Author: Akpulat Erentoz

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s philanthropic venture, the Archewell Foundation, has reported a significant drop in donations, amounting to a staggering $11 million decrease in funding. This alarming decrease in financial support comes as a shock to many, given the high-profile nature of the couple and their previous success in raising funds for various charitable initiatives. Sources close to the foundation attribute the decline to a variety of factors, including changing economic conditions and shifting donor priorities. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the philanthropic landscape, with many individuals and organizations reevaluating their giving strategies. Despite this…

The Palestinian Presidency warned on Monday that Israel’s ongoing withholding of Palestinian tax revenues bears serious repercussions on government services. The presidency said in a statement published by the official Palestinian news agency (WAFA) that Israel’s continuous hold on Palestinian tax revenues is “piracy and collective punishment against the entire Palestinian people.” “This action has grave implications on the services provided by the Palestinian government to all sectors, specifically the health sector, which has experienced a drastic decline, along with education and all aspects of life,” said the statement. The Palestinian government “will never cease transferring the rightful funds to…

A top Iranian military commander said on Monday Iran will soon expel U.S. aircraft carriers from the region as “they have come to incite sedition,” according to the official news agency IRNA. At a national conference in the capital Tehran, Commander of the Iranian Navy Shahram Irani slammed transregional states’ military presence, including the recent deployment of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier in the region. “Everybody said the (U.S.) aircraft carrier has come to the region to change the equations. But they have come to incite sedition and meet their needs. We will soon expel them from the…

The Israeli government’s 12-month budget deficit sharply rose to 62.3 billion shekels (about 16.8 billion U.S. dollars), or 3.4 percent of its GDP, the state’s Finance Ministry said on Sunday. The deficit figure, for the period between December 2022 and November 2023, is 31.99 percent higher than the deficit reported a month ago, which referred to the November 2022-October 2023 period. For a year-over-year comparison, the Israeli budget registered a surplus of 7.5 billion shekels between December 2021 and November 2022. The ministry noted that the deficit surge was due to an abnormal increase in expenditures alongside a decrease in…

Israeli factories have been recovering from a large-scale shutdown witnessed at the beginning of the country’s conflict with Hamas, according to an industry survey published Wednesday. The Manufacturers Association of Israel (MAI) surveyed 106 to 127 factories ranging from food, textile, to electronics manufacturers over a span of six weeks since the conflict began on Oct. 7. Among the surveyed factories, 29 percent were closed in the first working week starting Oct. 8, but the shutdown rate gradually decreased to six percent in the fourth week and just one percent in the sixth working week of Nov. 12-16, according to…

An Israeli fighter jet intercepted a cruise missile launched towards the Red Sea resort city of Eilat on Wednesday, the Israeli army said. “An Israeli Air Force fighter jet successfully intercepted a cruise missile that was launched toward Israel,” read the Israeli army’s statement. The statement added that “no infiltration into Israeli territory was identified.” Israel’s southernmost city Eilat has been targeted multiple times by Houthi forces in Yemen since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7.  source

Lebanon saw an increasing popularity of Chinese language learning among students this academic year starting in October, said the director of the country’s Confucius Institute. Nisrine Abdel Nour Lattouf told Xinhua that the Confucius Institute at Saint Joseph University of Beirut has been offering Chinese language courses to 325 students at five other schools across the country, more than doubling the 120 students enrolled in the previous academic year ending June 2023. Lattouf expected the number to increase remarkably in the future since there has been a growing demand from Lebanese schools, which she said is due to the job…

Israeli ministers met on Tuesday night in a bid to approve a Qatari-mediated deal to release dozens of the children and women held hostage by the Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime cabinet gathered for a special meeting in the evening, followed by a meeting of his extended security cabinet and his government. The release of Palestinian prisoners is a highly contested issue in Israeli society. As part of the regular procedure in Israel, any potential swap deal that includes the release of Palestinian prisoners needs to be brought for a vote in both…

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Tuesday urged the international community to pressure Israel to comply with the recent UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling for reaching an immediate ceasefire and establishing humanitarian corridors across the war-stricken Gaza Strip. Sisi’s remarks came during an extraordinary virtual summit of the leaders of the BRICS group on the Palestinian-Israeli issue and the current situation in Gaza, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. “Egypt has opposed and condemned the killing of civilians from all sides, and at the same time it denounces, in the strongest terms, the targeting of civilians and civilian facilities,…

The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka called on Tuesday for de-escalation along the Blue Line as hostilities persist between Hezbollah and Israel, reported local media. Wronecka said in a statement that the past six weeks of clashes along the Blue Line represent the most serious violations of Resolution 1701 since its adoption in 2006, according to L’Orient Today. She highlighted the collective responsibility of the international society to urge both parties to exercise restraint, calling for a return to the full implementation of Resolution 1701, a crucial entry point to realizing the region’s peace, security and stability.…