WorldcrunchAl-Manassa (“The Tribune”) is an Arabic-language, Egypt-based news website. It was created in 2011.
The Middle East needs a vision that emanates from the region itself, and includes clear reassurances to all parties.
Here, the opportunity appears for Egypt, which can play a vital role in helping neighboring countries shape this vision, after the Middle East that we knew since the Cold War has gone forever.
After meeting Bashar al-Assad, then heir to the Syrian dictatorship, then Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said he feared for the country’s future.
Events have moved very quickly in the past week in Syria, with the demise of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Amid questions over how the country will be run and fears of more conflict, experts parse the national and international influences at play.
Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, there are many questions about the future of Syria. Yet the regional and international powers who planned his collapse did not consider the Syrian people or their future in their calculations. Syrians may be out of Assad’s frying pan, but they’ve been thrown into a fire of armed fundamentalist groups.
Following the successful toppling of the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad by rebels led by Islamist extremist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), there should be much trepidation of just how the nation will be ruled in the coming transition of power.
Reports are spreading of Coptic Orthodox Christian men in Egypt who have been trying to trap their wives in compromising situations to force them to give up all their legal entitlements as required by the Church in order to obtain a divorce.
Israel has been long hailed as an oasis of democratic rule in a region of would-be savage Arabs. But now, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has essentially ruled that it is a racist rogue state.
Turkey has become increasingly concerned about Israel’s expansionist ambitions, both for peace in the region and the Turkish claims to contested territory, given Israeli officials’ comments about “Greater Israel.”
Tipped to succeed slain leader Yahya Sinwar, Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, has just been targeted by an ICC arrest warrant. Back in July, Israel said Deif had been killed in a strike, but Hamas has insisted that he is alive and well.
Trump is seen as a “transactional” operator by leaders in the Middle East. But the appointments to all key positions related to the region suggest that Arabs should brace for the worst of all deals.
In conservative societies like Egypt’s, myths about the female body, including about self-care and sexuality, are very common. For Cairo-based Al-Manassa, Wafaa Khairi talks with Egyptian women about these myths and how they have impacted their physical and emotional health.
The military has cleared many neighborhoods in Khartoum and Omdurman from RSF fighters, paving the road for many refugees to return home.
Relations between Egypt and Iran have been growing closer. But the return of Donald Trump to the White House could be a setback for the rapprochement, given that Iran is among his top enemies.
Will the Arabs take the initiative to take tangible measures before the fire reaches their countries, or will they be forced to be mere tools and bases to protect Israel? After the six-day war of 1967, the Three No’s of an Arab Summit set a new hardline. That should be the model now.
A recent AI-generated video showing giants building the pyramids has revived questions around the myths and science behind these mysterious monuments, Egyptian journalist Abdul Halim Hafina looks into both for Cairo-based Al-Manassa.
A Donald Trump victory would likely mean that the expected calm in the confrontation between Israel and Iran in the coming weeks will be just a warrior’s rest.
Israel’s new offensive in northern Gaza is trying to make the region uninhabitable, and force Palestinians into the south, toward the Egyptian border and into the Sinai. But since the start of the war, Egypt is dead set against taking in more war refugees.
The Arab front in favor of the Palestinian people is more feeble and ambiguous than ever, even as the people of Gaza are being killed by the thousands. Multiple factors explain this weakness, from fears of a repeat of the 2011 uprisings inside their own countries to longstanding competition with Iran.
With its access to the Red Sea, Sudan is more strategic than many wish to admit. A Russian cargo plane shot down in Darfur this week sheds light on the positioning going on among the world’s powers.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, Palestinians in Gaza have lived in emotional, psychological and physical stress — a situation that has pushed many couples to the brink. The Cairo-based news website Al-Manassa speaks with Palestinians who have divorced due to the war.
The Salafis, along with Gulf States like Saudi Arabia, consider the Shias as a greater threat to Islam than Zionism.
With up to two million displaced, United Nations designated more than 50 sites and shelters as the most vulnerable areas for floods and rainfall across Gaza. But as some people have been displaced multiple times, and humanitarian aid is being blocked, refugees have few options to shelter themselves ahead of the upcoming winter.
Israel’s war on Gaza has turned into a bloodbath, as ultimately demanded by the country’s ultra-religious rulers to remain in power as long as possible.
Benjamin Netanyahu escaped the growing calls to stop the war in Gaza and bring the hostages back, by launching another war on Hezbollah. It’s a taste of what’s to come.
Israel’s aggression over the past few months, no matter how successful, is ultimately a sign of its weakness. Yet it is able to achieve its goals from the support it receives from a number of players inside and outside the region, whether they realize it or not. That even, paradoxically, includes Iran.
Egyptian authorities give Gaza’s refugees a 45-day tourist visa which doesn’t allow them to apply for residency, study or work in the country. But online learning platforms, including the West Bank’s official educational system, are helping children with their schooling, despite the war.
When Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike on a stronghold in Beirut, journalist Khaled Dawoud recalled his meeting with the head of Hezbollah more than two decades ago, and gauges how his death marks the end of an era of confrontation with Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out a careful plot to push and ultimately shatter the long-established “rules of engagement” in the Middle East. It caught everyone, from Iran to Hezbollah to the White House, by surprise. The aim is to remake the whole region to revolve around Israel.
The latest developments in the Middle East are part of longer-term shifts that are pushing to U.S. into a tougher stance in the region.
![Close-up photo of a Hezbollah supporter sporting a headband that reads in Arabic and Hebrew "We swear we will cross [into Israel]" during a rally in Beirut.](https://worldcrunch.com/assets/uploads/2025/03/close-up-photo-of-a-hezbollah-supporter-sporting-a-headband-that-reads-in-arabic-and-hebrew-we-swear-we-will-cross-into-israel-during-a-rally-in-beirut-1568x1176.jpg)
We have entered a new phase of confrontation. The war on the northern front has become a reality and not just threats. Hezbollah may be reeling after the pagers attack and the bombings in southern Lebanon, but it is also set to go on the offensive, taking aim at Israel’s northern coastal city of Haifa.
It was the exceptional time that changed the equation, and revived the Palestinian dream. It also awakened the hidden Israeli plans: the extermination of the Palestinian people, the liquidation of their cause, and the evacuation of their land.
It seems the White House will pay attention to your case depending on your ethnicity, but it’s actually your politics. The Biden administration’s response to the death of Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi after the Israeli-American hostages killed by Hamas raises the question: does the United States only care about its citizens when they agree with US policy?
Associations and activists in Tunisia are taking to the streets to express their anger and condemn a surge in gender-motivated violence in the country, where one femicide occurs every two weeks.
If there is a real peace project and an Israeli intention to solve the Palestinian tragedy, Hamas would have lost its justification for existence. Not just Hamas, but all the resistance factions.
Stepping over dead bodies. Visiting shrines. Laying on the ground and rolling in a desert cemetery. These are ancient practices that some Egyptian women still turn to in hopes of becoming pregnant.
Arab Americans’ outrage over the Biden-Harris administration’s politics is understandable. But boycotting the election — or voting for a third-party candidate — would benefit Donald Trump, who has played up his relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu. What choice does that leave?
The Philadelphi Corridor has again become a sticking point in the ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel. It’s all premeditated as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pursues his undeclared goal: keep fighting in order to occupy Gaza.
Over the past five years, tuk-tuk prices have soared because of a government ban on importing the vehicle, and the inflation waves that rocked the Arab world’s most populous country. But tuk-tuks are not only a preferred system of transport, they are also a source of income for a large part of the Egyptian population — and the price hikes are crushing many young people’s dreams.
Is there anyone among us who can live with the guilt of turning away those who escaped death and sought refuge in Egypt? Can our conscience bear the death of an individual because we closed our door and let him die?
Egypt disqualified a track cyclist from the Paris Olympics following an incident of unsportsmanlike behavior. But there is general confusion in Egyptian society — whether in politics or soccer — over the concept of competition.