“Our churches are our homes,” says Mark, 26, standing amid the shattered glass and blackened walls of the St. Elias Church. “We were raised in these churches, but there are children who will never be able to grow up here as we did.” He speaks softly, his voice barely heard …

“NO DEPARTURES AND ARR DUE AIRSPACE RESTRICTION UNTIL FURTHER ADVISE” This was the message received at 3.30 pm GMT on Monday via ACARS (satellite messaging) by hundreds of airliners in the vicinity of Qatari airspace. Speculation had mounted since 12.20 pm GMT when a NOTAM announced that Al Udeid Air …

On 13 June, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a preemptive military campaign aimed at crippling Iran’s nuclear capabilities. But with symbolic references to the pre-1979 monarchy embedded in the operation’s name, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly appealing to the Iranian people to “rise up,” observers believed that the …