FinPol Digest

 Municipalities across the Gaza Strip have worked hard over the past 16 years to provide for residents in spite of the restrictions imposed on them by the occupation's siege, however, they are now struggling to do so and urge the international community to help, a statement issued by the Union of Gaza Strip Municipalities today said. "Over the past years, Gaza Strip Municipalities have been struggling and trying to spare no effort to maintain the people's living conditions by innovating new alternatives to keep providing the citizens with the municipal services, even at a minimum." "Hereby, the Union of Gaza Strip Municipalities is urgently calling on the international community, international and humanitarian organizations, and all parties concerned to intervene to help the municipalities provide the basic services to the citizens, such as water supply, infrastructure repair and development among other emergency functions," the union added. Highlighting th...

 On January 26, the European Union's ministers of migration met to examine visa limitations, improved coordination among member states, and ways to facilitate the repatriation to their home countries of more persons who do not have access to refuge in Europe. Three years after the EU's 27 member states decided to restrict visas to nations that are not cooperating in returning their citizens, only Gambia was formally penalised. Two EU officials claimed that while comparable actions were suggested by the EU's executive European Commission toward Senegal, Bangladesh, and Iraq, coordination with Dhaka over returning refugees has improved. Eurostat figures, however, show that in 2021, the EU's overall percentage of effective returns remained at 21%. "This is threshold member states perceive to be unacceptably low," said one EU official. Immigration is a very touchy political issue in the bloc. Instead of rekindling their bitter disputes over how to divide the obli...

 As of now, you may be aware of the Protests that were held in many Muslim-majority countries this Friday. In Sweden and the Netherlands protests were held, This happened to show anger and dismay by far-right activists condemning and criticizing the recent act of the holy scripture of Islam. The protest was held in Islamic major countries like Pakistan, Lebanon, Iraq, and some more countries. Police officers of Pakistan stopped the protesters who were trying to march toward the Swedish embassy in the capital Islamabad. The pictures that came from Beirut were very aggressive more than  200  protesters burned the flags of Sweden and the Netherlands they were in anger. This incident of flag-burn had happened near the blue-domed Mohammed al-Amin Mosque which is present in central Beirut Martyrs' Square. Sunni Muslims of Egypt called for a boycott of Swedish and Dutch products. Now, when the voice was being raised in many Islamic countries, a statement came from the Swedish a...

 Democrats in the US Senate argue that the Abraham Accords and the two-state solution for Palestine-Israel are not in conflict. Their argument is effectively made if we think of two-state diplomacy as being outmoded in its current form. Israel's planned annexation of Palestinian territory was temporarily halted by the Abraham Accords, but colonial and illegal settlement growth persisted.  The Abraham Accords confirm that "two states" will never come into existence, yet the senators continue to speak of the two-state solution as though it were still an option. In that regard, the agreements reveal international inconsistency regarding Palestine. The Abraham Accords validated the claims made for years by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about how insignificant Palestine has become to Arab leaders. Netanyahu and the US senators, who are currently downplaying the effect of the Abraham Accords on the consequences that Palestinians face as a result of Israel's set...

 The presence of Middle Eastern countries in the world of gaming is slowly increasing in the recent past. I remember a few years back no one knew that Arab, UAE, Saudi, etc are related to football, formula one, or any other common sports. But the FIFA World Cup and the visit of Ronaldo to Al Nasser attracted the world's attention to this region. The annual Spanish Cup was organized by Saudi Arabia. So Middle Eastern countries are coming forward for games. Etihad, Qatar Airways,  Emirates, and Turkish Airlines, are many big names that are going to sponsor major clubs, tournaments, and leagues around the world. PSG and Manchester City, which are European clubs, are owned by state-funded sovereign wealth funds. Many people are calling it game washing, and countries are using it to improve their reputations by using it. Others are calling it diversification, as the trend at the COP summit is calling for a shift from liquid golf to clean energy which doesn't bode well for the Middl...

 A Palestinian man - Ahmed Kahla, 46, from Ramon, near Silwad in the occupied West Bank - shot dead by Israeli soldiers on 15 January posed no threat or danger and should not have been killed, the Israeli military admitted on Monday. Kahla was shot in the neck from close range. The Israeli army initially described him as a terrorist who had tried to carry out an attack. They claimed that the man got out of his car with a knife and ran toward soldiers, intending to stab them. However, Israeli media said a leaked preliminary report found Kahla was shot dead unnecessarily. A video showed a struggle with soldiers before the father of four was killed. Kahla's 20-year-old son Qusai, who was with his father at the time, said their car was stopped at the temporary checkpoint and a soldier threw a sound bomb at the car's front windscreen. "My father opened the window and started arguing with the soldier," Qusai recounted, adding when his father asked why they were being attac...

 A Lebanese judge plans to question judges and security officials into the 2020 Beirut port explosion next month, according to a judicial source on Tuesday. Judge Tarek Bitar resumed his inquiry into the deadly blast on Monday, after a 13-month suspension due to political resistance to his attempts to interrogate top officials, Anadolu News Agency reports. "Prosecutor-General, Ghassan Oueidat, will be among those who will be questioned," the source told Anadolu, on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media. "This will be an unprecedented move in Lebanon's judicial history," the source said. According to local media, three other judges — Ghassan Khoury, Carla Shawwah and Jad Maalouf — will also be summoned for questioning. The list also includes Higher Customs Council chief, Asaad Toufaili, Council member Gracia Al-Qazzi, General Security chief, Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim and State Security chief, Maj.-Gen. Tony Saliba. On 4 August 2020, Be...

 Israel's Ambassador to Canada, Ronen Hoffman, resigned from his post yesterday to protest the policies of the new government led by Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Hoffman wrote on Twitter: "I am honored to have been appointed by previous Prime Minister [Yair Lapid] to represent and serve the State of Israel as Ambassador to Canada over a year ago. "With the transition to the new government and to a different policy in Israel, my personal and professional integrity has compelled me to request to shorten my post and return to Israel this summer." It comes weeks after the resignation of Yael German, Israel's representative in France, who also quit in late December, noting the new government included members with "extreme" views and that Netanyahu was pushing policies that would result in "unacceptable" legislation. German, who was also appointed by Lapid, said the new changes would endanger "the character and values of the State of Isr...

 Six soldiers were wounded in a bomb explosion in southern Yemen's Shabwa province on Saturday, according to a local official. The blast targeted a military vehicle of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in al-Majaza, east of the provincial capital Ataq, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Two soldiers were in serious condition, the official said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Oil-rich Shabwa province is controlled by STC fighters and allied government forces. Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

 Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al-Saud announced on Thursday that there would be no normalization of ties with Israel without a Palestinian state, news agencies reported. "We have said consistently that we believe normalization with Israel is something that is very much in the interest of the region," he told Bloomberg TV during an interview held on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. But he stressed: "True normalization and true stability will only come through giving the Palestinians hope, through giving the Palestinians dignity." According to Bloomberg, the foreign minister said an agreement to create a Palestinian state would be a precondition to establishing formal diplomatic ties with Israel. Israel normalized ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Morocco in 2020. The deal, known as the Abraham Accords, was signed in a bid to normalize diplomatic relations, establish economic agreements and support social exch...

 There is a piece of exciting news for the world and the people of Saudi Arabia who want to host the Formula One Grand Prix. This country is hoping to bring F1 teams to the Middle East in the future and it will be like goosebumps for the people in Saudi. Its sights are on Aston Martin and McLaren among others. President of the Saudi Automobile and Motor Federation Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al Faisal is in the mood to compete with the British motorsport world. At present, the Oxfordshire region and the region of the Midlands are the home to seven of the 10 Formula 1 teams. It is the region that is also the home of over 4300 suppliers.  The prince of Saudi now wants to attract F1 team members to his country through the available oil in the region. The government of Saudi is trying to use its wealth to attract team members from abroad and insist F1 teams be set up in Saudi Arabia. The country is full of hope that Saudi can set up its team in the future and it may lead to the next ...

 Mahsa Amini's death sparked nationwide protests in Iran last year. Numerous clashes and intimidation and intimidation followed the protest between the youth, the police, the government, even students, and journalists. And even not long after that, there was no internet in the city. The government of Iran tries there level best to suppress the protest, they start arresting protesters, punishing them, they also cut down their freedom of speech. They cut down the freedom of speech online. The Irish government used online devices to track the protesters. People and protesters and their supporters start posting and spreading all their struggles and injustices that were being done by the Irish government on social media platforms. And the government knows that protesters need to communicate to rise the protest more powerfully. So, they peacefully cut down the internet in the region. This time, the internet and social platforms are the best and easiest way to communicate. Article 19 wh...

 That day when Soorena* was arrested on a main road in the center of the capital of Iran- Valiasar Square, Tehran the whole city looked like a battleground. Many of the victims explained their fear of that September’s eve, they said that a water cannon truck was black and was hosing people who were protesting and the protesters were trying to revert and save themselves by throwing wheels, etc. The smell of tear gas was in the air, and between these, Soorena got arrested. Soorena is just 17 years old and said by remembering the day of arrests by the police, she could find herself amongst the people who attacked the truck.  She was blindfolded and put in the police van. This arrest of Soorena happened after Mahsa Amini ’s death in police custody. That Kurdish-Iranian 22 old woman who died on September 16 in the police custody But Soorena was lucky because she was a minor, and she was transferred to a youth detention center and filed as an under-18. Because she was a minor She wa...

According to state media, an Egyptian military court on Sunday sentenced a president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi critic who lives in Spain to live in jail for calling for anti-government protests. The political situation in Egypt was shaken up in 2019 when recordings Mohamed Ali posted on social media accusing Sisi and the military elite of corruption went viral. Mohamed Ali is a construction contractor and aspiring actor. Millions of people saw the videos he posted from Spain , where he has lived for a while, and they momentarily incited a wave of small-scale but loud rallies by hundreds of individuals in the country of North Africa. Following the demonstrations, rights organizations said that the Egyptian government detained 4,000 people, among them prominent professors, activists, and attorneys. According to official media, the court sentenced Ali and his 37 co-accused to life in prison, while a number of other defendants received sentences ranging from five to fifteen years. These courts ...

Iran currently has enough enriched uranium to make four nuclear bombs, Israel's outgoing military chief informed reporters on Friday. "Iran today has enough enriched material to produce four nuclear bombs, three at 20 percent and one at 60 percent," Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported outgoing Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi telling reporters. Kochavi shared that over the last year, the Israeli army prepared three programs to launch an attack in Iran as a retaliatory strike, unrelated to the nuclear program, to destroy nuclear facilities supporting the nuclear project. Regarding targets for the Israeli army in Iran, he shared: "If it comes to entering a major battle, military sites and additional sites will be included in the list of targets." Kochavi added: "We have been engaged in accelerating preparations to attack Iran's nuclear facilities in recent years and many other types of targets." According to Kochavi, the Israeli army has improved its...

 Apple Inc., an American multinational technology company, is cutting its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Cook's compensation by more than 40 percent to $49 million for the year 2023. As part of the changes, Apple has announced a significant reduction in Cook’s salary, citing a request from Cook himself to adjust his salary.  Reportedly, the proportion of stock units granted to Cook and linked to the performance of the company will rise to 75 percent in 2023 from 50 percent in subsequent years. Apple said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that Cook received compensation of $99.4 million, including $3 million in base salary as well as $83 million in stock awards and a bonus in 2022. In 2021, his total pay package was $98.7 million. In 2022, he received $99.4 million in payouts. According to the BBC, Cook requested the pay cut for 2023 after criticism from shareholders. The technology giant committee awarded Cook a total "target compensation" of $49m for 2023. Last year...

 Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter owner, has set a world record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history, according to a Guinness World Records report. Musk has reportedly lost approximately $182bn (£150bn) since November 2021, according to Guinness World Records. The loss in net worth made Musk the second richest man in the world.  According to various other sources, Elon Musk lost around $200bn. Musk’s total losses since 2021 “far surpass” the previous record of $58.6bn (£47bn) set by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son in 2000. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk‘s net worth has plummeted by more than $200 billion over the past 13 months. The exact figure is almost impossible to ascertain.  Around $208 billion of wealth was wiped from Musk’s wealth after the stock of Tesla collapsed. Tesla lost around 70 percent of its value in 2022, which ultimately affected Musk’s wealth.  On December 27, Tesla shares saw a massive 11 percent fa...

 Britain's Minister for the Middle East, on Wednesday, reiterated the UK's "continued support" for the Palestinian people and the commitment to a two-state solution, Anadolu News Agency reports. Minister Tariq Ahmad will visit the Occupied Palestinian Territories and have talks with the Palestinian Authority leadership, the Palestinian public, faith leaders, and young people. "My visit comes at a difficult but important time for the Palestinian people, and I want to re-emphasize UK support to the Palestinian people and our unwavering commitment to a negotiated two-state solution as the only means of ending this conflict," Tariq Ahmad said in a statement. He will also announce £3.7 million ($4.47 million) of additional funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to support food assistance to 1.2 million of the most vulnerable Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the statement said. "Visits to various parts of the We...

 The world’s second-richest man, Elon Musk, has urged Brazilians to solve matters amicably as supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country's Supreme Court, Congress, and the presidential palace. Musk reportedly wrote on Twitter, "I hope that the people of Brazil are able to resolve matters peacefully." Protests erupted in Brazil against current Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. They said that the current president took over the helm of Brazil after narrowly defeating his predecessor during the elections. The protesters flooded into the seat of power in Brasilia, asking Lula to stop taking power since he narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in the October 2022 runoff election. The protesters invaded the floor of Congress and trashed the Supreme Court headquarters, demanding Bolsonaro take over the country. Lula condemned the incident as a "fascist" attack. Lula also signed a decree to restore law and order in Brasilia, the capi...

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday to discuss Israeli violations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Occupied East Jerusalem, Anadolu News Agency reports. In a statement, the Jeddah-based organization said the meeting comes "after the continuous Israeli escalation in the Occupied city of Al-Quds [Jerusalem] and the continuous violations against the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque." The pan-Muslim grouping said the meeting will discuss the situation after a storming by Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir to "Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards under the protection of the Israeli Occupation Forces." Ben-Gvir's provocation, the statement said, came amid Israeli attempts "to change the legal and historical status of Al-Aqsa Mosque." The far-right Israeli Minister stormed the flashpoint site last week under Israeli police protection, triggering a storm of condemnations from countries across the world, inclu...

Elon Musk, the new CEO of Twitter, has been struggling after buying Twitter. Now, the laid-off Twitter workers are seeking severance pay. Will Musk give them severance pay? After taking over Twitter in October 2022, Musk laid off many workers, including the top executives of the social media company. Those employees are still awaiting details of their severance packages. Musk laid off over 7,000 employees in November 2022. Reportedly, around 1,000 of the workers who were terminated lived in California, a western U.S. state. According to California law, the employees are eligible to keep receiving regular paychecks. Those employees were seeking severance pay over the past two months. The 60-day period ended on Wednesday. However, those employees did not get any details about additional severance or continuation of health coverage, known as COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act). Twitter has been gripped by multiple lawsuits over unpaid bills, including for private chart...

 A woman who was detained on suspicion of entering and remaining in Syria territory controlled by the terrorist organization Islamic State was granted conditional release on Friday by a court in Australia. Mariam Raad, age 31, was detained by police on Thursday after they claimed she voluntarily traveled to Syria at the beginning of 2014 to be with her husband being aware that he is a member of the Islamist terror group. They stated that her husband is thought to have passed away in Syria in 2018. For visiting or remaining in locations where the government has established "a listed terrorist organization is involved in a hostile activity," Australian law carries penalties of up to 10 years in jail. The court stated that Raad's release terms required her to give up her passport, report to the police each Monday, and refrain from communicating with members of "terrorist organizations." In October, Raad traveled back to Australia from the Al Roj camp for refugees ...

 Israeli occupation authorities arrested 410 Palestinians, including women, children, journalists, activists, and community leaders, for expressing their opinion on social media, according to a report by the Palestine Centre for Prisoners Studies (PCPS). The report, co-authored by the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners' Society, Addameer Association for Prisoner Care and Human Rights, and the Wadi Hilweh Centre highlighted Israel's use of a new 'Vigilance Unit' to monitor Palestinian social media accounts and issue recommendations to the security authorities to arrest them on the pretext that their opinions and publications call for incitement and violence. PCPS Director, Riyad Al-Ashqar, said the Israeli courts charged the detainees with "incitement" for simply expressing their opinion on social media, including posting a picture of a martyr or merely mentioning his/her name, or issuing an invitation to protect Al...

Fatima Al-Sane joined an online protest after being driven off the road. She had not taken the complaints to an authority or railed against the government, she just put up a banned rainbow flag. FIFA was raising its voice for LGBTQ rights, but Kuwait’s Gulf state remained silent. Here rallies are used not for rights but to impeach officials, to correct citizens. The country is missing progress because it is only focusing on gender segregation and not on economics or politics. Al-Sane, 42, only conveyed the message that the city has many issues such as poor education, no medicine, or development. The region is falling apart, where other Gulf countries are going to the moon, and Kuwait is just protecting Hatred. The politics are between blame games, and citizens are just waiting for development. Blame selfish politicians and a dysfunctional leadership for malaise at home and loss of clout abroad. And the problem is not lack of money. Kuwait is a region that receives more funds. History s...

 Women’s rights are the biggest agenda at this time, the globe is crying, upvoting, and maybe using it for their benefit too!  It indicates different things in different fields. All highlighted the need for  ‘woman’, all means scholars, activists, and writers. Some of them as a monolithic concept. First, let me categorically condemn that a woman does not suffer just because of her 'femininity'. There are many other conditions behind it like class, religion, race, etc. Kimberley Crenshaw calls it an INTERSECTION. This concept helps to understand that violence against women is different for different backgrounds, especially in the Middle East. Gendered norms around masculinity and femininity, persistent patriarchal structures, and problematic identity politics. But the main point is here you could not find the appropriate laws to protect women. People also hide it as the name of the secret of the house. Such things or views need to be criticized openly, political opinion sh...

Social media giant, Twitter, has been sued after its new CEO (Chief Executive Officer), Elon Musk, failed to pay rent for Twitter’s San Francisco office. The landlord of the Hartford Building -- Columbia Reit - 650 California LLC filed a lawsuit against Twitter as Musk did not pay a rent of $136,260 for the San Francisco office. Twitter currently occupies the 30th floor of the Hartford Building. According to the court filings, Twitter signed a seven-year lease for the office space in 2017. According to CBS news, Twitter did not pay the rent for its global offices in recent weeks. Twitter also did not pay rent for San Francisco HQ in the city's Civic Centre area. Reportedly, most of Twitter’s offices were left vacant because Twitter introduced its erstwhile work-from-anywhere policy during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, after Musk took over the social media company, the work-from-anywhere policy was scrapped. Twitter is also gripped in another lawsuit. Jet Services Group LLC also s...