By Alan Heil Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a two-day mission to the Middle East May 26, winning what the Associated Press termed “valuable diplomatic support” for a ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Hamas leaders. This followed quickly on the heels of an 11-day war that cost the lives of nearly 250…
by Alan Heil It’s over, the latest spasm of severe strife in the heart of the Middle East. An 11-day conflict between Israel and Gaza has ended in what appeared May 21 to be a durable ceasefire, for now at least. Once again, there was a horrific Arab-Israeli death toll in the May fighting: 232…
by Alan Heil An anxious world is waiting. As of dusk on the eighth day since a few Israelis evicted Palestinian residents from their homes in East Jerusalem, sustained retaliatory air attacks from Gaza and Israeli responses have set in motion the Middle East’s most serious fighting since 2014. As nightfall approached in the region…
by Alan Heil Full-blown conflict in Israel and Gaza, triggered by Israeli seizure May 10 of several Palestinian homes and expulsion of their residents in east Jerusalem… Hundreds of civilians or soldiers killed or injured in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel itself during the initial week of this latest tragic chapter of Arab-Israeli tensions……
In a World Press Freedom Day message yesterday May 3, President Biden warned that “the truth is under attack” and that “authoritarians” are trying to undermine the media globally. In a statement on the White House website, the president praised objective journalists around the world and urged them “to continue holding those in power to…
Myanmar, or Burma, on May 1st entered its fourth month under a brutal military regime. That regime has killed more than 700 citizens and innocent civilians since it seized power on February 1. That was the very day a newly elected democratically parliament in Myanmar was about to hold its initial meeting. The Association for…
At a two-day Washington virtual summit April 22-23, President Biden urged the 40 participating nations to counter the problem of increasing planetary pollution seriously and with the urgency that crisis demands. One approach: what philanthropist Bill Gates describes as huge new public and private investment in innovation globally to avoid catastrophic climate change. “Just using…
The epidemic in the world’s second most populous nation (with 1.3 billion residents) is difficult to fathom: According to VOA News on April 26, India posted 2,812 COVID-related deaths the previous day, the most in a procession of expanding daily fatalities since the middle of the month. The total India death toll is now at…
Vartan Gregorian, an internationally-known teacher and president of New York’s Carnegie Corporation, passed away unexpectedly on April 15 shortly after being hospitalized with a stomach pain. He was 87 years old. Dr. Gregorian was an honorary board member of the Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California, and earlier served for nine…
Ancient ruins, a prime asset for Egypt’s soft power, just made new headlines. Egypt’s most famous archeologist, on the scene in Luxor on the Nile, told journalists from around the world on April 10 that his team has unearthed brick houses, artifacts, tools from a large city buried for three millennia. The archeologist, Zahi Hawass,…