In Syria's western desert, Maree Al Shehab had given up hope of seeing his home city of Palmyra again, still less showing his children born over the last decade where they could trace their roots. thenationalnews.com/news/men…

I really enjoyed this opportunity to review three books on Iran for @FT A modern tragedy: the Iranian revolution and its legacy. Three new books approach the topic of the country’s past and its people from different directions. Homa Katouzian’s Iran and the Revolution offers a sweeping account of the forces that led to the revolution of 1979 and its long aftermath. Robert Templer’s The Shah’s Party and the Iranian Revolution that Followed returns to the imperial pageantry of Persepolis, the ancient ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid empire, and the illusions and delusions of the late Pahlavi state. Mahvash Sabet’s Open Wide the Doors: A Memoir of Faith, Hope and Freedom in Iran takes us inside the Islamic republic’s brutal prison system through the experience of a Baháʼí leader whose imprisonment becomes a testimony of dignity, endurance and responsibility to her community. Read together, the books suggest that Iran’s modern tragedy is not only the fall of one regime and the rise of another, nor a series of historical mishaps by ideological leadership or foreign intervention. It is the repeated refusal of the state to acknowledge the society it seeks to command.giftarticle.ft.com/giftartic… via @financialtimes

"Wind" by Karin Hosono.

For weeks, the Strait of Hormuz has seen a quiet and orchestrated exodus known only by a few shipping insiders. thenationalnews.com/news/men…

A year ago, the world met Habiba al-Askari, a three-year-old toddler in Gaza fighting for her life. @JomanaCNN and @AbeerSalmanCNN's reporting resulted in Habiba's medical evacuation to Amman. CNN returned to Jordan this year to reunite with little Habiba and her family.

New footage has emerged in the killing of seven-month-old Palestinian Sam Abu Haikal in the occupied West Bank. The video appears to show the family's car slowing to a stop before an Israeli soldier opens fire. Sky's @AdamParsons reports ⬇️ Latest: trib.al/4JxPta8

On losing one's sense of belonging, meaning of home, childhood friends and a brother to war. With Hassan Merhi - author of Love During Revolution Watch the full episode - Cry My Brother - on The Beirut Banyan

Should the U.K. ban British citizens from buying homes in illegal settlements in the West Bank? thenationalnews.com/news/uk/…

Terrifying scenes from Southampton

Green Up your streets for people, prosperity & planet.

I am always amazed by stuff like 14% of Reform voters wanting to rejoin the EU.

A photographer captured a weasel riding on the back of a green woodpecker

This is NOT good news re the hantavirus ⬇️⬇️⬇️ The virus can remain in human semen for up to SIX YEARS following infection, according to a high quality Swiss study. Like some other viruses including Ebola, it has the potential for sexual transmission even after a person has recovered. The discovery means male patients are likely to be advised to change their sexual practices, as is the case with Ebola. The research was conducted at the Spiez Laboratory, a Swiss government institute tasked with fighting nuclear, biological and chemical threats, and was published in the journal Viruses. They investigated a Swiss 55-year-old man who had become infected with the Andes strain of the hantavirus in South America six years earlier. They found that although there was no longer any trace of the virus in man’s blood, urine and respiratory tract, it was still detectable in his semen 71 months later. They say the male testes may act as a “reservoir” where the virus can essentially “hide” and evade the body’s immune system, said the paper. “Taken together, our results show that the Andes virus has the potential for sexual transmission,” the 2023 study said, although this has never been documented with hantavirus. With Ebola, on the other hand, sexual transmission long after infection has been documented. A 2021 Ebola outbreak in Guinea, which resulted in 23 cases and 12 deaths, was later linked to a survivor of the West Africa 2014-2016 epidemic, who had gone on to spread the virus through sex. More....

He gets my vote.

Those who treat humans as machines are also treating machines as humans.

Solar powered small boats ready to help detect mines in Strait of Hormuz thenationalnews.com/news/uk/…

We spoke to reporter Zaynab Faraj, who survived a triple-tap attack that killed her colleague, Amal Khalil. She described how an Israeli strike first hit a car ahead of them, killing two civilians, before a second strike targeted their own vehicle, severely injuring Amal. Ms Faraj said she helped her into an empty house, where they lay wounded and terrified, waiting for help. A third Israeli strike then hit the building where they were hiding, collapsing it on top of them. “Amal was gone,” Ms Faraj said. “And I was left alone.” Throughout the ordeal, the journalists made repeated calls for help. But Israel prevented the Lebanese Army and the Lebanese Red Cross from reaching them, informed sources told us.

working extra hard so my man can run an AI startup that loses 30k a month

A destroyed school, water station, playground and mosque. This is some of the destruction we saw in Debinne , a village that has been completely flattened by Israel, like many villages across the deep south. We’ve been working on a full package on Israel’s “buffer zone” doctrine in Lebanon for @TheNationalNews , based on several reporting trips near the so-called “yellow line” - a belt of dozens of villages stretching roughly 5–7 kilometres from the border with Israel. More to come.

•Um Cristão ibérico e um Muçulmano jogando Xadrez, gravura de 1283. ♟️

La karatéka palestinienne Mariam Bsharat devient la première Palestinienne à remporter le titre du championnat du monde de karaté ! Mabrouk championne 👏👏👏💪