The Takeaway: Would Hamas complicate US plans for reset with Palestinians? Also: the back story on the spat between Israel and Jordan; Gulf post-COVID economic trends; Turkey’s Kurds; Egypt and Somalia; and more! Originals
Egypt sentences activist Sanaa Seif to 18 months in prison Seif, who had been in pretrial detention since June, was convicted Wednesday of spreading false news and misusing social media. Egypt
Ukraine rejects Iran's final report on downed passenger plane The Iranian government said last year's shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was the result of a human error. Iran
Palestinians receive first batch of vaccines through COVAX More than 60,000 doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived in Ramallah on Wednesday. Palestine
Pro-AKP TV shows face dwindling audiences Pro-AKP dramas are failing miserably in cinemas and on TV. Turkey
Israeli soldier testimonials stoke Gazans' claims of war crimes Palestinians believe a report of firsthand accounts by Israeli soldiers and officers who fought in the 2014 Gaza war prove that Israel committed war crimes in its conduct of the conflict. Palestine
Freezing of soccer star's funds unites Egyptians in protest The decision to freeze the funds of Egyptian soccer player Mohamed Aboutrika for his alleged affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood has raised the ire of Egyptians regardless of political leaning. Egypt
Iran-Pakistan pipeline could finally become reality Iran and Pakistan both have political and economic interests in seeing a long-delayed gas pipeline come to fruition. Saudi Arabia
Will Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson enter politics? A grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran is in a unique position to influence politics, but his family name limits his involvement. Iran
Will Camp David spur regional cooperation? The signing of the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 can open the door to cooperation between Middle East countries. Saudi Arabia
Secular Jews launch Sabbath bus service in Jerusalem Young residents of Jerusalem have created a solution to the lack of public transportation in the city on Saturdays by establishing a private cooperative bus system. Israel
Turkey's election system becomes graveyard for political parties More than 90 political parties are currently active in Turkey, but the 10% electoral threshold means that the upcoming parliamentary polls will be a race between four of them. Turkey
Turkey’s 4G tender gets bad reception from Erdogan The Turkish president’s interference in establishing a 4G network in Turkey could harm the country's prospects for future technological developments. Turkey
Is Israel in cahoots with Saudi Arabia? Israel and Saudi Arabia feel that the United States is playing a bad hand in its negotiating with Iran, trying to offer more and more compromises while Iran isn't budging. Israel
Netanyahu neutralizes rivals with Cabinet appointments In distributing ministerial portfolios, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is employing his well-worn strategy of eliminating the possibility of any Likud member having a chance to increase their popularity. Israel
Egypt sets tourism target for 2020 The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism is seeking to attract 20 million tourists by 2020 following setbacks in the sector due to security and political instability. Egypt
