The last time Baghdad sent troops into Kirkuk to kick out Kurdish forces, I was in the first group of journalists taken to see the aftermath. Bloated bodies and blown-up trucks littered the road as we arrived. Fresh on the heels of the allied liberation of Kuwait in 1991, swaths of Iraq s downtrodden rose up against Saddam Hussein. The Shia in the south and the Kurds in the north were both brutally crushed. Around Kirkuk we witnessed the ugly aftermath of more killings. Kurds who had been gunned down, their bodies untouched where they fell. It was, as my wife -- then a CNN correspondent -- reported, "an object lesson in brutality." Although Baghdad s offensive in Kirkuk this week is tame by comparison, it is nevertheless an object lesson not just for the Kurds, but for the US -- and President Trump in particular.

It is painful and unfortunate that the Palestinian division has continued for more than ten years. What is more unfortunate is that the length of the division period and the failure of reconciliation attempts have meant that the current reconciliation efforts have been preoccupied with axioms and their details. These include matters such as the unity government assuming power and responsibilities, the mechanisms of operating the border crossings, when and how the measures taken as a result of the division would be annulled, and when the Gazans will enjoy more hours of electricity, instead of concentrating on the strategic objectives to end division and achieve reconciliation.

As the smoke over Raqqa slowly clears, questions about the governance of the Syrian city and its stability will soon need answering. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces -- with support from the US-led coalition -- have recently announced the full capture of what was until recently the de facto capital of ISIS self-declared caliphate. While some videos started to circulate showing members of the Syrian Democratic Forces celebrating the symbolic defeat of ISIS, others revealed the enormous level of destruction in the city. The two videos do not contradict one another -- they simply show two sides of the same story.

European leaders are set to discuss the increasingly difficult issue of Turkey at a summit this week in Brussels amid the deepest freeze in bilateral relations in years. Criticism of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan s crackdown following last year s failed coup and diplomatic bust-ups with Germany and the United States have taken their toll. Last month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a suspension of talks to bring Turkey into the European Union.

On Friday, January 16, 1990, the famous newspaper Al-Ahram published an article titled “Why do we not win the World Cup?” At that time, the moment, and the joy, were like the moment and the joy that stirred all the Egyptians last week, when they took to the streets and squares and spent all the night living a state of ecstasy. In those days the talk was about the great hopes in the “honorable representation” (in the World Cup 1990), which caused a sense of insult, so I wrote the article not to do the job of sport critics, but out of expectations to Egypt s biggest victory in another more important game and cup which is progress and the exit from the underdevelopment circle, and from poverty to richness.

In Wag the Dog, a 1997 movie, a war is fabricated to cover up a president s sex scandal. It is a perfect example of how easy it is to work up hysteria over a non-existing cause. Imagine something similar happening in Egypt. Imagine a scenario that is farfetched and definitely preposterous. Imagine the Western world suddenly ganging up on Egypt and deciding, amongst itself, that, for one bizarre reason or another, Egypt erred big time and deserves intense retribution. It then attacks Egypt. Stop for a moment. Didn t the Western world attack and destroy Iraq over fake, fabricated causes in 2003? So, play along. It gets better.

A happy night it was when our national team qualified for the World Cup thanks to Mohammed Salah’s two goals and the efforts of the entire team, led by veteran Essam al-Hadari. It was all the more thrilling for coming in the apprehensive final minutes of the game, when the dream of the World Cup seemed irretrievably lost. But in the end, it was like a movie where the hero appears to save the day at the crucial moment and the audience leaves the cinema pleased and satisfied.

In the light of the results of the population census announced a few days ago, there is no excuse for executive officials collaborating with specialised experts not to draw conclusions, and accurately identify the social transformations that Egypt has witnessed in the last three decades on one hand, and the indicators that lead to a certain kind of development on the other. Consequently, they should be ready to think in a different way from the way they are thinking right now. According to the new results, Egypt s population has doubled during the last 30 years. It has increased from 48 million in 1986 to 95 million in 2016 within Egyptian territory.

For the first time in the history of the United States of America, coinciding with the rise of Donald Trump to the presidency, this year there are classes, for students in preparatory and secondary schools, on terrorism and its relationship with Islam and Muslims. This is without mentioning, of course, that this terrorism meant in the classes is a pure American product, like the IS (Islamic State) group, and Qaeda before it, and also without mentioning that the weapons used in most of the terrorism operations, and all the wars around the world, are US made. These classes also don t mention that the number of people killed by American hands are in the tens of millions, both within the United States — Native Americans and African Americans — or outside of the United States, in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq.

To measure just how weak British Prime Minister Theresa May is at the moment, consider this: Even the most embattled of leaders have had the option to reassert authority by hiring and firing ministers. The Cabinet reshuffle, the way a premier can exercise ultimate power, has been a traditional device to gain strength quickly. But May is so weak that she cannot even sack ministers who are openly undermining her. Against this backdrop, Brexit -- as Scotland s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Monday -- is turning into a disaster. The prospect of no deal on Britain s exit from Europe is looking increasingly likely by the day. This week marks the fifth round of negotiations between Britain and the EU in Brussels. Yet, with just under 18 months to go before the UK s departure date, no meaningful progress has been made.

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.