Media Coverage

Tunisian police on Monday blocked access to the country's top judicial watchdog in a move its chief slammed as "illegal," two days after President Kais Saied dissolved the body. The United States, for its part, said it was "deeply concerned" by Saied's action. Security forces blocked all roads to...

Saied has broadened his grip on power since July 25, when he sacked the government and froze parliament before moving to rule by decree in Tunisia— – the cradle of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings that ousted a series of autocratic leaders. Many Tunisians welcomed his actions against a political...

European Union interior ministers on Thursday were debating ways to beef up the 27-nation bloc’s borders, including by erecting walls or fences, and examined yet again how to kick-start desperately needed reforms to the EU’s malfunctioning asylum system. The EU has been mired in a deep political...

The Biden administration on Tuesday approved a massive $2.5 billion arms sale to Egypt despite ongoing concerns over human rights. The State Department said Tuesday's sales were unrelated to $130 million in foreign military financing that was frozen in September and remains in limbo. But the size of...

The Islamic State (IS) group unleashed its biggest attack in Syria since the fall of its “caliphate” three years ago. More than 100 militants assaulted the main prison holding suspected extremists, sparking a battle with U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters that continued 24 hours later and left dozens dead...

German prosecutors accused a Syrian doctor Wednesday of torturing detainees and killing one of them while working in military hospitals in his war-torn homeland, on the first day of a landmark crime against humanity trial in Frankfurt. The accused, identified as Alaa M under German privacy laws...

The threat of worsening violence looms over Baghdad again this week, underscoring the challenges faced by influential Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of parliament’s biggest bloc, in his stated efforts to form a majority government, following October’s contested election. In the latest of a...

Denmark faced the ire of European Union parliamentarians on Wednesday for its policy of sending some Syrian refugees back to the Damascus area and revoking their asylum status. In mid-2020, Denmark became the first European Union country to re-examine the cases of about 500 Syrians from Damascus...

The Tunisian police used water cannon, sticks, and tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters trying to reach central Tunis to demonstrate against the president in defiance of COVID-19 restrictions. Opposition parties have been protesting against the suspension of parliament by President Kais Saied...

A German court has sentenced Anwar Raslan, a Syrian colonel, to life in prison for crimes against humanity in a historic trial. Raslan was linked to the torture of over 4,000 people in Syria's civil war in a jail known as "Hell on Earth." He was arrested in Germany in 2019 having successfully sought...