We don’t care, or possibly dare, to look back five or ten years later to see what happened to international aid projects.
Members of the Iraqi police forces sit outside a building in the city of Fallujah on June 30, 2016 after they’ve recaptured the city from Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.
Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP
Was the early conception of IS a branching-out of the old Baath party? Or was it, as some argue, completely separate with no connection at all? Reality is probably a bit of a mix of both.
With so many global flashpoints, and so little diplomacy, 2018 could be a turbulent year.
AAP/The Conversation
From an Australian perspective, shifting power in the Indo-Pacific will be of primary importance in 2018 and beyond.
Many of the Iranian dead in the Nov. 12 Iran earthquake lived in the Mehr Housing, state-built affordable apartments that crumbled when other buildings stayed up.
AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
On Nov. 12, a 7.3 magnitude quake killed some 500 and injured 7,000 along the Iran-Iraq border. This Kurdish area has also been crushed by war and, after a recent separatist vote, militarily attacked.
RAAF warplanes fly over Syria in Australia’s first airstrikes in that country in September 2015.
AAP/ADF
The wars in Syria and Iraq are products of secretive decision-making by the executive. Their disastrous consequences are evidence of the need for war powers reform.
Earthquake survivors are living in tents in western Iran.
AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
The Nov. 12 earthquake wasn’t centered on any known major faults in the Earth’s crust. In its wake, scientists will collect data to add detail to what they know about seismic activity in the area.
A sign in Raqqa reads ‘Attention, Islamic State barrier’.
EPA/Youssef Rabih Youssef
As Mosul rebuilds, its history is a reminder that people of many faiths lived in cooperation in the city. In the city was the Tomb of Prophet Jonah, venerated by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.
The West needs to push for local action against Islamic State’s reign of terror in the Middle East. States in the region must find solutions to the conflicts to bring peace and stability.
Psalm 137 – best known for its opening line, ‘By the Rivers of Babylon’ – is a 2,500-year-old Hebrew psalm that deals with the Jewish exile and is remembered each year on Tisha B’av.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, painted portrait.
thierry ehrmann/flickr
After a major defeat in Mosul, Islamic State seems to have suffered a blow that could end its goal of establishing a cross-border caliphate in the Middle East.
The remains of the University of Mosul destroyed during a battle with Islamic State militants, in April 2017. South Africa offers lessons in rebuilding.
Reuters/Marko Djurica