Economics

With just five days remaining before Israel’s October 27 election, speculation is mounting over whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could launch another military confrontation with Iran. Amid stalled negotiations, heightened military activity and competing political pressures in Washington and Jerusalem, the region faces a familiar but dangerous question: …

Libya’s eastern parliament has approved the 2019 maritime agreement with Turkey, marking a significant shift in the country’s fractured political landscape. The decision, adopted on October 20, 2026, reverses years of opposition by the eastern camp aligned with military commander Khalifa Haftar and opens a new chapter in …

By Saleem Al-Batayneh Former Jordanian Member of Parliament It is difficult for any Arab who possesses the capacity for independent thought and critical analysis to look at the intellectual darkness enveloping much of the Arab world without feeling profound sadness and frustration. The depth of this darkness varies …

Hadi Elis The United States entered its war with Iran possessing something few militaries in history have had at comparable scale: extraordinary technological superiority, an enormous intelligence architecture and increasingly sophisticated artificial-intelligence systems capable of processing information at speeds no human organization could match. Artificial intelligence has become …

By Dan Steinbock Thanks to some AI executives, the Trump administration had an opportunity to foster global AI cooperation. By contrast, it gave green light to existential risks. On September 29, 2026, President Trump convened the chief executives of several of the world’s most powerful technology companies at …

Tamara Berro When Chinese President Xi Jinping met Donald Trump in May, Taiwan was at the centre of the most difficult question in the relationship between the world’s two largest powers. Xi described the island as the most important and sensitive issue in Sino-American relations. He also warned …

Dr. Shehab Al-Makahleh George Orwell’s 1984 is often read as a warning about dictatorship. It is also a study of something subtler: how institutions and ordinary people can gradually adapt themselves to a political system they once regarded as unacceptable. The machinery of Orwell’s Oceania does not depend …

Contrary to the Israeli narrative, Palestinians are pragmatic, willing to make concessions, and supportive of a two-state solution — and this includes Palestinians in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This is the central finding of a new Arab Barometer survey published in Foreign Affairs, conducted …

In just five months, Syria’s Banyas port has been transformed into a new outlet for Iraqi energy. In April 2026, Baghdad began moving fuel oil through Syria for export from the Mediterranean. By September, it was using the same route in reverse — importing gasoline through Baniyas and …