May 24th, 20240It was an article of faith, through most of my life, that the United States was the world’s dominant power. We had the most powerful military, the biggest and most vibrant economy and the most influential culture. For better or worse, we were the envy of the world.
If we’re honest, we have to admit that’s no longer the case....
February 2nd, 20241By DANA EL KURD, The Nation
Nearly four months have passed since Hamas attacked Israel and Israel launched its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The scale of the tragedy in Gaza is impossible to comprehend: over 26,000 killed, 70 percent of homes destroyed, 90 percent of the people of Gaza displaced. Famine in Gaza has begun, with a...
September 19th, 20230The Biden administration is seeking trilateral meetings with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as soon as this week to discuss any differences between the Gulf countries that could “upend” the peace talks currently happening between the Saudis and Yemen.
According to U.S. officials speaking with the Financial Times, Tim...
September 4th, 20230The Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar has obtained a classified diplomatic cable confirming that Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh met David Barnea, the head of the Israeli Mossad, to discuss “practical steps to normalize relations” between the two countries last year in Amman, Jordan.
The meeting specifically focused on “the...
July 22nd, 20230On Wednesday, the U.S. and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), setting the conditions for Israel’s entry into the U.S. Visa Waiver Program.
An Israeli statement late on Wednesday quoted its national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi as saying U.S. Ambassador Thomas Nides and Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog signed what...
July 6th, 20230According to Iran’s maritime authority, it confiscated a tanker owned by the U.S. energy company Chevron because the tanker caused damage to an Iranian vessel on Wednesday, July 5, in the Persian Gulf and then illegally rerouted to the territorial waters of Oman.
On Thursday, Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization, PMO, released a...
February 6th, 20220By Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo
It should matter little to the Chinese that American diplomats and a handful of their Western allies will not be attending the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. What truly matters is that the Russians are coming.
The above is not an arbitrary statement. It is supported with facts. According to a...
November 25th, 20210— This article by Abdul El-Sayed originally appeared in the newsletter The Incision. It has been edited for style. Subscribe to The Incision here: incision.substack.com
Throughout the pandemic, Europe has been a harbinger of what’s coming next on this side of the pond. And across Europe, COVID cases are climbing. In the U.K.,...
October 13th, 20210After a 19-month lockdown on nonessential travel, the U.S. will reopen its borders with Canada and Mexico to fully vaccinated travelers, starting in November
Mexico and Canada, as well as Americans themselves, have asked the U.S. government for months to ease restrictions on nonessential travel across borders. Though commercial trade...
September 16th, 20200DETROIT — The border between the U.S. and Canada will remain closed to non-essential travel for another month until at least Oct. 21.
The restrictions on travel between the U.S. and Canada were first announced on March 18 and have been extended every month since.
CBC News reported that Canadians should expect the border to be...
September 11th, 20200The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance in name alone. Recent events notwithstanding, the brewing conflict over territorial waters in the Eastern Mediterranean indicates that the military union between mostly Western countries is faltering.
The current Turkish-Greek tension is only one facet of a much larger...
August 13th, 20200
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached a "historic" deal on Thursday that will lead to a full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two nations in an agreement that President Trump helped broker.
Under the agreement, Israel has agreed to suspend applying sovereignty to areas of the West...
January 10th, 20200The world has been in the grips of an uncertain fear since it woke up to news of the Jan. 2 assassination of a top Iranian general at the hands of the U.S.. Images from recent memory of endless, expensive and insane military ventures in the Middle East became vivid once more as Tehran promised revenge and President Trump goaded the...
June 20th, 20190DUBAI - Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have shot down a U.S. “spy” drone in the southern province of Hormozgan, the Guards’ news website Sepah News said on Thursday.
State news agency IRNA carried the same report, identifying the drone as an “RQ-4 Global Hawk."
“It was shot down when it entered Iran’s airspace near...
May 24th, 20190LONDON — Iran will not surrender to U.S. pressure and will not abandon its goals even if it is bombed, President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday, stepping up the war of words between the Islamic Republic and the United States.
Earlier in the day, Iran’s top military chief said the standoff between Tehran and Washington was a...
April 12th, 20190RIYADH/WASHINGTON, DC — Egypt has pulled out of the U.S. effort to forge an “Arab NATO” with key Arab allies, according to four sources familiar with the decision, in a blow to the Trump administration’s strategy to contain Iranian power.
Egypt conveyed its decision to the United States and other participants in the proposed...
December 7th, 20180UNITED NATIONS — A U.S. attempt to get the United Nations to condemn the Palestinian militant group Hamas for the first time failed on Thursday because the draft resolution fell short of votes needed in the General Assembly.
The resolution required two-thirds support and while Assembly resolutions are non-binding, they can carry...
December 1st, 20180WASHINGTON — The population of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. fell to 10.7 million in 2016, its lowest level since 2004, due largely to a decline in the number of people coming from Mexico, a study released on Tuesday said.
The report from the Pew Research Center, pewrsr.ch/2Qptbid, based on U.S. Census data and other figures...
November 23rd, 20180On Tuesday, public health officials in the United States and Canada warned against eating romaine lettuce while they investigate an outbreak of E. coli that has sickened 50 people in the two countries, including 13 who were hospitalized.
The alerts, issued as millions of Americans plan their Thanksgiving Day menus, covered all forms...
August 26th, 20180MOSCOW - A senior Russian official warned the U.S. on Saturday against making any “reckless” moves in Syria, the RIA news agency reported.
Reacting to comments by National Security Adviser John Bolton about Washington’s possible strong reaction in the event of a chemical or biological attack in the Syrian region of Idlib, Deputy...
August 6th, 20180Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed a U.S. call for talks on Tuesday, the eve of the imposition of new sanctions that follows Washington’s decision to pull out of an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program.
The United States is due to impose new sanctions against Iran on Tuesday intended to cripple its economy, implementing...
April 30th, 20180By Dr. Rais Attamimi and Dr. Ali Alghail
Recently, some comparative analysis has been in the mainstream media about the way in which, to take one example, American citizens led by the teenagers protested the dangerous availability of assault weapons on the one hand, and citizens of the Middle East, Yemen in particular, when,...
March 13th, 20180MOSCOW - Russia said on Tuesday it had information that the United States planned to bomb the government quarter in Damascus on an invented pretext, and said it would respond militarily if it felt Russian lives were threatened by such an attack.
Rebels in the enclave of eastern Ghouta were planning to fake a chemical weapons attack...
October 31st, 20170WASHINGTON - Federal investigators probing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election charged President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and another aide, Rick Gates, with money laundering on Monday.
A third former Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty in early October to lying to the FBI, it was...
September 8th, 20170CAIRO — Egypt's armed forces said on Tuesday that joint U.S.-Egyptian military exercises will resume this month for the first time since 2009, after U.S. officials canceled them in 2013 following an Egyptian army crackdown on protests.
The joint training is usually held every two years but was also canceled in 2011 after the "Arab...
August 22nd, 20170WASHINGTON — President Trump committed U.S. troops to an open-ended war in Afghanistan, a decision the Afghan government welcomed on Tuesday but which Taliban insurgents warned would make the country a "graveyard for the American empire".
Trump offered few specifics in a speech on Monday but promised a stepped-up military campaign...
July 27th, 20170BEIRUT ― The United States will give Lebanon an extra $140 million to help Syrian refugees and the communities hosting them, the State Department said during a U.S. visit by Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
Lebanon is hosting at least 1.5 million Syrian refugees who have fled the more than six-year conflict there and who now make...
July 19th, 20170WASHINGTON ― The number of terrorist attacks worldwide and deaths from such attacks dropped in 2016 for the second straight year, driven by decreases in Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen, the State Department said on Wednesday.
The total number of terrorist attacks in 2016 dropped 9 percent compared to 2015, while...
