Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate outside Columbia University as classes begin
September 6th, 20240 NEW YORK — On Tuesday, two arrests were made as pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside Columbia University, just as students returned to class for the fall semester. The NYPD put up barricades and anyone entering the campus was subject to an identification screening. A university spokesperson released the following...
Lebanese justice ministry accuses former central bank chief of financial crimes
September 6th, 20240 Lebanon's justice ministry formally accused former central bank governor Riad Salameh of financial crimes on Thursday, the state news agency and judicial sources said, echoing charges brought against him by state prosecutors when he was arrested this week. Salameh, 73, was arrested on Tuesday over alleged financial crimes, including...
Israel, Hamas agree to zoned three-day pauses for Gaza polio vaccinations, WHO says
August 30th, 20240 UNITED NATIONS – The Israeli military and Palestinian group Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in the Gaza Strip to allow for the vaccination of some 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said on Thursday. The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, said Rik Peeperkorn,...
Erdan’s war on the U.N.: The brutal wish of failed Israel diplomat
August 30th, 20240 Departing Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan clearly had an unpleasant experience at the world’s largest international institution. In an interview published in the Israeli newspaper Maariv on August 20, the disgruntled envoy said that “the U.N. building should be closed and wiped off from the face of the...
Prolonging genocide as a smokescreen: On Israel’s other war in the West Bank
August 23rd, 20240 Promises of "absolute victory" in Gaza are nothing but "gibberish", according to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant's comments were not meant to be public, but somehow were leaked and published by Israeli media on August 12. The explanation of why Netanyahu is pursuing a losing war in Gaza has been largely confined to the...
Helicopter of Iran’s late President Raisi crashed due to weather, Fars says
August 23rd, 20240 The helicopter crash in which Iran's late President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in May was caused by weather conditions and the aircraft's inability to handle the weight it was carrying, Iran's semi-official news agency reported on Wednesday, citing a security source informed of the final investigation results. The communications center...
Israel’s demands for keeping military presence in Gaza blocking ceasefire deal
August 23rd, 20240 Disagreements over Israel's future military presence in Gaza and over Palestinian prisoner releases are obstructing a ceasefire and hostage deal, according to 10 sources familiar with the round of U.S.-mediated talks that concluded last week. Sources, who include two Hamas officials and three Western diplomats, told Reuters the...
As Gaza death toll passes 40,000, corpses are buried in yards, streets, tiered graves
August 17th, 20241 Tiers of graves are stacked deep underground in a bloated Gaza cemetery, where Sa’di Baraka spends his days hacking at the earth, making room for more dead. “Sometimes we make graves on top of graves,” he said. Baraka and his solemn corps of volunteer gravediggers in the Deir al-Balah cemetery start at sunrise, digging new...
Travelers in Lebanon attempting to leave the country, airlines halt flights to Beirut amid rising tensions
August 10th, 20240 LEBANON — As tensions rise in the Middle East and an anticipated attack from Iran looms, Lebanese natives and foreigners attempt to evacuate the region at Lebanon's Rafic Hariri airport. Following Israel's strike in Beirut's southern suburbs that killed Hezbollah's second in command as well as Israel's strike in Tehran that killed...
When “prophets” become memes: Rise and fall of Benjamin Netanyahu
August 2nd, 20240 Great orators in history would not have been recognized as such if their words carried no value. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is neither a great orator, nor did his speech before a joint Congressional session on July 24 have actual worth. It was an expression of his desperation, if not defeat, on all fronts. This is not...
Nasrallah: War with Israel has entered “new phase” after killings of top resistance leaders
August 2nd, 20241 On Thursday, Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned that the conflict with Israel has entered a “new phase,” as he addressed mourners at the funeral of a commander from the group who was killed by an Israeli airstrike this week in Beirut. Meanwhile in Tehran, Iran’s supreme leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei prayed over the...
Gaza death toll: how many Palestinians has Israel’s campaign killed?
July 26th, 20241 Palestinian health authorities say Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people, mostly civilians, and driven most of the enclave's 2.3 million people from their homes. The war began on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants stormed across the border into Israeli communities. Israel says the militants killed more...
Will the U.S. elect a woman president? Mexico did
July 26th, 20240 Claudia Sheinbaum made history in June when she became the first woman elected president of Mexico. What will it take for a woman to become president of the United States? I think we will eventually elect a woman president. There is no shortage of highly qualified women in politics. Women have shown, time after time, that they can...
Harris urges Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza and bring the hostages home
July 26th, 20240 WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris said she urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal soon with Hamas so that dozens of hostages held by the militants in Gaza since Oct. 7 can return home. Harris said she had a “frank and constructive” conversation with Netanyahu in which...
When supporting Israel is becoming a liability: Is Gaza changing the West?
July 19th, 20241 Much has been written about the political earthquakes in Britain and France, the first resulting in the crushing defeat of the Conservative Party and the latter in the overpowering of the far right, by a largely leftist coalition. But these were not the only important outcomes of the July 4 and July 7 general elections in two of......
Rekindling the old love affair: Can Trump save Netanyahu?
July 13th, 20240 Many political analysts believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is buying time in Gaza and Lebanon with the hope that Donald Trump returns to the White House, following the next November elections. Whether this is the case or not, Trump, this time around, is unlikely to influence the outcomes of the war, or to alter...
“We have nothing”: Palestinians return to utter destruction in Gaza City after Israeli withdrawal
July 13th, 20240 Palestinians returned to breathtaking scenes of destruction in the Gaza City district of Shijaiyah after Israeli troops withdrew, ending a two-week offensive there. Civil defense workers said Thursday that so far, they had found the bodies of 60 people in the rubble. Families who fled the assault ventured back into Shijaiyah to......
Israel sends delegation to negotiate hostage release deal with Hamas
July 5th, 20240 On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Biden he has decided to send a delegation to resume stalled negotiations on a hostage release deal with Hamas, their administrations said. A source in the Israeli negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was a real chance of achieving...
Israel storms Gaza City neighborhood, surprises Palestinians and orders them to go south
June 28th, 20240 On Thursday, the Israeli army stormed a neighborhood in Gaza City, ordering Palestinians to move south as the tanks rolled in and bombing the southern city of Rafah in what it says are the final stages of an operation against Hamas fighters there. Residents of the Shejaia neighborhood in Gaza City said they were taken by surprise by...
Gazans struggle to feed their children under Israeli continuous bombardments
June 27th, 20240 Famine approaches slowly for Gazans, who spend hours in queues for a few ladles of cooked food and the chance to fill plastic containers with drinkable water after nearly nine months of Israel's military campaign in the enclave. Sometimes there is nothing to queue for in the shattered streets and crowded schools that have been turned...
Hezbollah’s leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah warns Israel against wider war
June 21st, 20240 BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Hezbollah has new weapons and intelligence capabilities that would allow it to target and destroy more critical Israeli military and infrastructure positions deeper inside Israel in case of an all-out war, the powerful group’s leader warned on Wednesday. Sayed Hassan Nasrallah’s comments came as the......
Rifts growing between Israel’s political and military leadership over conduct of the war on Gaza
June 21st, 20240 On Wednesday the Israeli army’s chief spokesman appeared to question the stated goal of destroying the Hamas group in Gaza in a rare public rift between the country’s political and military leadership. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted Israel will pursue the fight against Hamas, the group running the besieged...
UNICEF finds 9 out 10 children in Gaza lack necessary food for growth
June 15th, 20240 UNICEF has found that nine out of 10 children in Gaza do not have enough food necessary for growth and development. "In the Gaza Strip, months of hostilities and restrictions on humanitarian aid have collapsed the food and health systems, resulting in catastrophic consequences for children and their families," UNICEF said in a......
Hezbollah hits deep in Israel with most rockets yet in war after Israel kills a top field commander, revealing more of its capabilities
June 14th, 20240 Hezbollah fired the most rockets it has launched at Israel in a single day since cross-border hostilities broke out eight months ago, as part of its retaliation on Wednesday for an Israeli strike which killed a senior Hezbollah field commander. The Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire since the eruption of the Gaza...
Israeli forces advance deeper into Rafah, Hamas fighters re-emerge in central Gaza as diplomacy falters
June 14th, 20240 Israeli tanks advanced deeper into the western area of Rafah, amid one of the worst nights of bombardment from air, ground and sea, forcing many families to flee their homes and tents under darkness, residents said on Thursday. Residents said the Israeli forces thrust towards the Al-Mawasi area of Rafah near the beach, which is......
