Africa Horn Now

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Africa Horn Now

INSIGHT

How a Single Remark Stole a Lithuanian Writer’s Livelihood

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Masha Gessen | December 15, 2017 | The New Yorker The title page of Rūta Vanagaitė’s best-known book contains two pictures of young men. “This one is a Jew,” she said, pointing at the picture on the left. “He was a bicycle-racing champion. Good enough to represent Lithuania in international competitions, but not good enough to live.” He was executed during the Holocaust. … [Read more...] about How a Single Remark Stole a Lithuanian Writer’s Livelihood

A Second Look at the Steele Dossier—Knowing What We Know Now

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John Sipher | Wednesday, September 6, 2017 | Just Security [Editor’s Note: In this special Just Security article, highly respected former member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service, John Sipher examines the Steele dossier using methods that an intelligence officer would to try to validate such information. Sipher concludes that the dossier’s information on … [Read more...] about A Second Look at the Steele Dossier—Knowing What We Know Now

Kenya’s New Electoral Authoritarianism

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AZIZ RANA | August 17, 2017 | Boston Review Last week’s bitterly contested election in Kenya has placed the country in the international spotlight. Although sitting President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner by the electoral commission, opposition candidate Raila Odinga has refused to concede and contends that the election was stolen from him. After initially rejecting … [Read more...] about Kenya’s New Electoral Authoritarianism

How Women Lived Under Soviet Rule

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NINA KRUSHCHEVA | SEPTEMBER 2017 ISSUE | THE ATLANTIC In collecting and sharing their testimonies, the Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich took on the role of “a witness to witnesses who usually go unheard.” Before stepping onto the stage, Svetlana Alexievich left me with her grayish-beige leather coat, as unfashionable as the rest of her. We had met by chance in … [Read more...] about How Women Lived Under Soviet Rule

HOW THE SIX-DAY WAR CHANGED ISRAEL’S MIND

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Bernard Avishai | 5 June 2017 | THE NEW YORKER Fifty years ago today, on June 5, 1967, we awoke to the news that the war we had dreaded was begun—and decided. I was eighteen, had just finished my freshman year at McGill, and was living with my father, who had been a Zionist leader in Montreal during the nineteen-fifties and had recently married an Israeli woman. … [Read more...] about HOW THE SIX-DAY WAR CHANGED ISRAEL’S MIND

Zbigniew Brzezinski

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JAMES FALLOWS | MAY 27, 2017 | THE ATLANTIC An active, impatient man who evolved a steady, long-term view. I started off on the wrong foot with Zbigniew Brzezinski, which is why I hope I will sound all the more sincere in saying how much I came to admire him, how great a contribution he made to America and the world, and what a loss his death represents. I got off on … [Read more...] about Zbigniew Brzezinski

Fictions of fascism: what twentieth century dystopia can (and can’t) teach us about Trump

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John Gray | 5 March 2017 | The New Statesman Dystopian novels of the 1930s and 1940s feel topical once again – but how much do they tell us about Trump and today’s populist upheavals? A 20th-century novelist pictured a Nazi diplomat ruminating over the grand objectives of the regime he served: “Don’t you realise that what we are doing is a real revolution and … [Read more...] about Fictions of fascism: what twentieth century dystopia can (and can’t) teach us about Trump

Donald Trump and the US media are in a fight to the finish – and they’re both guilty of peddling alternative facts

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Patrick Cockburn | Friday 17 February 2017 | The Independent Fake news may have helped hand Trump the presidency, but he is now finding it is a double-edged sword Self-absorbed and irrational Donald Trump may well be, but on Thursday he held what was probably the most interesting and entertaining White House press conference ever. These are usually grimly ritualistic … [Read more...] about Donald Trump and the US media are in a fight to the finish – and they’re both guilty of peddling alternative facts

The Arabs, the US and Trump

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Hassan Nafaa | 26 January, 2017 | Al-Ahram In the Obama era, the Arabs did almost nothing to define and defend together their common interests. This simply must change now, writes Hassan Nafaa Here is the 44th president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, getting ready to pack and leave the White House, making room for Donald Trump, a newcomer chosen by the American … [Read more...] about The Arabs, the US and Trump