Search Results for: iraq

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Wednesday sanctioned three organizations and two individuals, accusing UK-based Palestine Action, the Italy-based Autistici Inventati, and the Masar Badil network of ties to “violent far-left extremism.” The designations were made under Executive Order 13224, the post-9/11 authority allowing the US to block the property of [...]

On Tuesday, August 11, after 22 years without an execution in Lebanon, the country’s parliament voted to abolish the death penalty, making it the first Arab country to formally scrap capital punishment. The new law replaces death sentences with life imprisonment with hard labor. And what was the only party on record in that country to [...]

When the head of Iraq’s Federal Board of Supreme Audit brought the board’s annual report before the Council of Representatives last week, Parliament did something it had not done since 2003: it convened a dedicated session to examine how the state had handled the public’s money. The report ran to tens of thousands of pages, [...]

Türkiye’s parliament on Monday announced that it has passed a new law creating conditional legal mechanisms for certain members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The shift signifies an advance for the government’s “Terror-Free Türkiye” initiative and a potential de-escalation in the country’s decades-long conflict with Kurdish militants. The Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social [...]

The Karkh Criminal Court in Iraq on Monday sentenced four individuals to six years in prison for promoting the ideology of the banned Ba’ath Party. The court found the defendants guilty of belonging to and promoting Ba’ath Party ideas, including possession of prohibited materials on their mobile phones, in Kirkuk province during 2025 and 2026. [...]

Since the Constitution’s ratification in 1789, the power to go to war has steadily shifted toward the President. In the 21st century, the President is far more powerful than George Washington was at the start of the constitutional journey and is more empowered to commit the US armed forces to unnecessary, even dangerous, wars with [...]

Several protesters were detained in New York City on Monday in a demonstration protesting US military support of Israel during the ongoing conflict with Iran. Anti-war group Jewish Voice for Peace said police detained over 90 demonstrators. New York City police released a statement saying there were “multiple” arrests but did not provide an exact [...]

The escalating armed conflict between the United States of America and Iran has plunged the region into crisis, gripping global attention as the skies over the Middle East are shrouded in smoke and fumes. Rarely has any country come out in open support of the US-Israel. Britain has reluctantly agreed to share its airbase for [...]

A scientist, whether theorist or experimenter, puts forward statements or systems of statements, and tests them step by step. Karl R. Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959) In the many-sided conflict now underway against Iran (i.e., simultaneous and complementary operations led by the United States and Israel), little concern has been expressed for a [...]

Prominent Iraqi women’s rights defender Yanar Mohammed was killed outside her Baghdad residence on March 2 by two unidentified gunmen. No group has claimed responsibility for the assassination. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani has ordered an investigation into the killing. International human rights organizations are urging authorities to identify the perpetrators and halt a [...]