. Last month, administrative detainees in Israeli prisons sent a message in which they stressed that fighting back against Israel's use of administrative detention will continue. They stated that the Israel Prison Services' actions "are no longer governed by the security obsession as an actual driver of the occupation, but rather are acts of revenge due to their past." Israel has escalated its administrative detention policy against Palestinians as the number of administrative detainees currently e...

 In retaliation to Tehran's alleged sale of drone technology to Russia, Ukraine has started expelling Iranian students from the nation, Middle East Eye has discovered. Iranian students informed MEE that this was the justification given by Ukrainian immigration officials for not extending the students' visas. Iranian student Farid* reported that the immigration official treated him and the other students very harshly and informed them that their visas would not be extended due to "the drones and the military officers your nation sends to teach Russians." The officer allegedly told the kids, "You should be responsible for your government's behavior," the author claimed. The Iranian embassy, according to Farid, expressed regret to the students and claimed there was nothing more they could do. The immigration officers in Ukraine instructed us to depart the nation within ten days, he continued. Ahmad*, a medical student now residing in Iran, informed MEE tha...

 A shocking statistic published by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) confirmed that 6.9 million Sudanese children do not attend school. This means that one out of every three school-aged children in the country does not receive an education, while another 12 million children do not receive a quality education. The reasons for this are multiple, including the lack of teachers and the degradation of infrastructure. UNICEF has called for securing an environment that enables children to receive an education to achieve their dreams and aspirations. The phenomenon of school dropouts has a long history in Sudan , leading to the spread of illiteracy among more than 30 percent of the total population of about 40 million people. In its statistics, the international organization confirmed: "The school is not a place for teaching young people the basics of reading, writing, and mathematics, but rather a place for learning social skills and having fun in a safe environment, and i...

 The General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) in Iraq raised the unemployment issue in the country, with the number of those unemployed growing annually, without any solutions. They stressed that the numbers reached 6 million unemployed individuals, amid calls for the government and the concerned authorities to take responsibility for the issue. The unemployment issue in Iraq is one of the most prominent files that have witnessed an escalation, especially in recent years, and most of the unemployed are university graduates who hold higher education degrees. Despite the promises made by successive governments to find solutions to this issue, including providing job opportunities and government appointments to reduce unemployment rates, it is to no avail. According to the Chairman of the GFTU, Sattar Danbous Barrak, "there are 6 million unemployed people in Iraq, and this issue does not have any government solutions", noting in a statement to the official Iraqi news channel ...

  Tunisia 's main election body is continuing to make preparations for the legislative election scheduled for 17 December, despite having only five out of seven members in place. President Kais Saied called for the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) to fill the vacancies following the dismissal of Sami Ben Salama on 25 August 25, who was banned from entering the authority's central headquarters after the constitutional referendum on 25 July. An earlier vacancy occurred with the June resignation of ISIE member Judge Al-Habib Al-Rubai. The judge resigned his position in solidarity with 57 of his fellow judges dismissed by Saied, although he has since returned to his legal career. "The ISIE has no difficulty in carrying on with the election preparations as it has a valid quorum of members," explained official spokesperson Muhammad Al-Tilili Al-Mansri. He told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the ISIE has "no information" about Saied's intention to fill ...

 The Islamic Republic of Iran accused the United States (US) of "hypocrisy" on human rights after US President Joe Biden said he would impose "further costs" over its response to protests that have rocked Iran over the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini . The foreign ministry spokesman of Iran, Nasser Kanaani, said, "It would have been better for Joe Biden to think a little about the human rights record of the US before making humanitarian gestures, although hypocrisy does not need to be thought through.” Protests have rocked the Islamic nation since the Kurdish woman, Amini, died on September 16 after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran, the capital of Iran, for allegedly failing to observe the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women. Amini was detained by Iran’s morality police on September 13 for not wearing her Hijab correctly. She was forced into the morality police van and taken to a station on Vezarat Street. After three days i...

 The UN is concerned about the fact that the Egyptian government has failed to open a proper investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of prominent economist Ayman Hadhoud. It has also expressed concern over allegations of enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, torture, and denial of adequate medical care reports the Committee for Justice. Hadhoud was detained by security services in February and was later sent to a psychiatric hospital in Cairo where he died. His brother has said that Ayman had no history of mental illness and had criticized authorities publicly. After his death, an investigation by Amnesty International said there had been evidence to suggest he had been tortured or ill-treated before his death. The probe was based on official records, witness interviews, and independent experts who examined leaked photos of his corpse. In May, the US State Department said that his death requires a "thorough, transparent, and credible investigation."...

 Yemen's Houthis warned foreign oil companies working in areas controlled by the internationally recognized government to cease operating or risk coming under attack. The Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV reported that the head of the group's Supreme Council, Mahdi Al-Mashat, issued instructions to prepare official communications to all foreign companies and entities involved in "looting Yemen's sovereign wealth" to immediately cease their activities. The Houthi Economic Committee said that all foreign companies should permanently stop "the looting of Yemen's sovereign wealth by as of 6pm on Sunday local time," explaining that the instructions are based on the Yemeni constitution and international laws. "We reserve our legal right to deal with the looting of the Yemeni wealth that took place before October 2, 2022," it added A number of foreign companies operate in the oil and gas sectors in the eastern governorates of Yemen, controlled by f...

 Following Vladimir Putin's statement of a halfway call-up, Israel cautioned its double residents that they may be drafted to battle in Ukraine, Israeli media provided details regarding Friday. In an explanation, Israel's Unfamiliar Service declared: "Israeli residents who hold Russian citizenship who enter, remain in, or will visit inside the lines of the Russian League, will be dependent upon Russian regulations and guidelines." The assertion shared that they could be dependent upon: "Choices in regards to drafting residents into the Russian military and the chance of leaving the state's boundaries." Simultaneously, the Israeli Unfamiliar Service requested that Israeli residents consider this data while arranging their movements to Russia. In the meantime, Israel Occupation Powers are teaching Israeli officers with Russian citizenship that they can't visit Russia. Those right now are being informed they should get back to Israel right away, Walla...