Al Majalla’s cover story last week was Iraqi militias turn on the state. Ayad Al-Anbar pens a piece titled Between war and peace: will Iraq cross the Rubicon? In it, he says, “Powerful militias have usurped the state's authority by opening a war front to support Iran. At this critical juncture, Iraq needs politicians willing to put the state first.” For his part, Rustum Mahmoud explains how Iraq's internal battle for influence comes to a head amid the US-Iran war. In his article, he says, “new fronts have opened up across the region in light of the US-Israeli war on Iran, as non-state actors with links to Tehran fear for their futures.

And Ravi Agrawal says Trump is losing the war in Iran, laying out a number of reasons to support his argument. For his part, Con Coughlin explains why Europe's reluctance to join Iran war puts NATO at risk. And in technology, Marco Mossad explains how the US-Iran war is reshaping the global cybersecurity agenda, explaining how AI is making the challenge more daunting.

For his part, Amr Emam pens a piece titled Sisi hopes Trump will save Egypt from Iran war fallout. In it, he says, “Egypt is feeling the impact of the war and fears that some longer-term consequences may be existential.” And writing on Syria, Charles Lister explains that “Given the effective closure of the Hormuz Strait and Houthi threats to close off the Red Sea, Syria may emerge as a corridor to bypass these embattled maritime chokepoints."

For his part, Amr Ziab Al-Tamimi explains how Food supplies reel as Iran war rattles fertiliser markets. “Disruptions to Gulf energy and shipping routes are tightening supplies of chemical fertilisers, raising costs from Europe to South Asia and heightening fears of a widening global food crisis,” he says. Meanwhile, Khairuldeen Al Makhzoomi warns, Gulf states should steer clear of attritional war traps. “The US-Israeli war against Iran aims to draw in Gulf states, but history has shown that entering wars is far easier than exiting them. Prudence is needed now more than ever,” he says.

Al Majalla also conducted key interviews last week with Ibrahim Hamidi, speaking to Farid al-Madhan, a Syrian forensic specialist who became known by his alias Caesar after he smuggled out thousands of images of tortured and killed detainees in Assad regime prisons. For his part, Ahmed Maher interviews Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, who asserts that Israel is exploiting Iran war to kill a Palestinian state.

And finally, in Culture, Najeeb Mubarak reviews the book A Hymn to Life, by French rape victim-turned feminist icon Gisèle Pelicot, who recounts her abuse at the hands of her husband. Mubarak explains how the author turned private horror into a public reckoning in her global bestseller. And last but not least, Abdullah Al-Oqaibi pens a piece titled Walking 'The Path' with Oliver Laxe and Abdulnasser Gharem. In it, he says, “A shared idea of passage links the themes of two films, where the road becomes a metaphor for trial shaped by survival and the risk of collapse.”