Diplomacy & Crisis News

Prominently written on history’s ‘gate of shame’ are these haunting words: Hubris never had a worse enemy than itself; you may ask these specialists: Hitler, Pharaoh, or perhaps Lucifer. So, the extreme arrogance and the above-all-laws attitude expressed by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as his apartheid regime committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the so-called 11 day war is likely to be remembered as Israel’s self-administered demise.

The newly formed coalition government led by another darling of the extremist settlers—Naftali Bennett—asserted its commitment to continue business as usual.

Israel has been viciously oppressing the Palestinian people for more than seven decades while most of the American and Western media groups were providing disinformation or highly sanitized versions of the reality on the ground to keep their audiences oblivious and apathetic.     

Defining the Crime

The most heinous and indeed most politicized form of oppression is what is known as genocide or ethnic cleansing.  

Semantic smoke screening is often used to veil one brand of genocide or another, to accentuate the suffering of one community over others with similar experiences, to underscore sanctity of certain lives over others. Most of us, for one reason or another, have internalized such moral cognitive dissonance, therefore it is seldom challenged, And those who directly or indirectly challenge that mindset are labeled anti-Semite.

You may recall the storm of controversy and slanderous campaign targeting the prominent African-American film director, Spike Lee, after he tweeted: ‘American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust.’ 

Whether one calls it ‘Holocaust’, ‘Shoah’, or ‘Nakba’, or cataclysmic suffering or the catastrophic one, there should be no exceptionalism in such crimes against humanity. The Palestinian people have been suffering physical, economical, political, and psychological holocaust like no other society in contemporary history. 

When it comes to this issue, we need to find a footing in the moral clarity of the younger generation. It does not matter whether genocide was executed in 100 days as in Rwanda, or in 4 years as in Nazi Germany, or in decades as in apartheid Israel. The latter is executed incrementally by way of relentless daily brutality, extreme humiliation, periodical invasions, economic strangulation, mass imprisonment, torture, expulsion, home demolitions and land-grab to uproot the indigenous Palestinians in order to build, as the Jewish human rights organization B’Tselem put it, a regime of Jewish supremacy.  

So unless we play politics with justice and in the fundamental worth of human lives, we should accept the fact all aforementioned cases represent the same evil. And in that spirit, and with utmost respect to the sentimental or collective history value of Nakba, this analyst will deliberately use ‘the indigenous Palestinian holocaust’ to remind the world that the cry ‘never again’ should not be a selective moral outrage.          

Nature of the Beast

While ‘apartheid’ does provide historical reference to the racism that drives much of what the Jewish state does, it does not capture the magnitude of the horrific oppression and dehumanization that the indigenous Palestinian people live under.

If the apartheid regime could deliberately target homes, apartments or commercial towers that are the headquarters of international media such Associated Press, Aljazeera, and host of other aid organizations and civil societies on a broad daylight, try to imagine what they could do away from the cameras and media scrutiny.

Since 1948, indigenous Palestinians have been ‘cleansed’ out of much of the land that was once known as Palestine, and that vicious process is now in full force to put the last few nails on the two-state solution that has been dangled in front of the Palestinian authority for so long time. In the West Bank—an area recognized under the international law as an occupied territory—has been peppered with over 400 Israeli colonies with more than 600,000 Jewish settlers

However, if you are somewhat confused due to the false narratives advanced by certain politicians, think tanks, and media groups and you found yourself sitting on the fence on who is the oppressed and who is the oppressor, you might need to read the Human Rights Watch’s 217 page damning verdict entitled A Threshold Crossed.

Ironically, outdoing its trademark arrogance, in less than two weeks after the report ignited broad debate over the nature of the Israeli regime, Benjamin Netanyahu started in-your-face orgies of war crimes and crimes against humanity violations. So much in violation of the international law that if they were committed by another country in the world, the apartheid-protecting world’s moral police, otherwise known as the U.S., would have mobilized a ‘coalition of the willing’ to invade that country and brought it down into submission. 

But, if you still find yourself unconvinced that Israel is a racist country, let the ill-famed Jacob The ‘Settler’ tell you how the last apartheid regime in the world operationalizes land grab and justify it. In the video, a courageous Palestinian female home owner confronts Jacob (Yaakov Fauci) who literally stole her home and tells him: you are stealing my house. He responds with this heartless colonial logic: “If I don’t steal it, someone else (another settler) will….so what’s the point?” Here is him doing what he called a “damage control”.  

Will the Current ‘Cease fire’ Bring Lasting Peace?

The short answer is ‘no’; because this cease fire is not grounded on a sound political settlement,  Hamas that should be part of any political solution is still considered by the U.S. as a terrorist organization, and the apartheid forces are still provoking and violating Islam’s third holiest mosques, al-Aqsa.

For Israel and its Zionist supporters, the cease fire was a great opportunity to defuse the global moral outrage against the brutality of the apartheid regime and the above-the-law status secured to Benjamin Netanyahu who should have his day at the International Criminal Court.

Let’s be frank here, the apartheid regime has no incentive to change its modus operandi of constantly moving the goal post for solution by establishing new facts on the ground (more colonies and more Jewish settlers who mostly migrated from U.S. and Europe).

Moreover, under its current tactic, Israel deliberately destroys lives, significant number of residential and commercial towers, hospitals, schools, bridges, sacred places and other components of Gaza’s already frail infrastructure without suffering any consequences.

The U.S. provides the apartheid regime absolute protection with its ‘Veto Power’ at the UN Security Council and it mobilizes a few of her oil rich friends to bankroll the cost of reconstruction. Israel is like that spoiled boy who smashes all pottery on display at the store so his dad’s clients would pay for the damage. Apparently the ‘you broke it, you pay for it’ rule does not apply to Israel. So under such unchecked privilege and indeed power, why would Israel respect the international law and stop its war crimes and crimes against humanity?

Enhancing the Non-violent Strategy

No liberation is achieved and sustained at random, so those who have been at the forefront of the indigenous Palestinian struggle would have to think and act more strategically than ever before. And that may require pulling together divergent ideas, personalities, and priorities.

Some New and Od Ideas to Ponder:

Collecting and documenting property deeds, house keys, family photos, decapitated dolls, dead person’s shoes, bullet-ridden garments, and all other belongings that attest to the humanity that those indigenous Palestinians were denied in their lifetimes. These items should be displayed at a future museum to be named the Indigenous Palestinian Holocaust Museum.

Establish International Friends of Palestine Registry to list all organizations and activist groups for effective collaboration and motivation to sustain the global moral outrage, and intellectual intifada for liberty, justice and peace. 

Organize, fundraise, and find pro bono legal services for victims and their families to file criminal and civil lawsuits against Israeli officials and military commanders at various U.S. courts and in other Western countries that will allow.

Streamline the anti-apartheid movements and Palestine liberation advocacy groups under one vision, distinctive logo and inspiring slogan. 

Now that a federal judge has declared Georgia’s anti-BDS law to protect Israel as against the First Amendment, thus unconstitutional, the BDS movement (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) should reach every household using television, radio and other media ads as well as billboards.

Recruit celebrities, congressional figures, and other influencers to invite international media to cover their constitutionally protected civil disobedience and maybe subsequent arrests. In addition to the Israeli embassy, targets should include the State Department, Zionist and Right-Wing institutions, and all others that lend the apartheid regime funding and blind support. Imagine the curiosity and the debate it would’ve provoked if Senator Bernie Sanders—who is a Jew and a civil rights activist—getting arrested for protesting against apartheid Israel.    

Establish a counter-MEMRI TV that archives and translates into English violence inciting hate-speeches by zealot Rabbis, politicians, settlers, and others. Also the abuses, provocations, and violence intended to make life unbearable for the indigenous Palestinian people.

Meeting with editorial boards of major newspapers such as New York Times, Washington Post, etc. as well as decision makers on television and cable news to pressure them for fair coverages and to place correspondents in Gaza to better educate their respective audiences. 

Streamline speakers under one bureau that cultivates them to become well-versed on the liberation cause, to speak at various gatherings, conferences, human rights platforms, conferences such as the Congressional Black Caucasus, and call in right-wing and apartheid supporting radio programs with factual information to dispel their disinformation.

Organize a diverse team of social media savvy young men and women to monitor disinformation, to expose BOTS, disseminate factual information, and persuade the misinformed.

Solicit wealthy Muslims and non-Muslims to produce Hollywood films that tell this holocaust from the indigenous Palestinian perspective. These investments could produce films that are educational, empowering, and profitable.

Lastly and perhaps more importantly, build diplomatic, media, academia, think tanks, and social media activists alliance to pressure the U.N. to reform. And that reform must include restructuring of the Security Council and the absolute authority or ‘veto power’ granted to current 5 permanent members. Imagine if the permanent members were 9 and a ‘veto power’ required two thirds’ vote. Also, the UN must become an independently funded institution that is not politically beholden to one wealthy funder or another.

Though Israel has advanced militarily, scientifically, and in the fields of intelligence and entrepreneurship, the Zionist project is clearly a failed project of first degree. With U.S. taxpayers’ $4 billion annual free check, apartheid Israel is the mother of all ‘welfare queens.’ And that certainly is not sustainable.

America continues to lose a great deal of international credibility in its unconditional or absolute support of a ruthless colonizer and an apartheid regime that is bent on holocausting indigenous Palestinians for an exclusive Jewish state.

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Great powers should not intervene in and prolong wars in hopes of instituting democratic reforms as part of counterinsurgency.

With the recent and severe condemnation of Belarus’ actions against an opposition activist and a civil airliner, with must acknowledge that the same level of continuing condemnation should continue to address the murder of the passengers and crew of Ukrainian Airlines Flight PS752 over a year ago. Recently, the crime that was the murder of hundreds of innocent civilians on PS752 by Iran’s Air Defense forces was acknowledged as an “act of terrorism” as well as “intentional” by a Canadian court in the Province of Ontario where many of the surviving families of the victims reside.

The late Cold War sophistication of the TOR-M1 system that shot two surface to air missiles at a passenger plane three minutes after takeoff from Teheran’s International Airport is well known to have a horrific and brutal effect on victims of an airliner. The TOR-M1 has several fail safe plans and mechanisms as part of its design and implementation. It is difficult to see how an accident could have occurred on so many levels. With the firing unit of the TOR-M1 having its own radars and optical systems, as well as being linked to the tracking and guidance systems of several other TOR-M1s in the unit, PS752 would have been seen on all of their radars and ID systems. The units are always under the control of a dedicated control unit in the field that is in communication with the central command structure of the Air Defense Forces of the Iranian military, who also have information and flight plans for civilian air routes. The TOR-M1s were purchased from Russia, who often trains and organises the use of such weapons when sold abroad, and it is doubtful that the method and training on the TOR-M1s would have been lax when they were purchased and installed within Iran’s Armed Forces.

Despite the obvious horror of the murder of the passenger of Flight PS752, there has been a somewhat passive approach by Canada where most of the victims resided to achieve true justice for the families. Many of the families who lost loved ones were harassed in Iran itself, and the Prime Minister of Canada was photographed bowing, joyful and shaking hands with Iran’s foreign minister weeks after Iran killed his citizens. Hopefully the recent judgment will motivate the Government of Canada to respect the victims of this clear human rights atrocity, by acknowledging how the use of military grade weapons on civilians occurred, and move beyond simply a financial compensation package for victims where an account of justice clearly needs to take place. Considering their lack of immediate action in condemning the Uighur Genocide, there seems to be a moral deficit with many Western leaders in 2021.

With the two missiles that shot down PS752, it has been reported that many of the 4000 rockets that were fired into Israel were supplied and designed by Iran’s military as well. These missiles were aimed and fired at civilian targets in order to continue their use of military grade weapons against civilians, even pointed towards civilian airports, hospitals and schools. While the TOR-M1 missiles were precise weapons, the rockets fired are similar to smaller calibre GRAD, or Katyusha type rockets used as deadly artillery by the Soviet Army against the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. One of the most feared weapons of the Soviets during the Second World War, the GRAD rockets are designed to flatten a wide area using multiple missiles to destroy full units of dozens of tanks and troops. To fire such a military grade weapon in a populated area is a clear crime against humanity, as was the firing on Flight PS752. Governments need to show that shooting into a crowd of civilians with any type of weapon is horrific, those that choose to delay or qualify condemnation are clearly ignoring fundamental rights.

Zero tolerance is paramount in the use of military grade weapons on civilians, without an ounce of qualification.

Le 25 juin dernier, Audrey Tonnelier a publié dans Le Monde un article consacré à la dette publique française. Elle cite à cette occasion le contrechamps du numéro d’été de Politique étrangère (n° 2/2021), « Que faire de la dette ? ».

Les stigmates de la crise sanitaire continuent de peser sur les comptes publics. Au sortir de quinze mois de pandémie, la dette publique française (qui additionne celle de l’Etat, des administrations de Sécurité sociale et des collectivités) a poursuivi sa hausse, pour atteindre le niveau record de 118,2 % du produit intérieur brut (PIB) au premier trimestre 2021, soit 2 739,2 milliards d’euros, a annoncé l’Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (Insee), vendredi 25 juin.

Cette nouvelle progression est due « en partie » aux « mesures de soutien liées à la crise sanitaire et au plan de relance », mais près de la moitié de cet endettement « alimente la trésorerie des administrations publiques », principalement celles de l’Etat et de l’Agence centrale des organismes de Sécurité sociale, qui chapeaute le réseau des Urssaf, précise l’Institut national des statistiques. Par ailleurs, la contribution des administrations locales à l’endettement public augmente légèrement, de 0,9 milliard d’euros, au premier trimestre, « principalement sous l’impulsion des régions et des communes », alors qu’Ile-de-France Mobilité et la Société du Grand Paris se désendettent de respectivement 100 millions et 200 millions d’euros. Autrement dit, si la dette publique a gonflé de 89 milliards en trois mois, seule une grosse moitié (48 milliards) est due à une hausse nette de l’endettement.

En fin d’année dernière, la dette française avait déjà explosé à 115,7 % du PIB, soit quelque 2 650 milliards d’euros, contre 98,1 % avant la crise. Traditionnellement, les montants de dette sont souvent plus élevés au premier trimestre, car l’Agence France Trésor, chargée de placer la dette française auprès des investisseurs, procède à des opérations plus importantes.

« C’est conjoncturel, relativise-t-on à Bercy. Il s’agit d’un pic qui va redescendre à la fin de l’année en parallèle des mesures de relance et d’urgence. » Après plus d’un an de « quoi qu’il en coûte », et malgré les incertitudes sanitaires toujours présentes, qui rendent difficile toute projection, le gouvernement a, en effet, prévu de réduire progressivement les outils de soutien à l’emploi et aux entreprises mis en place durant l’épidémie. D’ici à septembre, les aides aux secteurs les plus touchés par les restrictions sanitaires – hôtels, restaurants, culture, événementiel, sport… – seront progressivement arrêtées. Les chèques du fonds de solidarité et la prise en charge par l’Etat du chômage partiel doivent s’éteindre de façon dégressive sur trois mois. […]

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Lire la suite de l’article ici.

Lire les deux articles du Contrechamps : « La dette publique est-elle un problème ? », par François Geerolf et Pierre Jacquet, et « Perspectives de l’endettement public », par François Ecalle.

Qui aurait pu croire il y a quelques années encore que les dirigeants des deux frères ennemis, l'Inde et le Pakistan, se retrouveraient deux fois en l'espace d'un mois ? Et qui aurait imaginé qu'Islamabad prendrait quelque distance avec son allié de toujours, l'Arabie saoudite ? Deux exemples de ce (...) / Afghanistan, Arabie saoudite, Asie, Intégration régionale, Inde, Iran, Pakistan, Proche-Orient, Armée, Commerce international, Conflit, Économie, État, Géopolitique, Guérilla, Idéologie, Industrie de l'armement, Services secrets, Terrorisme, Yémen, Diplomatie, Gaz naturel - 2016/03

Les gouvernements démocratiques qui ont suivi la dictature de M. Augusto Pinochet ont paradoxalement utilisé son héritage militaro-judiciaire à l'encontre des Mapuches. La nuit va recouvrir les collines de la communauté de Chekenko, semées de pins et d'eucalyptus à perte de vue. Le froid pince et des (...) / Amérique latine, Chili, Citoyenneté, Démocratie, Droits des minorités, Mouvement de contestation - 2006/02

Cette recension a été publiée dans le numéro d’été 2021 de Politique étrangère (n° 2/2021). Paul Maurice, chercheur au Comité d’études des relations franco-allemandes (Cerfa) de l’Ifri, propose une analyse de l’ouvrage dirigé par Nicole Colin et Claire Demesmay, Franco-German Relations Seen from Abroad: Post-War Reconciliation in International Perspectives (Springer, 2020, 242 pages).

La question centrale est ici de savoir si la réconciliation franco-allemande, perçue comme une évidence après 1945 dans les deux pays, avec une valeur symbolique forte dans le monde entier, peut s’appliquer à d’autres situations de conflits. Nicole Colin, professeur à l’université Aix-Marseille et Claire Demesmay, qui dirige le programme France/Relations franco-allemandes de l’Institut allemand de politique étrangère (DGAP) examinent les perceptions « externes » de la relation franco-allemande, à la fois dans une perspective historique et comme moteur d’intégration régionale. Les différentes contributions cherchent à montrer si, et comment, la réconciliation et la coopération franco-allemandes sont perçues comme un modèle dans d’autres régions.

Dans son avant-propos, le ministre allemand des Affaires étrangères Heiko Maas, estime que le fait d’examiner différents conflits dans le monde à travers « la lentille de l’expérience franco-allemande » constitue une approche efficace, même si les conflits sont toujours uniques et que cultures, histoires, religions et géographies rendent les comparaisons difficiles. L’idée de l’ouvrage est bien que dans nombre de pays touchés par des conflits, l’histoire du rapprochement d’ennemis considérés comme « héréditaires » permet d’ouvrir des perspectives d’apaisement. Mais l’idée que l’exemple franco-allemand constitue un modèle irréprochable, applicable à toute autre situation, transposable à tout autre région, doit être relativisée.

Les auteurs, qui se consacrent à 15 pays différents, analysent les relations franco-allemandes vues « de l’extérieur », mettant en relation les principes de la réconciliation avec les spécificités politiques de leur propre pays. Les situations sont très diverses, les contextes très différents des Balkans à la Pologne, de l’Ukraine à la Russie en Europe, aux conflits israélo-palestinien et indo-pakistanais, voire au Rwanda et à l’Afrique du Sud. Une approche prenant en compte les dimensions politique, culturelle et des sociétés civiles, des conflits s’impose, pour éclairer aussi les « mythes » du processus de réconciliation. La coopération franco-allemande sert ici de miroir, où les pays « tiers » peuvent considérer leur situation présente, et leur avenir possible.

Si la nature unique de l’expérience franco-allemande rend toute tentative de reproduction irréaliste, il est légitime qu’elle suscite intérêt, enthousiasme, voire fascination dans d’autres régions. Sans constituer un exemple absolu, elle peut servir de référence et d’inspiration utile dans des situations très différentes. Cet ouvrage apporte donc un double éclairage essentiel. Il reconnaît que l’expérience de la réconciliation franco-allemande peut encore fournir un cadre utile pour la résolution des crises en général. Et il propose quelques recommandations aux acteurs impliqués dans la diplomatie et les relations internationales pour mieux s’approcher, à partir de l’exemple franco-allemand, de la résolution de leur propre conflit.

Paul Maurice

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Vainqueur des élections d'octobre 2015, le parti conservateur polonais Droit et justice (PiS) multiplie les démonstrations d'autoritarisme. La Commission européenne a lancé en janvier une « procédure de sauvegarde de l'Etat de droit ». / Europe, Pologne, Démocratie, Élections, Exclusion sociale, (...) / Europe, Pologne, Démocratie, Élections, Exclusion sociale, Extrême droite, Libéralisme, Médias, Migrations, Nationalisme, Parti politique, Politique, Presse, Syndicalisme, Travail, Chômage, Retraites - 2016/03

Lorsque, au milieu du XXe siècle, ils ont émigré au Royaume-Uni pour tenter d'échapper au système de castes, les intouchables indiens n'imaginaient sans doute pas que la structure sociale oppressive de leur terre natale voyagerait avec eux. / Inde, Royaume-Uni, Élections, État, Exclusion sociale, (...) / Inde, Royaume-Uni, Élections, État, Exclusion sociale, Identité culturelle, Immigrés, Intégration sociale, Parti politique, Racisme, Religion, Travail, Hindouisme, Société civile - 2016/03

Cette recension a été publiée dans le numéro d’été 2021 de Politique étrangère (n° 2/2021). Morgan Paglia, doctorant et ancien chercheur au Centre des études de sécurité de l’Ifri, propose une analyse de l’ouvrage de Arash Azizi, The Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the U.S., and Iran’s Global Ambitions (Oneworld Publications, 2020, 304 pages).

Arash Azizi dresse ici le portrait de Qassem Soleimani, général iranien commandant de la force Al-Qods, le prestigieux corps d’élite en charge des opérations extérieures et clandestines au sein des Gardiens de la révolution islamique d’Iran.

Si le nom de Soleimani était peu connu en Europe occidentale avant qu’il soit tué le 2 janvier 2020 par une frappe de drone américain sur le tarmac de l’aéroport de Bagdad, il l’était davantage en Amérique du Nord pour son rôle déterminant dans l’insurrection contre les troupes américaines en Irak. Après y avoir orchestré la politique de subversion contre l’occupant américain, il a joué un rôle central dans la défense du régime syrien et dans la lutte contre l’État islamique en Irak.

Pourtant, rien n’indiquait dans le parcours du jeune Soleimani qu’il finirait par avoir une telle influence sur les affaires de son pays, en Iran et au Moyen-Orient. Issu d’un village de Kerman, province située aux marches de l’empire du Shah, d’origine modeste, il s’engage dans les Gardiens de la révolution pour défendre son pays. Ses qualités de combattant et de chef militaire pendant la guerre Irak-Iran lui valent d’être remarqué et de gravir les échelons de ce corps paramilitaire, érigé en bras idéologique du régime. Une fois la guerre avec l’Irak terminée, Soleimani mène la lutte contre les trafiquants de drogue et les contrebandiers qui sévissent à la frontière avec l’Afghanistan. La guerre civile qui ravage le pays au début des années 1990 le conduit à Kaboul, où ses rencontres avec les chefs de l’Alliance du Nord préfigurent la suite de sa carrière, partagée entre le terrain et des rencontres régulières avec les chefs politiques de la région.

Ses interlocuteurs décrivent un personnage modeste, courtois et charismatique. Un ancien chef du Mossad, interrogé dans une enquête publiée par le New Yorker, résumait ce subtil mélange en mentionnant qu’« il était politiquement intelligent ». Ce sont certainement ses capacités d’adaptation qui lui ont permis d’aborder sans les antagoniser des personnages politiques comme Nouri al-Maliki en Irak, Hassan Nasrallah au Liban, et de manière plus anecdotique le président russe Vladimir Poutine, à qui il rend visite personnellement en juillet 2015 pour lui demander d’appuyer le régime syrien. Soleimani a été aussi favorisé par le hasard des rencontres, et notamment celle d’Ali Khamenei, président de la République islamique dans les années 1980 et Guide suprême à partir de 1989, qui l’a nommé à la tête d’Al-Qods en 1998.

En dépit de l’habileté de l’auteur, qui parvient à convaincre du sérieux de son enquête grâce à un grand nombre de sources iraniennes, et à ses allers-retours constants entre l’histoire individuelle de Soleimani et l’histoire de l’Iran, des zones d’ombre persistent sur le personnage. Indéniablement, le travail d’historien sur Qassem Soleimani n’est pas terminé et ses futurs biographes devront composer avec plusieurs récits : la version écrite par le régime iranien – celle du héros, icône de la martyrologie chiite – ; la version de cet ouvrage, qui dresse le portrait d’un homme d’action estimé tant par ses adversaires que ses alliés… On attend désormais l’histoire personnelle, plus secrète, de l’homme et de la réalité de sa place dans les réseaux de pouvoir en Iran et au-delà, dans les pays voisins.

Morgan Paglia

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The United Nations stands ready to support Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in efforts to resolve their decade-long disagreement over the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), senior officials told the Security Council on Thursday. 

Afghanistan will get an injection of contractor support and planes for its beleaguered Air Force.

With the Taliban insurgency expanding, the U.S. withdrawal could provoke a major humanitarian crisis.

The UN Special Representative for Haiti on Thursday, acknowledged the legitimacy of Prime Minister Claude Joseph to lead the Caribbean nation, following the “cowardly” assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on Wednesday, and welcomed his government’s commitment to hold national elections later this year.

On Telegram, pet care, gardening, and corruption scandals have replaced religious fervor.

The world’s running out of time to limit global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius, a matter of life or death for climate vulnerable countries on the front line of the crisis, the UN Secretary General reiterated on Thursday.

To strengthen its pro-democracy foreign policy, the U.S. should take the interests of both rich and poor democracies into account, rather than only the former.

Iraq could become a major thorn in Biden’s side.

The 50th anniversary of the landmark Cold War conference is inspiring a renewal for today’s world.

New attacks after the Geneva summit were expected. But Washington doesn’t appear to know how to respond yet.