The potential for arms to be used against Syrian civilians who have suffered most throughout the two years of civil war is not among the primary considerations of the arms-exporting west. One may wonder whether it is of any concern at all.
The imminence of severe climate disruption makes the work of those planning for the event more vital than ever.
Some of the most original graffiti - and there is much of it - plays with the teargas theme: “Wipe away your tears: things will never be the same again!”
A media that does not function as a check on the government will not be able to survive in the coming days and people will definitely question business relations between the media and the government.
When the Assad regime is ultimately defeated, Hezbollah will have lost the majority of its military hardware, a significant portion of its forces, and its political clout in Lebanon.
Their actions in Al-Qusayr hurl them far closer to the category of regional militant force, as the architects of a new framework of Middle Eastern skirmishes, in which Sunnis and Shiites become the crucial axis of antagonism, rather than nation states.
PM Erdoğan’s inflammatory policies point to the pitfalls of majoritarian style democracy in Turkey.
One might note that the less represented the ‘popular’ classes are in political parties, in parliament or in government, the more ‘populism’ is branded a threat.
Turkey will not tolerate, let alone a Saudi-type sharia law, but even a much more palatable mildly Islamist neoliberal conservatism, which is, incidentally, a direct descendant of the American religious right rather than any Islamic political ideology.
Should Cameron, Obama, Hollande and Merkel remain tight-lipped about the disorder spreading across Turkey, we must conclude it is because they regard the measure of police force as an expedient that they themselves could ultimately resort to.
The elusive truth of on armed raid in eastern Bolivia leads Matt Kennard into a major investigation of the efforts by Washington and its local allies to undermine the radical government of Evo Morales.
Might the end of one of the most remarkable, and defining, of political careers in Algeria’s history be upon us?
