Location: Middle East

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

While many aspects of Philistine culture are well-documented, the specifics of Philistine religious practices and deities have long remained shrouded in mystery. The study by Frumin et al. on "Plant-Related Philistine Ritual Practices at Biblical Gath," recently published in Scientific Reports by researchers at Bar-Ilan University, contributes valuable new data to our understanding of the Philistine's ritual practices. The discovery of numerous plants in two temples unearthed at the site unraveled unprecedented insights into Philistine cultic rituals and beliefs – their temple food ingredients, timing of ceremonies, and plants for temple decoration.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Virginia Tech has several experts available to speak on various topics surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict. Israeli politics and foreign policy Joel Peters is a professor of government and international affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech located in the Washington, D.C., metro area. His research interests and publications cover Israeli politics and foreign policy, the Arab-Israeli peace process, regional cooperation in the Middle East and Europe’s relations in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

• share
• favorite_border

Mental Health, Anxiety experts on coping with reports from the Middle East

• share
• favorite_border

The oil-rich nations of the Middle East have resolutely spurned democracy, even as countries in other parts of the world have transitioned away from authoritarianism in the past several decades. What explains the stubborn hold of these authoritarian regimes? Is it related to the wealth of the region? Nimah Mazaheri, an associate professor and chair of Tufts University Political Science Department, explores these questions in his new book, Hydrocarbon Citizens: How Oil Transformed People and Politics in the Middle East. He’s especially interested in the resilience of authoritarian regimes throughout the Middle East in the wake of the pro-democracy movements of the Arab Spring in the early 2010s.

• share
• favorite_border

Experts on the Israel-Gaza conflict from Bar-Ilan University are available to speak to the media on matters such as the role of government during crisis, Hamas and terrorist organizations, military strategy, and Communications in times of crisis.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Gems' unique elemental composition and atomic orientation act as a fingerprint, enabling researchers to uncover the stones’ past, and with it, historical trade routes. In AIP Advances, Khedr et al. employ three modern spectroscopic techniques to rapidly analyze gems found in the Arabian-Nubian Shield and compare them with similar gems from around the world. The authors identified elements that influence gems’ color, differentiated stones found within and outside the region, and distinguished natural from synthetic.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Labor strikes and protests by Israeli military officers have decried moves by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu to overhaul the judiciary system, potentially reducing the power of the country’s Supreme Court. After firing a defense minister who opposed the overhaul last week, Netanyahu agreed to delay the judicial review for now.

• share
• favorite_border

Cleveland Clinic has opened a new state-of-the-art cancer facility, named the Fatima bint Mubarak Center, at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, located in the United Arab Emirates capital.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Residents of Southern Turkey were again jolted by a new earthquake Monday, this trembler reported by the U.S. Geology Survey (USGS) as 6.3 in magnitude. News reports state that scores of buildings that were damaged in powerful quakes on February 6 have been further damaged or outright collapsed. Virginia Tech’s Robert Weiss, who studies natural hazards, calls the devastating trio of earthquake “unusual,” but not “impossible.

• share
• favorite_border