MUST-READS

• King Abdullah Economic City
  Saudi Arabia’s new desert megacity

  At 70 square miles KAEC will eventually be a metropolis slightly larger than Washington DC and at a cost of $100bn (£67m), mostly from private funding... So far only 15% of the city has been developed - industrial estates, residential districts and public facilities are currently under construction.  

• Labor Regulation and Enforcement
  Pre-dawn raids in Jeddah, Riyadh see many arrests

  According to officials, most crimes in the Kingdom are committed by people who have overstayed their visas. As a result, the government has intensified its campaign against the overstayers.

• Muslims
  Opinion: When we celebrate Muslims for opposing terrorism, we do them no favors

  The reality, of course, is that most Muslims are neither heroes nor extremists. Like most human beings, the majority of Muslims are quite boring. We binge watch Netflix, complain about politics, angst about the weather and struggle with relationship and work woes. Religion, just like color, gender and sexuality, is integral, but not the sum of our identity.

• ISIS and Social Media
  Three Steps To Destroy ISIS on Twitter

  But the seminal analysis of public Twitter data about ISIS released last week shows that the company has achieved considerable success in increasing the organizational costs to ISIS of operating on Twitter. It also revealed a few simple steps that Twitter can take right now to make online life much harder for ISIS.

• GCC Policy
  Opinion: Why the GCC really needs a VAT tax

  GCC countries have the least demanding tax systems. According to a PwC report ‘Paying Taxes 2015: The global picture’, Qatar has the lowest tax rate regime, with a net tax rate of 11.3 per cent, contributing towards labour protection in the form of social insurance and training. It is followed by Kuwait, with a labour tax rate of 12.8 per cent and Bahrain (13.5 per cent). Saudi Arabia and Oman are the only countries in the GCC to collect profit tax of 2.1 per cent and 11.3 per cent, respectively. The UAE collects labour tax at a rate of 14.1 per cent and other taxes at 0.7 per cent.

• Somalia
  US Confirms Drone Strike Killed Al-Shabaab Leader Tied to Mall Attack

  American forces used a drone to target and kill a member of the al-Shabaab terrorist network who was tied to the terrorist attack at a luxury shopping mall in Kenya two years ago, the Pentagon confirmed Wednesday.

• U.S. - Israel
  Where do strained U.S.-Israeli relations go after Netanyahu’s victory?

  “On the way to his election victory, Netanyahu broke a lot of crockery in the relationship,” said Martin Indyk, executive vice president of the Brookings Institution and a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. “It can’t be repaired unless both sides have an interest and desire to do so.”

  • Foreign Policy - From Tel Aviv to Turtle Bay
  • Time - What Netanyahu’s Victory in Israel Means for the World
  • Daily Beast - Bibi’s Ugly Win Will Harm Israel
  • American Interest - Bibi Is Back: The Consequences for U.S.-Israeli Relations
  • WSJ (paywall) - U.S. to ‘Re-Evaluate’ Mideast Peace Strategy
  • Brookings Institution - How Bibi pulled it off
• Chemical Weapons
  The Specter of Chemical Warfare Returns to the Middle East

  If verified, the latest use of chemical bombs would expose a major gap in the weapons deal: Chlorine gas has various industrial and sanitary uses (e.g., pool cleaning) and isn’t really considered a chemical weapon until it’s used as one. Syria never included it on its list of declared chemical weapons, and Monday’s alleged attack would confirm Kerry’s fears that “our work is not finished.”

  • Military Times - Islamic State weapon: chlorine gas
• Tunisia
  Tunisia: Death toll in museum attack rises to 23

  One of the gunmen who killed tourists and others at a prominent Tunisian museum was known to the intelligence services but no formal links to a particular extremist group have been established, the prime minister said Thursday. The attack Wednesday on Tunisia's National Bardo Museum left 23 dead, scores wounded and threatens both Tunisia's fledgling democracy and its struggling tourism industry. It was the worst attack at a tourist site in Tunisia in years.

  • Washington Post - Tunisia promises ‘merciless war’ against terrorism
• Iran Negotiations
  Iran, P5+1 tackle final hurdles to accord

  With substantial progress made on some of the toughest elements of a final nuclear deal in recent weeks, Iran and the six world powers (UN Security Council plus Germany, or P5+1) find themselves struggling to resolve differences over two seemingly more peripheral issues at meetings here this week. They involve the scope of research and development on centrifuges that Iran can conduct during the period of a final nuclear accord, and Iran’s desire for the lifting of UN Security Council sanctions on its nuclear program that it sees as treating Iran as a pariah state.

  • European Council on Foreign Relations - Europe stepping up its game on Iran
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