Lebanon’s Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, cancelled on Wednesday a previous invitation for Lebanon’s major political parties to meet and try to reach a consensus on a presidential candidate. Berri’s press office said that he cancelled the national d…
Bank holdup in Beirut as 3 depositors seek to free money
Three depositors held up a bank on the outskirts of Beirut on Wednesday, demanding the money which has been frozen in their accounts since Lebanon’s financial crisis in 2019. One of the depositors, Ibrahim Beydoun, held up the bank with a gun and a bot…
COP 27: Outspoken Egyptian journalist ‘forcibly disappeared’
An outspoken Egyptian journalist was forcibly disappeared on Tuesday evening, raising further concerns of a growing crackdown on journalists and activists by the regime ahead of the COP 27 climate summit opening on Sunday. Retired journalist Manal Agra…
Ukraine grain shipments resume as Russia rejoins deal
Grain export shipments from Ukraine resumed on Wednesday as Russia said it was rejoining a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey to establish a safe Black Sea corridor. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told parliament that “shipments will continue f…
Hands off Haiti: The dangers of foreign ‘intervention’
Western powers have never forgiven Haiti for having the audacity to defeat, smash, and kick out white supremacist enslavers from the island. The Haitian Revolution, which was completed by 1804, remains the only successful slave rebellion of its kind in…
From Europe to Turkey, racist hostility awaits Syrians
Human Rights Watch recently released a disturbing report detailing the involuntary deportation of hundreds of Syrian refugees from Turkey back into the proverbial lion’s den of Assad’s Syria. For those who continue to chronicle the Syrian genocide unle…
In the Shadow of Daesh: An ethnography of ISIS atrocities
“The foreigners were virulently contemptuous of the Syrians,” Sophie Kasiki observed in an ISIS-run hospital in Raqqa. “I saw one of the foreign volunteers insult a young Syrian woman, sobbing as she woke from her anaesthetic in a terrible state.” In t…
Iraq announces arrest of ‘IS leader’ in Kirkuk governorate
Iraq announced on Monday the arrest of an alleged Islamic State group leader in Kirkuk governorate in the country’s north. Major General Yahya Rasool, spokesperson for the Iraqi armed forces’ commander-in-chief, said a “terrorist leader nicknamed Abu H…
Qatar relying on playmaker Afif to pull the strings
Qatar’s main playmaker Akram Afif is perhaps the World Cup host country’s greatest asset and worry wrapped up in one. The 25-year-old striker, crowned Asia’s player of the year in 2019 and more famous for setting up goals than scoring them, has become …
New Iraqi minister under fire for ‘lavish celebrations’
Iraq’s new minister of education, Ibrahim Namis Al-Jubouri, has been slammed for his lavish celebrations after his appointment to government following a year of political wrangling. Videos showed the minister’s family firing rifles into the air outside…