Damascus-based communication coordinator, Pawel Krzysiek, discusses the factors contributing to the unprecedented toll of urban warfare on Syria’s civilians, and what the warring parties and their supporters must do to save lives. (More…)
Politics
A year ago the UK stepped into the darkness after voting for the unknown. We’re now a year into the unknown and no more the wiser of where we are heading. The negotiations over Brexit have only just begun, and the destination is nowhere in sight. (More…)
Although the past actions of the Department of Defense regarding this are presently uncertain, I am concerned with the possibility that the DoD could have withheld information concerning the exposure of US military personnel to nerve agents during their service in the Persian Gulf War. (More…)
Refugees, migrants and the struggling middle classes in Europe have all been harmed by neoliberal globalization, writes Behzad Yaghmaian. He makes the case for an alternative “solidarity-based globalism,” including universal basic income and an end to austerity. (More…)
The pace of British politics has yet to slow down. Every week we face a new outrage or a fresh atrocity, but the show must go on. Theresa May is still clinging on to power by her fingernails. At any moment the prime minister could fall into the abyss of political failures. (More…)
In recent weeks Daraa has witnessed the most intense clashes and aerial bombardments it has seen for years. Despite the plan for “de-escalation zones,” civilians in the city are likely to be caught in the newest battlefield for foreign power proxies and the warring Syrian sides. (More…)
Today, on Saturday, June 24th, Liverpool is hosting Armed Forces Day in Britain. Armed Forces Day is a relatively new occasion in the UK; it began as Veterans’ Day, in 2006, and was then renamed Armed Forces Day in 2009 in response to declining public support for the armed forces. Events take place across the UK (this year there are over 350), and local councils bid to host the national event – for which they receive a small amount of government funding and sponsorship, and also spend significant amounts of their own money. (More…)
Events in Britain are moving at a dizzying pace. It feels like every week there is a new outrage, a fresh atrocity and an even stranger twist in the body politic. In the space of a week we’ve had the horror of the Grenfell Tower fire and the Finsbury Park attack. (More…)
Despite its official policy of non-intervention, Israel has taken on a very proactive role in Syria, working to establish an Israel-friendly zone in Quneitra, akin to its strategy in southern Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. (More…)
When I heard the Queen’s speech was being delayed, I wondered what could be behind this. The Conservatives and the Democratic Unionists were still plotting behind closed doors. Suddenly an image appeared to me. (More…)
The U.N.special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants decries the “shallow scaremongering” that passes for debate on migration. He proposes eight goals to transform the way states manage migration. (More…)
You’ve no doubt seen the news, the unelectable socialist Jeremy Corbyn has given the Conservatives the thrashing of a lifetime. Of course, Corbyn would not approve of the word ‘thrashing’. But the point is Corbyn’s Labour Party has deprived Theresa May of the super-majority she craved. Finally, the Labour left has won its legitimacy. (More…)