December 29, 2021 Middle Orient
Offers of money by the Islamic State to join its ranks prove “irresistible” to those hit hard by Syria’s collapsed economy. A man being led by security guards shuffles into an interrogation cell in a military prison in the Kurdish-administered city of Hasakah in northeastern Syria. His hands are cuffed, …
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December 29, 2021 Middle Orient
Riyadh-led airstrikes came after Yemen’s Houthis launched a projectile into the southern Saudi province of Jizan, killing two people late last week. The Saudi Arabia-led military coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels said it launched renewed airstrikes in response to a projectile attack that killed two people near the southern Saudi …
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December 29, 2021 Middle Orient
An apparent increase in drug trafficking into the country from both its eastern and western borders, with fallout from instability in Afghanistan and ‘mafia’ groups in Syria as well as use of illicit substances in Iraq, has raised concern. In early December, the directorate tasked with drug control in Iraq’s …
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December 29, 2021 Middle Orient
The longer runway at Khmeimim airbase in Syria gives nuclear-capable bombers a place to land, and is one more move in Russia’s plan to expand its capacities in new directions. The end of December is a special month for the Russian military. Every year at this time, practically all the …
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December 29, 2021 Eurasia
U.S. and Russian officials will hold security talks on Jan. 10 to discuss concerns about their respective military activity and confront rising tensions over Ukraine, the two countries said. A spokesperson for U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration announced the date late on Monday, and said Russia and NATO were also …
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December 28, 2021 Iran, Middle Orient
The Arab coalition on Sunday released footage and pictures it said provided evidence of Hezbollah and Iran’s involvement in Yemen’s seven-year war and the use of Sanaa airport as a missile launch site. At a press conference in the Saudi capital, coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki showed footage of …
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December 28, 2021 Eurasia
President Vladimir Putin has said he would ponder various options if the West fails to meet Moscow’s demands for security guarantees, amid heightened tensions involving a massive deployment of Russian troops near Ukraine. Moscow earlier this month submitted draft security documents demanding an end to NATO’s eastward expansion and military …
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December 28, 2021 South East Asia
The ‘phase one’ trade deal between the United States and China entered into force on 14 February 2020. As part of this agreement, China agreed to make structural reforms, open up its financial services and strengthen intellectual property. China also pledged to buy at least US$200 billion in additional US …
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December 28, 2021 Middle Orient
Shûrâ, Or The Principle Of Collective Deliberation When one evokes the relation between Islam and democracy, (1) the temptation is great to go to texts (Qur’an and Hadîth) and to Muslim political history of experiences of governance with analogies to modern pluralistic systems. (2) Hence the reformist currents of Islamic …
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December 28, 2021 Eurasia
When the Ukrainian navy command ship was close enough to Russia’s shore to get the country’s state television channels, Capt. Oleksandr Hryhorevskyi switched on the news and wondered: Why all the fuss about his rusty old boat? The appearance of his more-than-50-year-old vessel — aptly named Donbas, for the eastern …
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