Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

	Weekend Reads

Looking for some weekend reads? Check out these five great stories from this week you might have missed. It’s not just “Boeing’s bank”: A handful of Gulf countries are among the biggest beneficiaries of the endangered US export subsidy program, our interactive analysis reveals. Companies from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates together pulled in about $12 billion in trade financing from the Ex-Im bank over the past five years to help pay for nuclear reactors, industrial power generators and new jet fleets. Nothing can stop Gazans from enjoying their ice cream, not even new Hamas taxes or the Israeli blockade on everything from sugar to powdered milk. The embattled strip is home to several parlors that consistently draw crowds enticed by the Arabic and western ice cream offerings. Al-Sisi’s plan for cleaning up Cairo starts with clearing out the street vendors. Now a showdown looms between Egypt’s law-and-order government and the millions of informal economy workers desperate for a legal status and a suitable place to work. Iranian parliamentarian Mehdi Koochakzadeh has emerged as one of the country’s most visible hardliners.Whether it’s calling Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif a “traitor” or picking fights with visiting westerners, the Ahmadinejad supporter is fast becoming a social media troll. Even as Israel battles the BDS movement, the country’s own ultra-Orthodox Jews are driving companies that refused to close on the Shabbat out of business. Boycotts have already forced the sale of the Shefa Shuk supermarket chain, and are now taking aim at the Big Fashion Shopping Center in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod.