Worldcrunch
Putin has threatened Ukraine with a long war in the hope that Western support will wane and that his troops will eventually outnumber Ukraine’s. But his army has had a few difficult months and arms production can’t keep up. Meanwhile, Western support for Kyiv is holding steady.
With the World Economic Forum in Davos going on, French President Macron is launching with urgency the debate on a common defense for European countries, in light of Ukraine, the Middle East — and a possible return of Trump.
Since Oct. 7, Israel has launched a crackdown on Palestinians, in both Gaza and the West Bank. Once the new detainees are taken to jail, they allege that authorities regularly take an extra hard line, including a disturbingly high number of prisoners killed.
As the situation escalates in the Middle East, the prospect of an all-out war may hinge on whether Iran will cross the Rubicon.
After 100 days of war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that he has no plans to listen to what any other country has to say, including his closest allies. There’s every reason to expect the situation to get worse.
Ecuador’s President has called in the army to fight the country’s rampant drug gangs. Sadly he can at best sever the fingertips of a criminal hydra, as big as the world itself.
Cicero declared that when weapons speak, the law goes mute. So what happens when the law speaks up even as the weapons keep firing? That’s what happening now at the International Court of Justice at the Hague.
The UN Security Council resolution providing for the safe, unhindered and widespread delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza has done little to avoid the most dire conditions from spreading in the war-torn enclave.
It is rare that a wartime leader doesn’t gain the support of his people. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, instead, has the most dismal popularity ratings in memory. But he is also Israel’s longest-serving leader for a reason. The coming days and weeks will be crucial in deciding his fate, along with that of his troubled nation.
After two months of war, experts in Ukraine are starting to consider what plan could work to restore the local infrastructure and economy, looking at the experience of Germany, Japan and Italy — countries that went down in history for their economic miracles after being destroyed by war.
By eliminating Saleh al-Arouri, an important Hamas leader, with a drone strike in Beirut, Israel has taken a risky gamble: that Lebanon’s Hezbollah and its Iranian allies will not go to war over the death on Lebanese territory of a top Hamas figure.
In Ukraine and Gaza alike, international laws on the proper conduct of war, largely established by the post-War Geneva Convention, are being trampled on by all parties, to varying degrees. Civilians are paying the ultimate price for this.
The French-American writer recalls a trip last Christmas to her father’s native Louisiana, and an invitation for some firing-range fun in the backyard.
In two very different ways, the failure of the United Nations to inhibit aggressive nations is a sign of only more trouble ahead.
Updated Dec. 23 2023 at 12:00 p.m. On this day in 1979, the Soviet Union intervened in support of the Afghan communist government in its conflict with anti-communist Muslim guerrillas during the Afghan War, after Afghanistan’s centrist government was overthrown by left-wing military officers led by Nur Mohammad Taraki. Why did the Soviets invade Afghanistan? […]
Fedaa Zeyad is tired of seeing all the attempts to portray the people of Gaza as superheroes, somehow undeterred in the face of death. She prefers to present them simply as human beings: fearful, tired, desperate, objecting to the terms and conditions of this war.
Israel has launched a massive campaign of retaliatory detentions in the occupied West Bank. The campaign aims not only to humiliate the detainees, but it has also targeted those who have been released and it has revealed widespread violations and Israel’s determination to punish “all” Palestinians.
December 18 – December 24, 2023
Faced with rising violence and climatic catastrophes, stoicism teaches us how to cultivate our inner selves, and how to continue living without giving in to fear.
The Jenin refugee camp is rapidly spinning out of control, as the West Bank security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority dissolves. The Israeli military wants to make an example of this symbol of Palestinian resistance in the West Bank.
The American superpower (and its European allies) are not seeing the results they’d hoped for Ukraine’s war against Russia, while the Middle East spirals out of control. Chinese leaders may see Washington as too vulnerable to challenge it in the South China Sea.
Palestinians are being terrorized by Israel’s attacks and constantly shifting evacuation orders. Meanwhile, no country in or out of the region has agreed to take in refugees, and Gazans may not even go, still haunted by the “Nakba,” the mass displacement of Palestinians after 1948. The rising death count is the clearest sign of a truly desperate situation.
The UN Secretary-General is raising the tone in the war in Gaza, but it comes at a time when international institutions are extremely weak. Looking back at history, that’s a dangerous thing.
December 11 – December 17, 2023
Putting the latest AI breakthroughs at the service of national security raises major practical and ethical questions for the Pentagon.
Turkish President Erdogan has now called on the International Criminal Court to go after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for war crimes, as the clash between the two regional powers has reached a new low.
October 2 – October 8, 2023
The information coming out of the Palestinian enclave is scarce but undoubtedly grim. An Italian reporter from across the border gathers information from inside Gaza amid a fragile and inevitably temporary ceasefire.
The West’s decision to pressure Israel over Gaza, and indulge Iran’s violent and troublesome regime, follows the U.S. Democrats’ line with the Middle East: just keep us out of your murderous affairs.
In Ukraine, kamikaze drones have gradually overtaken artillery as the main threat to soldiers — on both sides of the frontline. Meanwhile, a bitter winter is taking over life in the trenches.
Heated debate in Israel and abroad over the increase in the budget for settlements in the occupied West Bank is a reminder that wartime national unity will not outlast a deep ideological divide.
Twenty years of costly interventions and China’s economic ascent have robbed the United States of its global supremacy. It is time for the two biggest powers to work together, to help the world.
Having been stuck outside their besieged homeland, hundreds of Palestinians have reentered Gaza, preferring to risk it all to be close to loved ones.
Hydrocarbons continue to drive nations’ economies and politics around the world, creating both corruption, stagnation and — sadly as we’ve seen again — all-out war.
November 27 – December 3, 2023
With Qatar now confirming that the temporary truce will begin Friday morning, ordinary Gazans may be able to breathe for the first time since Oct. 7. But for most, the task ahead is a mix of heartbreak and the most practical tasks to survive. And there’s the question hanging over all: can the ceasefire become permanent?
Protests in big cities in the U.S. and Europe against Israel may remind some Iranians of the Western Left’s deluded, and arrogant, support in 1979 for a revolution that turned Iran and the Middle East into a cesspool of terrorism.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed ahead a deal negotiated via Qatar, for a four-day truce and an exchange of 50 hostages for 150 Palestinian prisoners. Though the humanitarian and political pressure was mounting, Israel’s all-out assault is suddenly halted, with unforeseen consequences for the future.
A visit to so-called “Little Gaza,” where destruction reigns and children roam with rifles in their hands. But the enemy isn’t just the IDF, it is also the Palestinian Authority — and become prime recruiting territory for Hamas.
Taiwanese, though under the weight of a far more powerful neighbor, have the tendency to idealize Israel and fail to create a self-definition beyond the island nation’s anti-China image.