Gaza's real humanitarian crisis
The Israeli government has, for weeks, insisted that the 10,000 tons of supplies on board the Gaza aid flotilla are not necessary. Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister, reiterated that claim on Friday, telling reporters "there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza". "Israel is conducting itself in the most humanitarian manner,... More

Jan 20, 2026
NATO Kandahar attack caused $100 million damage
Foreign forces in occupied Afghanistan have caused more than $100 million damage to fruit crops and homes during offensive in southern Kandahar province, a government delegation said on Tuesday. In November, the Afghan Rights Monitor (ARM), a human rights group, reported widespread damage to hundreds of houses in the same... More

Jan 20, 2026
From Balfour to Obama
On November 2, 1917, Lord Arthur Balfour, the then British foreign secretary, promised to create a homeland for the Jews in Palestine. Known as the Balfour Declaration, the document became the first stepping stone towards the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel. Palestine was still under Ottoman rule when... More

Jan 20, 2026
The delusions of the 'peace process'
It is astonishing that despite the huge gaps between the maximum that Israel is willing to concede and the minimum that the Palestine Authority could accept as the basis of a final settlement of the conflict, governmental leaders, especially in Washington, continue to pull every available string to restart inter-governmental... More

Jan 20, 2026
UN: DR Congo troops committing rape
Government soldiers in the DR Congo have attacked and raped women in villages where rebels already committed mass rape this summer, a high-level UN official has said. UN peacekeepers in the Walikale territory have reported that army troops are committing "rapes, killings and lootings," Margot Wallstrom, the special representative for... More

Jan 20, 2026
European values: liberty or tyranny
In recent months, Europe has witnessed mass deportations and crackdowns on religious and ethnic minorities. With the face veil ban in France and parts of Italy, the anti-Roma movements in France and Hungary and police surveillance cameras set up in predominately Muslim neighborhoods in the UK, the continent seems to... More

Jan 20, 2026
UK troops face 90 new claims of abuse in Iraq
A specialist team appointed by the government to investigate claims of abuse by British troops in Iraq has received 90 complaints involving 128 Iraqi civilians. The files, relating to allegations between March 2003 and July 2009, have been sent to Geoff White, a former head of Staffordshire CID, who heads... More

Jan 20, 2026
NATO in Afghanistan: '2015 and beyond'
Having dispensed of any pretense that the military is going to start withdrawing in July, NATO officials are now painting for the public a picture of what the Afghan War is going to look like in 2015, 14 years after the occupation began. The answer, of course, is that so... More

Jan 20, 2026
Kabul is no child's playground
Nato's top civilian spokesperson in Afghanistan has come under fire for playing down the country's level of danger over the weekend. "The children are probably safer here [Kabul] than they would be in London, New York or Glasgow or many other cities," Mark Sedwill told CBBC Newsround, the televised news... More

Jan 20, 2026