Yemen on brink of ‘world’s worst famine in 100 years’ if war continues

Yemen on brink of ‘world’s worst famine in 100 years’ if war continues

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The Guardian reports: Yemen could be facing the worst famine in 100 years if airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition are not halted, the UN has warned. If war continues, famine could engulf the country in the next three months, with 12 to 13 million civilians at risk of starvation, according to Lise Grande, the agency’s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen. She told the BBC: “I think many of us felt as we went into the 21st century that it was unthinkable…

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A genocide incited on Facebook, with posts from Myanmar’s military

A genocide incited on Facebook, with posts from Myanmar’s military

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The New York Times reports: They posed as fans of pop stars and national heroes as they flooded Facebook with their hatred. One said Islam was a global threat to Buddhism. Another shared a false story about the rape of a Buddhist woman by a Muslim man. The Facebook posts were not from everyday internet users. Instead, they were from Myanmar military personnel who turned the social network into a tool for ethnic cleansing, according to former military officials, researchers…

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Republicans worry that Trump and his aides have no idea the hell that may await

Republicans worry that Trump and his aides have no idea the hell that may await

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McClatchy reports: Republicans who support President Donald Trump have grown fearful that the White House is unprepared for the onslaught that may await them in January. If a “blue wave” succeeds in giving the Democrats control at least of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections in November, Democrats will have the power to subpoena documents and force administration officials to testify about a slew of scandals, including aides using private email for government business, agencies spending taxpayer money…

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All we know about the White House portrait of Trump drinking Diet Coke with Abraham Lincoln

All we know about the White House portrait of Trump drinking Diet Coke with Abraham Lincoln

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The Avi Selk writes: Previously spotted in D.C. gift shops and jigsaw puzzle boxes, a fantasy print of President Trump entertaining Abraham Lincoln while every other Republican president in history watches now hangs outside the Oval Office. The portrait was shown hanging in Trump’s personal dining room during his “60 Minutes” interview Sunday, and the freeze frame instantly went viral, baffling people with questions such as: How did the painting get to the White House? Why does Trump look nearly…

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Saudi Arabia played Kushner, Trump and his other American acolytes for suckers

Saudi Arabia played Kushner, Trump and his other American acolytes for suckers

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Nicholas Kristof writes: [I]ncreasingly it seems that the crown prince, better known as M.B.S., orchestrated the torture, assassination and dismemberment of an American-based journalist using diplomatic premises in a NATO country. That is monstrous, and it’s compounded by the tepid response from Washington. President Trump is already rejecting the idea of responding to such a murder by cutting off weapons sales. Trump sounds as if he believes that the consequence of such an assassination should be a hiccup and then…

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Two princes: Kushner now faces a reckoning for Trump’s bet on the Saudi heir

Two princes: Kushner now faces a reckoning for Trump’s bet on the Saudi heir

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The Washington Post reports: When President Trump chose Riyadh to make his debut on the world stage last year, he was placing a bet on Saudi Arabia, which serenaded him with military bands, dazzled him with a flyover of fighter jets and regaled him with a traditional sword dance. The mastermind behind that wager — the White House adviser who convinced Trump to visit Saudi Arabia for his maiden foreign trip and who choreographed a veritable lovefest between the new…

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After journalist vanishes, focus shifts to young prince’s ‘dark’ and bullying side

After journalist vanishes, focus shifts to young prince’s ‘dark’ and bullying side

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The Washington Post reports: When he hosted last October’s glittering global investment conference in Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had the world at his fingertips. Thousands of investors, corporate chieftains and government leaders flocked to the kingdom to hear the charismatic young heir to the Saudi throne outline his plans for modernization of the reclusive kingdom, and to be invited along for the ride and the profits. “Only dreamers are welcome to join,” Mohammed told his audience. As…

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Has peace really arrived in Syria?

Has peace really arrived in Syria?

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James Miller writes: Just a few weeks ago the world was preparing for a massive humanitarian and geopolitical disaster in Syria. The Syrian military and its Russian and Iranian allies were preparing to retake Idlib province, the last stronghold of the rebels who have been fighting the President Bashar Assad’s rule for the last seven years. Experts predicted that such an attack would have dire consequences. Syria’s rebels and civilians have both been displaced from every other corner of the…

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Gaza’s dying of thirst, and its water crisis will become a threat to Israel

Gaza’s dying of thirst, and its water crisis will become a threat to Israel

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Sandy Tolan writes: Mohammed Nimnim carries the water for his family. On a scorching late morning last summer, the 15-year-old pushed an old wheelchair piled high with empty plastic jugs through Gaza’s Shati (Beach) refugee camp. He rattled past modest groceries, makeshift tire shops, and graffiti praising Gaza’s martyrs, down broken concrete lanes, and toward the local mosque, where sputtering taps provide the family’s only source of drinking water. No luck. Although it was 94 degrees and oppressively humid, the…

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How the loss of Native American languages affects our understanding of the natural world

How the loss of Native American languages affects our understanding of the natural world

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Dance is a unique way of passing on cultural stories to a younger generation. Aaron Hawkins/Flickr.com, CC BY-ND By Rosalyn R. LaPier, The University of Montana Alaska has a “linguistic emergency,” according to the Alaskan Gov. Bill Walker. A report warned earlier this year that all of the state’s 20 Native American languages might cease to exist by the end of this century, if the state did not act. American policies, particularly in the six decades between the 1870s and…

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A history of true civilisation is not one of monuments

A history of true civilisation is not one of monuments

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By David Wengrow Civilisation is back. But it is no longer the preserve of ‘Renaissance man’ or of ‘the West’, or even of literate societies. Civilisation is a way of talking about human history on the largest scale. From the cave paintings of Lascaux to the latest MoMA exhibition, it binds human history together. But in at least one essential aspect, the concept of civilisation remains fundamentally exclusionary. It is still the stuff of galleries, museums and UNESCO World Heritage…

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Donald Trump’s complicity in murder

Donald Trump’s complicity in murder

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Robert Kagan writes: Sometimes a particular event, the fate of a particular individual, becomes a symbol of a global, historical trend. The reported murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Post contributor, in a consulate in Istanbul is one of those moments. It symbolizes the departure of the United States as a restraining force against evil actors in the world. Saudi Arabia is a small nation that cannot defend itself without the support of the United States, and therefore…

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Are there communities that are good at being good when things get bad?

Are there communities that are good at being good when things get bad?

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Margaret Paxson writes: Let’s just say that suddenly you are a social scientist and you want to study peace. That is, you want to understand what makes for a peaceful society. Let’s say that, for years in your work in various parts of the world, you’ve been surrounded by evidence of violence and war. From individual people, you’ve heard about beatings and arrests and murders and rapes; you’ve heard about deportations and black-masked men demanding your food or your life….

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Turks tell U.S. officials they have audio and video recordings that support conclusion Khashoggi was killed

Turks tell U.S. officials they have audio and video recordings that support conclusion Khashoggi was killed

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The Washington Post reports: The Turkish government has told U.S. officials that it has audio and video recordings that prove Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul this month, according to U.S. and Turkish officials. The recordings show that a Saudi security team detained Khashoggi in the consulate after he walked in Oct. 2 to obtain an official document before his upcoming wedding, then killed him and dismembered his body, the officials said. The…

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