Ramadan is in full swing and competition is already heating up between Arab actors and producers over whose TV drama is set to steal the region’s silver screens during the holy month. Though certainly not as old a Ramadan tradition as sunset’s iftar meal , the month-long dramas we’ve gathered here have in recent years become almost as central to the month of fasting as, well, fasting. This year’s batch of Holy Month soaps range from historical dramas to romances to cross-cultural collaborations, as well as the escapist, cheap laugh-mill ...

A policeman stands guard as Switzerland's national football team leaves Montpellier's airport by bus, on June 6, 2016, four days ahead of the start of the Euro 2016 European football championships. PASCAL GUYOT / AFP

Tanks, fighter jets, bouncy castles, and festival food: this is the celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the Great Arab Revolt, Jordan style. Thousands flocked to Amman's King Hussein Park for a day of festivities and patriotism. This particular anniversary is very much alive in Jordan: 100 years ago the Hashemites - now the royal family of Jordan, then the rulers of Hijaz in present-day Saudi Arabia - began a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire . Assisted by the British and French, the rebellion eventually spread all the way up ...

With Ramadan 2016 upon us, we cast our Middle East imaginations on London’s cityscape, and - inspired by new Muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan - draped the UK capital in a fictional Muslim veil. Mind the Facts: with his newly announced all-night Underground train service (perfectly suited for late night suhurs!) and iconic double decker buses sporting Holy Month messages , the question is: Just how Muslim could London get? You Khan-not be serious! (We're not!) but let’s forget Brexit for a moment, and instead mess around with a make-believe Muslim ...

Last week, the Israeli government led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party reached a deal to add fellow right-wing party Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is our home) to its coalition. Yisrael Beiteinu’s leader - the boisterous and controversial Avigdor Lieberman - was named as new defense minister , moving a government which previous defense minister Moshe Yaalon called “extremist and dangerous” further to the right. His first day in office was May 31. So who is this onetime nightclub bouncer and immigrant from the former Soviet Union ...

How can switching the language change your online experience? In other words, whose Google is it anyway? A cursory image search with selected key words throws into relief some differences between the Arabic and English speaking online worlds. For example, what are the "most relevant images" (Google's words - not ours!) for innocent terms like "Dance" and "Magic" to the more controversal "Terrorism" or " Gay". Consider how culture seeps into search engines. We may 'share' Facebook, but do we use different Google Glasses? As it turns out, Arabic speakers ...

If you're reading this, you're probably already interested in the Jordan business-scape . The region's 'safe' Kingdom has long since been billed as the Silicone Valley of the Middle East. Young, dynamic and almost-as-trendy-as-Beirut, Jordan's startup culture has proliferated over the past few years with a stream of problem-solving apps and time-saving services likely already part of your daily routine. Startup accelerators and innovation hubs like Oasis 500 are the main engines for growth, serving as incubators for success. One of them, Berlin-based nonprofit enpact, has recently selected 10 emerging ...

Emirati Al-Ain club's players pose for a picture during their Asian Champions League football match against Iranian Zobahan club at Foolad Shahr Stadium in Isfahan on May 25, 2016. MEHDI ZARE / AFP

Mike and Hirani are not your average twenty somethings. Both born in Iraq to Kurdish parents, they came back to the land of their origins to fight against Daesh (ISIS) with the peshmerga (military of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region) in 2015. Better known as @peshmerganor (peshmerga Norway) and @peshmergaswe (peshmerga Sweden) on Instagram, Mike and Hirani were living in their respective Scandinavian nations-where they came with their families as children-when Daesh swept through Iraq in 2014, including much of the country’s Kurdish region. Now, they serve in the Dohuk anti-terror ...