Saudis fear true Islam

Middle East Eye: "Their real demands, which were conveyed to the Emir of Kuwait - who is acting as an intermediary - are the closure of Al Jazeera, de-funding of Al Arabi al Jadid,  Al Quds al Arabi, and the Arabic edition of Huffington Post, along with the expulsion of Palestinian public intellectual Azmi Bishara.

This is the media that reveals - in Arabic - the stories that these Arab dictators most want their citizens not to read. Not content with muzzling their own media, they want to shut down all media that reveals the inconvenient truth about their despotic, venal, corrupt regimes, wherever it is in the world."

Rich grabbing last of usable biosphere

A firm in the UAE has plans to tow icebergs from Antarctica to its own coast in 2018, to help solve water access issues. pic.twitter.com/7wgRjClxDq

— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) May 6, 2017

Walking past miles of gridlocked cars in Egypt

The National: "Not just priority, the lack of local public transport should be put at the level of a national emergency: the inability to move efficiently around cities is stifling economic growth, generating the destruction of vast tracts of agricultural land and historic buildings and causing severe hardship to the country’s citizens.
....There can be no good reason to need over an hour to drive a kilometre or two through the centre of the city. I have walked for miles while passing cars, buses and lorries stalled in traffic. It’s maddening that it can be quicker to walk across town than to go by car. The gridlock likewise hinders goods and spare parts from reaching markets, at great cost to the economy as a whole."

KRG running up huge debt while workers go unpaid

Rudaw : "I also highlighted the KRG’s growing debts and the huge gap that has accumulated between the KRG’s revenues and expenditure over the last 6 years. I warned that if the KRG carried on as before with its uncurbed spending and without real reforms, then even if we reached 1 million barrels of crude oil production per day and oil returned to $100 per barrel we would still not cover our financial requirements."

Dubai Car-Free Day participation on the rise. #8 coming up.

Santa Monica Observer: ""From two organizations during the first Car Free Day, the participation has grown to 1,070 last year. The environmental results achieved have also multiplied. Compared to 1,000 people in the first year, 30,000 people abandoned personal vehicles and turned to environmentally-friendly transport instead," said Khalid Sharif, Assistant Director General for Environment, Health and Safety Control."

Traffic is costing Malta €200 million a year --Transport Minister

timesofmalta.com: "Traffic is costing the Maltese economy €200 million in GDP a year and this will increase to €1.2 billion by 2050 unless current policies were changed, Transport Minister Joe Mizzi said today. "

A heatwave in the Arctic, a Trump in the White House

Al Jazeera: "This Christmas, the Arctic had a heatwave, scoring record high temperatures, even in the dark. A chunk of ice the size of the United Kingdom thawed in the warmth.

On the other side of the planet, a huge fracture in Antarctica's ice shelf widened suddenly in December. Long term, the whole ice shelf will probably break up.

An ominous threshold is being reached, just as the very "old economy" Donald Trump, sworn to uphold climate denial and fossil fuel supremacy, is about to take control of the United States presidency."

"tens of thousands" expected to observe Dubai Car-Free Day on February 5

GulfNews.com: "Tens of thousands of employees of the participating entities are expected to ditch their cars for a day to participate in Dubai Municipality's biggest environmental awareness campaign."