Lebanese install solar panels to survive energy crisis
Lebanon is facing a severe energy crisis forcing people to run private generators for switching on light bulbs and refrigerators. But people have started to turn to the sun.
conflict
Yemen is starving, Ukraine war is making it worse
Ongoing conflict, poverty, and draught have millions of Yemenis in the crossfire. They are starving.
Device restores the sense of touch
A new device developed in Tel Aviv inspires hope among people who have lost their sense of touch in the nerves of a limb following amputation or injury.
Spider study shows there is nothing to fear but fear itself
When you know the spiders are going to be there in advance, you will have less fear for them when you see them. They offer some advice about fearing Covid too.
Landmine detection using lasers and engineered glow bacteria
Glow bacteria are engineered and activated to sniff out nitrogen oxide, a gas emitted from old landmines
Yemen’s floating bomb in conflict zone could detonate an Exxon Valdez any minute
An oil tanker off the coast of Yemen can explode any moment.
Why awesome girlfriends suddenly go psycho
Oxytocin, a peptide produced in the brain, is complicated in that way: a neuromodulator, it may bring hearts together or it can help induce aggression. Or in other words, why perfectly normal partners turn psycho.
Iraq’s breadbasket gets a $15 million EU grant in agriculture
Farming families in northern Iraq's Nineveh Governorate (the setting of the Jonah and the Whale biblical story!) will benefit from a European Union contribution of €15 million to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to recover agricultural livelihoods.
ISIS uses Tabqa Dam in Syria as weapon of war
Dams tame wild rivers, they prevent floods, irrigate crops and generate billions of watts of renewable hydroelectric power. But some 25 miles from Raqaa, Syria the Daesh (aka ISIS) don’t see the Tabqa dam as a source of green energy. They see it as a military base, a prison and weapon of war.
Uncontrolled Garbage Threatens Lives in Syria
Amid the snipers, the rubble and the misery on many Syrian streets is another ugly phenomenon: garbage. In Adel’s* hometown of Janoub al Malaab, a district of Hama city, piles of waste give off an odour that is nearly unbearable.
Conjugal Sex Rooms, Unplanned Pregancies, and STDs in Syrian Refugee Camps
When aid workers with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) speak to women inside Syria – many of them displaced from their homes and living in cramped collective shelters – they say they would rather do anything than get pregnant.
Use heroin? Fund Terror
There are many ways to fund terror, and one way is by consuming opium or heroin
Kids Forced Into Garbage Sorting in Jordan
Young Syrian refugees are being forced into sex and child labor in Jordan Abdul Rahman, an eight-year-old refugee from Syria, rummages through a trash container along the side road of north Amman’s bustling Sweileh neighborhood. His sparkling green eyes stare out from his dirty, emaciated face. His bony legs appear from under torn blue trousers. […]
Export Oil, Import Water = Risky Economics for Middle East
Water scarcity has already become a fact of daily life for Egyptians The world’s driest region, the Middle East* and North Africa (MENA), is getting drier at an alarming rate. And yet, despite massive population growth (the Middle East’s population grew 61 percent from 1990 to 2010 to 205 million people) predictions of so-called “water […]
Climate Change Contributing to Mali-Algeria Conflict
According to experts, climate change and rising food insecurity are major contributors to the recent destabilization of Mali and southern Algeria Over the last couple of years, there has been a growing link between climate change and political issues in the Middle East. During the Arab Spring there was a real recognition that rising food […]