Al-Monitor Weekend Reads

[logo]( [fb_icon]( [twitter_icon]( Looking for some weekend reads? Check out these five great stories that you might have missed this week. [Usually Israelis and Palestinians accuse the other party of having affinities with venomous snakes. This time both sides are fighting for the right to claim a deadly viper as their own.]( [Winter is coming in the war of memes between the US and Iran. The Donald Trump administration started hostilities with its depiction of the president as an unstoppable menace straight out of the Game of Thrones TV show, and Iranian social media is responding in kind.]( [The carnivorous drosera plant's only sighting in Lebanon is on private land. University researchers had to convince the owner they weren't with the predatory state before they could move forward with plans for a nature preserve.]( [Turkey's first communist mayor wasted no time launching his platform of cooperative farming when he was elected in 2014. Now what started as a small grocery store in mountain country has opened stores in the country's three biggest cities and is exporting around the world.]( [Breakneck development is the norm in the most populous country in the Arab world. A fledgling movement of Egyptian tree huggers is calling for a more thoughtful approach.]( [Photo of the day] [A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches carrying a Qatari communications satellite, which will provide connectivity to Qatar and neighboring parts of the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Nov. 15, 2018. ]( [View slideshow>]( [Lobbying6]( STAY CONNECTED [fb_icon_footer]( [twitter_icon_footer]( [instagram_icon_footer]( [rss_icon_footer]( CONTACT US [Support & Contact]( [Advertise](mailto:advertise@al-monitor.com) NEWSLETTERS [Subscribe]( TERMS OF USE [Visitor Agreement]( [Privacy Policy]( © 2018 Al-Monitor. All Rights Reserved. If you no longer wish to receive these emails you may [unsubscribe or manage your preferences]( at any time. Al-Monitor · 1850 K St NW · Suite 1225 · Washington, DC 20006 · USA