Sixteen years ago this Saturday, US troops entered Afghanistan. The decision to dispatch troops was prompt, and the public reaction in America was mostly positive. There was a sense of inevitability: The United States had experienced the deadliest-ever terrorist attack on its soil. It was time to go get the bad guys who planned it and the hosts that offered them sanctuary. In relatively short order, the deed was done: The US-led mission eliminated the sanctuaries inhabited by al Qaeda and removed its Taliban hosts from power. And yet, soon thereafter, Americans were reminded of an inconvenient truth: Ending wars is harder than starting them. This was a bitter lesson from Vietnam, and one that would later resurface in Iraq.

The time to choose a new director-general for the UN cultural organisation UNESCO is coming soon. This is a very important decision, and I would like to explain to the world why it is so important that this position should be given to an Arab, and specifically to an Egyptian candidate, in this case Moushira Khattab. France has also put forward a candidate for the directorship of UNESCO. It is true that the organisation is based in Paris and that the French are wonderful collaborators in the field of cultural heritage.

Theresa May has to go. Voters in Britain deprived their Prime Minister of her majority and denied her a mandate to govern in June s general election. If that wasn t enough, Mrs. May s tone deaf response to the tragic fire that destroyed Grenfell Tower should have been a sacking offense. Yet despite being robbed of political authority, the Prime Minister has been loyally kept in office by Conservative MPs -- backbench and frontbench alike.

The Supply Minister almost doesn’t miss a month to come up with a decision intended to bring more suffering to the poor. And I don’t know why he makes himself busy with those? Why doesn’t he collect the beneficiaries from the ration cards system and queue them up in the street then set them ablaze and feel relief?! It is saddening that the person who is responsible for the food of the poor is a minister belonging to that class, which sees that the poor as riffraff, stinky, and doesn’t deserve even a sip of water! It even hurts that the government itself changed after it received some money, and forgot the past times, and now sees the poor and the needy as a burden that must be thrown in the Nile before it’s dried up!

Israel expelled the residents of Al-Sheikh Al-Jarrah in Western Jerusalem in 1948 and gave their homes to Jewish families. The residents have been obliged to rent houses in which they are living now in the same neighbourhood according to a law that was supposed to protect them from eviction. Israeli troops came in and expelled them for the second time in a racist savagery that does not care at all about human rights. They did this in order to provide a dwelling for settlers whose existence in occupied Arab Jerusalem is an infraction of international humanitarian law, as moving them to occupied territories, like transferring other settlers, is a war crime according to international conventions.

Is there nothing that either Donald Trump or Kim Jong Un like better than hurling abuse at one another? One, it seems, can t let the other lob an insult without chucking back a bigger one. It s getting hard to tell who has the thinner skin. Take the recent United Nations General Assembly as a starting point. Trump threatens to "totally destroy" Kim s North Korea. He then calls Kim a "rocket man" on a "suicide mission". Kim took the bait and responded directly to Trump, firing off his own verbal barrage calling Trump a "mentally deranged US Dotard," adding that "a frightened dog barks louder".

On September 14, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that he "do(es) not agree that South Korea needs to develop our own nuclear weapons." This remark, on the surface at least, reflects the current position of the Seoul government reasonably well. Until a couple of months ago, no South Korean President would even bother to mention the idea of Seoul going nuclear -- there was no need, such plans were clearly outside the realm of serious discussion. But things have changed recently: Today, talks concerning the need for a South Korean nuclear program are fairly commonplace in Seoul. What s more, public opinion polls consistently indicate that a majority of the country s population would actually support the idea of South Korea developing its own nuclear weapons.

In the closing session of the Rimini Meeting for friendship among peoples in Italy, I couldn t believe my ears when I heard Cardinal Pietro Parolin, one of the assistants to the Vatican Pope and perhaps the second most influencial man in this institution that carries spiritual clout throughout the world, using the vocabulary of Theodor Adorno s criticism of Goethe s famous Faust. Some consider Adorno — a leading member of the Frankfurt School that made a shift in sociology towards the psychoanalytical and paved the way for the birth of cultural studies — as among the most brilliant 20th century critics. Not only this, but he took a firm and political stand towards social institutions, and said: “I ve learned to leave the church." Thus, he pronounced his exit from prevailing traditions.

Don t be deceived by the placid news that Angela Merkel just won re-election to Germany s top job. Sunday s election was an earthquake. You won t detect the tectonic movement by looking at who came in first, Merkel s conservative Christian Democratic Union, or at the second-place finisher, the center-left Social Democratic Party. It is the strong showing of the third biggest vote-getter, the far-right nationalist populist Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which has sent jolts at home and abroad and will have lasting consequences. As the results emerged Sunday, protests broke out across the country, with shouts of "Nazis out!" Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel had warned voters that supporting the AfD meant putting "real Nazis" in Parliament for the first time since World War II.

As the summer and holiday season draws to a close, the annual investment season begins: economic conferences, government visits, delegations of investors and analysts from around the world. This year is no different, though there is increased interest in in Egypt as a result of its economic reform program started late last year and still ongoing. This program —including the floating of the pound, the Introduction of a VAT, the increase in energy prices, and the IMF deal—resulted in improved macroeconomic indicators, as demonstrated by the stable exchange rate, increased Central Bank reserves, and higher growth rates.

In the search for safety and freedom of movement, an increasing number of Arab families are considering an alternative citizenship. The many years of instability in some of Middle Eastern countries and the growing trend of European countries and the USA to have more restrictive immigration policies, has directly affected several nations in the region. As a result, more people are seeking alternative solutions to protect themselves from these new realities which may impact their lives in many different ways. Arab families in the Middle East, particularly in North Africa, Levant, and the Gulf region fully understand the many tangible benefits of holding a second passport. Thus, the Citizenship by Investment industry in the Middle East has been growing at an exponential rate given the increasing demand from Arab applicants.

Against a plain background in a former school for paramilitary police, next to a church famous for denouncing Galileo s refutation of the idea that the sun moved around the Earth, British Prime Minister Theresa May gave a foreign policy speech Friday that revolved around divisions within her own Cabinet. Facing demands to side with the pragmatists -- who favor what is often referred to as a soft Brexit -- or the ideologues in her Cabinet, she opted to split the difference. The result: a significant difference in the tone of the UK s public statements about Brexit to date, but very little in substance. Theresa May proposes 2-year Brexit transition in bid to break deadlock

Were you afraid of sentencing him to death? Then why did the Court of Cassation sentence Morsi to lifetime in jail, not death? Wasn’t the crime ‘conspiring’ and leaking top secret military information? Is it because of political alignments or international demands? Are there reasons for not sentencing him to death, so the Brotherhood doesn’t revolt? Has the Brotherhood passed the death penalty time frame and are awaiting the presidential pardon? Does this mean Egypt has stopped capital punishment?! I am not criticizing the court here in any way, but I am seeking an explanation for the ruling.. Why lifetime imprisonment, not death?.. First, cases of espionage in times of war are different than when it occurs in times of peace.. In other words, conspiring with a foreign state we have waged war on ends with the death penalty, according to the law. But In the case of Qatar, with which we are not at war, this ends with prison.. So why was it lifetime imprisonment for Morsi?.. The answer is because the spy was the ‘President’ and not just any citizen!

The Rohingya Muslims, an ancient community in Myanmar and currently the largest group of stateless people in the world, have been at risk for decades. A recent increase in violent attacks against this minority, however, has claimed more than 1,000 lives since August 25 and has forced tens of thousands of civilians to seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh. To prevent what could possibly be the next genocide, Turkey has stepped up its diplomatic and humanitarian efforts in the area. Before it s too late, other world leaders must follow suit.

The plight of Myanmar s persecuted Rohingya minority is becoming the Muslim world s latest rallying call emulating the emotional appeal of the Palestinians in the second half of the 20th century. Like the cause of the Palestinians, the Rohingya, albeit with a twist, have also become a battlefield for the Muslim world s multiple rivalries and power struggles. Calls for military intervention on behalf of the Rohingya reflect efforts by competing Muslim states and non-state forces to be seen as defenders of a community under attack.

During troubled times, amidst the fury that often grips the beleaguered, an act of defiance manifests itself in the destruction of statues and monuments of those considered enemies or oppressors. Throughout history and across the world, many monuments have faced such a tragic end. After 1956, the people of Port Said, provoked by the Tripartite Invasion, pulled down the statue of Ferdinand De Lesseps, the developer of the Suez Canal. The statue stood at the entrance of the Suez Canal with its right arm stretched out, indicating the open waterway to the East. Today, the same statue sits in a shipyard in Port Said, neglected and utterly forgotten.

It used to be known as propaganda when adversary governments concocted bizarre stories to further their agendas. Tabloid journalism is a lighter version of the same; it goes after overblown gossip and bogus rumours. Now, in the age of social media, the words disinformation, yellow journalism or better yet fake news have come to life. Hoax stories are created to deceive and intended to mislead, and in the process influence millions.

In our feverish media climate, we at times devote intense attention to issues of trivial importance in people s lives—for several weeks this summer, for example, we were engrossed in news of the jellyfish bloom on the North Coast—while other much more important events slide under the radar without adequate analysis. A significant news item may be briefly covered for a day or two, but absent any in-depth discussion of its import for the future.

As civil war tore through my village, I lost friends and neighbors. I could no longer go to school. And eventually, I couldn t even leave the house. When the danger became too great my family and I had to flee -- leaving behind our home, almost all of our possessions and our entire way of life. Never again would I roam the village with my schoolmates after lessons, snacking on mangoes, wandering out to check on my mother s cows or running up the big hill nearby to gaze at the airplanes passing overhead.

Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) once again reported that all parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- including Iran -- are in full compliance with the agreement. This marks the 8th time the agency, in its regular reports mandated by the JCPOA, has confirmed that the nuclear deal is working -- and it must be noted that since the implementation of the JCPOA, not once has the agency found Iran to be out of compliance. The deal took the threat of a nuclear Iran off the table, but President Donald Trump seems ready to ignore the evidence and declare Iran out of compliance in defiance of all the experts. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley even made the case for the withdrawal from the Iran deal on Tuesday.

It s been more than five months since the formal start of negotiations over Britain s departure from the EU -- and progress so far has been painfully slow. Both sides admit there are significant differences to be overcome and are locked in a standoff over the structure of the talks. Neither the UK nor the EU wants to talk about what will happen if there is no deal, but some British Members of Parliament believe it is time for the government to start talking seriously about what would happen in this scenario.