Tasneem Tayeb

A French animal-rights activist recently said that mosquitoes should be allowed to drink human blood, since they do it to get protein for their eggs. Aymeric Caron, an anti-specist TV presenter, further added that mosquitoes, in fact, should be allowed to bite humans, except in Africa, where people might get infected with malaria.

A recent report published by a local newspaper had us sitting up on our proverbial chairs. Titled “Study finds carcinogenic element creating whitening agents in detergents,” it was about a research study that said that almost all the detergent brands available in the market contain a fabric whiter, called fluorescent whitening agent (FWA), which can lead to severe health repercussions for the users. The agent can cause allergy, skin diseases, kidney diseases, gene-related complications and even lead to carcinogenic reactions in human bodies!

History was made on this day in 2015, when Iran agreed to the landmark nuclear deal, better known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Jared Kushner, the US president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, recently unveiled in Manama an economic proposal to settle the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict. He billed it as the “opportunity of the century”.

On June 17, 2019, Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first and only democratically elected president, died inside a glass cage, in an Egyptian courtroom, during the course of an espionage trial. The 67-year-old former president apparently suffered for a full 20 minutes before

On the morning of June 3, the world woke up to the news of a harrowing, bloody crackdown on peaceful civilian protesters on the streets of Khartoum by the RSF (Rapid Support Forces, a newfangled name of the notorious Janjaweed militia)—under the command of the infamous Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemeti, the mastermind behind the genocide in Darfur. The fault of the protesters? Demand for a civilian transitional governing body, following the fall of Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s president of 30 years.

Rfugee. Although the word is relatively new, appearing in the English language for the first time circa late 17th century, its story is as old as time itself.

The recent general election in Indonesia had a touch of déjà vu. In both 2014 and 2019, it was Joko Widodo taking on Prabowo Subianto; in both the elections, Widodo, also known as Jokowi, was declared the winner by the Indonesian General Elections Commission (KPU); in both the elections, hardliner former general Subianto rejected the election results and declared himself the winner; and in both the elections, he challenged the results at the Constitutional Court of Indonesia.

Afghanistan is a dangerous place for women. According to a new global index developed by Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, and the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, Afghanistan is the second worst country for women in the world, after war-ravaged Syria,

The first half of May saw the South African general elections making headlines in all of the major international news channels. From political analysts to economists, everyone was having their say about the difficult path the African National Congress (ANC), especially its leader Cyril Ramaphosa, was having to navigate to win people’s vote. The reason?

Venezuela is in a limbo. The country has two presidents fighting over legitimacy; two superpowers eying its rich oil fields and gold mines; an economy that is on the verge of collapse with inflation reaching one million percent and external debt shattering the roof at more than 175 percent of GDP; and an unfolding humanitarian crisis that has forced more than three million people to flee to neighbouring countries seeking refuge.

The vigil of hundreds and thousands of peaceful protesters on the streets of Algeria and Sudan speaks of the same sense of collective disenfranchisement, juxtaposed with a desperate optimism, that lit the signal fires of change in Egypt’s Tahrir Square in 2011.