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.

For many, Labor Day marks the end of summer. On Capitol Hill, it marks something else. It s the end of the August recess and the "soft opening" of the midterm elections. This week begins an unseen shift in the dynamics of upcoming campaigns, potential retirements, and the number of seats that will be in play. Democrats need 24 seats to gain the majority in a historically negative environment for Republicans. President Trump will be on the 2018 midterm ballot even though his name won t. And in many respects, the race begins now.

The terrorism that involves running people over and stabbing them is not just a fantastical idea. It has become a reality, in several locationsand in several countres at the same time. There is no difference between a Middle Eastern, African or Arab country, a European country, Russia or the United States of America. Everybody has become a target and everyone is sunk in the heart of suffering. Previously held notions, such as the absence of democracy leading necessarily to the spread of terrorism and its organisations, once seemed logical to Europeans and Americans. They used such notions to understand the spread of terrorism in Middle Eastern countries, especially Arab nations. However, this interpretation can no longer be considered as valid or of value.

As the war in Afghanistan shows no signs of abating, the health of the people in the country continues to be cause for concern. Afghanistan s health care system is considered one of the worst in the world, and decades of war and international neglect have contributed to its deterioration. An estimated 6 million people, out of a population of 35 million, have no access or adequate access to health care. Most doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals have left the country, causing a shortage of personnel and medical training programmes, thus failing to solve people s most pressing needs. War has caused not only deaths and injuries; it has also led to increased poverty among many households. At the same time, the physical and psychological effects of war have increased the need for medical care.

A frequent theme of modern Arab intellectual discourse has been the search for solutions to the failures and weakness of the Arab world in recent times. This, alas, has led the region down several blind alleys that have only made things worse. One of those was the path of socialism. In this, the Arabs were not alone. Just as there was “Arab socialism”, there was also “African socialism” and various other socialisms in Asia and Latin America—that is, in all the parts of the so-called “global south”, most of which won independence from European colonialism in the decades after World War Two. Looking back, it is hard to blame the leaders of the newly independent states for this self-defeating idea. At the time, socialism dominated thought in the more developed countries. Under “Soviet socialism”, Russia had risen from a weak, agricultural country to become one of the world s two “superpowers”. Its system had spread to some fifteen to twenty other states, altogether encompassing one-third of the world s population. Even in the “capitalist” West, a milder form of socialism prevailed (except in the United States) under the leadership of parties calling themselves “social democratic” or “labour” or “socialist” or “democratic socialist”. These practiced a “mixed economy”, but with the goal of continually increasing the socialist component.

Not every campaign promise is worth keeping. But to please his base, Donald Trump may be about to scrap the main trade pact between the United States and South Korea, the first bilateral treaty he will have terminated as President. Smart? No. Not now, probably not ever. Isn t this the very moment when we should be doing all we can to support and strengthen South Korea, a nation that is our principal bulwark against a madman who boasts he now has a hydrogen bomb that can destroy civilization? Apparently not, if it means leaving yet another campaign promise to his base unfulfilled. Donald Trump made that promise as a candidate, back when North Korea was pretty far down on his list of global priorities, and a whole lot of other pledges seemed like better bets.

The triumph of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa is a chapter in a raging and continuous battle, in which the Palestinian people are engaged, in order to end the occupation and the racist apartheid regime. It is a long battle. It is important to learn lessons from this model that succeeded and that should be applied in other places and other stages later. Perhaps these lessons can be summarised in the following eight characteristics that distinguished the Jerusalem uprising.

In the early hours of August 31, 1997, the media began reporting that Diana, Princess of Wales, had been injured in a car crash in the Pont l Alma tunnel in Paris. By 4:45 am, news channels were citing sources who claimed Diana had died. Members of Britain s royal family were on their annual summer break at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. They issued a statement at 5:25: "The Queen and Prince Philip are deeply shocked and distressed by this terrible news. Other members of the royal family are being informed of the Princess s death." But the royals made a grave error in how they reacted to the news of Diana s death -- one that lost them public respect at the time and has taken nearly two decades to regain.

In 1973, when President Richard Nixon proclaimed August 26 Women s Equality Day -- commemorating the day in 1920 that women won the right to vote -- a woman could still be denied housing by a real estate broker or credit by a bank, simply because of her gender. Employers could fire a woman who became pregnant. Many states had "head and master" laws giving husbands final authority in the family, and in no state was marital rape a crime. As late as 1977, two-thirds of all Americans still believed that men should earn the money and women should take care of the home.

To Donald Trump, former sheriff Joe Arpaio is a "patriot" deserving of a pardon while transgender Americans who courageously risk their lives in the military to defend our nation are a "burden" and should be banned from our armed services. Both of these decisions share one thing: Trump is legitimizing discrimination against minorities. Arpaio, who was pardoned by Trump Friday night, is the controversial former Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff who had a permanent injunction issued against him by a federal judge in 2013 for continuing to racially profile Latino drivers even after being ordered to stop years earlier. The court s order could not be more clear, instructing Arpaio to stop "detaining, holding, or arresting Latino occupants of vehicles in Maricopa County based on a reasonable belief, without more, that such persons were in country without authorization."

Monday marks the 54th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. s iconic "I Have A Dream" speech at the March on Washington. King s speech marked a new epoch in American history. King s most well-known speech mixed a radical critique of institutional racism and white supremacy with a defiant optimism for the future that resonates as much today -- in the aftermath of Charlottesville and other racially motivated conflicts -- as it did in his own time.

On Monday night, President Donald Trump spoke about the way forward in Afghanistan. I watched his remarks on TV, and then watched the reactions on the news and social media. I was shocked, not by what the President said, but by what everyone else did not say. The discussion Monday night whizzed past the war and went straight to politics. Was this a win for H.R. McMaster? Will the President s decision prompt Steve Bannon to go nuclear? Was this a deliberate attempt to shift the conversation away from Charlottesville, Virginia?

The White House is one of the most instantly recognizable buildings in the world -- a global symbol of American values and democracy. It is also a historic building, in need of constant repair and maintenance to ensure it remains safe and sound. It is now into its third century of life. Imagine if it were announced that an unavoidable part of the essential repair programs was that it would have to be painted gray for the next four years. The outcry would be deafening. Tourists would be shocked, Americans aghast. But that -- in effect -- is what is happening in London s most famous landmark: Big Ben. Repairs to the Westminster s Clock Tower -- formally the Elizabeth Tower since Queen Elizabeth II s Diamond Jubilee -- have led to the bell being silenced for four years.

Amid the intense and violent debate that engulfs Egypt on every crisis, whether it is economic, political or the result of acts of violence or terror, we can observe this time with that the ongoing discussions arise from mental images regarding Egypt and the region that are not compatible with reality. It goes back, mostly, to the 1950s and 1960s, when Egypt was living in the heyday of the July Revolution, the nationalisation of the Suez Canal, and had embarked on a promising process towards development and industrialisation. It was also a part of the Non-Alignment Movement, it supported liberation movements in Africa, and played a major role in the founding of the Organisation of African Unity.

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.

Over the 22 years I have been involved in the annual Euromoney Egypt Conference I have seen both Egyptian and international experts and policy-makers advocate many models of development. Egypt s been through some challenging times both politically and economically and has changed beyond recognition since I first visited in 1994, but I believe that few would disagree that the country has missed many opportunities and travelled down some wrong paths. The need for change and development is stronger than ever.