War

Fred Abrahams | (Human Rights Watch) | — The fighting began one year ago and lasted for 51 days. In Gaza, Israeli attacks from land, air, and sea killed 551 children and injured 3436, ten percent of them suffering a permanent disability. In Israel, one child was killed by Palestinian rocket and mortar fire; dozens […]

Displaced and Refugees

Yemen Is Starving, and We’re Partly to Blame

contributors

By Chris Toensing | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – 80 percent of people in the Arab world’s poorest country are in danger of starving to death under a U.S.-backed blockade and bombing campaign. Twenty million people in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, are at risk of dying from hunger or […]

Featured

The Great Wall of Turkey? Ankara imagines DMZ w/ Kurds, ISIL

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – So I am going to tell you a story about Turkey, Syria and the United States. It may or may not be true. Its details may or may not have happened, though there is reason to think they did. It is a story. The point is […]

Children

Yemen: Caught between Saudis & Houthis, Children Pay Price of War

contributors

By Belkis Wille | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – The deliberate targeting of schools has become a flashpoint in the war between Yemen’s rebels and a Saudi-led coalition. Hisham Yahya, 13, is an eager student. As we sat in the large, empty yard of his school in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, with weapons debris […]

Displaced and Refugees

Yemen: Saudi Airstrikes kill 58, including dozens of Women and Children

contributors

RT | (Video report) — “Saudi-led coalition warplanes are continuing to pound Houthi targets in Yemen despite the rebels agreeing to UN-backed peace talks. The strikes have killed 58 people across the country over the past two days, according to the Houthis. And the humanitarian situation is getting worse by the day, according to the […]

Iran

The “Bomb Iran!” Lobby Gears Up for 2016

contributors

By Sina Toossi | ( Foreign Policy in Focus) | – “A tight-knit group of neocon dead-enders is pushing Iran to the forefront of the GOP's foreign policy agenda.” In a recent TV ad, a van snakes its way through an American city. As the driver fiddles with the radio dial, dire warnings about the […]

Food Security

Yemen conflict fans food insecurity

contributors

By Peter Salisbury and Louise Redvers | (IRIN) – AMMAN / DUBAI (IRIN) – The conflict in Yemen is worsening the country’s food insecurity, according to a new report, which predicts that the parts of Arab state may enter an emergency phase by the end of the year. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) […]

Arab World

US Kneejerk support for Israeli Nukes Torpedoes UN Disarmament Talks

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – After four weeks of negotiations, a revised UN treaty on nuclear disarmament has been torpedoed by the United States, leaving the issue of global disarmament dead in the water for the next five years. Non-nuclear states are furious at Washington and also fearful that in the absence of […]

Children

Now Yemen’s Houthi Rebels are forcing Children Into Battle

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – (Beirut) – The Houthi armed group in Yemen has intensified its recruitment, training, and deployment of children in violation of international law. Since September 2014, when the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, took control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, they have increasingly used children as scouts, guards, runners, and fighters, […]