After months of apparent deadlock, the last few days have brought tentative signs of a shift in Yemen's seven-year conflict.
On Friday Hans Grundberg, the UN's special envoy, announced that the protagonists had agreed to a two-month ceasefire. The truce, which came...
Blog archive: All
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7th April 2022
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21st February 2022Human rights organisations have welcomed a decision by Kuwait's constitutional court last week which overturned a law criminalising "imitation of the opposite sex". Amnesty International hailed the ruling as "a major breakthrough for transgender rights in the region" and Human Rights Watch...
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31st January 2022A new book containing a chapter by a prominent defender of Syria's Assad regime has been withdrawn from sale, the publisher confirmed today. The Research Handbook on Political Propaganda comprises 29 chapters by a variety of academic authors. When it first went on sale last December the...
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29th January 2022Record numbers of Covid-19 infections have been reported in the Middle East and North Africa this week – for the third week running. However, this week's increase is smaller than in the previous two weeks, suggesting the sudden spike caused by the Omicron variant may not...
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15th January 2022Record numbers of Covid-19 infections have been reported in the Middle East and North Africa this week. Official figures show more than 570,000 new cases during the last seven days – indicating that the Omicron variant is now spreading rapidly in the region. Among...
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2nd January 2022Covid-19 cases are rising again in the Middle East and North Africa. Last week's daily average of new infections across the region was running almost 50% above the previous week's figure. Among the 20 countries monitored, 13 reported increases and in six of those the...
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27th December 2021A man suspected of supplying equipment to the Syrian army – including components that could be used in the manufacture of chemical weapons – has been arrested in the south of France after arriving there for a holiday, French media reported on Sunday. The man has not been officially named but he...
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23rd December 2021The Research Handbook on Political Propaganda is a new book described by its publishers as "a crucial resource for both scholars and students". Optimistically priced at £195 ($258), it has 29 chapters by different authors presenting academic studies of propaganda in a variety of countries....
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20th December 2021On Sunday the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi began using a new Covid-19 "scanning" system to check people arriving by road from neighbouring Dubai. The system is a local invention and if it lives up to the claims made by its supporters it could revolutionise testing methods. Known as Exponential...
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16th December 2021Daniel Kawczynski is the member of parliament for Shrewsbury in England, though he is jokingly known as the member for Riyadh. "I feel passionately about Saudi Arabia," he told the House of Commons during a debate in 2011. "I have been battling against extraordinary...
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14th December 2021A report in the Washington Post yesterday appears to confirm Syrian claims that Israel bombed chemical weapons facilities in the country last June – thus destroying evidence sought by OPCW investigators. Although the paper's story is based on unnamed intelligence sources, information from...
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30th November 2021A Yemeni journalist has become the latest victim of Saudi Arabia's laws against religious disbelief. Thirty-year-old Ali Muhsin Abu Lahoum worked in Sana'a for the Yemen Times before moving to Saudi Arabia in 2015 and taking up a job with a TV station. More recently he is said to have been...
