Middle East

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | – – ROME (IPS) – Urgent action is needed to save the lives of people facing famine in North Eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, the UN leading food and agriculture agency’s chief on April 28 warned. “If nothing is done, some 20 million people could […]

Featured

On Day of Climate March, Remember advance of Solar globally

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US public may have to march today for our government to recognize the dangers of climate change. But in the rest of the world many governments are placing a large wager on clean solar energy. The largest concentrated solar plant in the world is not […]

Israel/ Palestine

In Photos: Palestinians launch general strike in support of imprisoned hunger strikers

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A general strike was held across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem on Thursday, as thousands of Palestinians shut down their shops and businesses in solidarity with some 1,500 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike as part of the “Freedom and Dignity” strike, organized by imprisoned […]

Algeria

Dear Marine Le Pen: Only a Fascist would Praise Colonialism . . . Oh Wait

contributors

Jessica Northey | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | – – Marine Le Pen’s declaration that colonialism was a positive thing is not only a denial of France’s painful history, but an example of the fascism that we now face in Europe. When we see or hear evil we have a moral imperative to call it out. Otherwise […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syria’s forgotten pluralism and why it matters today

contributors

By Andrea Williams | (The Conversation) | – – The Syrian Civil War has been raging for six years. It has killed nearly half a million people and left over 12 million, about half of Syria’s total population, without a home. A few weeks ago, a devastating chemical attack brought this conflict back into the […]

Middle East

Refugees, Militias, Sectarianism: Middle East Engulfed by a ‘Perfect Storm’

contributors

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | – – ROME (IPS) – A perfect storm has engulfed the Middle East, and continues to threaten international peace and security. Hardly anyone could sum up the Middle East explosive situation in so few, blunt words as just did Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the […]

Elections

No Woman Has Ever Run For Iranian President. Will Azam Taleghani Be The First?

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari. | ( RFE/RL) | – – Update: Ms. Taleghani has been disqualified. Her journey is still amszing. On April 14, a tiny, frail-looking woman wearing a chador and using a walker made her way slowly up the stairs of Iran’s Interior Ministry in Tehran. Seventy-three-year-old Azam Taleghani was there to register as […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestinians decry Israeli Double Standard over NYT Op-ed

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Activists and commentators have denounced the dishonesty of Israeli criticism of The New York Times for publishing an op-ed in defense of a mass hunger strike underway in Israeli prisons, in light of rampant impunity for Israeli officials who commit crimes or incite violence against Palestinians. […]