AMMAN: Jordan has condemned Israel’s announcement it will build 1,000 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, calling it the latest affront to Palestinians amid a spiral of violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the plan a day after two Palestinian gunmen killed four people near the illegal settlement of Eli, in what Hamas said was a reprisal for raids by Israeli forces and settler attacks on Palestinians.

BEIRUT: Soaring numbers of children, some as young as six, are being sent to find work in Lebanon as families struggle to afford even the basics during a spiraling economic crisis, a UN report says.
Ninety percent of households do not have enough money to buy essentials even after cutting back on other spending during what is now four years of economic meltdown, said the yearly survey by the UN’s agency for children UNICEF.

LONDON: Britain’s government said Wednesday it was investigating allegations that UK universities have collaborated with Iran on drones and other sensitive technology despite a legal ban.
With Russia accused of unleashing Iranian-made attack drones in Ukraine, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was grilled in parliament about the report by the Jewish Chronicle newspaper earlier this month.

RAMALLAH: Dozens of residents in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights were injured in clashes with Israeli security forces attempting to suppress protests by the owners of land targeted for confiscation in a wind turbine project.

Clashes erupted after landowners protested against the plans, and representatives of the Israeli company responsible for the development stormed the land, backed by police, preventing locals from entering it.

DUBAI: Researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi have developed a sticking plaster that can detect COVID-19 infections in “real time.”

Blood is drawn from a pinprick to a finger, the plaster is applied, and then embedded gold “nanoparticles” indicate the presence of antibodies. 

The researchers said that results were almost immediate, the method is affordable, and the test could potentially be modified to detect as-yet unknown pathogens in future pandemics.