Category: Opinion

In spite of the shared desire of all major stakeholders in Syria to end hostilities and the growing consensus around Assad’s long-term staying in power, the prospects of a swift peace settlement and a rapid reconstruction of the country are remote. On Feb. 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his Iranian and Turkish counterparts, Hassan […]

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Two years ago, my business partner and I were in need of gap financing while we waited for a client to pay us. We approached the main banks but, even with collateral and our education technology company’s healthy financial record, we were deemed too big a risk and turned down. Luckily, we had […]

Arabs have not grown weary of demanding basic human and political rights. Algeria and Sudan are busting that myth We have all been here before, several times. We were here when Islamists won the first round of elections in Algeria in December 1991; when an uprising in Yemen started on 27 January, 2011; when Hosni Mubarak stepped […]

It’s time to talk about Silicon Valley as an imperial force and what has to be done to resist its power. Silicon Valley corporations are taking over the digital economy in the Global South, and nobody is paying attention.  In South Africa, Google and Facebook dominate the online advertising industry, and are considered an existential threat to […]

By Amr Emam Judging from Tayeb’s comments, al-Azhar appears to be leaning on the side of supporting stronger regulations. CAIRO – Polygamy has been taken for granted in Egypt for centuries but a rethink is apparently under way in the predominantly Muslim country after its top religious authority spoke out against the practice. In a […]

by Darius Shahtahmasebi As India and Pakistan iron out a few significant differences after a near brush with each other’s militaries, the US has been quietly enacting a trade war strategy against India, a key ally of Washington. The India-Pakistan conflict has revealed an incredibly ugly side of the Middle East’s regional geopolitics. What I […]

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, according to the 2019 Forbes billionaires’ list released this week. With an estimated fortune of $131bn (£99bn) he is the wealthiest man in modern history. But he is by no means the richest man of all time. That title belongs to Mansa Musa, the […]

By: Simon Tisdall Despite Russia blocking attempts to investigate Assad’s war crimes, there are glimmers of hope  The final unravelling of the Islamic State’s evil caliphate exerts a horrible fascination. The jihadis committed many appalling crimes in Syria and Iraq – exploiting the chaos caused by the Syrian civil war – and were responsible, directly or indirectly, […]

While Iran’s leaders demonize America, their children study here in US Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament, has described the United States as a “threat to the entire world.” But his daughter Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani is safe in Ohio, where she recently completed the first year of her residency in internal medicine. In relative obscurity, […]

The torture victim stood in front of her tormentor wondering what treatment would be meted out this time in the notorious Branch 215, also known as Raid Brigade run by military intelligence in Damascus. Would it be a merciless beating or would it be another sex assault on her already broken body? OPINIONThe start of […]