Arab World

By Luljeta Krasniqi Veseli and Charles Recknagel | ( RFE/RL | – – “In the beginning, when I went [to Syria], everybody was greeting us. But later, they were looking at us differently. They were scared of us,” Arben tells RFE/RL correspondent Luljeta Krasniqi Veseli.” Ideals give way to disillusionment easily in Syria, where foreign […]

Displaced and Refugees

As EU pays Turkey billions to stop migrants, Anger over ‘unconscionable’ border closures

contributors

By Lauren McCauley, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org ) | – – As EU and Turkey barter over migrant lives, campaigners decry pay-outs and border closures as ‘unconscionable’ Leaders from the European Union and Turkey on Monday held negotiations over what to do with the unprecedented wave of migrants fleeing war and violence in the […]

Featured

As Bomb Kills 60, is Iraq Army Preparing for Armageddon with ISIL?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – A truck bombing in the largely Shiite city of Hilla killed 60 on Sunday, one of the worst terrorist attacks in that city. Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack. The bombing, which killed and injured policemen at a checkpoint (though 3 dozen of the […]

Arab Spring

Can non-violent Revolt actually Change practical Politics?

contributors

By Mark Engler and Paul Engler | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Bernie Sanders’s insurgent presidential campaign has opened up a debate about how social change happens in our society. The official version of how progress is won — currently voiced by mainstream pundits and members of a spooked Democratic Party establishment — goes something […]

Syria

Has Western intervention prolonged the Syrian Civil War? & has our Press Covered it up?

contributors

By Ian Sinclair | ( Open Democracy ) | – – The media keeps saying that the West isn’t involved in Syria. This isn’t true. “The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary”, George Orwell noted in his censored preface to his 1945 book Animal Farm. “Unpopular ideas can […]

Climate Change

Refugees Sew Lips As Calais Jungle is Demolished (AJ+)

Nicholas Kolenda

Refugees sew at the Calais refugee camp in France sew their lips shut in protest of poor living conditions.

censorship

US Ally Saudi Arabia Sentences Atheist Tweep to 10 Years & 2,000 Lashes

contributors

By Amira Al Hussaini | ( Global Voices ) | – – Saudi Arabia has sentenced a Twitter user to 10 years in prison in addition to 2,000 lashes for publishing 600 tweets “which spread atheism” on the micro-blogging site. According to Saudi daily Al Watan the Twitter user, whose name was not disclosed, was […]

Featured

Russia open to “Federal” Syria, but opposition worries about Partition

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov said Monday that Russia supports whatever arrangements the Syrians in the current negotiations reach about the future, included a possible federal state. The United States has a federal system, which means that individual states retain a certain amount of autonomy, […]

Iraq

US Says Mosul Dam faces serious risk of Collapse; Could Kill 1.4 Million

contributors

TeleSur | – – The U.S. Embassy in Iraq warned its citizens to be ready to leave the country as the Mosul Dam faces a “serious and unprecedented” risk of bursting. The U.S. Embassy to Iraq on Monday told its citizens to be ready to leave Iraq, warning the risk of the Mosul Dam collapsing […]