re

The Lord’s Greatest Prayer, Part 7




re

The Lord’s Greatest Prayer, Part 8




re

Jesus Appears Before Pilate, Part 1




re

Jesus Appears Before Pilate, Part 2




re

Jesus Appears Before Pilate, Part 3




re

Jesus Appears Before Pilate, Part 4




re

Reconciled to God




re

Strengthen Your Heart




re

Turkey's Diverse Resistance

The people meeting in Istanbul's parks are wildly different from each other, but they are now engaging each other in ways they weren't before.




re

Religion in Eastern Europe

While the Catholic Church confronts contemporary issues with a modern face, the Orthodox Church remains stubbornly entrenched in its Byzantine heritage.




re

Ukraine Protests: Euromaidan Has Real Potential

Furious about its government cowing to Russia and mishandling economic challenges, Ukrainian citizens have taken to the streets in record force.




re

Bread and Community in Istanbul

In the neighborhood of Pangalti, an area rich with history, specialty shops dedicated to fresh and local fare knit a sense of community among the locals.




re

They Met at Eight Years Old, Married, and Died Together in a Ukrainian Trench

They met at eight years old, married, and died together in a Ukrainian trench




re

Europe's Growing Right Resurgence

The rise of a right-wing coalition in Denmark reflects a trend across Europe of political parties stoking anti-immigrant sentiment and Islamophobia.




re

Global Refugee Crisis Deepens by the Day

We are currently seeing the worst refugee crisis since World War II, and developed countries are not doing nearly enough to help those in need.




re

The Jedwabne Massacre of 1941: An Interview with Marcin Malek

On July 10, 1941, Christian Poles hunted down, clubbed, drowned, gutted, and burned alive 1,600 Jewish men, women, and children-all but seven of the town's Jews.




re

Isolated in Greek Camps, Migrants Find Work

The UN High Commission for Refugees estimates that nearly 50,000 migrants are in Greece, awaiting asylum interviews in which they will make their cases for staying in Europe. While many migrants remain without jobs, some have found work in camps, or have even started their own businesses.




re

Uyghur Mass Detention Report May Be Delayed Again

Geneva — U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Thursday cast doubt on whether she will release a long-awaited report on the mass incarceration of Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang region before she leaves office on August 31. When she announced her departure in June, Bachelet said she would publish the report before her term ended. In her final briefing as high commissioner, she said she hoped it would be possible but indicated its release, once again, might be delayed. Bachelet said her office has received substantial input from the Chinese government that must be carefully reviewed before the report can be issued. She said that was normal procedure for all country reports published by her office. "In my meeting with high level national officials and regional authorities in Xinjiang, I raised concern about human rights violations, including reports of arbitrary detention and ill-treatment in institutions," she said. "And the report looks in depth on to these and other serious human rights violations concerning the Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang." Human rights activists accuse China of the mass detention, torture, and cultural persecution of a million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in so-called vocational camps. China denies the allegations, saying people in training centers receive skills they need to get good jobs. Bachelet said she raised many concerns with Chinese authorities during her visit to Xinjiang in May. In July, the Reuters news agency reported that China had sent Bachelet a letter asking her not to publish the report. She has confirmed receipt of that letter, which was signed by diplomats of some 40 countries. The high commissioner said such solicitations from countries under the human rights spotlight are not unusual, adding she does not give in to pressure. "I have been receiving pressures from countries who want to publish or not to publish," Bachelet said. "You cannot imagine the numbers of letters, meetings asking for the non-publication. Huge numbers … I have been under tremendous pressure to publish or not to publish. But I will not publish or withhold publication due to any such pressure. I can assure you of that." Work on the report has been ongoing for the past three years. The high commissioner has one week left on her mandate. She assured journalists that she was trying very hard to do what she had promised, namely to release the report before she leaves on August 31.




re

UN Weather Agency Predicts Rare 'Triple-dip' La Nina in 2022

GENEVA — The U.N. weather agency is predicting that the phenomenon known as La Nina is poised to last through the end of this year, a mysterious “triple dip” — the first this century — caused by three straight years of its effect on climate patterns like drought and flooding worldwide. The World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday said La Nina conditions, which involve a large-scale cooling of ocean surface temperatures, have strengthened in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific with an increase in trade winds in recent weeks. The agency’s top official was quick to caution that the “triple dip” doesn’t mean global warming is easing. “It is exceptional to have three consecutive years with a La Nina event. Its cooling influence is temporarily slowing the rise in global temperatures, but it will not halt or reverse the long-term warming trend,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said. La Nina is a natural and cyclical cooling of parts of the equatorial Pacific that changes weather patterns worldwide, as opposed to warming caused by the better-known El Nino — an opposite phenomenon. La Nina often leads to more Atlantic hurricanes, less rain and more wildfires in the western United States, and agricultural losses in the central U.S. Studies have shown La Nina is more expensive to the United States than the El Nino. Together El Nino, La Nina and the neutral condition are called ENSO, which stands for El Nino Southern Oscillation, and they have one of the largest natural effects on climate, at times augmenting and other times dampening the big effects of human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas, scientists say.




re

More Than 360 Migrants Rescued at Sea Trying to Reach Britain

LILLE, FRANCE — More than 360 migrants were rescued Sunday while attempting the perilous crossing between the north coast of France and the south coast of England, in small boats, French officials said.    Regional maritime boats and a French Navy patrol ship made multiple trips to rescue groups of people in difficulty in the Channel, the French coastal authority Premar said.   In all, they rescued 367 people, taking them to the French ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk.  Increasing numbers of migrants seeking to reach England are trying to cross the Channel in makeshift boats now that officials have increased security at Calais and the cross-Channel tunnel.  The waterway is one of the busiest sea routes in the world, with more than 400 vessels crossing it every day and the weather conditions are often difficult.  Since the beginning of the year, a record 33,500 people have crossed the Channel in small boats.  According to figures from Britain's interior ministry, 94% of the migrants who reached the U.K. in the past four years went on to apply for asylum. Of those who had received a response, most had been successful.  As the law currently stands, a migrant must be physically in the U.K. to start the asylum process. 




re

Antigovernment Protesters Encircle Serbian State TV Building, Demand Media Freedom

Huge crowds of antigovernment protesters Saturday encircled the Serbian state television building in downtown Belgrade to press their demand for autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic to ease his tight grip on the mainstream media and allow alternative voices. Tens of thousands of opposition supporters, some chanting slogans urging Vucic's resignation, streamed into the rain-drenched streets a day after the president's followers staged an equally big rally in the capital. Most of his supporters were bused into the capital from all over Serbia and some neighboring states. Outside the RTS TV headquarters, the crowds blew whistles and booed loudly. They say that according to the laws, state TV should be unbiased as a public broadcaster, but that it has been openly pro-government. Held for the fourth time since the early May shootings, the opposition-led protests appear to be shaping up into the biggest revolt against Vucic's autocratic rule during his over 10 years in power. The rallies initially erupted in response to two back-to-back mass shootings earlier this month that left 18 people dead and 20 wounded, many of them children from an elementary school. Other protest demands include the resignations of top officials and the revoking of licenses for pro-government media that air violent content and host crime figures and war criminals. Vucic has accused the opposition of abusing the shooting tragedy for political ends. Earlier Saturday, he stepped down from the helm of his populist party amid plans to form a wider political movement. Vucic named his close ally, Milos Vucevic, the current defense minister, as his successor. Holding umbrellas amid heavy rain Saturday, the protesters walked slowly around the RTS television building in central Belgrade, completely covering the streets in the entire area. Many held flowers in memory of the slain children and wore badges reading "vulture" or "hyena," mocking the expressions that officials used to describe the protesters. Vucic has said the new, national movement will be formed in June to include other parties, experts and prominent individuals and promote unity. Analysts say it is a bid to regroup amid mounting public pressure. Critics say the movement could lead to single-party rule, more or less as the case in Vladimir Putin's Russia, which Vucic supports. During the rally Friday, Vucic offered dialogue as he seeks ways to ease mounting public pressure. Opposition parties have pledged to press on with the demonstrations until their demands are fulfilled. They include the ouster of the interior minister and the intelligence chief; the revocation of nationwide broadcast licenses for two pro-government TV stations; and the dismissal of a media-monitoring body. "If they don't fulfill (the demands) we are not leaving from here," said Milica Tomic, a Belgrade resident. "We will be here, if it need be, every day, every week, whenever."




re

Gunmen Seize 15 Children From School in Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria — Armed men broke into a boarding school in northwestern Nigeria early Saturday and seized 15 children as they slept, police told The Associated Press, about 48 hours after nearly 300 students were taken hostage in the conflict-hit region. School abductions are common in Nigeria's northern region, especially since the 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Islamic extremists in Borno state's Chibok village shocked the world. Armed gangs have since targeted schools for kidnap ransoms, resulting in at least 1,400 abducted since then. The gunmen in the latest attack invaded the Gidan Bakuso village of the Gada council area in Sokoto state about 1 a.m. local time, police said. They headed to the Islamic school where they seized the children from their hostel before security forces could arrive, Sokoto police spokesman Ahmad Rufa'i told the AP. One woman was also abducted from the village, Rufa'i said, adding that a police tactical squad was deployed to search for the students. The inaccessible roads in the area, however, challenged the rescue operation, he said. "It is a remote village (and) vehicles cannot go there; they (the police squad) had to use motorcycles to the village," he said. Saturday's attack was the third mass kidnapping in northern Nigeria since late last week, when more than 200 people, mostly women and children, were abducted by suspected extremists in Borno state. On Thursday, 287 students were also taken hostage from a government primary and secondary school in Kaduna state. The attacks highlight a security crisis that has plagued Africa's most populous country. Kidnappings for ransom have become lucrative across Nigeria's northern region, where dozens of armed gangs operate. No group claimed responsibility for any of the abductions. While Islamic extremists who are waging an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria are suspected of carrying out the kidnapping in Borno state, locals blamed the school kidnappings on herders who had been in conflict with their host communities before taking up arms. Nigeria's Vice President Kashim Shettima, meanwhile, met with authorities and some parents of the abducted students in Kaduna state Saturday and assured them of efforts by security forces to find the children and rescue them.




re

Conflict, violence push global internal displacement to record high levels

GENEVA — Conflicts and violence have pushed the number of internally displaced people around the world to a record-breaking high of 75.9 million, with nearly half living in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center. The report finds conflicts in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Palestinian territories accounted for nearly two-thirds of new displacements due to violence, which in total spanned 66 countries in 2023. “Over the past two years, we have seen alarming new levels of people having to flee their homes due to conflict and violence, even in regions where the trend had been improving,” Alexandra Bilak, IDMC director said. In a statement to coincide with the publication of the report Tuesday, she said that the millions of people forced to flee in 2023 were just “the tip of the iceberg.” “Conflict, and the devastation it leaves behind, is keeping millions from rebuilding their lives, often for years on end,” she said. WATCH: Wars in Sudan, Gaza, DRC drive internally displaced to record 76 million The report notes the number of internal displacements, that is the number of times people have been forced to move throughout the year to escape conflict within their country, has increased in the last couple of years. “While we hear a lot about refugees or asylum-seekers who cross the border, the majority of the displaced people actually stay within their country and they are internally displaced,” Christelle Cazabat, head of programs at IDMC, told journalists in Geneva Monday, in advance of the launch of the report. In its 2023 report on forcibly displaced populations, the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, reported that 62.5 million people had been internally displaced people at the end of 2022 compared to 36.4 million refugees who had fled conflict, violence and persecution that same year. According to the IDMC, new internal displacements last year were mostly due to the conflict in Ukraine, which started in 2022, as well as to the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the eruption of war in mid-April 2023 in Sudan. The war in Sudan resulted in 6 million internal displacements last year, which was “more than its previous 14 years combined” and the second most ever recorded in one country during a single year after Ukraine’s 16.9 million in 2022, according to the report. “As you know, it is more than a year that this new wave of conflict erupted (in Sudan) and as of the end of last year, the figure was 9.1 million” displaced in total by the conflict, said Vicente Anzellini, IDMCs global and regional analysis manager and lead author of the report. “This figure is the highest that we have ever reported for any country, this 9.1 million internally displaced people.” In the Gaza Strip, IDMC calculated 3.4 million displacements in the last three months of 2023, many of whom had been displaced multiple times during this period. It says this number represented 17% of total conflict displacements worldwide during the year, noting that a total of 1.7 million Palestinians were internally displaced in Gaza by the end of the year. The last quarter of 2023 is the period following the Hamas terrorists’ brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7, eliciting a military response from Israel on the Palestinian enclave. “There are many other crises that are actually displacing even more people, but we hear a little bit less of them,” said Cazabat, noting that little is heard about the “acute humanitarian crisis in Sudan” though it has the highest number of people “living in internal displacement because of the conflict at the end of last year.” In the past five years, the report finds the number of people living in internal displacement because of conflict and violence has increased by 22.6 million. Sudan topped last year’s list of 66 countries with 9.1 million people displaced internally because of conflict, followed by Syria with more than 7 million, the DRC, Colombia and Yemen. Besides the total of 68.3 million people who were displaced globally by conflict and violence in 2023, the report says 7.7 million were displaced by natural disasters, including floods, storms, earthquakes and wildfires. As in previous years, the report notes that floods and storms caused the most disaster displacement, including in southeastern Africa, where cyclone Freddy triggered 1.4 million movements across six countries and territories. The earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria triggered 4.7 million displacements, one of the largest disaster displacement events since records began in 2008. Anzellini observed many countries that have experienced conflict displacement also have experienced disaster displacement. “In many situations, they are overlapping. This is the case in Sudan, in South Sudan, but also in Somalia, in the DRC, and other places,” he said. “So, you can imagine fleeing from violence to save your life and then having to escape to higher ground with whatever you can carry as the storm or a flood threatens to wash away your temporary shelter.” He said that no country is immune to disaster displacement. “Last year, we recorded disaster displacements in 148 countries and territories, and these include high-income countries such as Canada and New Zealand, which recorded their highest figures ever. “Climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and more intense and that can lead to more displacement, but it does not have to,” he said, noting that climate change is one of many factors that contribute to displacement. “There are other economic, social and political factors that governments can address to actually minimize the impacts of displacement even in the face of climate change,” he said, including early warning systems and the evacuation of populations before a natural disaster is forecast to strike.




re

Global index for free and fair elections suffers biggest decline on record in 2023, democracy watchdog says

STOCKHOLM — Lower voter turnout and increasingly contested results globally are threatening the credibility of elections, an intergovernmental watchdog warned on Tuesday, as its sub-index for free and fair elections suffered its biggest decline on record in 2023. In its report, the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) said 2023 was the eighth consecutive year with a net decline in overall democratic performance, the longest consecutive fall since records began in 1975. The watchdog bases its Global State of Democracy indexes on more than 100 variables and is using four main categories - representation, rights, rule of law and participation - to categorize performance. The category of democracy related to free and fair elections and parliamentary oversight, a sub-category of representation, suffered its worst year on record in 2023. "This report is a call for action to protect democratic elections," IDEA's Secretary-General Kevin Casas-Zamora said in the report. "The success of democracy depends on many things, but it becomes utterly impossible if elections fail." The think-tank said government intimidation and electoral process irregularities, such as fraudulent voter registration and vote-counting, were increasing. It also said that threats of foreign interference, disinformation and the use of artificial intelligence in campaigns added to challenges. It also said that global voter participation had fallen to 55.5% of eligible voters in 2023 from 65.2% in 2008. Globally, in almost 20% of elections between 2020 and 2024, one of the losing candidates or parties rejected the results. IDEA said that the democratic performance in the U.S., which holds a presidential election this year, had recovered somewhat in the past two years, but the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in July highlighted continued risks. "Less than half (47%) of the Americans said the 2020 election was 'free and fair' and the country remains deeply polarized," IDEA said.




re

The price of gold keeps climbing to unprecedented heights. Here's why

NEW YORK — The rush for gold just keeps coming. Gold hit another all-time high this week. Recent gains for the precious metal are largely credited to ongoing economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and strong demand from central banks around the world. If trends continue, analysts have bullish outlooks on the price of gold for the months ahead. But the future is never promised. Here's what you need to know. Where does the price of gold stand today? The New York spot price of gold closed Tuesday at just over $2,657 per Troy ounce — the standard for measuring precious metals, which is equivalent to 31 grams — the highest recorded to date, per FactSet. That would make a gold bar or brick weighing 400 Troy ounces worth more than $1.06 million today. This week's record high means that the price of gold has climbed hundreds of dollars per Troy ounce over the last year. Tuesday's price is up nearly $145 from a month ago and more than $740 from this time in 2023. The price of gold is up nearly 30% year to date, analysts note — outpacing the benchmark S&P 500's roughly 20% gain since the start of 2024. Why is the price of gold going up? There are a few factors behind the recent gains. Interest in buying gold often comes at times of uncertainty — with potential concerns around inflation and the strength of the U.S. dollar, for example, causing some to look for alternative places to park their money. Gold also surged in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among sources of uncertainty today are geopolitical tensions — which escalated over recent days with Israel's deadly strikes in Lebanon. And the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine have continued to fuel fears about the future worldwide. In markets like the U.S., there's also particular concern about the health of the job market. Last week's larger-than-usual half-point cut by the Federal Reserve signals a new focus on slowing employment numbers, and more rate cuts are expected before the end of the year. And such action arrives in the midst of a tumultuous election year — which could prove crucial to economic policy in the road ahead, too. In the near future, people are considering "any case of turbulence in the economy," FxPro senior market analyst Michel Saliby explained. "This is why they're keeping a decent portion of gold in their portfolio as a 'safe haven.'" Analysts also point to strong demand from central banks around the world. Joe Cavatoni, senior market strategist at the World Gold Council, noted last month that central bank demand was well-above the five year average — reflecting "heightened concern with inflation and economic stability." Recent stimulus measures in China aimed at boosting consumer spending are also expected to up retail investments, Saliby added, further boosting gold's performance. Is gold worth the investment? Advocates of investing in gold call it a "safe haven," arguing the commodity can serve to diversify and balance your investment portfolio, as well as mitigate possible risks down the road. Some also take comfort in buying something tangible that has the potential to increase in value over time. Experts caution against putting all your eggs in one basket. Both retail and institutional investors shouldn't be influenced by the "FOMO effect," or fear of missing out, Saliby notes — explaining that people should not risk all their money just because they are seeing others rake in gains. He advises investors to watch the market and always have a clear risk management strategy for their position. If geopolitical tensions cool, Saliby expects the price of gold to correct slightly, perhaps falling around $50 to $80. But he remains bullish overall for the near future — expecting gold's spot price to soon surpass the $2,700 mark previously predicted for 2025, and perhaps reach as high as $2,800 or $2,900 if trends continue. Still, future gains are never promised and not everyone agrees gold is a good investment. Critics say gold isn't always the inflation hedge many say it is — and that there are more efficient ways to protect against potential loss of capital, such as through derivative-based investments. The Commodity Futures Trade Commission has also previously warned people to be wary of investing in gold. Precious metals can be highly volatile, the commission said, and prices rise as demand goes up — meaning "when economic anxiety or instability is high, the people who typically profit from precious metals are the sellers." If you do choose to invest in gold, the commission adds, it's important to educate yourself on safe trading practices and be cautious of potential scams and counterfeits on the market.




re

Nigeria resettling people back to homes they fled to escape Boko Haram

DAMASAK, Nigeria — When Boko Haram launched an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria in 2010, Abdulhameed Salisu packed his bag and fled from his hometown of Damasak in the country's battered Borno state.  The 45-year-old father of seven came back with his family early last year. They are among thousands of Nigerians taken back from displacement camps to their villages, hometowns or newly built settlements known as “host communities” under a resettlement program that analysts say is being rushed to suggest the conflict with the Islamic militants is nearly over.  Across Borno, dozens of displacement camps have been shut down, with authorities claiming they are no longer needed and that most places from where the displaced fled are now safe.  But many of the displaced say it’s not safe to go back.  Boko Haram — Nigeria’s homegrown jihadis — took up arms in 2009 to fight against Western education and impose their radical version of Islamic law, or Sharia. The conflict, now Africa's longest struggle with militancy, has spilled into Nigeria's northern neighbors.  Some 35,000 civilians have been killed and more than 2 million have been displaced in the northeastern region, according to U.N. numbers. The 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in the village of Chibok in Borno state — the epicenter of the conflict — shocked the world.  Borno state alone has nearly 900,000 internally displaced people in displacement camps, with many others absorbed in local communities. So far this year, at least 1,600 civilians have been killed in militant attacks in Borno state, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit.  And in a state where at least 70% of the population depends on agriculture, dozens of farmers have also been killed by the extremists or abducted from their farmland in the last year.  In May, hundreds of hostages, mostly women and children who were held captive for months or years by Boko Haram were rescued from a forest enclave and handed over to authorities, the army said.  In September, at least 100 villagers were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants who opened fire on a market, on worshippers and in people’s homes in the Tarmuwa council area of the neighboring Yobe state, west of Borno.  Analysts say that a forced resettlement could endanger the local population as there is still inadequate security across the hard-hit region.  Salisu says he wastes away his days in a resettlement camp in Damasak, a garrison town in Borno state of about 200,000 residents, close to the border with Niger.  Food is getting increasingly difficult to come by and Salisu depends on handouts from the World Food Program and other aid organizations. He longs to find work.  “We are begging the government to at least find us a means of livelihood instead of staying idle and waiting for whenever food comes,” he said.  On a visit last week to Damasak, Cindy McCain, the WFP chief, pledged the world would not abandon the Nigerian people as she called for more funding to support her agency's aid operations.  “We are going to stay here and do the very best we can to end hunger,” McCain told The Associated Press as she acknowledged the funding shortages. “How do I take food from the hungry and give it to the starving,” she said.  Resettlement usually involves the displaced being taken in military trucks back to their villages or “host communities." The Borno state government has promised to provide returnees with essentials to help them integrate into these areas, supported by aid groups.  The government says the displacement camps are no longer sustainable.  “What we need now is ... durable solutions,” Borno governor Babagana Zulum told McCain during her visit.  As the resettlement got underway, one in five displaced persons stayed back in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, and nearby towns but were left without any support for local integration, the Global Protection Cluster, a network of non-government organizations and U.N. agencies, said last December.  Many others have crossed the border to the north, to settle as refugees in neighboring Niger, Chad or Cameroon. The three countries have registered at least 52,000 Nigerian refugees since January 2023, according to the U.N. refugee agency — nearly twice the number registered in the 22 months before that.  A rushed closure of displacement camps and forced resettlement puts the displaced people at risk again from militants still active in their home areas — or forces them to “cut deals” with jihadis to be able to farm or fish, the International Crisis Group warned in a report earlier this year.  That could make the extremists consolidate their presence in those areas, the group warned. Boko Haram, which in 2016 split into two main factions, continues to ambush security convoys and raid villages.  Abubakar Kawu Monguno, head of the Center for Disaster Risk Management at the University of Maiduguri, said the best option is for government forces to intensify their campaign to eliminate the militants or “push them to surrender.”  After not being able to access their farms because of rampant attacks by militants, some farmers in Damasak and other parts of Mobbar district returned to work their land last year, armed with seedlings provided by the government.  Salisu was one of them.  Then a major flood struck in September, collapsing a key dam and submerging about 40% of Maiduguri's territory. Thirty people were killed and more than a million others were affected, authorities said.  Farms that feed the state were ruined, including Salisu's. His hopes for a good rice harvest were washed away. Now he lines up to get food at a Damasak food hub.  “Since Boko Haram started, everything else stopped here," he said. “There is nothing on the ground and there are no jobs.”  Maryam Abdullahi also lined up at a WFP hub in Damasak with other women, waiting for bags of rice and other food items she desperately needs for her family of eight. Her youngest is 6 years old.  The donations barely last halfway through the month, she said, but she still waited in the scorching heat.  What little money she has she uses to buy yams to fry and sell to sustain her family, but it’s nowhere enough. Her only wish is to be able to get a “proper job” so she and her children would feel safe, she said.  “We either eat in the morning for strength for the rest of the day or ... we eat only at night,” Abdullahi said. 




re

Egypt: Consequences of Morsi's Removal

The Egyptian Armed Forces' removal of President Morsi has created a number of challenges related to democracy, political stability and the role of Islam.




re

Syria: Center of a Region Inflamed

Whether driven by humanitarian aims or not, a U.S. military strike on Syria would be perceived as yet another forceful grab for regional and global hegemony.




re

Gaza: The Middle East Children's Alliance

In this interview, MECA's Ziad Abbas discusses his organization's work to bring aid, clean water and creative outlets to Palestinian children in need.




re

Palestine: Political Realities in an Explosive Region

Standing between Palestinians and a two-state resolve are a militant Hamas, a militant Israel and a Middle East flooded with weaponry of all kinds.




re

Saudi Arabia Continues to Turn Screws on U.S. Shale

Saudi Arabia has succeeded in maintaining its market share throughout the oil bust by continuing to ratchet up production.




re

Whispered in Gaza

If you have any doubt that there are Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who despise and oppose the terrorist regime of Hamas, you need only watch the riveting series Whispered in Gaza to prove otherwise.




re

Khalid al-Asaad Slaughtered by ISIS

Khalid al-Asaad, an 83-year-old caretaker of antiquities in Syria, was beheaded by ISIS, but did not receive the same attention as a slain lion.




re

Zimbabwe Food Security Threatened by Tobacco

Droves of small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe are moving away from growing food crops and turning to tobacco, a trend that seriously threatens the country's food security.




re

Sierra Leone: Challenge to Constitutional Review

One of the issues being debated in Sierra Leone, as the country undergoes a constitutional review, is whether to keep in place presidential term limits.




re

Tunisia: Escaping the Great Mosque of Uqba

The Great Mosque, in all its majestic grandeur, is less enticing if you're an American woman who somehow finds herself inside it.




re

Nigeria: Ending the Threat of Boko Haram

The kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls should be the last straw. Nigeria must decisively end the menace of the insurgency group Boko Haram.




re

Renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act

If revised and renewed, the AGOA would encourage growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa while also benefitting U.S. economic interests.




re

Singer Avraham Tal releases music video post-ZAKA trauma retreat






re

A Quarter of a Billion Friends of Zion Unite for the Anniversary of the October 7 Massacre





  • evangelical support for israel
  • Friends of Zion
  • The October 7 Massacre


re

Paul Weller, Primal Scream, Kneecap headline London's 'Gig for Gaza'


During a recent tour of the US, Weller, a longtime advocate for leftwing causes, performed with a Palestinian flag draped over his guitar amplifier.




re

Jeremy Berkovits: The face of Jerusalem's popular American Colony Hotel


At the table: Maintaining the massive 12,000-square-foot compound amounts to many thousands of shekels a month, and the owners are eager for a return to normalcy.



  • hotel
  • business
  • The October 7 Massacre
  • Israel-Hamas War
  • At the Table

re

Philly Jewish deli featured in Trump ad, is now setting for Harris spot


Lita Cohen said she was "very upset with that recent Trump ad that stereotypes Jewish people.”




re

Comfort food recipes for winter


Comfort foods are an integral part of winter. We can indulge in a few extra calories without feeling too guilty, especially if we have good friends and family to share it with.




re

How the NY Public Library acquired a ‘treasure trove’ of Jewish and Yiddish music


Netsky said he thinks the Yiddish theater music in the archive files is particularly valuable because it was maligned by the classical composers as shund (trash) and neglected.




re

Trump picks South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary


Noem, once seen as a possible running mate for Trump, is currently serving her second term as South Dakota's gov after a reelection in 2022




re

Trump taps US Senator Marco Rubio for secretary of state


Rubio, 53, has said in recent interviews that Ukraine needs to seek a negotiated settlement with Russia rather than focus on regaining all territory that Russia has taken in the last decade.





re

102 years ago, one of the all-time greatest archaeological discoveries was made


A member of the team, a water boy, accidentally stumbled upon a stone that turned out to be the first step of an ancient staircase.