Amid a renewed offensive on Mosul and U.N.-led Syria talks in Geneva, Middle East journalist and analyst Patrick Cockburn discusses the changing demographics of Syria and Iraq, and the complexities of displaced people returning to “liberated” cities in both countries. (More…)
During the past hundred years, ten new states have appeared on the map of Europe: Greece, Belgium, Serbia, Italy, the German Confederation, Rumania, Montenegro, Norway, Bulgaria, and — possibly — Albania. (More…)
Passing further away, towards Austria, travelling up the Isar, till the stream becomes smaller and whiter and the air is colder, the full glamour of the northern hills, which are so marvellously luminous and gleaming with flowers, wanes and gives way to a darkness, a sense of ominousness. (More…)
Since the United States is the most important country in the Americas, it is subject to special concentration by secret Nazi agents. One of the earliest of the secret agents sent to this country was an American, Colonel Edwin Emerson, soldier of fortune, mediocre author and fairly competent war correspondent. (More…)
After enduring four years of government-imposed siege and living under the increasingly authoritarian rule of the armed opposition, residents of the Damascus suburb have no choice but to join Jaish al-Islam if they want to find work. (More…)
For the last couple of days, the Mexican government been playing host to the redoubtable duo of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security chief John Kelly. They have been, it will come as no surprise, trying to pour oil on the turbulent waters of the current relationship between the United States and Mexico. (More…)
We need to have a little talk. We’re panicking, you and I. We didn’t think Donald Trump would actually win. And we see that his administration has been an abomination so far. His reckless greed and racism are bad for the United States and bad for the world. (More…)
Watching Lost Highway (1996) at the Soho Curzon, my friends and I began to connect the dots between David Lynch’s films and the rise of populist demagogues (we’ll get to this later). In more ways than one Soho was the perfect place to watch Lost Highway, those famous twin poles of Freudian thinking – sex and death – are a vital part of the Lynchian universe. (More…)
Many years ago, at JFK airport, after returning from abroad, I was stopped by a Customs and Border Patrol agent, who inquired about the purpose of my trip, and then followed up by asking what my profession is. When I told him I was a reporter, he accused me of purposely putting out negative misinformation about law enforcement. (More…)
The constitutional challenge to Trump’s refugee and travel ban hangs on whether it discriminates against Muslims. Bill Frelick, director of Human Rights Watch’s refugee program, fact-checks the U.S. president’s defense of prioritizing Christian refugees. (More…)
The White House has attracted fresh controversy for a botched raid in Yemen that led to the death of a Navy SEAL, loss of a $75 million aircraft, and dozens of civilian casualties. Trump has been characterised as reckless, and freshly unfit for duty. (More…)