The BBC, Telegraph and Guardian report the controversy over the UAE’s gender equality awards. The BBC reports that the UAE has been mocked over a tweet announcing the winners of awards for gender balance that featured only photos of men. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler, was shown congratulating the recipients of Best Personality Supporting Gender Balance, Best Federal Authority Supporting Gender Balance, and Best Gender Balance Initiative. The sheikh insisted women were “central to shaping the future of the country”. But many Twitter users questioned their apparent absence from the ceremony. A later tweet by the Government of Dubai Media Office included a photograph showing five women standing beside Sheikh Mohammed and the male recipients, but it did not identify them.

The Financial Times reports that Saudi Arabia unveiled an ambitious $427bn 10-year industrial plan on Monday as the kingdom seeks to move on from the scandal over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and demonstrate that it is pushing ahead with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s modernising drive. At a ceremony to launch the initiative, government officials announced 66 deals worth 204bn riyals ($54bn), including an agreement with Thales, the French aerospace and defence group, and plans for a petrochemicals plant with Pan-Asia, the Chinese chemicals company. Details of the agreements, some of which had been previously announced, were not immediately available. It was also not clear how they would be funded. Khalid al-Falih, the Energy Minister, urged investors to back the government’s plans. “I call on local and international private sector companies to join us on our development journey, because we have a deep conviction that those who bet on Saudi Arabia will not lose,” he said. Under Prince Mohammed’s “Vision 2030” plan, launched two years ago, Riyadh is striving to reduce the economy’s dependence on oil by creating new industries and bolstering the private sector. But despite the announcement of a string of mega-projects, including plans to build Neom, a $500bn futuristic city, on the Saudi coast, growth has been lacklustre and investment subdued.

The Independent reports that the UK’s Middle East minister has said that the UK will give more than £30m to Iraq to rebuild hospitals, schools and power plants destroyed in the fight against the Isis. This comes two days after urging the war-torn country to wean itself off an economic reliance on Iran. The aid package was announced by Alistair Burt during a four trip to Iraq, where the UK became the first donor to a newly-formed international fund to put the country back on its feet. The UK plans to allocate £16m to help rebuild neighbourhoods flattened during the battles against the global terror group, as well as £6.9m for the rehabilitation of critical infrastructure like factories and £10m for the country’s humanitarian response.

The Guardian and Independent report on Yemen’s civil war. The Guardian reports that the UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, has said that deadlines for a retreat of Houthi troops in Yemen, agreed in talks last month, have had to be delayed. He also conceded plans for prisoner exchanges have not gone to plan. Griffiths also had to deny that retired general Patrick Cammaert, appointed by the UN to implement the ceasefire in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, had quit due to disagreements with Griffiths’s team. Griffiths confirmed Cammaert, a retired Dutch general, was leaving after only weeks in the job, but said he had always been on a short-term contract and there had been no dispute between the two men after the general’s convoy was fired upon in Hodeidah. Speaking to the Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Griffiths said “timelines have been extended. The original deadlines were rather ambitious. We are dealing with a complex situation on the ground.” But he said he “categorically rejected” calls to name the party obstructing the Stockholm agreement. “I believe that the political leadership of both parties is determined to put an end to the suffering of the Yemeni people.” He accepted “the situation was volatile”, but said “the ceasefire is generally holding despite any security incidents that have been taking place. The Independent reports that The UN has warned that as many as 13 million people could starve to death if aid is not able to reach the worst hit areas. Vital humanitarian aid is not getting to those hardest hit by the fighting, a coalition of 14 aid agencies warned in a meeting in London on Monday. Kimberley Brown of the British Red Cross said 85,000 children had lost their lives and malnutrition was taking a huge toll. “I know from my colleagues that the situation is absolutely deteriorating at the moment,” she said.

Jason Lee writes in the Guardian, arguing that “Australia’s generous aid to Yemen mustn’t be undermined by its weapons sales”. He adds that: “military exports to Saudi Arabia should cease if we are serious about ending the four-year war that has killed 85,000 children”.

The BBC reports on the “shaky truce in the key Yemeni port of Hudaydah”. Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet travelled with Saudi and Emirati forces to this crucial corner of Yemen’s war. She writes that it was “fragile, and fraught with risk. The Red Sea Mills marked the furthest point we were told we could safely reach.” She continues: “We’re hopeful we can get access to the Red Sea Mills that have been cut off by fighting since September,” the head of the UN’s World Food Programme in Yemen, Stephen Anderson, tells me in an email. There is said to be enough food here to feed almost 4 million Yemenis for a month in a country where three quarters of the population depends on humanitarian assistance. After we left, says Doucet, a mortar believed to have been fired by Houthis struck the facility, sparking a fire which destroyed vital wheat stocks in two of its 10 silos. “It’s devastating for us, just devastating,” laments Lise Grande, the UN’s resident co-ordinator in Yemen, in an interview with the BBC in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, 140km (87 miles) to the east. “It’s not clear we can replace it.”

Reuters reports that according to Israel’s Finance Minister on Monday, Intel Corp will invest 40 billion shekels (£8.3 billion or $10.9 billion) on a new chip-making factory in Israel, the latest multi-billion dollar investment in the country by the US semiconductor giant. “Intel’s global management has informed us about its decision to invest another 40 billion shekels in Israel, an unprecedented decision that is expected to bring thousands of jobs to the south (of Israel),” the country’s Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said on Twitter. The news follows a commitment by Intel in May last year to invest about 18 billion shekels ($5 billion) to upgrade its existing factory in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat between 2018 and 2020.

The Financial Times reports that Qatar is seeking to reassert itself on the regional stage by wielding its financial clout and launching a flurry of diplomatic activity 18 months after it was rocked by a Saudi-led blockade intended to isolate the gas-rich state. Exuding renewed confidence underpinned by petrodollars, Doha has this month welcomed two foreign leaders desperate for financial support, offered $500m to embattled Lebanon, and hosted talks between the Taliban and the US. “They are starting to be punchy again,” said Neil Quilliam, a Gulf expert at Chatham House. “There will still be red lines about where they go, but they have weathered the storm [of the embargo] and they are certainly feeling confident.”

Reuters reports that Iran on Tuesday dismissed calls from the United States and Europe for curbs on its ballistic missiles, but said it had no plans to increase their range. “The enemies say Iran’s missile power should be eliminated, but we have repeatedly said our missile capabilities are not negotiable,” Iranian Defence Minister Amir Hatami was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency. The secretary of Iran’s National Security Council also said Iran would keep working to improve the missiles’ accuracy. “Iran has no scientific or operational restriction for increasing the range of its military missiles, but based on its defensive doctrine, it is continuously working on increasing the precision of the missiles, and has no intention to increase their range,” Ali Shamkhani, a close aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by state broadcaster IRIB.

The Financial Times reports that in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rivals are shifting to the right over the country’s strategy for Hamas. Ahead of elections in April, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in step with his rightwing base on issues from the occupation of the West Bank to Israel’s power struggle with Iran. But on one question he has broken with his core supporters: what should Israel do about the Islamist group Hamas? It’s a weak spot for Netanyahu and the root of a divide that rivals are trying to exploit, staking out ground to the right of Netanyahu even though he is widely seen as the most right-wing prime minister in Israeli history.

The BBC, Telegraph and Guardian report on the release of a British woman from jail in Egypt. The BBC reports that according to her family, a British woman jailed after she was found with painkillers in her suitcase at an Egyptian airport has been released. Laura Plummer, 34, from Hull, was sentenced to three years in prison on 26 December 2017 for taking 290 Tramadol tablets into the country. She claimed the tablets were for her partner to ease his back pain. Ms Plummer, who was arrested in October 2017, was released from jail on Sunday.

The Israeli media is dominated by reports of Benny Gantz’s first major election speech, scheduled for 8pm this evening. The story dominates the front pages of Maariv and Israel Hayom, with the latter highlighting right wing attacks on Gantz.

Yediot Ahronot reports the announcement by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon of a record investment in Israel by Intel. The microchip producer will invest NIS 40bn (around £8.3bn) to construct a large production facility in Kiryat Gat, where Intel already produces chips, according to Israeli media reports which Intel declined to confirm at this stage.

Zvi Bar’El in Haaretz analyses negotiations between the US and Taliban in Afghanistan and argues that any deal will likely increase Iranian leverage in the country.

Haaretz and Israel Hayom report Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that he will withdraw the mandate of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron – an international civilian observer mission which has been in place since 1997.

All the Israeli media report increasing controversy after it was announced that Israel will host a summit of the central European V4 group of countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia) in February. Maariv quotes Yair Lapid, leader of the opposition Yesh Atid party, saying Netanyahu should cancel the meeting. He said: “The summit that Netanyahu is organising in February includes a prime minister who passed legislation that disgraces the memory of the Holocaust victims and a prime minister who publishes antisemitic content.” Netanyahu was a guest of the V4 summit in 2017 where he invited the members to hold a future summit in Israel. In a prominent comment piece in Yediot Ahronot, Sever Plocker is critical of Netanyahu for emphasising the anti-semitism of the radical left (including in the British Labour Party) and ignoring the antisemitism of the “extreme nationalist right”.

Maariv reports Israel’s absence from a UNESCO event marking International Holocaust Memorial Day because Israel left UNESCO at the end of 2018 along with the US.

Maariv reports on the Israeli rescue mission assisting with the emergency response to Brazil’s dam disaster, and Kan Radio news reports comments from Brazil’s vice president that the Brazilian government is not considering relocating its embassy to Jerusalem

Kan Radio news reports this morning that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will decide whether to indict Netanyahu within two and half weeks, by mid-February.