US President Joe Biden this week formally announced his intention to nominate Morgan Stanley vice chairman Thomas Nides as his ambassador to Israel, shortly after the Knesset formed a new government under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Prior to this week’s tranche of nominees, Mr Biden had stuck with nominating career diplomats to fill ambassadorships around the world as he seeks to rebuild the State Department after the Donald Trump administration depleted its ranks.
Conversely, Mr Nides is a major Democratic political donor and contributed about $3,000 to Mr Biden’s presidential election campaign. He also frequently contributes money to the Morgan Stanley Political Action Committee, which donates to Democratic and Republican candidates alike.
Although the nomination continues a bipartisan tradition of presidents nominating partisan political donors to plum ambassadorships, Mr Nides has some diplomatic experience from his time serving as the deputy secretary of state for management and resources under former president Barack Obama.
While Mr Nides sits on the boards of several foreign policy-focused non-profit organisations and reportedly enjoys close ties to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, many of his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are a somewhat unknown quantity.
But his previous State Department stint offers some insight into his approach to Israel and Palestine.
While there, Mr Nides supported the Obama administration’s extension of loan guarantees to Israel, putting Washington on the hook should Israel default on any of its foreign loans.
Under that agreement, the US deducted Israel’s expenditures on its West Bank settlements from the overall total in loan guarantees. This effectively lowered the $9 billion in loan guarantees offered by Washington to less than $4bn.
David Friedman, the ambassador to Israel under president Donald Trump, had close ties to several Israeli settler groups and helped draft a peace proposal that would have yielded most of the West Bank to settlements.
Conversely, Mr Nides has said little regarding Israel’s occupation of the West Bank or blockade on Gaza.
But he has been a robust proponent of providing US funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) – a priority for the Biden administration.
As deputy secretary of state, Mr Nides wrote a letter to the Senate’s foreign aid spending panel to oppose proposed legislation that would have narrowed the definition of Palestinian refugees covered by the UN programme.
“The status of Palestinian refugees is one of the most sensitive final status issues confronting Israel and the Palestinians; it strikes a deep, emotional chord among Palestinians and their supporters, including our regional allies,” Mr Nides wrote.
“The Department of State cannot support legislation which would force the United States to make a public judgment on the number and status of Palestinian refugees.”
The Trump administration eliminated Palestinian aid, including US contributions to UNRWA – a bugbear for Republicans who accuse it of close ties to Hamas.
Similarly, Mr Nides opposed successful congressional efforts to end US funding to the world heritage programme Unesco after the agency admitted Palestine as a member state in 2011.
Mr Nides's nomination has drawn praise from several other former ambassadors to Israel who served under Democratic administrations.
Daniel Shapiro, who served as former president Obama’s ambassador to Israel, called him “a great choice".
Dennis Ross, who served as former president Bill Clinton's Middle East envoy, said he would be “an authoritative ambassador who speaks for the president and at the same time provides input to shaping our policy".
And while Mr Nides has not indicated that he holds any particular leanings towards the emerging pro-Palestinian wing of the Democratic party, his nomination nonetheless comes as somewhat of a blow to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and its allies.
A group of three prominent Democrats in Congress – Ted Deutch, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Jerry Nadler – had pushed Mr Biden to nominate pro-Israel stalwart Robert Wexler, himself a former congressman favoured by Aipac.
In contrast to Mr Nides, Mr Wexler supported cutting US funding to Unesco after it admitted Palestine.
Mr Nides, who is Jewish, also has Capitol Hill experience. He served as a senior adviser to the former speaker of the house Thomas Foley.
Under the Clinton administration, he served as chief of staff for US trade representative Mickey Kantor and helped pass the North American Free Trade Agreement.
England's all-time record goalscorers:
Wayne Rooney 53
Bobby Charlton 49
Gary Lineker 48
Jimmy Greaves 44
Michael Owen 40
Tom Finney 30
Nat Lofthouse 30
Alan Shearer 30
Viv Woodward 29
Frank Lampard 29
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Final scores
18 under: Tyrrell Hatton (ENG)
- 14: Jason Scrivener (AUS)
-13: Rory McIlroy (NIR)
-12: Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP)
-11: David Lipsky (USA), Marc Warren (SCO)
-10: Tommy Fleetwood (ENG), Chris Paisley (ENG), Matt Wallace (ENG), Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR)
Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
How has net migration to UK changed?
The figure was broadly flat immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 216,000 in the year to June 2018 and 224,000 in the year to June 2019.
It then dropped to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 when restrictions introduced during the pandemic limited travel and movement.
The total rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, followed by steep jumps to 634,000 in the year to June 2022 and 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
The latest available figure of 728,000 for the 12 months to June 2024 suggests levels are starting to decrease.
Pox that threatens the Middle East's native species
Camelpox
Caused by a virus related to the one that causes human smallpox, camelpox typically causes fever, swelling of lymph nodes and skin lesions in camels aged over three, but the animal usually recovers after a month or so. Younger animals may develop a more acute form that causes internal lesions and diarrhoea, and is often fatal, especially when secondary infections result. It is found across the Middle East as well as in parts of Asia, Africa, Russia and India.
Falconpox
Falconpox can cause a variety of types of lesions, which can affect, for example, the eyelids, feet and the areas above and below the beak. It is a problem among captive falcons and is one of many types of avian pox or avipox diseases that together affect dozens of bird species across the world. Among the other forms are pigeonpox, turkeypox, starlingpox and canarypox. Avipox viruses are spread by mosquitoes and direct bird-to-bird contact.
Houbarapox
Houbarapox is, like falconpox, one of the many forms of avipox diseases. It exists in various forms, with a type that causes skin lesions being least likely to result in death. Other forms cause more severe lesions, including internal lesions, and are more likely to kill the bird, often because secondary infections develop. This summer the CVRL reported an outbreak of pox in houbaras after rains in spring led to an increase in mosquito numbers.
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Moonfall
Director: Rolan Emmerich
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry
Rating: 3/5
Top tips
Create and maintain a strong bond between yourself and your child, through sensitivity, responsiveness, touch, talk and play. “The bond you have with your kids is the blueprint for the relationships they will have later on in life,” says Dr Sarah Rasmi, a psychologist.
Set a good example. Practise what you preach, so if you want to raise kind children, they need to see you being kind and hear you explaining to them what kindness is. So, “narrate your behaviour”.
Praise the positive rather than focusing on the negative. Catch them when they’re being good and acknowledge it.
Show empathy towards your child’s needs as well as your own. Take care of yourself so that you can be calm, loving and respectful, rather than angry and frustrated.
Be open to communication, goal-setting and problem-solving, says Dr Thoraiya Kanafani. “It is important to recognise that there is a fine line between positive parenting and becoming parents who overanalyse their children and provide more emotional context than what is in the child’s emotional development to understand.”
UAE SQUAD
UAE team
1. Chris Jones-Griffiths 2. Gio Fourie 3. Craig Nutt 4. Daniel Perry 5. Isaac Porter 6. Matt Mills 7. Hamish Anderson 8. Jaen Botes 9. Barry Dwyer 10. Luke Stevenson (captain) 11. Sean Carey 12. Andrew Powell 13. Saki Naisau 14. Thinus Steyn 15. Matt Richards
Replacements
16. Lukas Waddington 17. Murray Reason 18. Ahmed Moosa 19. Stephen Ferguson 20. Sean Stevens 21. Ed Armitage 22. Kini Natuna 23. Majid Al Balooshi
The biog
Nickname: Mama Nadia to children, staff and parents
Education: Bachelors degree in English Literature with Social work from UAE University
As a child: Kept sweets on the window sill for workers, set aside money to pay for education of needy families
Holidays: Spends most of her days off at Senses often with her family who describe the centre as part of their life too
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final:
First leg: Liverpool 5 Roma 2
Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)
