Page Text: With spring, migration on the Balkan route is on the rise again – and with it the misery, violence and illegal pushbacks at Croatia's external EU border. By Dirk Planert
Ukraine conflict: Turkey's delicate balancing act
Turkey has played a major role in the search for an end to the Ukraine war as the host for this week’s talks between Moscow and Kyiv – the product of an ambivalent stance experts say is largely rooted in the troubled Turkish economy’s deep links to both countries. More
Egypt's grand wheat plan splits the industry
Farmers who don’t deliver wheat quota threatened with jail as price spike jeopardises Egypt's 270 million daily loaves More
India's diplomatic dance over Ukraine
India’s failure to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine at all costs reflects its longstanding relations with Moscow. But as the war enters a more brutal phase, it’s a price that might be too high to pay More
Russia accuses Bangladesh media of "bias"
In an open letter, the Russian embassy in Dhaka has accused newspapers and broadcasters of "undermining" relations between Russia and Bangladesh More
The anti-Semitism animating Putin’s claim to "de-nazify" Ukraine
The Russian leader’s pretext for invasion recasts Ukraine’s Jewish president as a Nazi and Russian Christians as true victims of the Holocaust More
How to stop Darfur’s descent into darkness
Despite the recent media focus on developments in Sudan following the military coup in October, there has been much less reporting of the situation in Sudan’s peripheries, outside of the capital and its surroundings. A staggering rise in violence illustrates the fragility of the transition underway in the country. More
Santa closed: in Beirut, crisis snuffs out Christmas spirit
Beirut in December was once a shopping extravaganza, where day-long traffic jams clogged streets decked out with flashing Christmas lights and building-sized billboards advertising champagne and jewellery More
Deadly intrigue: The destruction of The White Helmets
James Le Mesurier founded the organisation that raised money for the White Helmets in the Syrian war. An intrigue drove the emergency foundation to ruin – and Le Mesurier to his death. More
SWP: Turkey’s Constitutional Court and the proposed ban on the pro-Kurdish HDP
An example of the entanglement of politics and the judiciary, and a bad omen for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish conflict More
Promoting human rights in the Middle East and North Africa
With authoritarianism once more gaining ground in the Middle East and North Africa, the European Council on Foreign Relations explores how European diplomats can be more effective in promoting human rights and democratic values in the region More
Opinion: Why sliding back into autocracy won’t solve Tunisia’s problems
Apologists for Saied’s moves are wrong to believe that a return to strongman rule could ever be the answer to Tunisia’s problems. What Tunisia needs is to erect the real pillars required to strengthen its hard-won democracy — most urgently, the creation of a constitutional court and the implementation of transitional justice. More
What's next after resignation of Sudan's PM?
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's resignation has plunged the country's already fragile democratic transition into further turmoil. Citing his own failure to build a political consensus following an October military coup that rattled the transition, Hamdok called for talks to agree on a roadmap More
How Israel uses facial recognition to monitor West Bank Palestinians
Former Israeli soldiers and the NGO Breaking the Silence say the Israeli military has created a vast database of photos and information about Palestinians living in the West Bank, the Washington Post reported on Monday. More
No sign of life for 20 years – PEN demands release of Eritrean journalists
PEN Centre Germany is appealing to the world community and especially the European Union to stop ignoring the situation of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Eritrea. More
Foreign Affairs: Is the two-state solution still viable?
Foreign Affairs asks those with specialist expertise relevant to the question at hand, as well as leading generalists in the field, for their take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the viability of the two-state solution. More
Iran 1400 Brief: Beyond the Headlines
"Iran 1400 Brief: Beyond the Headlines" is a weekly newsletter from the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom that tackles a variety of international, local, societal, political, and economic topics relating to Iran. More
Covering Edward Said – 40 years of Islam, media and the West
Author and columnist Nesrine Malik explores the legacy of Edward Said's "Covering Islam", published forty years ago – and his views on the relationship between Islam and the media. More
Islamic institutions in Arab states: Mapping the dynamics of control, co-option and contention
The complex relations between the state and Islamic institutions in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco shed light on evolving governance and have important implications for Western policies of countering violent extremism and conflict resolution. More
KAS: "The Modern Arab State: A Decade of Uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa"
Ten years after the Arab uprisings, democracy and its institutions in the region remain fragile and often cosmetic, and yet civil societies are aspiring and a new social contract is emerging with an increasingly empowered citizenry. More
Syria's long road to justice and the man hoping to walk it there
Anwar al-Bunni has helped make a landmark trial possible, but his sights are set on a bigger target – the Syrian regime. More
India's RSS: The longest running fascist movement in the world
In this moment of unrest, and brutal violence by the state and state-backed groups, Indian publication "The Wire" asked Benjamin Zachariah, expert on the history of the Right and of Indian manifestations of fascism: is this, or is this not fascism? More