“I am scared. I am scared a lot.”
Ester Wamgui sits on a dirt-stained mattress lying on the street outside the Kenyan Consulate of Beirut. She cradles her son Jame in her arms while she seeks shelter from the August sun in the shade of a nearby building. Her daughter Judy sits next to her drawing on a scrap of paper with a yellow highlighter.

As the pandemic of COVID-19 still continues to affect communities around the globe, there is still work to be done in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

For many patriotic Lebanese, national holidays are usually a big deal. It allows us to reconnect with our country on a day of joy and celebration amidst all the accumulated problems that it is currently facing, and learn about our rich - albeit sometimes turbulent - history. But as we commemorate Lebanon’s Independence Day this year, probably for the first time ever, the last thing I feel like doing is celebrating.

Both sexual minorities and sexual health are taboos in Middle Eastern societies. For religious, social, and cultural reasons, sexual minorities feel pressured to hide their sexual orientation from their families and friends. Moreover, they are often expected to have a heterosexual marriage and to produce children. This can put them at higher risk of suffering poor mental health outcomes such as depression and anxiety, write Ismaël Maatouk, Moubadda Assi and Rusi Jaspal.

Israel’s peace deals on August 12 with the UAE and on September 11 with Bahrain came with remarkably few concessions to the Palestinians. The published parts of the deals do not mention the Palestinians, other than briefly referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Lebanon and Israel have officially begun indirect talks to demarcate the maritime border between the two nations, still officially at war, marking a historic event which some believe may be the first step towards a complete ceasefire or even peace.

In the small historical city of Jaffa, 2007 was a year of celebration for its residents, who had organized to have their children, Jewish and Arab, educated side by side.

Lining Jerusalem’s Balfour Street every Saturday night are furious Israelis who chant slogans against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The protests, which began in July 2020, have continued throughout the summer are a culmination of a political crossroads caused by Netanyahu’s three criminal cases and the mismanagement of the Coronavirus crisis.