Rich countries are making little progress towards meeting their pledge to provide annual climate change mitigation funds, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said on Friday. “The limited progress in overall climate finance volumes between 2018 and 2019 is disappointing, particularly ahead of COP26 (the UN climate summit in November),” OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said. According to the OECD, Germany and Canada are moving forward a plan to mobilize the additional finance required to reach the $100 billion annual goal. The international community committed to providing the annual funds during a 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen. The topic is expected to be high on the agenda at Novermber’s climate summit in Glasgow.

US President Joe Biden on Friday issued an executive order that allows for sanctions on parties “complicit in prolonging” the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. The fighting has left thousands of people dead and millions more in need of humanitarian aid. “The sanctions are not directed at the people of Ethiopia or Eritrea, but rather the individuals and entities perpetrating the violence and causing a humanitarian disaster,” the statement continued. The order establishes a new “sanctions regime targeting those responsible for prolonging the conflict, obstructing humanitarian access or preventing a ceasefire,” it added. Although no deadline for Ethiopian leaders has yet been set, senior Biden administration officials told news agencies they expected progress on negotiations in the coming weeks.

CAIRO - 17 September 2021: Russia and Egypt have reached a preliminary understanding concerning compensation for the families of the victims who were killed in the terrorist attack that targeted a passenger plane flying over Sinai in 2015. “The Russian Embassy in Cairo managed to reach a fundamental understanding with the Egyptian partners on this issue. In late October 2015, a bomb downed a Russian flight carrying holidaymakers from the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board, mostly Russian tourists. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State terrorist group. More Russian airlines opened regular flights between Russia and Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada, Russian news agency TASS reported, citing the Federal Air Transport Agency as saying in August, 2021.

General view of a banner in the stands before the match, ReutersSept 17 (Reuters) - Manchester United's full-year loss widened as pandemic-induced lockdowns hammered matchday sales and commercial revenue, the soccer club said, while not setting financial targets for the year due to continuing uncertainty. The English soccer club’s last two financial years were marred by lockdowns that disrupted sporting calendars and kept fans away from stadiums for extended periods, taking a heavy toll on matchday sales. Total revenue for the year ended June 30 was down 2.9% to 494.1 million pounds ($681.41 million), while annual matchday sales plummeted 92.1%. The English soccer club said its net loss for the year ended June 30 was 92.2 million pounds, compared with a loss of 23.2 million pounds in the year-ago period as the onset of COVID-19 in 2020 disrupted all walks of life globally. The loss was inflated by a one-off taxation issue with the company's income tax expense for the period surging to 68.2 million pounds from 2.4 million pounds a year earlier.

The Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA) predicted that hot, humid weather will prevail throughout the country from Friday until Sunday. According to meteorologists, temperatures in Cairo and the Delta will hover in the low 30s during the day with humidity ranging between 40 and 50 percent. The weather will be warmer in Upper Egypt and South Sinai and cooler along the North coast. Mist is predicted in the morning on roads leading to and from Cairo, the Delta, and the North Coast. After Sunday, temperatures will increase again.

Investigators confirmed that a woman who fell to her death from the sixth floor of City Stars Mall on Thursday committed suicide. Investigators confirmed no criminal suspicion behind the incident and rather said the woman was arguing with her father, as he confirmed during the investigation. She was last seen by her friend Naira at a cafe in the mall at 5 pm. Naira confirmed to investigators that Mayar was very depressed and felt that her family was persecuting her. “Mayar told me that she wanted to commit suicide, but I did not imagine that she would actually commit suicide,” Naira said.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s highest court on Friday denied an application by former president Jacob Zuma to rescind his sentence of 15 months in jail for contempt of court. Friday’s judgment was read out by Justice Sisi Khampepe at the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg. She said it was a majority decision of 7-2 judges to uphold Zuma’s sentence. The 79-year-old Zuma argued his sentence was improper because, among other things, he had been jailed without trial. ___IMAGE: In this Sunday, July 4, 2021 file photo, former President Jacob Zuma addresses the press at his home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa.

In Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi won that country’s first post-Arab Spring elections in 2012. After all, this isn’t the first time the demise of Muslim Brotherhood affiliates has been mooted, they told DW. And they are tremendously resilient.”At first, Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Bana was largely apoliticalThe Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni Muslim group first founded in 1928 by Egyptian teacher Hassan al-Banna. It has inspired groups and political parties throughout the Middle East, including in Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Palestine and Algeria, among others. She has studied the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and its exiles in depth.

The Tunisian Foreign Ministry expressed its astonishment at the statement of the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry that questioned Tunisia’s commitment to defending African issues in international forums, especially during its membership in the UN Security Council. “On September 15, 2021, the Security Council adopted a presidential statement regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. In the statement, the ministry said that Tunisia was keen to communicate with all concerned parties and with members of the Security Council in order to reach a balanced agreement that takes into account the concerns and interests of all parties, while guaranteeing their right to development. The presidential Security Council statement aimed to strengthen the international community’s support for the AU in sponsoring these negotiations and reaching a consensual solution. The statement was adopted unanimously by all members on the council, the foreign ministry added.

Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi will face a new trial for corruption by the country’s military junta, her lawyer said Friday. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since her government was overthrown in a military coup in February, leading to mass protests and a brutal crackdown on dissent. Her trial on four new charges of corruption will begin on October 1 with each count carrying a maximum sentence of 15 years. The junta also charged her with a litany of other offenses, including violating a colonial-era secrecy law and accepting illegal payments of gold. Suu Kyi’s poor healthThe 76-year-old skipped the first day of her ongoing trial for health reasons.

DUBAI, Sept 17 (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates could invest at least a further one billion pounds ($1.4 billion) in the United Kingdom this year after pledging 10 billion pounds this week to its investment partnership with the British government. “The expectations are high that it will reach a two billion (pound) watermark this year,” Penney said of the UAE investment in an online interview. The oil-rich Gulf state on Thursday pledged to invest 10 billion pounds in British clean energy, infrastructure, technology and life sciences, expanding its “sovereign investment partnership” with the UK government announced in March. Over 1.1 billion pounds has been invested since then. The UAE this month said it would pursue comprehensive economic agreements with eight countries including Britain.

WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) – The US State Department has approved a potential agreement covering up to $500 million in military support services for Saudi Arabia, and has sent the agreement to Congress for review, the Pentagon said on Thursday. It was the first major defense agreement for Saudi Arabia sent to Congress since President Joe Biden took office on January 20. It comes after criticism of US ties to the kingdom over its human rights record and involvement in the civil war in Yemen. The package would provide continued maintenance support services for a wide range of helicopters, including a future fleet of CH-47D Chinook helicopters. Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Mike Stone; Editing by Karishma SinghIMAGE: Helicopters fly in formation during a military parade in preparation for the annual Haj pilgrimage in Mecca September 17, 2015.

Sept 16 (Reuters) – Iran’s new government has approved use of US firm Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, a senior official said on Thursday, as the Islamic Republic fights a fifth wave of infections. President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration is under public pressure to broaden its sources of vaccines as infections mount in its deadliest wave yet. “The Johnson & Johnson single-dose corona vaccine has been approved,” the head of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, was quoted as saying by Iranian media. In January, Khamenei banned the government from importing COVID-19 vaccines from United States and Britain, saying both countries were “untrustworthy”. __IMAGE: Iranians wait to receive a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as cases spike, in a vaccination center in Tehran, Iran August 9, 2021.

Alphabet’s Google and Apple have removed jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s tactical voting app from their stores, his team said on Friday. The “Smart Voting” app was removed as Russia goes to the polls to elect a new parliament. The ruling United Russia party, which supports the policies of President Vladimir Putin, is expected to win the three-day vote amid a historic crackdown on the opposition. The app was developed by allies of Navalny to organize a tactical voting campaign in a bid to challenge United Russia. Russia pressured Apple, GoogleRussia demanded this month that Apple and Google remove the app from their stores, saying a refusal to do so would be treated as meddling in its parliamentary election.

CAIRO - 17 September 2021: Egypt recorded on Thursday 569 coronavirus infections, and 13 deaths as well as 477 recoveries at isolation hospitals. As such, the total figures became 295,051 infections, 16,921 deaths, and 248,425 recoveries. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli launched this week a campaign to encourage citizens to register on the Health Ministry's website to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The campaign is in line with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's directives to expand vaccine access, the health minister said. The health ministry allocated three open-topped and equipped buses that will tour each governorate, Zayed said, adding that each bus will include 30-strong healthcare staff.