There are more than a million Druze worldwide, with the vast majority residing in the Middle East.
shutterstock
Illuminating the origins of one of the oldest peoples in the Middle East.
Jerusalem is mentioned on this 2,700-year-old papyrus.
Shai Halevi/IAA
A mysterious papyrus said to come from the Judaen Desert could be the first to reveal the name of Jerusalem.
The world reacts to President-Elect Donald Trump.
AP Photo/Marco Ugarte
America appears as divided over key aspects of foreign policy as it is at home. So how does President-elect Trump hope to handle that divide, and what will be the major issues facing him?
Clinton attending a school event in Luxor in 1999, as First Lady.
Reuters
Can Hillary Clinton, as a woman president, make a difference to Egyptian women? Her former views on democratisation in Egypt leave doubt int the minds of local observers.
A memorial to the Kafr Qasim victims.
Zero0000 via Wikimedia Commons
The 49 Palestinian Israelis murdered by soldiers in 1956 deserve to be officially remembered.
In China, Trump is depicted as a threat to stability.
torbakhopper/flickr
Some countries clearly prefer one candidate over the other. But the biggest loser may be the American political process, long held up as a model for the rest of the world to emulate.
EPA
The effort to take back IS’s biggest prize in Iraq has begun at last. But there’s no shortage of other problems to deal with.
Boys’ club.
EPA/Atef Safadi
There have been efforts to include women in West Bank politics, but they’ve fallen short. Activists are trying to change things.
The International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Reuters/Jerry Lampen
More needs to be done to protect women against sexual violence perpetrated in war.
Wyatt Roy claimed he visited parts of the Middle East to meet Kurdish policymakers and industry leaders.
Supplied/SBS
Wyatt Roy took it upon himself to look for a gunfight without a cause.
EPA/SANA Handout
World powers including Russia, the US and Turkey all have a stake in the Syrian conflict – but the networks they rely on for influence are constantly in flux.
Peace in our time? Arafat, Peres and Rabin collect their shared Nobel Prize.
EPA/Erik Johansen
By turns hawkish and dovish, Peres’ complicated legacy runs far deeper than the Oslo Accords.
Jamal Saidi/Reuters
We know how to prevent gender-based violence, and that we must respond to survivors’ needs. The challenge is in making it happen.
Death and destruction are a daily reality in Syria as the civil war drags on.
Reuters/SANA
Tourism will have to be a key element in future peace-building and peace-keeping strategies in Syria.
EPA
The US will only take action on WMD when it suits them.
Russian drone footage showing the bombed aid convoy en route to Aleppo.
EPA/Russian Defence Ministry
The war of words over a bombed UN convoy in Syria is just the latest in a long series of diplomatic breakdowns.
Theresa May meets her Saudi counterparts.
EPA/Narendra Shrestha
While Yemen burns, Theresa May’s government plays with words.
EPA/Ali Hassan
The interventionist foreign policy of the Gulf states is increasingly at odds with their economic security.
Turning plastic into fuel in Aleppo.
EPA
As a new cessation of hostilities comes into force, Russia’s influence over the Syrian conflict is deepening.
Islamic State today is in increasingly dire straits on the ground in Iraq and Syria.
Reuters/Umit Bektas
Islamic State’s call to arms against Australian targets may appear concerning in it its specificity. But it does little to change the underlying security realities the group and its supporters face.