Dubai’s Expo 2020, the international fair hosted in the United Arab Emirates, closed last month to rave reviews. The mega event, which was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic but retained its official name for marketing and branding purposes, ran from October 2021 to March 2022.
The Houthi rebels in Yemen have agreed to end and prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers. The United Nations praised the Houthis on Monday in its announcement that, as part of a two-month nationwide truce, the Houthis signed an Action Plan with the UN to protect the children affected by the armed conflict in Yemen. Thousands of child soldiers have fought on the side of the Houthis during the ongoing, seven-year-long civil war in Yemen.
The Israeli Air Force fired on a Hamas weapons production facility in the southern Gaza Strip overnight on Tuesday. The attack was in response to a rocket launched from Gaza toward southern Israel on Monday night.
A far-right politician had planned to burn a copy of the Quran but called it off as Muslim citizens rioted.
Several Middle Eastern governments and politicians have spoken out against plans by a far-right politician in Sweden to burn a copy of the Quran.
The Russo-Ukraine war, the extensive Western sanctions against Russia, and the growing possibility that European border states will block east-west transit corridors traversing Russian territory into Europe are having far-reaching implications for the landlocked countries of Central Asia, which have historically relied on road and rail corridors through Russia to reach markets there and beyond. Prior to the war, Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Belarus had all hoped to be part of the “New Eurasian Land Bridge” linking Europe to East Asia. But those aims were derailed when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale re-invasion of Ukraine on February 24. This has created a severe headache for China, endangering as it does its Belt and Road Initiative’s (BRI) northern route, which crossed Russia and the Black Sea via Central Asia (South China Morning Post, March 12).
Hate preacher Anjem Choudary has blamed Britain’s foreign policy in Syria and Iraq for radicalising David Amess’ killer.
Ali Harbi Ali, 26, was handed a rare whole life tariff after being convicted of murder and preparing terrorist acts on Monday by jurors who spent just 18 minutes deliberating.
Elsheikh’s defence attorneys argued that the government had failed to prove he was one of the “Beatles” but the 12-person jury disagreed, convicting him of all charges.
A US federal jury in Virginia convicted on Thursday, after an 11-day trial, an ex-British jihadist over his involvement with a notorious Islamic State (ISIS) terror cell.
Dutch ISIS recruits held pivotal roles in the terrorist group — not the minor roles they have claimed — and they should be held fully accountable for their crimes, a report from the Counter Extremist Project think tank says.
Claims that they were radicalised and groomed online have also been dismissed after evidence has emerged that many were members of extremist group Sharia4Holland — an offshoot of Britain’s Anjem Choudary’s banned Al-Muhajiroun group.
Commander of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s military wing Abu Hassan al-Hamwi sparked widespread controversy among rival jihadis in Idlib after attending the final game in the soccer league recently organized for HTS fighters.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spotlights seemingly widening differences between the United States and its closest Middle Eastern allies, sparking eulogies for an era of bygone American regional dominance.
“America’s Middle East Friendships are Dying a Natural Death” predicted foreign policy analyst Steven A. Cook this week after countries like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, to varying degrees, rebuffed US requests to help reduce energy prices and join sanctions against Russia.