Resurgence of Terrorism in Southeast Asia

A string of recent terrorist attacks and plots in Southeast Asia has authorities concerned over the enduring threat posed by regional terrorists.

Militant groups tied to the Islamic State have repeatedly sought to attack targets associated with Christians, including churches, as well as police.

From Pacifism To Violence and the Dialectic

I am trying to wrap my brain around the abyss between pacifism and violence as to the proper means to bring about socio-political change. And as to how to overcome that divide. Though not violent as a person, my basic impulse, my instinct in this regard, is belligerent: ultimately, I believe, it will be necessary to unleash a lethal war to the finish against Power, if only to assuage a burning anger buried in the human psyche against the psychopathological forces of Power intent on the destruction of the world. It is clear that the struggle is unfair since ONLY Power uses violence—primarily violence—a violence masked under countless euphemistic masks.

Yemen Is a Public Health Catastrophe

The war in Yemen—the Arab world’s poorest country—has reached new heights of sickness and death by the spreading of the coronavirus pandemic in a vulnerable and fragile population. The death toll from the coronavirus pandemic could be greater than the combined toll of war, disease and hunger over the last five years, according to Lise Grande, the U.N.’s head of humanitarian operations in Yemen.

Why separatist IPOB is thriving in Nigeria and how to curtail it

Though the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has denied any role in the attacks on the Nigeria Correctional Centre and Police formations in Imo State last Monday, the escalating violence is associated with the separatist group’s growing popularity in the South-East . The group, with its Eastern Security Network, provides a semblance of security for a people traumatized by incessant attacks in rural areas by violent herdsmen and bandits who destroy farms, attack or kill farmers, rape women, and spread death in forests.

Repatriating ISIS Foreign Fighters Is Key to Stemming Radicalization, Experts Say, but Many Countries Don’t Want Their Citizens Back

A review of the 10 countries that yielded the most individuals affiliated with ISIS found varying levels of commitment to repatriation and prosecution.

In the two years since the self-declared Islamic State lost its last physical stronghold in Raqqa, Syria, thousands of ISIS foreign fighters, along with their wives and children, have remained in limbo, mostly in Iraqi custody or in Kurdish detention camps in northeastern Syria.

Israel Reportedly Attacks Iranian Ship in Red Sea

Israel has informed the United States that it is behind Tuesday’s attack on an Iranian reconnaissance ship in the Red Sea, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. According to several reports, Israel’s commando naval forces struck the Iranian vessel, called Saviz, off the shores of Eritrea, responding to last month’s two incidents in which Israeli-owned cargo ships were targeted in the Persian Gulf by Iranian missiles. On Wednesday, Tehran’s foreign ministry issued its first official comment, acknowledging the ship was hit but adding that only minor damage was sustained and that no one onboard was hurt. The latest incident is a noticeable escalation in the ongoing hostile naval exchanges between the two enemy nations. In March, two separate commercial vessels owned by Israeli shipping magnates were hit by Iranian missiles, causing limited damage. Israel, meanwhile, has over the years reportedly sabotaged dozens of Iranian ships it has suspected of illegally carrying arms and oil to Syria and other neighboring countries.

Tensions Mount in North Africa After Dam Talks End in Failure

Northeast Africa is edging toward a dangerous new reality, after the past week’s talks in Kinshasa between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, which the sides called the last chance to resolve their Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam dispute, petered out with no agreed-upon settlement. Khartoum and Cairo, who fear mass droughts, floods and famine once upstream Ethiopia begins filling its massive Blue Nile reservoir, both accused Addis Ababa of negotiating in bad faith and sabotaging the meetings. Sudan on Tuesday warned it would now “consider all possible options to protect its citizens,” while last week Egyptian President Abdel Fatah a-Sisi threatened that Ethiopia’s conduct would lead to “regional instability.” The mammoth construction, already finished and operational, has been the center of controversy for nearly a decade, as Ethiopia’s neighbors have demanded a contract brokered by the US, UN and EU that would regulate and oversee the dam’s activity. Ethiopia has explained that the GERD will finally provide electricity to its still mostly off-the-grid population.

‘Constructive’ Vienna Meetings Spur Hope for Parties to Iran Nuclear Deal

The remaining parties to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was aimed at halting Iran’s nuclear activities in return for global sanction relief, met on Tuesday in Vienna for what both sides called “constructive” talks. British, Chinese, French, German and Russian officials who met with Iran’s representatives hope to bring Tehran back into compliance with the largely aborted deal, while the Islamic Republic has demanded that new sanctions, re-imposed by former President Donald Trump after he quit the pact in 2018, be lifted first. European mediators on Tuesday shuttled between Iran’s negotiators and the United States envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, also present in the Austrian capital, as Tehran has so far refused a direct face-to-face with Washington officials. While both sides tempered expectations in the days leading up to the Vienna summit, State Department spokesman Ned Price noted Tuesday’s indirect back and forth was a “welcome … constructive … potentially useful step.”

Ecologistes et islamistes: l’alliance verte

Lorsque l’on s’inquiète du péril de l’islamo-gauchisme, on aurait grand tort de ne regarder que du côté de la France Insoumise.

Ils partagent une couleur : le vert. Mais pas seulement. Ils partagent aussi une approche totalitaire de la société.

Les uns veulent nous soumettre à la Nature. Les autres veulent nous soumettre à Allah et aux préceptes du Coran.