CEO Shalev Hulio is stepping down as part of NSO reorganisation that will see it focus on sales in Nato member countries
Israel’s NSO Group, which makes the globally controversial Pegasus spyware said on Sunday its CEO Shalev Hulio would step down as part of a reorganisation.
The indebted, privately owned company also said it would focus sales on countries belonging to the Nato alliance.
Continue reading...Controversial plan to fly people from occupied West Bank to Turkey has been paused
A controversial plan to allow Palestinians to fly to Turkey from southern Israel’s Ramon airport has been shelved on the eve of the first scheduled departure.
Israel’s airport authority announced earlier this month that Ramon in the Negev desert, near the Red Sea city of Eilat, would begin allowing Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to travel on Turkish-operated flights to Antalya and Istanbul from 22 August.
Continue reading...Government forces retake Hayat in Mogadishu after it was overrun by al-Shabaab fighters
Somali forces have ended the siege at a hotel in the capital Mogadishu after it was overrun by Islamic extremist gunmen in one of the most deadly and high-profile attacks in recent years.
According to police and witnesses, at least 20 people are believed to have been killed and 40 wounded during the attack, which has been claimed by the al-Qaida-linked group al-Shabaab.
Continue reading...Fears the unit will enforce public order laws limiting women’s rights and freedoms amid crackdown since military coup
Human rights campaigners in Sudan fear the launch of a new police squad will herald the return of “morality policing” in the country.
The government has announced the creation of the community police unit to “reaffirm the relationships between people and the police” and ensure security.
Continue reading...Salma Al-Shehab alleged she had been ‘repeatedly accosted’ by at least five men for belonging to the kingdom’s Shia Muslim minority
Salma al-Shehab, the Saudi PhD student who was sentenced to 34 years in prison for using Twitter, told a Saudi court that she had faced abuse and harassment during her detention, including being subjected to interrogations after being given medications that exhausted her.
The 34-year-old, who was completing her PhD at Leeds University before her January 2021 arrest during a holiday at home, also alleged that she had been “repeatedly accosted” by at least five men for being a member of the kingdom’s Shia Muslim minority. Without providing more details, Shehab said the actions had led to an “outright insult and abuse of human dignity”.
Continue reading...Hundreds forced to flee homes and at least 200 injured as firefighters battle string of blazes in El Tarf province
Algerian firefighters were on Thursday battling a string of blazes, fanned by drought and a blistering heatwave, that have killed at least 38 people and left destruction in their wake.
Deadly forest fires have become an annual scourge in the north African country, where the climate crisis is turning large areas into a tinderbox.
Continue reading...Property confiscated in move decried as ‘appalling attack’ on Palestinian civil society in occupied West Bank
Israeli forces have raided the offices of six Palestinian human rights groups in the occupied West Bank that it previously accused of being terrorist organisations, a move decried as an “appalling attack” on Palestinian civil society.
Property belonging to the prominent advocacy groups was confiscated and entrance doors sealed by soldiers in the early hours of Thursday.
Continue reading...‘Terrifying tool’ under scrutiny as Salma al-Shehab’s tweets suggest widely available phone app was used to report her
The Saudi woman who was sentenced to 34 years in prison for a tweet appears to have been denounced to Saudi authorities through a crime-reporting app that users in the kingdom can download to Apple and Android phones.
A review of Leeds PhD student Salma al-Shehab’s tweets and interactions shows she was messaged by a person using a Saudi account on 15 November, 2020 after she posted a mildly critical tweet in response to a Saudi government post about a new public transportation contract.
Continue reading...Damascus says it is not holding any American citizens after Biden claim that US knows ‘with certainty’ Tice is government captive
Syria has denied it is holding the missing US journalist Austin Tice or other Americans after Joe Biden accused the Syrian government of detaining him.
The Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement that Damascus “denies it had kidnapped or is holding any American citizen on its territories”.
Continue reading...Comments by foreign minister come moments after Israeli PM announces full resumption of diplomatic ties
Turkey has said its decision to restore diplomatic relations with Israel after a decade of tensions does not mean it will abandon its support for Palestinians.
The comments by the foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, came moments after the Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, announced the resumption of full diplomatic relations, including the reappointment of ambassadors.
Continue reading...German chancellor condemns remarks morning after joint press conference with Palestinian leader
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts”, at a joint press conference with Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in Berlin, drawing condemnation from Germany and Israel.
At the end of his state visit to Germany’s chancellory on Tuesday night, Abbas was asked by a German journalist whether he planned to apologise for the deadly attack by Palestinian militants on Israeli citizens at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the 50th anniversary of which is on 5 September.
Continue reading...Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds University student, was charged with following and retweeting dissidents and activists
A Saudi student at Leeds University who had returned home to the kingdom for a holiday has been sentenced to 34 years in prison for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissidents and activists.
The sentencing by Saudi’s special terrorist court was handed down weeks after the US president Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia, which human rights activists had warned could embolden the kingdom to escalate its crackdown on dissidents and other pro-democracy activists.
Continue reading...Foreign ministry spokesperson blames author and supporters after stabbing that left him with ‘life-changing’ injuries
Iran has denied having any role in the attack on Salman Rushdie but claimed the author had only himself to blame for crossing a “red line” over Islam in his writings.
Rushdie’s life was reported to be out of danger but he was said to have sustained “life-changing” injuries after being stabbed 10 times when he was speaking at an event on Friday in Chautauqua, New York.
Continue reading...Songwriter behind hits including 1998 Eurovision winner, and Quentin Tarantino’s father-in-law, dies at home
Svika Pick, a prolific songwriter and musician who was known as Israel’s “king of pop” and by the moniker the Maestro, has died at the age of 72.
He died on Sunday in his home. The cause of death is yet to be announced.
Continue reading...Security sources say majority of dead are children after blaze breaks out at Coptic Abu Sifin church in Giza
A fire sparked by an electrical fault at a packed church in a working-class district of Greater Cairo has killed at least 41 people and injured another 45, Egyptian officials have said.
About 5,000 people had gathered at the Coptic Abu Sifin church in Imbaba, Giza, for Sunday morning services, when a fire broke out just before 9am local time (7am BST).
Continue reading...The $48bn figure from world’s biggest oil firm is thought to be one of largest quarterly profits in history
Saudi Arabia’s largely state-owned energy firm has highlighted the colossal profits made by gas and oil-rich nations during the energy crisis by revealing profits in the three months to the end of June up 90% to $48bn (£40bn).
Saudi Aramco recorded what is believed to be one of the largest quarterly profits in history to easily beat the near $26bn it made a year earlier.
Continue reading...Two victims including pregnant woman in serious condition, according to Israeli hospital officials, while police say suspected attacker turned himself in
A gunman opened fire at a bus near Jerusalem’s Old City early on Sunday, wounding eight Israelis in a suspected Palestinian attack that came a week after violence flared between Israel and militants in Gaza, police and medics said.
Two of the victims were in serious condition, including a pregnant woman with abdominal injuries and a man with gunshot wounds to the head and neck, according to Israeli hospitals treating them.
Continue reading...Praise for attack on writer targeted by decades-old fatwa comes as some fear incident will leave Iran more isolated
Iran has reacted cautiously to the attack on Salman Rushdie, with some citizens offering praise for the brutal stabbing, others claiming it harmed free speech, and several senior officials claiming it was a conspiracy to damage Iran’s global image.
Nuclear talks between the US and Iran were cited as a reason for the assault, which has left the acclaimed author on a ventilator in a New York hospital. Several state-aligned news organisations, meanwhile, linked the fatwa issued by late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini to the violent attack 33 years later.
Continue reading...The removal of Slingshot Rat has sparked debate over the legality of taking cultural artefacts from occupied land
A lost Banksy piece originally spray painted to protest against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank has resurfaced in a Tel Aviv gallery, sparking debate over the role of public art and the legality of removing cultural artefacts from occupied land.
Slingshot Rat, a stencil painting, appeared on a concrete block at an abandoned Israeli army position in Bethlehem next to a section of the wall in 2007, one of several works in the Palestinian town created in secret. Some time later, the painting was obscured and graffitied with the words, “RIP Banksy Rat”, and eventually cut out and removed by unknown persons.
Continue reading...Public rallies around gunman who surrendered after bank agreed to give him funds for father’s medical bills
An armed man has emerged as an unlikely hero in Lebanon after holding hostages in a central Beirut bank and demanding access to his own money – a move that generated broad public support.
Brandishing a rifle and threatening to douse himself with petrol, Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, entered the Federal Bank branch about noon on Thursday and insisted on withdrawing part of his frozen savings of $210,000 (£172,000) to help pay for his father’s hospital bill.
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