Showing 1 - 10 of 31
What would happen if Khamenei falls?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/01/2026
» The demonstrations began again in Iran last week, only two years after the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement convulsed the country for months. However, the current protests are potentially much broader than that episode because they are driven by the collapse in Iran's currency, the rial (now 1,420,000 to the US dollar), and the explosive rise in the cost of living.
Toxic rivers need help
Oped, Editorial, Published on 23/05/2025
» The government's reaction to heavy metal contamination in transboundary rivers in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces has left local villagers in despair. Almost three months after heavy metal contamination was recently detected in such rivers, our officials and ministers are still just at the stage of warning people not to consume water and fish from the Kok River in the North.
Sudan's hell of devastation and despair
Oped, John J. Metzler, Published on 24/04/2025
» The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are stalking Sudan: brutal civil conflict, widespread devastation, humanitarian disasters, and the displacement of millions of refugees. Now add the Fifth Horseman, the darkness of global indifference.
Who is truly to blame for the crisis in Syria?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/03/2025
» 'They kidnapped; they killed; they humiliated; they kicked people out of jobs," explained an Alawite writer living in coastal Syria. "One way or another, this was going to happen."
Be wary of Border Guard Force pledges
Oped, Editorial, Published on 18/02/2025
» After Thailand moved to cut electricity supply and internet access to several areas along the Myanmar border to curb the activities of Chinese scam syndicates in Myawaddy township, the Border Guard Force (BGF) -- an ethnic Karen militia allied with the Myanmar junta, led by Colonel Saw Chit Thu -- finally agreed to take action.
The slide back to war: Kagame and Trump
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/01/2025
» We seem to be drifting back into the world of "Might Makes Right". That would be a bad place to be.
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.
NK troops sent to the Ukraine: cannon fodder?
Oped, John J Metzler, Published on 24/10/2024
» The rumours were true. The apparent dispatch of elite North Korean military units to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine appears at first surprising but actually is quite logical given the historic and comradely ties between Pyongyang and Moscow. After all, North Korea's isolated Kim Jong-un regime has forged increasingly close ties with Vladimir Putin's Russia and the cash-strapped North Koreans have shipped more than eight million 122mm and 152mm artillery shells to Russia during in the past year.
A new zoo vision?
Oped, Postbag, Published on 24/07/2024
» Re: "Dusit Zoo successor to open next year", (BP, July 22). Although the new zoo is a most welcome development in principle, I can't picture Babar and his odd choice of chums cooperating in this Arcadian fantasy.
UN condemns Iran's treatment of girls, women
Oped, John J. Metzler, Published on 15/03/2024
» The Iranian regime has been firmly condemned by a UN fact-finding mission investigating the unprovoked killing of Mahsa Amini two years ago, in an incident that set off nationwide protests. Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old student, according to a UN fact-finding mission, died in police custody after violating the Islamic Republic's strict "morality rules" requiring women to wear the headscarf.