Media Coverage

Iran has taken the first step towards criminalizsing contact with foreign media, in a move human rights groups have said attempts to “sever the entire Iranian society from the rest of the world”. For journalists, researchers, and even ordinary citizens, the proposed law being discussed by Iranian...

Lebanon’s judicial authorities have decided to hand over a former senior Syrian military officer under ousted President Bashar Assad to Damascus after questioning him over crimes he allegedly committed during the country’s conflict, officials said Tuesday. Maj. Gen. Adel Issa will be the first...

A Syrian court on Tuesday issued a death sentence to detainee Wassim al-Assad, a cousin of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad who was himself sentenced to death in absentia a week ago. Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan said Wassim al-Assad was convicted of multiple murders and "murder accompanied by torture...

Israeli settlers have been besieging two Palestinian families in their homes in the occupied West Bank since Sunday, with the families saying their supplies were running out and rights groups urging the authorities to step in. On Wednesday Israeli security forces were reported to have withdrawn from...

Lebanon’s parliament Wednesday passed a controversial general amnesty law, a day after a majority of legislators voted to formally abolish the death penalty. Lawmakers who backed the bill call it a beginning to correcting past overreach by the judiciary and security agencies and help reduce prison...

Lebanon's parliament abolished the death penalty, making the country the first in the Middle East to formally end the practice, replacing the sentencing with life imprisonment with aggravated hard labour. "The draft law aimed at abolishing the death penalty in Lebanon was approved after amendments...

Israel has quietly given the green light for infrastructure work to begin in a designated area of southern Gaza, according to Israeli media, as it advances a post-war vision that experts warn is designed to reshape reality on the ground and permanently fragment the enclave. Dubbed “Green Rafah”, the...

On August 4, 2020, at exactly 6:07pm, the history of Beirut was brutally split into two eras. A huge explosion, caused by the ignition of 2,750 tonnes of improperly stored ammonium nitrate, ripped through the Lebanese capital. The blast, widely considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in...

Israeli forces have killed at least 19 Palestinians in Gaza, despite United States President Donald Trump announcing a plan he described as a “monumental step” towards peace and security in the shattered enclave. The deaths on Sunday included three people killed in an air raid on a residential...

After two days of U.S.-mediated talks in Rome, Lebanon and Israel took steps toward implementing “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon where Israeli forces would withdraw and turn over control to the Lebanese army, the U.S. State Department said. The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began when the Lebanese...