Relegated to the backbench of the UK parliament, George Osborne has a great deal more time on his hands after the very public failed Brexit ‘Remain’ campaign. The former British chancellor is using the downtime to investigate why a wave of populist nationalism is currently sweeping across the world – and how it managed to bruise his political career as well as that of former prime minister […]
Photo Syrian civilians, in eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo retaken by government forces, returned to their homes on Thursday under military supervision. Credit George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BEIRUT, Lebanon — Russian officials said Thursday that the Syrian Army had stopped combat operations in the divided city of Aleppo in order to evacuate civilians, but residents of the rebel-held enclave reported that after a day of intense […]
Brexit may have come at the most fortunate time for the GCC. As the Gulf seeks greater support to fend off security risks in the region, including Iranian actions, and avenues to shore up bilateral trade in replacement of lost oil revenues, the UK is reaching out to old friends in a bid to strengthen non-mainland European relationships. “We will make it a priority, when the UK […]
By Laila Bassam and John Davison | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT The Syrian army’s advance in Aleppo slowed on Thursday but a victory was still firmly in sight after President Bashar al-Assad vowed that retaking the city would change the course of the six-year-old war. Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying the Syrian army, which has captured territory including Aleppo’s historic […]
ABU DHABI // The US presidential election, religious occasions and rainstorms were among the most discussed topics on Facebook by people in the UAE this year. On Thursday, Facebook released its Year in Review’s top moments of 2016 from people in the country and around the world. “As the year comes to a close, we have seen people in the UAE connect in big and small ways […]
WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone on Thursday about the situation in Aleppo and agreed to keep discussing a ceasefire to allow aid delivery and the departure of anyone who wants to leave the embattled city, the State Department said. The phone call was in addition to a brief meeting the two men had on Thursday on […]
ABU DHABI // The US presidential election, religious occasions and rainstorms were among the most discussed topics on Facebook by people in the UAE this year. On Thursday, Facebook released its Year in Review’s top moments of 2016 from people in the country and around the world. “As the year comes to a close, we have seen people in the UAE connect in big and small ways […]
HAMBURG U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday left a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe to head to Paris for further meetings on Syria on Saturday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters. Kerry told reporters after a second bilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Hamburg that he was “hopeful” about reaching an accord with Moscow that would […]
He said that he was speaking from a makeshift medical clinic and that doctors were working in secret basement locations after being driven from hospitals. There were dozens of wounded and dead around him, including children, he added. Continue reading the main story “My neighbors have died; they were brought here,” he said. “I couldn’t ask them, ‘Where is my family?’ ” The latest round of fighting […]
ANKARA Turkey is conducting intense talks with Russia for a ceasefire in Syria’s Aleppo and to allow humanitarian aid into the war-ravaged city, President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said on Thursday. Ibrahim Kalin also told a news conference in Ankara that Syrian government forces were carrying out crimes against humanity and war crimes in the city. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz and Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by David Dolan; Editing […]
BAGHDAD Iraq’s parliament speaker called on Thursday for a government inquiry into air strikes on a western border town which killed around 60 people, mostly civilians. Hospital sources and local parliamentarians said three air strikes killed dozens of civilians, including 12 women and 19 children on Wednesday in a market district of the Islamic State-held town of Qaim, close to the border with Syria. A spokesman for […]
The release in cinemas last week of Ali Khaled’s Lights of Rome about the UAE football team at the World Cup in 1990 was the latest development in what has been a strong couple of years for documentaries in UAE cinema, as well as the wider Arab world which has a long history of documentary filmmaking. A high point for the industry here was undoubtedly 2015’s He […]
Submitted by MiddleEastEye.net via TheAntiMedia.org, Saudi authorities banned journalist Jamal Khashoggi from writing in newspapers, appearing on TV and attending conferences, the Alkhalij Aljadid reported in Arabic. This came after Khashoggi’s remarks during a presentation he made at a Washington think-tank on 10 November in which he was critical of Donald Trump’s ascension to the US presidency. Two weeks ago, an official Saudi source was cited by […]
MOSCOW Russia and the United States are close to reaching an understanding on Syria’s Aleppo, the Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday. “In the past several days an intensive document exchange on the situation in Aleppo has taken place,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying. “We are close to reaching an understanding, but I want to warn against high expectations,” […]
Britain plans to deepen security cooperation with Gulf Arab countries and work with them to counter Iranian actions in the region, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday. Addressing a meeting on the sidelines of the Gulf Cooperation Summit in Bahrain, May said Britain would invest more than 3 billion pounds in defence spending in the region over the next decade. “Gulf security is our security,” May […]
MOSCOW — The Russian government announced Wednesday that it will sell nearly 20 percent of its state oil company, Rosneft, to the Swiss commodity trading firm Glencore and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar. The deal defies expectations that no investor would dare buy a share in the Russian asset, given Western sanctions against the government of President Vladimir V. Putin. But the emergence of foreign money […]
By Hamid Shalizi and Josh Smith | KABUL KABUL Afghan and American officials are increasingly worried that any deepening of ties between Russia and Taliban militants fighting to topple the government in Kabul could complicate an already precarious security situation. Russian officials have denied they provide aid to the insurgents, who are contesting large swathes of territory and inflicting heavy casualties, and say their limited contacts are […]
News stories are released on weekdays. 2 hours ago Vatican confirms ban on homosexual candidates for priesthood The Vatican has confirmed that homosexual men should not be ordained to the priesthood. In a new instruction for the training of seminarians, entitled The Gift of the Priestly Vocation, the Congregation for the Clergy says that the Church “cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those […]
By Lisa Barrington and Tom Perry | BEIRUT BEIRUT Syrian rebels in besieged eastern Aleppo called on Wednesday for an immediate five-day ceasefire and the evacuation of civilians and wounded, but gave no indication they were ready to withdraw as demanded by Damascus and Moscow. The Syrian army and allied forces have made rapid gains against insurgents in the past two weeks and look closer than ever […]
GENEVA More Syrians have fled eastern Aleppo, with reports of about 800 arriving in the past 24 hours at a disused cotton factory in the Jibreen district of west Aleppo and 1,260 in Hanano district, retaken by government forces, a U.N. official said on Wednesday. Bus loads of civilians continue to arrive in government-controlled areas of the city and leave for other sites or to lodge with […]
But in an era of internet hoaxes, fabrications and the increased use of fake news around the world to further political agendas, Bana’s Twitter account has also raised some questions of veracity and authenticity. Continue reading the main story Her messages are sophisticated for a 7-year-old, for example, particularly for one whose native language is not English. This is my reading place where I wanted to start […]
BEIRUT The Lebanese army on Wednesday said it had arrested four people in connection with the fatal shooting of a soldier and the wounding of a second on Sunday at a military installation in northern Lebanon. Four people were arrested in dawn raids in Beqaa Safrin, the town where the attack took place, and weapons used in the shooting were seized, an army statement carried by the […]
BEIRUT A Syrian military source said Israeli rockets hit around the Mezzeh military airport near the Syrian capital Damascus at around 3 a.m. on Wednesday. The source said the ground-to-ground rockets caused a fire but no injuries. The Israeli military did not comment on the report. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington in Beirut and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Catherine Evans) ‘); $(‘.second-article-divide’).append($(‘.slider.slider-module’)); $(‘.third-article-divide’).append(”); var median = […]
ISTANBUL Turkish warplanes pounded 12 Islamic State targets in the al-Bab region of northern Syria on Wednesday, killing 23 militants, the military said. The air strikes were launched as Syrian rebels, backed by Turkish troops and firepower, besiege Islamic State controlled al-Bab as part of the three-month-old Euphrates Shield operation to push the jihadists and a Kurdish militia away from Turkey’s border. Separately, one Turkish soldier was […]
