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Culture

Neymar

After Ronaldo, Neymar scores $54 million penthouse in Dubai

The Brazilian soccer player is the latest athlete to acquire property in the UAE’s largest city.

United Arab Emirates

Head coach Robert Saleh of the New York Jets looks on against the Denver Broncos during the first half at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 29, 2024, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

What’s behind firing of Robert Saleh, NFL’s first Muslim, Lebanese head coach?

The New York Jets were performing poorly under the Lebanese American Saleh amid rumors of tensions with outspoken quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Tunisian tennis star Ons Jabeur drops out of 2024 tennis circuit

Tunisia's Ons Jabeur, currently ranked 22nd in the Women's Tennis Association, will step away from tennis until 2025 as she recovers from a shoulder injury.

Bassem Youssef attends the 2020 Sundance Film Festival Cinema Cafe on January 31, 2020, in Park City, Utah.

Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef no longer on X: What we know

The exiled comic has been a vocal critic of Israel, highlighting the plight of the Palestinians during the Gaza war but has recently been accused of antisemitism.

Latest News

CT scans reveal mysteries of ancient Egypt's 'Screaming Woman' mummy

Visitors tour the site in the Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo, where archaeologists unearthed two human and animal embalming workshops, as well as two tombs, on May 27, 2023. The head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters the embalming workshops, where humans and animals were mummified, "date back to the 30th dynasty" which reigned around 2,400 years ago. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP) (Photo by KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Middle East athletes rack up 44 medals at Paris Olympics

Imane Khelif

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From Egypt to Saudi: Meet Middle East's athletes at Paris Olympics

This photograph shows Paris 2024 Olympics Games banner in front of the National Assembly, in Paris, on July 18, 2024.

Adam Lucente

By Adam Lucente

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Analysis

Saudi Arabia's soccer dreams tested as Vision 2030 goal posts move

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA - MAY 4: Cristiano Ronaldo of Al Nassr celebrates after scoring the 2nd goal during the Saudi Pro League match between Al-Nassr and Al Wehda at Al Awwal Park on May 4, 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.(Photo by Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Beatrice Farhat

Associate Editor (Lebanon)

In Beirut, reporting on regional news, culture, conflict

Nazlan Ertan

In Izmir, reporting on culture

Danny Makki

In London, reporting on Syrian politics and culture

Naima Morelli

In Rome, reporting on Middle East culture

Rebecca Anne Proctor

In Dubai, reporting on culture

Displaced families celebrate with their children the Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, at a luna park in Afrin, Aleppo province, Syria, May 3, 2022.

Syrians in Damascus spend Ramadan in darkness

The usual decorations and hubbub synonymous with the holy month are missing this year in Syria, amid a devastating war, economic crisis and the fallout from a deadly earthquake.

JOSEPH EID/AFP via Getty Images

2023 Mideast happiness rankings: UAE, Israel happiest as Lebanon hits bottom

The Middle East and North Africa region remains the least happy region after sub-Saharan Africa globally, but several regional nations have become happier in comparison to the previous period.

YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images

UAE discovers Gulf's oldest known pearling town

The town discovered on Siniyah Island showed clear evidence of its pearling industry from the sixth century AD.

Zoom wedding

Israelis Zoom to Utah in search of civil marriage

Since civil marriage does not exist in Israel, mixed-faith couples and people who do not want a religious marriage are now opting for online weddings performed in the US state of Utah.

A chef holds a platter of kanafe during Hatay kanafe festival, July 23, 2019.

Turkey's Hatay kanafeh delicacy granted EU special status

Turkey’s earthquake-hit multicultural Hatay province receives recognition for its renowned Mesopotamian dessert.

Tunisia migrants

US racial justice envoy calls out Tunisian president's 'incendiary' rhetoric

In an interview with Al-Monitor, the State Department's special representative for racial equity and justice, Desirée Cormier Smith, discussed the challenges facing marginalized racial and ethnic groups in the Middle East.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

A sneak peak from season two of Khateera’s Smatouha Menni which is expected to release in March 2023.

Arab women's group 'Khateera' dares to defy, one narrative at a time

Khateera’s content ranges from misconceptions about women’s intelligence in society and women's unpaid labor, to heavier topics such as sexual rights and honor killings, toxic masculinity and the shame around periods in Middle East society.

A woman dressed in traditional clothing poses for a picture while standing on a rock in the Mazqaft water reservoir in the countryside of the town of Qahtaniyah in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province close to the border with Turkey, during Syrian Kurdish celebrations on the second day of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on March 21, 2021. (Photo by DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

A decade into Kurdish autonomous rule, what changed for northeast Syria's women?

Since 2013, the province of Hasakah in northeastern Syria has been ruled by an autonomous administration guided by overtly feminist principles. Ten years later, what has changed for rural women? What challenges remain?

dog turkey

Husky dog rescued from rubble 23 days after Turkey earthquakes

The dog’s overall health is good despite dramatic weight loss, volunteers say.

Activists from of the Lebaanon’s LGBTQ community take part in a protest outside police station in Beirut on May 15, 2016, demanding the release of four transsexual women and calling for the abolishment of article 534 of the Lebanese Penal code, which prohibits having sexual relations that "contradict the laws of nature". (ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

Lebanon's LGBTQ community faces digital exploitation, blackmail

Lebanon's LGBTQ community is being targeted through social media platforms and dating apps, and the perpetrators are acting with impunity.

Artist Tara Abdulla in her studio in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Artistic heart of Iraq's Kurdistan thrives, but wants more public engagement

Sulaimaniyah, often called the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s “culture capital,” has become something of a haven for artists, though obstacles remain for the vibrant and self-sustaining artistic center they envision.

A general view of the 18th hole during the LIV Golf Invitational Bangkok.

Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf begins second season in Mexico

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund-backed league's 2023 season will include three events at Trump golf courses as the legal battle with the rival PGA Tour heats up.