Only essential services will be allowed to operate in area home to 500,000 people
Saudi Arabia has cordoned off an oil-rich Shia region, suspended air and sea travel to nine countries and closed schools and universities, in a series of measures to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus.
Related: Saudi Arabia releases images of King Salman after purge of royals
Continue reading...Move follows Russian refusal to join Opec-led production cut aimed at keeping prices high
The price of crude oil has plunged by more than 20% after Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, said it would step up production from next month, flooding global markets and most likely depressing petrol and diesel prices.
Brent crude futures slid 30% to $31.02 a barrel in chaotic trade on Monday morning, before recovering slightly to $36.06, a drop of 20% on Friday night’s close. It was the worst one-day fall for brent since the start of the first Gulf war in 1991. US crude fell 27% to $30.
Continue reading...Monarch seen carrying out duties as speculation mounts over crown prince’s succession
Saudi monarch King Salman was pictured carrying out official duties on Sunday, two days after his brother and the former heir to his throne were arrested in a sweep that sparked a new wave of palace intrigue and speculation about his health.
Photographs released by the Saudi royal court showed the 84-year-old king receiving several ambassadors and reading through correspondence. The images doused claims that the detention on Friday of Prince Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was ousted as Crown Prince two years ago, heralded an imminent change of ruler.
The move came as two other princes who had also been arrested were freed late on Sunday. A source confirmed that both Prince Abdul Aziz bin Saud bin Nayef and Prince Saud bin Nayef had been questioned by royal court aides since being seized from their homes on Friday.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary asked to intervene as death penalty hangs over four young men at mass trial in Cairo
A group of British MPs has called on the foreign secretary to intervene in the case of four young men facing a death sentence in Cairo for crimes they allegedly committed as children.
One of them is Ammar El Sudany, who was in the bath when Egyptian security forces raided his home.
Continue reading...Prime minister claims ‘Egypt is safe and the situation is under control’, though 45 of the ship’s passengers are now infected
Egypt has announced 33 new cases of Covid-19 as the Arab world’s most populous nation works to contain both the virus and public concern.
Thirty-three additional infected passengers were found onboard a cruise ship that had travelled between the southern Egyptian cities of Aswan and Luxor. Twelve cases on the same ship were announced yesterday, bringing the number of infections onboard so far to 45.
Continue reading...Royal relatives accused of plotting to oust King Salman and successor Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Saudi authorities have detained three royal family members including two senior princes, according to US media reports, signalling the crown prince is further tightening his grip on power.
Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, a brother of King Salman, and the monarch’s nephew Prince Mohammed bin Nayef were taken from their homes early on Friday by royal guards after being accused of treason, the Wall Street Journal reported citing unnamed sources. The pair were allegedly plotting to oust King Salman and the son he has designated to succeed him, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, it reported.
Continue reading...A summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak
Key developments in the global coronavirus outbreak on Friday include:
Continue reading...Teargas fired by both sides amid political standoff over people displaced by war in Syria
The EU has told migrants in Turkey that Europe’s doors are closedas Greek and Turkish police fired teargas at their shared border amid growing tensions over the plight of Syria’s refugees.
In a blunt message, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said: “Don’t go to the border. The border is not open. If someone tells you that you can go because the border is open … that is not true.
Continue reading...As Turkey-Russia ceasefire is agreed, Ankara says it acted after two of its troops were killed by Syrian government forces in Idlib
The Turkish military has killed 21 Syrian troops after two Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib earlier, the state news agency reported on Friday, citing the Turkish defence ministry.
On Thursday, two soldiers were killed and three others were wounded after Syrian government forces opened fire in the north-western Syrian town of Idlib, the Turkish defence ministry said.
Continue reading...Ruling backs Princess Haya’s claim that husband Sheikh Mohammed intimidated her
Can Sheikh Mohammed’s reputation survive?
The ruler of Dubai orchestrated the abductions of two of his children – one from the streets of Cambridge – and subjected his youngest wife to a campaign of “intimidation”, a damning UK family court judgment has found.
In findings that risk destabilising diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, a close Gulf ally of Britain, the actions of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum were described by the judge as behaviour which, on the balance of probabilities, amounted to potentially breaking English and international law.
The Guardian and other news organisations can reveal the ruling following months of private hearings and a legal dispute that reached the supreme court. It details an extraordinary family saga spanning 20 years during which the sheikh, 70, organised international kidnappings, imprisoned two of his daughters and “deprived [them] of their liberty”.
Much of the 34-page fact-finding ruling by Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the family division of the high court in England and Wales, records the events surrounding the notorious disappearances of Princess Shamsa from Cambridge in 2000, when she was 19, and of Princess Latifa, who was seized by Indian army commandos from the Indian Ocean in 2018, when she was 32, before being forcibly returned to Dubai.
King Djoser’s step pyramid is the main attraction at the Saqqara necropolis. A restoration project that began in 2006 and was paused between 2011 and 2013 worked on the outer facades, internal corridors leading to the burial well, the stone sarcophagus and stairs at two entrances
Continue reading...Inquiry finds that authorities armed and orchestrated security forces that killed more than 200 pro-democracy protesters
Sudanese security forces systematically planned and coordinated a series of deadly attacks that killed 241 pro-democracy protesters and injured hundreds more at a Khartoum sit-in last year, an inquiry has found.
Authorities “purposefully pre-positioned” state security forces armed with tear gas, whips and assault rifles in the month before the protests began, and “intentionally targeted” medical personnel and facilities during and after the protests, according to the New York-based advocacy organisation Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which led an investigation into the violence.
Continue reading...Turkey was once on course to join the EU. The desperate refugees trapped on its border reflect a broken relationship
To understand Europe, we need to look more carefully at its borders. Too often, the debates on the future of Europe focus on a few leading nations and overlook the periphery. Yet the fate of the continent is deeply and inevitably connected with what’s happening along its fringes. And there is no bordering country that has as complex and confusing a relationship with Europe as Turkey – it was, after all, the Ottoman empire that was first referred to as “the sick man of Europe”.
Related: Migration: EU praises Greece as 'shield' after Turkey opens border
Continue reading...Russian and Turkish leaders will try to hammer out yet another deal to stabilise Idlib
A summit between the leaders of Turkey and Russia on Thursday may be the last chance to work out a deal that avoids further calamity in north-west Syria.
Faced with increasing military losses in Idlib province and a potential wave of people fleeing the fighting, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is eager for a ceasefire – and Vladimir Putin is ready to bargain.
Continue reading...Director’s films ‘propaganda against the system’, judges reported to have declared – but coronoavirus outbreak casts doubt on whether he will accept summons to prison
Mohammad Rasoulof, the Iranian director who won the the top award at last month’s Berlin film festival, has been ordered to serve a one-year prison sentence over his movies, his lawyer has said.
Rasoulof’s sentence arose from three films that Iran’s authorities found to be “propaganda against the system”, his lawyer Nasser Zarafshan told the Associated Press. The sentence also included an order than he stop film-making for two years, the lawyer said.
Continue reading...Joint List alliance capitalises on backlash against Netanyahu by taking 15 seats in Knesset
Arab politicians are set to make historic gains in the Israeli election, taking more seats than ever before and solidifying their position as the third-largest force in the Knesset, the country’s parliament.
After 99% of the votes were counted, the Joint List alliance, a merger of politicians predominantly representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, had 15 out of 120 Knesset seats.
Continue reading...More cases in Scotland and Ireland, Italians in India test positive while Facebook says it will take down hoax claims
Two groups of Italian tourists were under quarantine in India today, with 16 testing positive for the coronavirus, prompting authorities to tighten controls.
Health minister Harsh Vardhan said that passengers on all international flights would now be screened, the AFP news agency reported.
This seems to be emerging a bit of a trend. Footage has appeared showing Iranian health workers dancing and singing in an effort to keep morale up as the country faces the worst coronavirus outbreak outside China.
Videos of medical staff and #coronavirus patients square dancing together in several "shelter hospitals" in #Wuhan have gone viral on Chinese social media.
"Square dancing helps to cheer them up and improve their immunity, which is beneficial for their recovery." pic.twitter.com/Kpqsyqclkj
Turkish border with Syria remains closed to most but some have escaped horrors of Idlib
In a video shot by her father, three-year-old Salwa listens intently to the rumble of military hardware in the distance. “Is it a plane or a shell?” he asks as they sit together on the sofa. “Shell!” she shouts, giggling hysterically when it explodes.
Turning the sounds of airstrikes and shelling into a game is how Abdullah Mohammed, 32, protected his daughter from the trauma of Syria’s war. Last week the family made it to the safety of Antakya, just over the Turkish border. Dancing around her new home in a pink princess dress, for the first time in her life Salwa doesn’t have to listen to the sounds of the conflict.
Continue reading...Streets are empty, schools and cinemas are closed, but there is a feeling that officials have been too slow to react
Little rows of upright matchsticks, stuck in felt, have appeared alongside cash machines and lift doors, offering a chance for Iranians to press the buttons without their fingers touching potentially coronavirus-contaminated metal surfaces. Guides have also appeared on how to attach metal extensions to cigarette lighters for the same purpose, and in public some men no longer shake hands or kiss as a greeting, but instead tap their shoes on one another.
Traffic jams have disappeared from Tehran’s crowded streets, even if the pollution remains due to the filth generated by power stations, and the city’s now often empty metro train carriages are sprayed with disinfectant two or three times a day. Distance working and learning has become the norm. Evening language classes, popular in Tehran, are empty. Internet traffic is up 40% as Iranians work from home.
Continue reading...Israel’s voters either do not believe the allegations against their PM – or do not care
If Benjamin Netanyahu was going to lose one Israeli election in a big way, it may have been this one. Or at least that is how it appeared to some onlookers.
The prime minister was clearly on a downward trajectory. After embarrassingly losing allies and failing to form a government after last April’s election, the 70-year-old rightwing leader suffered a humiliating result in a repeat vote in September.
Continue reading...