- Abubekar Shekau, Boko Haram’s leader, is disputingNigeria’s claims that the group has been routed from Sambisa forest.
- The eugenics-driven attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama ethnic groups in Namibia during German rule is close to being acknowledged by Berlin as the 20th century’s first genocide.
- Dozens were killed in political unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where revenge massacres continue back and forth between Hutu and Nande militias in North Kivu province.
- South Sudan avoided a UN arms embargo but will not escape famine and war.
- French aid worker Sophie Petronin was kidnapped in Mali.
- Truth and dignity in Tunisia.
- A Turkish novelist recounts 132 harrowing days of pre-trial detention because of her links to a pro-Kurdish newspaper.
- A nationwide ceasefire is in effect in Syria.
- Preliminary operations are underway ahead of a potential offensive against the Islamic State’s Raqqa stronghold.
- As the Islamic State shrinks and nears collapse, Al Qaeda rises again.
- Based in Berlin, The Syrian Archive aims to catalog and preserve evidence of atrocities in Syria.
- On Friday, the US abstained from a Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements, allowing it to pass, resulting in Israel’s intense and vocal displeasure.
- Secretary of State Kerry gave a speech in which he roundly criticized Israeli settlement policy as being a roadblock to peace with Palestine.
- The British PM has, in turn, criticized Kerry for his criticism of Israel.
- A corruption probe will open against Israeli PM Netanyahu next week.
- Long read: Life and death in Yemen’s hospitals.
- The war has crushed Yemen’s already small middle class.
- A coalition airstrike on militants in a van in a hospital compound parking lot in Mosul may have killed civilians.
- Dispatch: Tyler Hicks on the front line in Mosul
- December 30th marks a decade since the execution of Saddam Hussein.
- Gunmen kidnapped Iraqi journalist Afrah al-Qaisi from her home.
- In photos: Andrew Quilty’s three years photographingthe war in Afghanistan.
- Long read: “The war in Afghanistan taught him how to kill. Nobody taught him how to come home.”
- Five humanitarian success stories from 2016, and three innovations in humanitarian aid made this year.
- The Obama administration sanctioned Russia over the election hacks, expelling 35 suspected Russian operatives and sanctioning Russian intelligence agencies. They also shut down two waterfront compounds that had for a long time been retreats for Russian diplomats. Russia is vowing its own retaliations.
- The FBI and Department of Homeland Security released a report on the campaign hacking.
- How Russia recruited hackers.
- Over the past two months, Ukrainian state institutions have been hit by hackers over 6,500 times, leading the country’s president to declare that Russian security services were waging all-out cyberwar on Kiev.
- Serbians are stockpiling more guns than any other European country.
- Interactive: Nuclear weapons arsenals in perspective.
- General Gregorio Alvarez, former Uruguayan dictator, died at 91 while serving a sentence for human rights abuses.
- While Venezuelans suffer from extreme hunger, their military is profiting from trafficking the food supply.
- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid tribute to fallen Americans at Pearl Harbor.
- Sabrina Siddiqui explains what it was like to be a Muslim covering the US election on the ground.
- A US district court judge ordered the White House to deliver a copy of the Senate Torture Report to his court’s Top Secret storage site and to “preserve and maintain all evidence, documents and information, without limitation” regarding detainee abuse since 9/11
Hiba's curmudgeonly musings about books, politics & other trifles.
Die Denkende Nachteule.
