This archive covers progress stories and milestones from across the Middle East, spanning countries from Egypt and Jordan to the Gulf states and beyond. Readers will find reporting on health, education, environment, and civic life — moments where communities and institutions are moving in a positive direction.
Kuwaiti state media reported that the country’s parliament had voted 40 to nine in favor of lifting the Ministry of Information’s control over books imported into the country. Previously, the ministry had blacklisted more than 4,000 books since 2014.
The Saudi Human Rights Commission welcomed the decision, and said: “This decision ensures that those who were once sentenced with floggings, will now receive fines or prison sentences instead.”
The current cheapest solar farm is owned by the UAE’s other major city, Dubai, which set the cost record in 2015 at 5.98¢/kWh and then broke it again in 2016 at 2.99¢/kWh. Abu Dhabi’s project crushes those marks at 1.35¢/kWh.
Cannabis has long been illegally farmed in the fertile Bekaa Valley and government now hopes to turn it into a legal billion-dollar trade
The Iranian Health Minister said that uninsured and underprivileged patients should not pay for the healthcare services and the costs will be compensated by the national health insurance system.
Health care professionals may be able to dramatically speed up COVID-19 testing now that Israeli scientists have developed a technique for screening up to 60 patient samples at the same time.
On International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a women’s rights group active in the Kurdistan Region announced that zero cases of GM were reported in the Garmiyan Administration in 2019.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz vowed that Israel will move into a coal-free era of power production by the end of 2025, five years earlier than originally targeted.
A new treatment developed by Tel Aviv University could induce the destruction of pancreatic cancer cells, eradicating the number of cancerous cells by up to 90% after two weeks.
Saudi Arabia is ending the requirement that restaurants have two separate entrances: one for families and women and another for unaccompanied men.
