Showing 1 - 10 of 19
Crushing dissent widens rifts with governments
Oped, Amitabh Behar, Published on 31/10/2025
» Thousands of civil society organisations (CSOs) and activists are gathering in Bangkok during the International Civil Society Week from Nov 1–5. The event will be organised by the CIVICUS Alliance. CIVICUS is an international non-profit organisation focused on civil rights and citizen action. It was founded in 1993 and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Houthi threat to global shipping
Oped, John J. Metzler, Published on 28/03/2025
» Amidst the unpredictable arc of crisis shadowing the Middle East, the systemic and sustained merchant shipping attacks in the Red Sea persist. The culprits are a shadowy but lethal Iranian proxy force, the Houthis, who use their control of mountainous parts of the Yemeni coast to launch missile, drone and speedboat attacks on vital shipping lanes connecting the Mediterranean with the Gulf of Aden.
Taliban rule dims Afghan women's rights
News, John J. Metzler, Published on 17/03/2025
» The darkening rule of the Taliban regime over Afghanistan continues to dim prospect women's rights as well as any chances for the war-torn country to overcome an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. Currently more than 50 percent of the population, some 23 million people in this South Asian land, require humanitarian assistance and that aid is now decreasing.
The conflict in Syria is not quite over yet
Oped, John J. Metzler, Published on 26/12/2024
» The extraordinary and fast-moving events in Syria have gripped the world. What was viewed as a forgotten, forsaken and frozen conflict churning on for nearly 14 years, has suddenly jumped into the headlines to round out this tumultuous year.
What did we miss in run-up to Assad's ouster?
News, Slavoj Žižek, Published on 23/12/2024
» The downfall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria surprised even the opposition, led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, offering fertile ground for conspiracy theories.
Syria needs another miracle for peace to stay
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/12/2024
» They're still celebrating the miraculous fall of the Assad regime in Damascus, and the killing has stopped in Syria except for parts of the north, east and south. So what are the odds that the man whose fighters brought down the regime, Ahmed al-Sharaa, can bring peace, prosperity and even democracy to Syria?
Chronicling the crumbling of the House of Assad
Oped, Shlomo Ben-Ami, Published on 14/12/2024
» The swift collapse, after 54 years, of Syria's al-Assad dynasty has just transformed the Middle East's geopolitical landscape. The lightning offensive by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militia took all of Syria's neighbours -- and everyone else -- by surprise. The news that President Bashar al-Assad had fled to Russia confirms the one binding truth about wars: unintended consequences can extend far beyond the theatre of battle.
Afghan women's rights draw little attention
News, John J Metzler, Published on 07/11/2024
» Afghanistan's tragedy continues. Since the chaotic end of the Afghan war in August 2021, the country is now again ruled by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban, which has literally turned the clock back on any hints of modernisation and civil and human rights advancements. The rights of women, and especially girls, have plummeted into a medieval miasma.
The slippery slope of opting for occupation
Oped, Slavoj Žižek, Published on 08/03/2023
» The only thing to celebrate on the first anniversary of Russia's war is the scale and courage of the Ukrainian resistance, which has surprised everyone, including Ukraine's allies and maybe even the Ukrainians themselves. Through self-defence, Ukraine is achieving self-transformation.
Talking sense with the Taliban?
Oped, John J Metzler, Published on 02/02/2023
» It seems like a profound contradiction; trying to convince Afghanistan's Taliban authorities to accept foreign humanitarian help for their own starving population. Thus as beleaguered Afghan civilians endure a brutal winter, the sanctimonious Islamic fundamentalist regime in Kabul has largely restricted international aid agencies because they employ women.