Press Review, 8 February 2018
Last update: 2022-04-22 09:53:47
Egypt’s political parties choose to forgo challenging Sisi. As would-be challengers to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi slip off the campaign trail — or are pushed — people are wondering what the future holds for the country's political parties (al-Monitor).
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince already controlled the nation’s media. Now he’s squeezing it even further. When many of Saudi Arabia’s media tycoons ended up in Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton along with more than 300 royals, senior officials and wealthy businessmen accused of corruption, many people assumed that the kingdom’s strongman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aims to control the media, too. This is far from true, simply because he already does (the Washington Post).
Al Qaeda trying to regroup in Tunisia after Islamic State setbacks: sources. The killing of a senior Algerian militant by special forces soon after he slipped into Tunisia has raised concern that al Qaeda is trying to regroup in the North African state as rival Islamic State has suffered major setbacks, security sources say (Reuters).
More than 100 fighters aligned with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were killed after U.S.-led coalition and coalition-backed local forces thwarted a large, apparently coordinated attack late on Wednesday and early on Thursday, a U.S. official said (Huffington Post).