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Anti-Critical Race Theory and Neo-McCarthyism

On June 15, the “Promoting Education Not Indoctrination Act” was introduced in the Ohio legislature by Sarah Fowler Arthur, a first-term representative from the overwhelmingly white district of northeastern Ohio that includes both the rustbelt lake towns of Ashtabula and Conneaut and the Cleveland suburb of Chardon. Like many other …

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Conflict Trends Update

SOMALIA Al-Shabaab claimed a suicide attack on a military training centre in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday that killed at least fifteen people. The bomber pretended to be a military trainee and detonated as new recruits, seeking training from Turkish forces, gathered. Crisis Group expert Omar Mahmood says the attack, …

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A New UN Envoy is an Opportunity for a New Approach in Yemen

The UN is recruiting a new envoy to broker peace in Yemen. More important than who gets the job is how UN member states and the mediator perceive its purpose, interpretations of which have limited the UN to the flawed two-party framework adopted since 2015. Martin Griffiths, the outgoing UN …

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Lavrov Dismisses Talk Of Possible Turkish Military Base In Azerbaijan As ‘Rumors’

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dismissed speculation that Turkey could build a military base in Azerbaijan as “rumors.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a visit to Baku this week that he hasn’t ruled out the possibility Ankara could build a military base in Azerbaijan under an agreement …

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Iranians Vote in Presidential Election Marked by Low Turnout

Iranians voted Friday in a presidential election marked by a low turnout and a lack of formidable rivals to the candidacy of Iran’s ultraconservative judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi. There were no official estimates of the turnout from Iran’s Interior Ministry as polling stations closed at 2 a.m. Saturday local time. …

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US reducing military presence in Middle East to focus on China and Russia: Report

The administration of President Joe Biden is reducing US military presence in the Middle East as the country increases the focus of its military forces to confront China and Russia, according to a new report. The Pentagon is withdrawing at least eight Patriot antimissile batteries from countries including Iraq, Kuwait, …

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Germany’s Failed Hezbollah Ban

In retrospect, Germany’s much-vaunted Hezbollah ban appears to have been little more than a publicity stunt aimed at silencing critics of the German government’s pro-Iran foreign policy. Hezbollah has effectively evaded the ban by transferring many of its activities to charities and cultural centers controlled by Iran. Iran’s main base …

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Turning Engagement Into a Regional Dialogue Mechanism in the Middle East

Dialogue seems to be in vogue in today’s Middle East. Iranian and American negotiators are in Vienna to find a way to restore the 2015 nuclear deal that President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018. Iranian and Saudi security officials recently held meetings in Baghdad to mend their relations. and …

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Iran’s Engineered Election Leaves Reformists With No Good Options

Iranians will go to the polls this Friday to choose the successor to centrist President Hassan Rouhani, who is winding down his second four-year term and cannot run for reelection. The polls will take place in an atmosphere of widespread public apathy, as voters choose from a list of presidential …

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France’s Incomplete Reckoning With Its Colonial Past

I first met Salim, a 35-year-old French citizen of Algerian origin, about 10 years ago at a cafe near Levallois, the Parisian banlieue—or peri-urban ghetto—where he lived at the time. In the course of our wide-ranging discussion about French history and identity, part of the fieldwork for my doctoral dissertation, …

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