IranWire
Yes, he left Iran. This was the sentence we have been waiting for for the last seven days, in order to bring you this story. Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, also known as Farzad or Fred Khosravi, has left Iran. He is now somewhere in the sky between Iran, his country of birth where he was in prison for almost a year, and the United States, which released seven Iranian prisoners in exchange for Khosravi and three other Iranian-American prisoners. Khosravi has become known as the fourth... Читать дальше...
Nicholas Vinocur, Politico EU
Marine Le Pen has a message for TV and radio interviewers who competed to ask her the toughest, most gotcha question in 2015: Find another target, because Im going off the grid to get my presidential campaign underway. After a strenuous two-year period during which Le Pen conducted no fewer than three election campaigns, the National Front chief is taking a big step back from round-the-clock politics to prepare for her 2017 bid. That means setting out on the road... Читать дальше...
Konrad Yakabuski, Globe&Mail
The opponents of projects aimed at transporting Alberta crude to tidewater believe they can change the course of science by blocking the Trans Mountain and Energy East pipelines, when the evidence suggests they will simply favour foreign producers and far riskier oil-by-rail transportation methods. They believe their cause to be virtuous, but threaten to do more harm than good.
Feldenkirchen & Pfister, Spiegel
Chancellor Angela Merkel spent a decade amassing political capital. Now, with the refugee crisis showing no signs of abating, she has decided to spend it. With her legacy in the balance, she has finally found an issue to fight for. But why now?
Ed West, The Guardian
The vast majority of immigrants do learn English, and while immigration discontent can be fuelled by the language issue, as in Catalonia, where migrants tend to learn Castilian, our tongue is hardly under threat. English is so all-powerful in fact, that it has even replaced Arabic as the lingua franca of jihad, and recordings of foreign fighters in Syria show Chechens, Turks, Arabs and Brits communicating in the language of the King James Bible. Isis has even opened two English... Читать дальше...
Ali Mamouri, Al-Monitor
Over the years, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani of Iraq have encouraged Shiites to take opposing approaches toward Sunnis, with ramifications for Saudi Arabia.
David Kenner, Foreign Policy
The Egyptian government worked intensively to make sure that something important happened in Tahrir Square today: nothing. On the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 25 protests that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak, traffic snaked through the square in downtown Cairo unimpeded. The only gathering was a small cluster of pro-government Egyptians, some holding signs adorned with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s smiling face, organized to praise the police forces that... Читать дальше...
David Scanlan, Bloomberg
Boring. Predictable. Prosperous. Over the last decade Canadas been living out that modest dream. The caution of its bankers helped the country breeze through the financial crisis relatively unscathed. An oil boom and rising prices for commodities from copper to wheat kept Canada growing while the U.S., Europe and Japan struggled. But fast forward. With oil and other commodity prices sharply down, the Canadian juggernaut has stalled. In response, voters kicked out the... Читать дальше...
Mazzetti & Apuzzo, NYT
When President Obama secretly authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to begin arming Syrias embattled rebels in 2013, the spy agency knew it would have a willing partner to help pay for the covert operation. It was the same partner the C.I.A. has relied on for decades for money and discretion in far-off conflicts: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Guy Verhofstadt, Ind.
Europe is running out of time. Petty nationalism must take a back seat, starting with the UK’s Brexit talks
Carrie Manning, WP Review
After months of episodic violence, the government and Renamo rebels signed a peace agreement in August 2014. But important issues remain unresolved, including the demobilization of Renamo’s “residual forces,” as they are known, who are still armed in the bush in the center of the country. Reintegrating these forces into the army and police has been a political football since 1992, compounded by political discord between Renamo and Frelimo over provincial autonomy and the distribution of natural-resource wealth. Читать дальше...
Anna Broinowski, BBC
I was armed with a media visa and the backing of the regime - the only Western documentary-maker granted total access to the country's hidden, but extremely powerful, propaganda film industry.
George Eaton, New Statesman
The Tories have long argued that many ethnic minority voters are small-c conservatives open to voting for a Conservative Party free of the toxic associations of the past (Powell's "Rivers of Blood" and Tebbit's "cricket test"). Umunna will cite evidence from the Runnymede Trust showing that "more ethnic minority middle class voters agreed that a Conservative led government would lead to better economic policy." He will add: "In 2015 we extended our ethnic minority vote... Читать дальше...
Michael Crowley, Politico
ver his career Sanders has cast some votes and made critical statements about Israel that unnerve some in the pro-Israel community. That's all the more puzzling, some say, given his own heritage as the son of a Jewish immigrant father from Poland whose family was wiped out by the Nazis — and someone who spent time working on an Israeli kibbutz.
S Y Quraishi, Indian Express
The origin of NVD is a story in itself. At a civil-society meeting in Bhubaneswar late in September 2010, a young man in the audience got up and said, “18 years is an age that deserves to be celebrated. At least one day every year should be dedicated to 18 year olds.” I thought it was a great idea. And NVD was born.
Mark Leonard, ECFR
That David Cameron is getting serious on all three fronts is encouraging and shows that the time of complacency may indeed be over. It is not before time: the latest polls suggested over 50% of Britons may vote to leave the EU.
Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz
A wide range of personal, ideological and professional motives are at play and the manifestations of the ferment are evident in many areas and often contradicting directions, but they all have one thing in common: Religious Jews, of every stripe and flavor, are doing it now for themselves and the rabbis have never been less relevant. Some are losing their faith and embracing Jewish atheism and agnosticism, many more are redefining what it means to be a believer and a practicing Jew... Читать дальше...
J. Kumagai, Atl.
Japan’s innovations seem a wise response to the quirks of the country’s geography. In an introduction to the English translation of the novel Snow Country, by the Nobel Prize-winning Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata, the Japanese literature scholar Edward Seidensticker explains the phenomenon: “In the winter, cold winds blow down from Siberia, pick up moisture over the Japan Sea, and drop it as snow when they strike the mountains of Japan.”
Shahira Amin, Al-Monitor
Five years after the January 25 Revolution, members of the new parliament question whether the uprising was really a revolution. Meanwhile, the government is cracking down on activists to avoid imminent protests.
Costas Lapavitsas, Guardian
Alexis Tsipras has embraced wholesale the austerity he once decried.
Colin Beck, LA Daily News
Revolutions, by their very nature, catch those in power by surprise. It is thus understandable that social scientists would think that random chance is intrinsic. But careful observation reveals a clear pattern — no need for clairvoyance. The conditions under which revolutions occur are actually few and clearly identifiable.
George Tzortzis, Narratively
In my North American-centric ignorance, I imagined Romania as a place bypassed by history and teeming with mist-draped castles. Eddy, amused by my skewed perceptions of his homeland, would fill the evenings with tales of the real Romania, the communist Romania, the totalitarian cult-of-personality Romania that was the closest thing to Stalin since…well, Stalin. His tales were the highlight of my biennial visits to Greece, and confirmed the wisdom of my cousin’s decision to marry him.
Clive Irving, Daily Beast
While the country was an international pariah, an Arab state saw and seized a prize that could have been theirs for the taking: crossroads of international aviation.
T. Erdbrink, NY Times
In Tehran, the Chinese have been involved in the construction of a huge elevated expressway and the building of the Niayesh Tunnel, which at more than three and a half miles will be one of the longest urban tunnels in the world. The city’s metro system was built from scratch, starting in 1995, with Chinese capital and Chinese engineers. The train cars that run on it are Chinese, too.
Max Boot & Michael Pregent, Wash. Post
The United States has become dependent on Iran not just in carrying out the nuclear deal that will form the core of Obama’s foreign policy legacy. It is also dependent on Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq for fighting the Islamic State. While the United States insisted that Shiite militias stay off the front lines in the battle of Ramadi, whose population is entirely Sunni, it has generally preferred to turn a blind eye to the growing power of the militias.
