Arab World

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – According to investigative journalist Vicki Ward, Jared Kushner, a minor New York hustler who managed to marry into the Donald Trump crime family, became the anti-Jon Snow in the Saudi game of thrones. That is, he enabled the worst possible ruler to come to power, and got a $2 billion […]

Houthi

Unlawful Killing in Yemen: Recent Saudi-UAE Attack Targeted Civilians

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Sanaa) – The Saudi and UAE-led coalition carried out three attacks in Yemen in late January 2022 in apparent violation of the laws of war that resulted in at least 80 apparently civilian deaths, including three children, and 156 injuries, including two children, Mwatana for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch […]

Iraq War

From Mosul to Raqqa to Mariupol, Killing Civilians is a Crime no Matter Who Does it

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink ) – Americans have been shocked by the death and destruction of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, filling our screens with bombed buildings and dead bodies lying in the street. But the United States and its allies have waged war in country after country for decades, carving swathes of destruction through cities, towns […]

Corruption

Why did the Saudis invest $2 bn with Jared Kushner?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Sunday, David D. Kirkpatrick and Kate Kelly of the New York Times got a big scoop — they gained access to internal documents of the board that vets investments for the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, called the Public Investment Fund. These memos demonstrate that the board argued against […]

Displaced and Refugees

US Assistance to Saudi-Led Coalition Risks Complicity in War Crimes

Human Rights Watch

By Afrah Nasser Yemen Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division | – ( Human Rights Watch) – The protracted conflict in Yemen has killed almost a quarter of a million people directly or indirectly due to inadequate food, health care, and infrastructure. It has included unlawful attack after unlawful attack, with homes, hospitals, schools, […]

Agriculture

More Heat, Less Water: Climate Emergency Pushes Iraq’s Farmers off Land as Drought cripples Crops

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – Until a few years ago, farming in southern Iraq was “as lucrative as oil”, Qasim Abdul Wahad remembers, and his one-hectare farm plot in the Governorate of Basra produced enough to feed his family of eight. Now dust kicks up under his feet as he walks through his land, […]

Saudi Arabia

Yemen: Will Resignation of Saudi-backed Absentee President help End US-Backed War?

Brian Whitaker

( Al-Bab.com ) – After months of apparent deadlock, the last few days have brought tentative signs of a shift in Yemen’s seven-year conflict. On Friday Hans Grundberg, the UN’s special envoy, announced that the protagonists had agreed to a two-month ceasefire. The truce, which came into force on Saturday, was the first since 2016 […]

Russia

Syria’s dire economy and years of fighting send young ‘mercenaries’ to fight in Ukraine

Global Voices

By Raseef22 | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – Following years of a devastating war that continues to fragment the country, Syria is now exporting professional mercenaries to other hotspots of conflict, including Libya and the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and they are soon expected to arrive in Ukraine. They packed their fighting experience and headed to foreign […]

Natural Gas

Bin Putin? How Russia is increasingly becoming the Saudi Arabia of the North

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – A failed military intervention. The genocidal killing of citizens. Economic isolation by the international community. The arrests of anti-war protestors at home and the shuttering of independent media. Any one of these factors could mark the end of an ordinary political leader. Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin has not […]