In The News

Guardian: Disfigured Syrian Girl Refused US Visa

Amanda Holpuch January 23, 2019
Under Donald Trump’s travel ban, the United States denied a visa to a 16-year-old Syrian refugee seeking medical treatment for burns from a bomb attack that left her disfigured. The Guardian notes that Marwa had settled in Nuremberg, Germany, with her family. There, doctors advised the family to seek advance treatment in the United States, “following 13 operations to repair trauma from third-...

BBC: Militants Attack Afghan Intelligence Base

January 22, 2019
Afghanistan’s citizens have reason to worry about security. The United States signaled plans in December to reduce its troop presence and has met with the Taliban for peace talks in Qatar without the Afghan government’s participation. Still, Taliban attacks continue. Extremists attacked an intelligence security base near Kabul, with car bombs, suicide bombers and gunmen, killing more than 40 and...

Washington Post: Response Needed in Yemen

Missy Ryan January 20, 2019
Aid agencies and the United Nations have put out a warning about the food shortages in Yemen as the civil war rages on. As Missy Ryan for the Washington Post reports, “the civil war is putting more and more civilians on the brink of starvation.” Analysis suggests that 16 million people, more than half Yemen’s population, are regarded as “food insecure.” This announcement comes in the face of...

Washington Post: Afghans Slam Soviet Invasion Praise

Alex Horton and Sayed Salahuddin January 3, 2019
Donald Trump continues a pattern of rejecting longstanding US national security policies and supporting Russian interpretations by praising the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as a fight against terrorism. Both the United Nations and the United States opposed the invasion. US intelligence agencies supported Afghan rebels during the war, and the Soviet Union withdrew in 1989. The United States...

Al Jazeera: US Announces Syria Pullout

Andrew Wilks December 20, 2018
Syria’s civil war began in 2011 and soon attracted extremists and foreign powers including NATO members Turkey and the US as well as Russia and Iran who support the Assad regime in Syria. The US and Turkey have vehemently disagreed over the role of Syrian Democratic Forces, Kurdish fighters supported by the US and key to containing Islamic State terrorists. Turkey’s president regards the Kurdish...

NPR: Taliban Meets With US Officials

Colin Dwyer December 18, 2018
Afghan Taliban have met with US officials to discuss peace, but the group refuses to meet with representatives of the Afghan government. The focus of the meetings in the United Arab Emirates is to end the war underway since the 9/11 attacks and the 2001 US invasion that unseated the Taliban. The Afghan government has offered to recognize the Taliban as a political party and proposed ceasefires –...

Telegraph: Yemen Death Toll Higher Than Estimated

Josie Ensor December 13, 2018
The civil war in Yemen has raged since 2015, and the death toll is difficult to assess due to rough conditions on the ground. “The figure of 10,000 used by the United Nations is outdated and nowhere near the likely true fatality figure of 60,223, according to UK-based independent research group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project,” reports Josie Ensor for the Telegraph. “The Saudi-...