When North Korea deployed hundreds of artillery units, submarines and soldiers to take part in its largest live-fire drill, it was intended as a chilling display of the reclusive regime’s military might. The country boasts the world’s fourth-largest standing army, with more than 1m troops as well as 7m reserves, and last week’s military exercise came as US President Donald Trump ramped up the pressure on Pyongyang […]
World sport power broker Sheikh Ahmad al Fahad al Sabah announced his resignation Sunday from the FIFA council, saying did not want to be a distraction while fighting corruption allegations. Aside from serving on FIFA’s top body, the Kuwaiti is also president of the Olympic Council of Asia and holds other senior roles in sport administration, including with the Asian Football Confederation (FIFA). Sheikh Ahmad has been […]
President Donald Trump was a distracting entertainment from the moment he launched his campaign in June of 2015 — until he wasn’t. His opening speech, in which he called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and told the world he would be the best jobs president “God ever created,” was looked at as the ravings of a man whose outsized ego was too big to be anything but hilarious. News […]
Before comedian Hasan Minhaj got up to poke fun at the assembled White House press corps last night, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein got up to celebrate it. The legendary Watergate duo gave a speech evoking their investigative reporting of the Nixon administration and calling on the current generation of journalists to practice careful, thorough and relentless reporting on the current White House. Below are their remarks, […]
Google Australia has confirmed that the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is chasing it for a debt relating to unpaid tax, noting it will “lodge an objection” against the amended income tax assessments it was issued at year-end. “Such contingencies relate to reviews for open tax years as well as certain transactions and computations for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain during the ordinary course of business,” […]
ABU DHABI // The Sawab Centre, a joint UAE-US initiative combating online propaganda by ISIL and other extremist groups and promoting positive alternatives, has announced the launch of a new anti-youth recruitment campaign on social media. Using the hashtag #DeludedFollowers, the four-day campaign will run until May 3 in Arabic and English on Sawab’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube sites. Even as its territory in Iraq and […]
Ibn Arabi, undoubtedly one of the world’s great spiritual teachers, provokes mixed reactions. There are those that consider the 12th century mystic, philosopher, Islamic scholar, poet and sage to be the foremost spiritual leader and Sufi master in Muslim history. Others regard him as a heretic or even an apostate. There is rarely much middle ground. Ibn Arabi – known as Muhyiddin (the Revivifier of Religion) and […]
Late on Friday afternoon, the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police waltzed out in front of the microphones and admitted that his agency had misused the metadata that the nation’s telecommunication companies are forced to store. It was a stunning admission. The nation had barely made it a fortnight since the deadline for telcos to have their data retention systems in place had passed, yet here was […]
Authored by EconomicPrism’s MN Gordon, annotated by Acting-Man’s Pater Tenebrarum, Seeing the Light It has been said that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” No one quite knows who first uttered this remark; it has been attributed to Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin, and has even been said to be an Ancient Chinese Proverb. What […]
Mexico is urging Donald Trump to reuse agreements reached under the aborted Trans-Pacific Partnership to create a manufacturing powerhouse between the US, Mexico and Canada to compete with low-cost producers in China. Ildefonso Guajardo, Mexico’s economy minister, said in an interview with the Financial Times that elements of TPP could be used to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement between the three countries. His comments came […]
The climate march was held last Saturday, exactly on President Donald J. Trump’s 100th day. People from all walks of life joined the massive protest in Washington, as well as the satellite marches across the country and the world. Though the march is a yearly event, perhaps this year’s march was more meaningful as the fight against climate change has turned into a full-on battle. As protesters marched on […]
WASHINGTON At least 352 civilians have been killed in U.S.-led strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria since the operation began in 2014, the U.S. military said in a statement on Sunday. The Combined Joint Task Force, in its monthly assessment of civilian casualties from the U.S. coalition’s operations against the militant group, said it was still assessing 42 reports of civilian deaths. It added […]
DUBAI // A Bangladeshi driver who chased his countryman around a construction site before stabbing him to death was sentenced to five years in jail by Dubai Criminal Court on Sunday. The 38-year-old attacked his colleague on November 22 at a site in Al Rashidiya at about 7am and the man later died of his injuries. By the time police arrived, the attacker had fled but he […]
By Ahmed Rasheed | BAGHDAD BAGHDAD A top Iraqi commander expects to dislodge Islamic State from Mosul in May despite resistance from militants in the densely populated Old City district. The battle should be completed “in a maximum of three weeks”, the Iraqi army’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi, was quoted as saying by state-run newspaper al-Sabah on Sunday. A U.S.-led international coalition is providing […]
It also ends opposition hopes that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may ease the crackdown and build greater national consensus after his narrow victory in a recent referendum to expand the power of his office. Continue reading the main story Instead, Mr. Erdogan has accelerated the process. Since the referendum, and before Saturday’s move, the police had detained more than 1,000 workers and suspended a further 9,000 accused […]
The two partners of the law firm at the center of last year’sPanama Papers scandal were released from prison on bail of $500,000 (466,000 euros) each on Friday. However, Jürgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca will still face legal action over allegations they facilitated the laundering of assets tied to a wide-spread corruption affair in Brazil. The case is not directly tied to the Panama Papers leak. Both […]
Viewers in the Arab world are still waiting for the first locally produced Netflix Original content. We were assured last week at a promotional event in Dubai for the streaming service that bosses are looking for the “right material” and Arabic production remains a key priority. Meanwhile, Netflix’s stable of international productions continues to grow with release of its first Spanish production, Cable Girls (Las Chicas del […]
Saturday’s American casualty was the third this past week in the fight against the Islamic State. On Wednesday, two American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan during a raid on ISIS fighters. Pentagon officials said they might have been struck by friendly fire. The Defense Department on Friday identified the soldiers, both of them Army Rangers, as Sgt. Joshua Rodgers, 22, and Sgt. Cameron Thomas, 23, deployed from […]
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a new executive order on Friday, April 28 extending offshore oil and gas drilling to areas that had been off-limits. The move aims to increase domestic production, but it might not prove to be the best idea considering that industry demand for acreage has been rather low. The new executive order could expand offshore drilling to parts of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans, […]
A lot of the fruit and vegetable produce at Chefchaouen’s local market is organic. Photo by Samar Al Sayed The fortress was built in 1471 to fight Portuguese invasions of northern Morocco. Photo by Samar Al Sayed Legend has it that the walls were painted blue to keep mosquitoes away. Photo by Samar Al Sayed Another theory is that blue served as a reminder to lead a […]
If you feel like mealtime with the children is more of a battle of wills than a chance to connect with each other and build healthy-eating habits, you are not alone. Whether you are dealing with toddlers or teenagers, enjoying a meal without having to fight through protests, negotiation and tears can be a challenge that isn’t always easy to tackle with tenacity – let’s face it, […]
It has a granite fountain and a bosque of shade trees. And to some rightwing Americans, the new headquarters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a monument to all that went wrong under eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency. The budget for the refurbishment of the Washington DC building, at about $363 a square foot, makes it more expensive than the Venetian hotel in Macau or […]
BEIRUT Fighting between rebel groups in the biggest insurgent stronghold near the Syrian capital Damascus entered a second day on Saturday, while government forces pressed an offensive against the besieged enclave, a war monitor said. The clashes broke out in part of the densely-populated rural area east of Damascus known as the Eastern Ghouta which has been besieged by Syrian government forces since 2013. The Syrian Observatory […]
In a curious incident that is certain to provoke questions about the proximity, not to mention fund flow, between Israel and ISIS the former Israeli Defense Minister, cited by the Times of Israel, said that Islamic State terrorists have on at least one occasion “apologized” to Israel for mistakenly attacking IDF soldiers in the occupied Golan Heights. The disclosure may also provide some insight into why after […]
