A recent jihadist attack on Mali's capital and a growing threat from northern rebels reportedly getting help from Ukraine begs the question: is the Sahel a new Russia-West battleground?
The US and French withdrawal from the Sahel lets the Russians, Chinese, and Iranians in. Tehran, in particular, will be keen to buy Niger's uranium, despite this being a red line for Washington.
A huge belt of land dividing the dry Sahara from the tropical savannah has become a playground for mercenaries. An absence of state security, poverty, and a lack of education create the perfect storm.
Until the West can prove that it can address the economic and security challenges Sahel countries face, the governance models represented by China or Russia will continue to gain more appeal.
No sooner did Washington greenlight Ukraine's use of long-range missiles than Russia announced it had signed a law allowing a nuclear strike in response to such an attack
As we bear witness to the endless livestream of death and destruction on our phones, it is important to call Israel's war on Gaza what it truly is: a genocide
The cost of this war already dwarfs those from 2006, yet it shows no signs of ending. Israel can absorb some losses; Lebanon cannot. If its people turn on each other, it will get a lot worse.
Christian Zionists have long prided themselves on their undeviating support for Israel, but a closer look exposes an allegiance rooted in white supremacy, antisemitism, and Islamaphobia
With dreamy vocals evoking images of hills and homeland, the star and her husband together wove a new and more romantic version of Lebanon in the years before the civil war that feels very distant now