Middle East

A poliovirus variant has been detected in six wastewater samples in Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah, two cities in southern and central Gaza.  In a Facebook post on Friday, the Gaza Health Ministry called it a “health disaster.” The testing, done in co-ordination with UNICEF, found the presence of Type 2 poliovirus, which causes the polio disease. Officials in Gaza said the presence of the virus was caused by the severe congestion of people in small areas and the scarcity of available water in the strip. The samples were taken from sewage water that runs between densely populated areas and the tents of displaced people.  Polio is a highly infectious disease that can infect the central nervous system and damage nerve cells that activate muscles. However, in some cases, it causes no symptoms and goes undetected. No one in Gaza has been treated for polio-related symptoms yet, the WHO told The Associated Press. Similarities to Egyp...

Global heat has seared to new extremes in recent months, and devastating climate disasters are providing powerful reminders of the costs of climate change, as governments around the world prepare for the 2023 United Nations climate summit that starts on Nov. 30. While a small window of hope remains for meeting the goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the world’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. This year’s climate summit, COP28, needs to be transformative. What will it take to harness a spirit of international cooperation in today’s complex, divisive and volatile world abounding in self-interest? As a former senior U.N. official, I worked for years in multilateral consensus building among often hugely divergent parties. Here are some of the challenges and negotiating techniques I expect to see as representatives from countries around the world come together in Dubai. The challenge of national self-interest To slow climate change, the world m...

Fifty years ago, a secret deal among Arab governments triggered one of the most traumatic economic crises to afflict the United States and other big oil importers. Saudi King Faisal and other Arab leaders launched an oil embargo on Oct. 17, 1973, as payback for Washington siding with Israel in its war with neighboring Egypt and Syria. The oil market hostilities arose from a pact between Faisal and the leaders of Egypt and Syria, whose armies planned surprise drives to retake their territory under Israeli occupation. If the United States intervened to assist Israel, Faisal and other Arab producers agreed to retaliate with the “oil weapon.” When Washington airlifted in U.S. weapons that helped Israel thwart Arab gains, Faisal and OPEC’s Arab members retaliated. They increased oil prices, banned oil shipments to the United States and cut production by 5% per month. The ensuing economic and political carnage is legendary. The embargo catalyzed a long period of...

Humans have contended with dust storms for thousands of years, ever since early civilizations appeared in the Middle East and North Africa. But modern desert dust storms are different from their preindustrial counterparts. Around the world, deserts now increasingly border built structures, including urban dwellings, manufacturing, transportation hubs, sewage treatment and landfills. As a result, desert dust lifts a growing load of airborne pollutants and transports these substances over long distances. This is happening throughout the Global Dust Belt, an arid to semiarid region that stretches from western China through Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Similar storms occur in the U.S. Southwest and central Australia. Global pattern of dust frequency estimated from weather records, 1974-2012. Shao et al., 2013, CC BY-ND To our thinking, modern desert dust storms have been overlooked...