World

At least 20 Sudanese troops have reportedly died following clashes with Ethiopian forces on the countries’ shared border. Media reports from the conflict area said: Sudanese soldiers fell into an ambush on Saturday after traveling across the Atbara river and being bombarded. However, Sudan’s army released a statement on Saturday reporting that it delivered “heavy losses of life” against Ethiopian troops and[Read More...]

As the Taliban completes its first hundred days in power, the Western powers are groping for a face-saving formula to engage with the authorities in Kabul with some modicum of dignity.  The European Union is taking the lead role here. The European countries have a sense of urgency over potential refugee flow from Afghanistan. The EU intends to launch an[Read More...]

Resistance, as a way of life, can help change the current image portrayed by the political and security elites in all of the Arab countries … Image: “We don’t want to die of thirst but we don’t want to betray; normalization is a big betrayal.” “Let Wadi Araba Treaty fall.” [Rima Najjar] Yesterday, I participated in demonstrations in downtown Amman against[Read More...]

Russia hopes to blow new life into a proposal for a multilateral security architecture in the Gulf, with the tacit approval of the Biden administration. If successful, the initiative would help stabilise the region, cement regional efforts to reduce tensions, and potentially prevent war-wracked Yemen from emerging as an Afghanistan on the southern border of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf of Aden[Read More...]

Although unfamiliar with the details, most people recognize the purpose of stealth technology is to make aircraft effectively immune to radar detection at normal combat ranges. The question is, would it be possible, employing the same technology, to make stealth aircraft carriers? The answer, even with Japan’s undoubted technical prowess, is a decided no, at least not for the foreseeable[Read More...]

In an interview of Joseph Stiglitz that appeared in Investopedia on 23 April 2020 he said “Covid 19 reminds us that when we have a crisis we turn to collective action and to government.” What became very crucial in countering the pandemic are the collective actions in which civil societies were forced to keep aloof from its internal decay like[Read More...]

It has been written about more times than any care to remember.  Pliny the Elder, that old cheek, told us that Africa always tended to bring forth something new: Semper aliquid novi Africam adferre.  The suggestion was directed to hybrid animals, but in the weird pandemic wonderland that is COVID-19, all continents now find themselves bringing forth their types, making[Read More...]

While “anti-vaxxers” continue to clash with police in various European cities, a whole media discourse has been formulated around the political leanings of these angry crowds, describing them in matter-of-fact terms as conspiracy theorists, populists and right-wing fanatics. While it is true that populist, right-wing movements throughout Europe and elsewhere have actively exploited the anger, confusion and lack of trust[Read More...]

Food prices rose to a 10-year high last month, hitting peak since July 2011 and extending the 30% increase recorded last year, according to a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report. The surge was led by increases in cereal crops like wheat and vegetable oils. The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks the international prices of food commodities, is up 3.9 per cent from September, rising for a third consecutive[Read More...]

A small riot.  Unrest.  Risk of collapse.  All given a ballooning effect and inflated for policy makers across the ocean.  Before much time elapses, Australian security forces are skirting off to restore order in their vast watery neighbourhood.  It is a reminder that such relations in the Pacific region are a mixture of intervention, forcible charitable guidance and, at times,[Read More...]