Israeli jets carried out several waves of attacks, launching a total of 45 missiles first in daylight on Sunday and then again for 55 minutes after midnight. The Israeli attack on multiple Syrian targets coincided with the one day Arab Economic and Social Development Summit which began on Sunday in Beirut. Israel is known for…
“No war is over until the enemy says it’s over,” James Mattis, the former Marine Corps General and recently resigned secretary of state, is quoted as saying. “We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.” Mattis’s statement was made in 2012, well before President Donald Trump, in…
The highly influential and well-connected Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) is proposing that Moscow organize a multilateral conference to re-divide the Balkans along ethnic lines, which would advance the controversial proposal made by former British diplomat Timothy Less in late 2016 but might also inadvertently open up Pandora’s Box, though it could very well be…
The Roman poet Ovid’s masterful epic The Metamorphoses includes the memorable opening line regarding the poem’s central theme of transformation. He wrote In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas corpora, which has been translated as “Of shapes transformed to bodies strange, I purpose to entreat…” Ovid framed his narrative around gods, heroes and quasi-historical events…
18-year-old Saudi citizen Rahaf al-Qunun ran away from her family during a vacation in Kuwait after boarding a flight to Thailand where she planned to transit en route to Australia after asking for asylum. She claimed that her family physically and mentally abused her and that she’d face certain death if she returned home after…
On January 2 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Brazil, and his Department noted that in discussions with Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo they “highlighted the importance of working together to address regional and global challenges, including supporting the people of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua in restoring their democratic governance and their human rights.” Pompeo declared that the US…
