Author: M Barbu

UN’s Libya welcomes prisoner release as start of ‘nationwide reconciliation’

The UN mission in Libya hailed the release of more than 100 prisoners loyal to renegade commander Khalifa Hifter, calling the initiative the start of a “nationwide reconciliation.”

In a ceremony attended by members of Libya’s transitional government, 107 detainees were released from prison in the western city of Zawiya on Wednesday. The prisoners had fought with Hifter’s eastern-based Libyan National Army, which has been embroiled in a civil war against the UN-backed Government of National Accord since 2014.

In rebuke to Russia, Blinken presses UN to quit politicizing Syria aid

Blinken called on the UN Security Council to reauthorize a cross-border aid operation into Syria despite Russian and Chinese opposition.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday demanded aid workers be granted unhindered access to war-torn Syria, calling on the UN Security Council to scale up humanitarian assistance provided to a population whose lives depend on it.

Saudi Arabia human rights abuses detailed in US State Dept. report

One major area of concern for the State Department is the “arbitrary” detention and disappearances of Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Salman and his father.

The US State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, and within it raised concerns over numerous areas in which it believes Saudi Arabia is guilty of abusing human rights within its sovereign borders.

Are the warming ties between Turkey, Egypt a sign of shifting geopolitics?

A possible deterioration in its relationship with Washington is driving a rapprochement between Ankara and some Arab capitals.

Despite the cold diplomatic relations between Egypt and Turkey, Ankara on Friday offered to send a tugboat to help Egypt free a massive container ship blocking the Suez Canal, amid news that ties may be warming up between the two countries.

To Protect Women Migrants, Implement Feminist Migration Policies

When British Prime Minister Boris Johnson left the hospital in April 2020 after having been treated for COVID-19, he released a widely viewed video address in which he thanked the nurses that had cared for him. In singling out two for special mention—Jenny from New Zealand and Luis from Portugal—he shone a spotlight on the critical role that migrants have played during the pandemic.

Reimagining US foreign policy

Since the end of WWII, especially since the breakup of the Soviet Union, it appears as if US political leaders feel they are trapped in a time warp and are unable to break free. They seem to believe that they must repeat the same disastrous foreign policy of regime change over and over. Since 9/11, the US has attacked or supported attacks against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen. The attacks, especially the horrendous US-led war crime against Iraq, have destabilized and created havoc in the Middle East, devastated these nations and caused death and appalling suffering for the people.

Concern Grows About Jihadi Activity in Ivory Coast

In the early hours of March 29, an estimated sixty gunmen attacked two small military installations in Kafolo and Kolobougou, both located in Ivory Coast on the border with Burkina Faso. The assailants killed at least three soldiers and wounded others. While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the media is speculating credibly that the perpetrators were jihadis based in nearby Burkina Faso, where Islamist groups have been increasingly active.

Suez Canal reopens after stuck cargo ship is freed

Salvage teams on Monday finally freed the colossal container ship stuck for nearly a week in the Suez Canal, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world’s most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce.

A flotilla of tugboats, helped by the tides, wrenched the bulbous bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the canal’s sandy bank, where it had been firmly lodged since March 23.

What China’s Communist Party Wants: Its New Five-Year Plan

The Chinese Communist Party’s overarching strategy for the next five to fifteen years, apparently, is to accelerate China’s rise by becoming an innovation superpower, technologically independent of the West and dominating global tech.

One of the great causes of tension between China, the US and other Western countries is how the CCP carries out its goal of becoming a dominant technological power — by using deception and theft.