Middle East

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Two out of five Palestinian youth were unemployed during the first quarter of 2016, according to data recently released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) on the occasion of International Youth Day on Friday. The highest unemployment rate was among youth between 20 and […]

Syria

10 Children Killed in Saudi Airstrike on Yemeni School

contributors

TeleSur | – – The Saudi-led coalition admitted children were at the site of the airstrike but jets “don’t distinguish ages” during attacks. At least 10 Yemeni children were killed in a Saudi airstrike targeting a school in Haydan, a town in rebel-held Saada province, Doctors Without Borders, a Paris-based relief agency also known as […]

Featured

People in Syria’s Manbij Rejoice by Shaving, throwing off Veil as ISIL fighters Flee

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – People in Syria’s norther town of Manbij, now entirely liberated from the rule of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), rejoiced on Saturday. Men shaved their beards (which had been imposed on them by the fundamentalists) and women threw off their burqas (full-face veils) and burned them. The burqa […]

Featured

ISIL fighter number falls to 15,000 as Manbij capture Cuts off Route to Europe

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | AP is reporting that Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland maintains that the number of ISIL fighters in Syria and Iraq is in steep decline, having fallen to as little as 15,000, down from 25,000 at the organization’s height. In Iraq the organization has lost Tikrit, Beiji, Mt. Sinjar, Sinjar, […]

Bashar al-Assad

Monsters to Destroy: Top 7 Reasons the US could not have forestalled Syrian Civil War

Juan Cole

by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The interventionist temptation, muted since the Iraq imbroglio, is now returning. Sec. Clinton’s team are already talking about taking steps to remove Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad from office as soon as they get into the White House. An excellent and principled NYT columnist called the non-intervention […]

Featured

No, Obama did not found ISIL, Mr. Trump: That was the GOP

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump in his daily free association exercise accused President Obama of creating Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) in Iraq by withdrawing troops from that country in 2011. It is an accusation he has in past made against Sec. Clinton, but now he is shifting blame to Obama. Obama […]

Africa

The Economic Crisis of Greying World: 30 Countries have more Elderly than Children

contributors

By Joseph Chamie | (Inter Press Service) | – – NEW YORK (IPS) – It first happened in Italy in 1995. Five years later it happened in six additional countries, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Japan, Portugal and Spain. Today the total number of countries where it has occurred stands at 30, including most members of the […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza Strip: Blockade Causing an End to Fresh Water Resources

contributors

By IMEMC News | – – International Solidarity Movement | Gaza Team | – – As every year, during the summer, the water shortage in the Gaza Strip is accentuated. At the same time, the energy shortage caused by the blockade prevents engines and water pumps from pushing it from wells and tanks to houses […]

Israel/ Palestine

Google Sparks Outrage by Abolishing Palestine on Maps

contributors

TeleSur | – – Google’s decision to wipe Palestine from its map app and portray the occupied territories as Israel sparks online protest campaign. Journalists and activists have excoriated Google for wiping Palestine completely off its map app, depicting the entire occupied Palestinian territories as part of the state of Israel. The Palestinian Journalists’ Forum […]