The attempt by Saudi Arabia and Gulf oil states to achieve hegemony in the Arab and Sunni Muslim worlds has proved disastrous for almost everybody. The capture of east Aleppo by the Syrian Army and the likely fall of Mosul to the Iraqi Army means defeat for that the Sunni Arabs in a great swathe […]
Data mining is such a prosaic part of our online lives that it’s hard to sustain consumer interest in it, much less outrage. The modern condition means constantly clicking against our better judgement. We go to bed anxious about the surveillance apparatus lurking just beneath our social media feeds, then wake up to mindlessly scroll, Like, […]
Just a few years back, the business relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia was pretty simple: the Americans bought oil, and the Saudis spent much of what they earned on equipment to keep the crude flowing and on planes, tanks and missiles to protect their borders. Read Here – Dawn
The Saudis will be appalled that a (comparatively) reasonable Iranian has won a (comparatively) free election that almost none of the 50 dictators gathering to meet Trump in Riyadh would ever dare to hold Read Here – Independent
President Donald Trump had to travel to someone else’s kingdom to get the respect he has always craved. From his airport greeting by King Salman of Saudi Arabia — a courtesy that was never extended to his predecessor, President Barack Obama — to the military flyover and cannons that accompanied his descent from Air Force […]
Hassan Rouhani, who represented moderates and reformers in the Iranian presidential campaign, won 23.5 million (or 57 percent) of the total vote, while his closest rival, Ebrahim Raisi, received 15.7 million (38.5 percent), the Interior Ministry announced. Read Here – Tehran Times
The famous Soviet spy arrested by the United States in 1957, Rudolf Abel, was known as ‘the spy who never broke’, but his trial was still public. Here is Jadhav, confessing eagerly and still being tried and convicted secretly. Even Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani who was involved in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was tried […]
On Friday, Iranians will vote for their next president. The race has essentially boiled down to a choice between a centrist and a hardline conservative—the incumbent, Hassan Rouhani, and Ibrahim Raisi, the custodian of the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashad. A clear choice appears to be emerging. Read Here – The Atlantic
In the name of safeguarding its 1.4 billion people, China has been collecting biometric information from millions of people whom it deems potential threats—among them, Uyghurs, migrant workers, and college students—as part of national DNA database. Read Here – Defense One
Commentators have affixed the “populist” label to the wave of demagogic politics sweeping Europe (and much of the rest of the world). But, beyond the raucous style common to populists, what do these movements share? Read Here – Project Syndicate
