Peter Malcontent, Utrecht University Israeli voters are about to head to the polls for the fourth time in two years. And, once again, the issue of Palestine has been almost completely absent from debate during the campaign. Once upon a time this would have been unimaginable. In 1992, Yizhak Rabin’s Labor Party won because of his willingness to strike a …
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Oil: why higher prices will complicate the energy transition
Oil and trouble. Pix One Jorge Guira, University of Reading The oil price is on a rollercoaster. Having crashed into negative territory just last April, the price of Brent crude climbed all the way to US$70 (£50) earlier in March. It has since slid below US$64. So where is it heading and what are the implications? There are several reasons …
Read More »Jamal Khashoggi: why the US is unlikely to deliver justice for the murdered journalist
Armida L. M. van Rij, King’s College London When Saudi Arabian dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had not expected the outcry that would follow. For perhaps the first time in recent history, Saudi critics and Saudi supporters were united in their condemnation …
Read More »Why the Gulf monarchies have survived
Saudi King Salman accompanies Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, left, during the 40th Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in December 2019. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) Edmund Adam, University of Toronto When the Arab Spring protests erupted in 2010, many political pundits predicted the uprisings would ripple through the entire region and ultimately reach the oil-rich …
Read More »Gulf blockade: Qatar hugs and makes up with its warring neighbours – but will it last?
Mustafa Menshawy, Lancaster University Shortly after four Arab countries – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt – imposed an embargo on Qatar in 2017, I flew into the country’s capital Doha. Hamad airport – usually buzzing with visitors from the Gulf countries (one of every four visitors to Qatar in 2015 came from Saudi Arabia) – was …
Read More »Healthy soil for healthy plants for healthy humans
The human gut microbiome is a complex system of gazillions of bacteria, fungi, viruses, protists and archaea that has an enormous effect on our metabolism, health and well‐being. The same holds true for the plant rhizosphere, where the roots are immersed in a soil microbiome that provides plants with important nutrients, protects them from disease and pathogens, and helps them …
Read More »KAUST Research: Potential to conserve reef shark populations
Decades of overexploitation have devastated shark populations, leaving considerable doubt as to their ecological status. Yet much of what is known about sharks has been inferred from catch records in industrial fisheries, whereas far less information is available about sharks that live in coastal habitats3. Here we address this knowledge gap using data from more than 15,000 standardized baited remote …
Read More »استبصار المستقبل: دور العلوم في تخطي التحولات الحرجة
مجموعة العلوم يركزون في توصياتهم على أهمية استبصار المستقبل وتبني الرؤى بعيدة المدى في الصحة والاقتصاد الدائري والثورة الرقمية لتخطي التحولات الحرجة
Read More »Why US diplomatic muscle could achieve more in Somalia than drone strikes
A military drone replica is displayed in front of the White House during a protest against drone strikes on January 12, 2019 in Washington, DC. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images Paul D. Williams, George Washington University The United States has used airstrikes against al-Shabaab forces in Somalia since January 2007, including armed drone strikes from June 2011. From early 2017, …
Read More »It’s time for states that grew rich from oil, gas and coal to figure out what’s next
A surface coal mine in Gillette, Wyoming, photographed in 2008. Greg Goebel/Flickr, CC BY-SA Bradley Handler, Colorado School of Mines; Matt Henry, University of Wyoming, and Morgan Bazilian, Colorado School of Mines These are very challenging times for U.S. fossil fuel-producing states, such as Wyoming, Alaska and North Dakota. The COVID-19 economic downturn has reduced energy demand, with uncertain prospects …
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