Thomas Watkins is Washington bureau chief at The National
April 29, 2024
Washington’s media found itself under the spotlight at the weekend, when hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators flipped the cameras on correspondents attending an annual industry gala.
Live-streaming protesters stood outside the White House Correspondents' Association dinner and yelled “Shame on you,” at a who’s who of big-name US journalists, celebrities and their guests as they arrived in tuxedos and gowns.
“Every time the media lies, a journalist in Gaza dies,” they chanted. “Shame on you for breaking bread … 120 journalists dead.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters have hounded President Joe Biden, who headlined Saturday’s dinner, since shortly after the October 7 Hamas-led attacks killed about 1,200 people and started the war in Gaza.
But it was the first time the western media had, en masse, been confronted with charges of helping to enable Israel’s actions in Gaza by playing down the horrors unfolding in the tiny Palestinian territory, where health officials say more than 34,500 people have been killed.
As I arrived at the event, a group of mask-wearing protesters accused me of being complicit, never mind the fact that I work for a Middle East outlet that has devoted itself to covering the war in Gaza from every possible angle within our means.
Several protesters wore fake flak jackets emblazoned with the word “Press”. Others waved red-ink-dyed hands and shouted that the western media is a front for Israel. And some demonstrators played dead and lay on the pavement, representing the journalists killed since October 7.
The CPJ says 97 journalists have been killed since October 7. Reuters
Before the dinner, arguably the main event on DC’s social calendar, a collection of Palestinian journalists had issued a public call for colleagues around the globe to boycott it.
“Western media has played an integral role in manufacturing consent for Israel’s ongoing violence against the Palestinian people, while obfuscating US complicity,” they wrote in a statement.
“For journalists to fraternise at an event with President Biden and Vice President Harris would be to normalise, sanitise and whitewash the administration’s role in genocide.”
The war in Gaza has been brutal for the enclave's entire population, and journalists are no exception.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 97 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7. The toll marks the deadliest period for journalists since the CPJ started collecting data in 1992.
Journalists in Gaza face almost impossible working conditions as they report from the sites of Israeli bombings and sieges, and many have been killed while in the field.
The Israeli military denies it targets journalists, but news organisations have repeatedly accused it of doing exactly that.
The protesters' blanket assertion that the western press is ignoring what is happening in Gaza is unfair. For instance, US outlets have run a string of effective stories describing how inexact Israel's bombing campaign has been.
But there are of course gaps, and Israel has made it easy to report from Jerusalem but almost impossible to visit Gaza.
The Israeli military has blocked foreign correspondents from getting into the strip, with the exception of a few tightly controlled embeds, and it has fallen entirely on local journalists to describe what is happening.
So how did President Biden and the filet-mignon munching 2,600 guests at the Washington Hilton address the protests happening outside?
They didn't.
A room filled with inquiring minds who had gathered to celebrate press freedom, the First Amendment and the courage of journalists reporting under difficult conditions largely ignored the situation in Gaza.
The only reference in official remarks came as Mr Biden was being introduced, when the WHCA president, Kelly O'Donnell, fleetingly mentioned that about 100 journalists had been killed in Gaza.
But there was nothing from Mr Biden, whose approach to the war in Gaza has infuriated Arab Americans and progressives to an extent that his administration still can't fathom and may well cost him the election in November.
Instead, he focused on skewering his rival Donald Trump with a series of gags, at one point likening the former president to a “six-year-old” and teasing him for falling asleep during his criminal trial in New York, where “Sleepy Don” is accused of falsifying business records in 2016 to pay off an adult film star.
Mr Biden and the WHCA rightly spoke at length about wrongly imprisoned US journalists in Russia and Syria, and Israeli reporter Barak Ravid, the one-man scoop factory for Axios, was given an award for journalistic excellence.
So it was against this backdrop that the near silence on the plight of Gaza journalists seemed all the more jarring.
Instead of tackling the elephant in the room, Mr Biden and the Washington establishment did themselves a disservice that will further fuel critics' claims that we are not fairly and impartially covering the war in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden speaks during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington on Saturday. UPI / Bloomberg
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
How to wear a kandura
Dos
Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
