Politics
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News & Reports
Gaza’s University Students Drop Out at an Accelerating Rate Due to the Pandemic
The intensifying Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and the lockdowns due to Covid-19 are driving impoverished, discouraged students to…
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Opinion
A Survey Reveals How the Pandemic Has Hurt MENA Research
A survey of scholars done in the late spring and early summer that included researchers who study the MENA region…
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News & Reports
Despite Controversy, Emirati-Israeli Research Cooperation Has Kicked Off
The decision to normalize relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel angered many in the Arab region. Still, some…
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News & Reports
Arabic Comics Reach a Wider Audience Through Digital Projects
Comics and graphic novels by Arabs gain greater exposure as digital publishers promote the work of talented young artists and…
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News & Reports
Land of No Rain: How Jordan Is Facing a Parched Future
With limited rainfall and aquifers already over pumped, the kingdom is running out of water. Researchers are tackling some aspects…
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News & Reports
Iraqi Researcher’s Assassination Stirs Fears of Renewed Violence Against Academics
Husham Al-Hashimi, an expert on ISIS and a critic of foreign-backed militias in Iraq, was gunned down by unknown assassins…
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Opinion
African-Iraqis Also Need the Black Lives Matter Movement
As the global movement against racism grows, it’s time for the Arab world to look at similar racial discrimination in…
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News & Reports
![Editor’s Note: This article was published by Science|Business, a publication that informs and brings together Europe’s top stakeholders in industry, research and policy. Read the full article on the site of Al-Fanar Media partner Science|Business here. The severe economic shock of the pandemic is the latest and possibly sharpest test yet of the Sesame synchrotron’s admirable survival skills. The region’s only high-energy physics lab is back in operation after a partial easing of the lockdown in Jordan, where it is based. Sesame—Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East—is the first major international research centre in the region, run by physicists from an unlikely group of countries, some of which are in mutual conflict. Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestine and Turkey are the founder members. After years of doubts about the project’s feasibility, Sesame began operating in 2017. “There’s been many times when a rational person would have given up,” said Chris Llewellyn Smith, a British physicist and former president of the Sesame council, the governing body of the facility. (See a related article “In a Fractious Region, a New Physics Facility Fosters Collaboration.”) The darker economic environment caused by the pandemic is just the latest challenge, he said, following years of walking a political and technical tightrope. “It’s always been very difficult—many of these [member] countries, you can’t find their science budgets with a microscope. The funds involved in Sesame are huge for some of them.” Read more.](https://i0.wp.com/al-fanarmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/sesame-covid-1.jpg?resize=390%2C220&ssl=1)
The Middle East’s Only High-Energy Physics Lab Faces a New Test: Surviving Covid-19
Sesame, the region’s only synchrotron, is well versed in upheaval. But the pandemic promises more pressure on the project’s shoestring…
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News & Reports
Covid-19 and Money Trouble Create Hurdles for a Mediterranean Research Project
Despite delays, a $580 million research partnership between European, North African and Middle Eastern countries hopes for additional funding from…
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Opinion
Why Tunisia’s Once Superior Education System Needs to Reform Again
A long tradition of progressive reform prepared the country for independence in 1957. But now its universities are seen as…
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