Author: Gulf News Week

As I anxiously waited to find out whether a friend in Gaza had survived another day of genocide, I was threatened with disciplinary action for having Palestinian symbols in my Teams background.It was a normal Teams meeting at the end of a busy week. Colleagues were discussing the hospital weekend plans. I was there too, nodding, half-present. My mind was elsewhere – on a message I’d sent earlier that morning to a friend in Gaza. I glanced at my phone. One tick. WhatsApp users know the signs: one tick means the message was sent. Two ticks mean it was received.…

The officials from the UN nuclear watchdog had remained in the capital throughout the recent 12 days of fighting.A team of inspectors from the UN’s nuclear watchdog have left Iran, following Tehran’s decision to suspend cooperation with the organisation after its 12-day conflict with Israel and the United States. In a statement posted on X on Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its employees would return to its headquarters in Vienna, Austria. IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi stressed “the crucial importance” of holding talks with Iran to resume its monitoring and verification work as soon as possible, the post…

LONDON (news agencies) — It might just be the best deal in all of major professional sports: Tennis fans can get a chance to watch stars such as Carlos Alcaraz compete on Centre Court at Wimbledon by forking over just 15 pounds — about $20 at the current exchange rate.That’s instead of Friday’s price of nearly $220 for the best seats at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament’s biggest stadium. Face value there rises as the event goes on, hitting nearly $370 by the end of Week 2, then going up again for the singles finals.The secret to saving so much…

An OHCHR spokesperson says the figure is as of June 27, adding that more incidents have taken place since then.The United Nations human rights office has said it recorded at least 613 killings of Palestinians, both at controversial aid points run by the Israeli and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and near humanitarian convoys. “This is a figure as of June 27. Since then … there have been further incidents,” Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva on Friday. The OHCHR said 509 of the 613…

KYIV, Ukraine (news agencies) — Waves of drone and missile attacks targeted Kyiv overnight into Friday in the largest aerial assault since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began more than three years ago, officials said, amid a renewed Russian push to capture more of its neighbor’s land.The barrage injured at least 23 people and inflicted severe damage across multiple districts of the capital in a seven-hour onslaught. Blasts lit up the night sky and echoed across the city as air raid sirens wailed. The blue lights of emergency vehicles reflected off high-rise buildings, and debris blocked city streets.“It was a harsh,…

Two young members of a Palestinian family were left with life-altering injuries after Israeli police opened fire during a celebration.Occupied East Jerusalem – A pizza box and a bullet hole. That was the only evidence left on al-Hardoub Street of the gruesome June 16 sniper attack on Uday Abu Juma’, 21, and Iyas Abu Mufreh, 12, in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of at-Tur, after authorities swept the scene the following day. Just before midnight, cousins Uday and Iyas had gathered with family members outside their grandfather’s home in at-Tur. The Abu Juma’ extended family had come together to celebrate their…

PARIS (news agencies) — About 40% of flights were canceled Friday at all Paris airports and tens of thousands of passengers were rearranging plans at the height of the summer travel season because of a strike by French air traffic controllers seeking better working conditions.Disruptions started hitting airports around France on Thursday and intensified Friday. The national civil aviation authority asked airlines to cancel 40% of flights Friday at Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais airports serving Paris, half of flights in Nice and 30% of flights in Marseille, Lyon and some other cities.Despite the preventive cancelations, the authority warned…

GONDOMAR, Portugal (news agencies) — Family and friends of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother are gathering Friday at a church where their bodies have been brought for a wake and funeral, after the Portuguese soccer players were killed in a car crash in Spain.Some hugged and wept before entering the Capela da Ressurreição São Cosme, where the funeral for the siblings is planned for Saturday.Jota, 28, and his 25-year-old brother, André Silva, were found dead near Zamora in northwestern Spain after the Lamborghini they were driving crashed on an isolated stretch of highway just after midnight on Thursday…

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (news agencies) — President Donald Trump campaigned on keeping the United States out of foreign wars, but it didn’t take long to convince him to come to the direct aid of Israel, hitting Iranian nuclear targets with bunker-buster bombs dropped by B-2 stealth bombers and Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a submarine.Beyond the attack’s immediate impact on helping bring the 12-day war to a close, experts say Trump’s decision to use force against another country also will certainly be reverberating in the Asia-Pacific, Washington’s priority theater. “Trump’s strikes on Iran show that he’s not afraid to…

The Fourth of July holiday, also known as Independence Day, celebrates the Second Continental Congress’ unanimous adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.A year later, according to the Library of Congress, a spontaneous celebration in Philadelphia marked the anniversary of American independence.But observations weren’t commonplace until after the War of 1812, when they quickly took off. Congress was late to the party, finally passing a law making Independence Day a federal holiday on June 28, 1870.Here’s what is open and closed this year on the Fourth of July:Government offices, post offices, courts and schools are closed.U.S. stock…