Articles
UAE: signs of religious freedom?
08 Feb 2019
An estimated 180,000 people attended mass with the Pope in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, close to the birthplace of Islam. The crowds gathered to hear him just a day after he…
Venezuela: backstory to crisis
07 Feb 2019
Juan Guaidó and Nicolás Maduro both claim to be president. While resolving their standoff over leadership is critical, finding prosperous and stable paths forward requires taming criminal non-state groups controlling local territory and illicit industries across…
Australia: wild week of floods and fires
07 Feb 2019
Townsville, with 180,000 people, has been facing tropical cyclones, king tides and drenching summer rain. Over a metre of rain fell in seven days, leaving many residents without power; others were cut off by flooded roads.…
Russian and US treaty breaches
07 Feb 2019
In 1987 a treaty was agreed on by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the US has been violating the treaty since 1999 by testing unmanned aerial combat vehicles…
Egypt: 'Sinai is our Vietnam'
07 Feb 2019
Servicemen in the Sinai peninsula are ill-equipped and under-trained. Since the insurgency began, Egypt's propaganda narrative has portrayed its fighters as religious, disciplined, ‘born to kill’ fighting machines. Men aged 18 to 30 must serve in…
Brazil: UN calls for dam investigation
07 Feb 2019
UN human rights experts have called for prompt, thorough and impartial investigations into the recent collapse of a dam in Brazil, the second such incident involving the same company in three years. Dozens have been killed…