World Bank

January 6, 2025 | Mariam Wahba

Turning the Page on Intolerance: Egypt’s Textbook Reforms

Egypt has made significant strides in purging school textbooks of antisemitic content and other problematic material, revising over 350 state-issued books since 2018 as a part of an ambitious reform program....

December 17, 2024 | Mariam Wahba |

Egypt Revises School Textbooks to Expunge Antisemitic Content

Egypt has made significant strides in purging school textbooks of antisemitic and anti-Christian content, with approximately 80 percent of Egyptian students in elementary and preparatory education now...

December 3, 2024 | Hussain Abdul-Hussain |

Gulf countries talk like Iran, act like Israel

The GCC rhetoric on Israel masks its true aims to decouple Syria's Assad and the Islamic Republic and declaw Hezbollah in Lebanon

November 25, 2024 | Dr. Brenda Shaffer |

Return Funding for Reliable Energy to the World’s Poorest

A centerpiece of President Biden’s agenda was a government led effort to greatly reduce production and consumption of fossil fuels. One of the key policies Biden enacted to pursue this goal was ending...

November 8, 2024 | |

‘You are Going to See the Sanctions Go Back On’: Trump Expected to Restore Maximum Pressure Against Iran

Maximum Pressure to Make a Comeback: President-elect Donald Trump plans to increase sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of a return to his previous administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign, former Trump administration officials told The Wall Street Journal.

October 29, 2024 | Seth J. Frantzman |

Iran’s military budget is growing: What does that mean for the Middle East?

Iran wants to increase the accuracy of its range and the overall number of its ballistic missiles.

October 25, 2024 | Mariam Wahba |

MBS Bets on Egypt’s Fragile Economy

For the first time since 2022, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) visited Cairo last week to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Their meeting, coupled with Saudi Arabia’s recently...

October 23, 2024 | Ben Cohen |

Guterres embraces the authoritarians

By attending a three-day summit in Russia and lending credence to Putin’s despotism, the U.N. secretary-general is effectively spitting in the faces of both Ukraine and Israel.

October 21, 2024 | |

Israel Announces Legal Action Against French President Macron Over Exclusion From Arms Fair

Israel plans to take legal action against French President Emmanuel Macron for his decision to ban Israeli companies from a Paris arms fair, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz...

October 11, 2024 | |

Presidents of Iran and Russia Tout Growing Ties

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian touted growing ties between the two countries on October 11 as they met in person for the first time in person...

October 2, 2024 | Bonnie Glick |

Time to Cut the Cord in Lebanon

Don’t pop the champagne corks yet. While there is certainly reason to cheer for the termination of the bloody terrorist leadership of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel’s military strikes in and around Beirut...

September 13, 2024 | Ahmad Sharawi |

Pro-Hamas Islamists Win the Most Seats in Jordanian Elections

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamic Action Front (IAF) secured 31 of 138 seats in Jordanian parliamentary elections on September 10, the most of any party. The IAF achieved its best result in 35 years by...

September 13, 2024 | |

Iranian Minister Urges Anti-Western BRICS Bloc to Create ‘Security Structure’

The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, called for the BRICS bloc of states (named after original founders Brazil, Russia, India, China,...

September 9, 2024 | |

Erdogan Calls on Muslim Nations to Isolate Israel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on September 7 called for the formation of an Islamic alliance to halt what he called “the growing threat of expansionism” from the Jewish state. Falsely claiming...

September 4, 2024 | |

Risking New Rift With Western Allies, Turkey Pursues Membership of BRICS Bloc

A spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Islamist AKP Party said on September 3 that there had been no “concrete development” in its application to join the BRICS alliance of emerging...

July 30, 2024 | |

Iran Touts More Than $15 Billion of Oil Revenue

Iran announced on July 29 that its oil exports exceeded $15 billion between March and July 2024. Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that Mohammed Rezvanifar, the head...

June 6, 2024 | Dr. Brenda Shaffer |

China is main beneficiary of West’s futile energy transition push

Consumption of fossil fuels is as strong as ever as they remain irreplaceable

June 4, 2024 | |

Egypt’s Sisi Orders Cabinet Reshuffle Amid Spiraling Economic Crisis

Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi reappointed Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on June 3 and ordered him to form a new government. Sisi’s announcement came shortly after Madbouly...

January 23, 2024 | Craig Singleton |

Beijing’s Economic Challenges Present Opportunities for Washington

China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported last week that the country’s economy grew by just 5.2 percent in 2023, with the World Bank forecasting that China’s growth rate could slow even...

January 9, 2024 | Elaine K. Dezenski |

Kleptocrats in democracy’s clothing: Beijing and Moscow talk anti-corruption at the UN

Redefining terms like anti-corruption, human rights, democracy, and integrity — even when self-evidently disingenuous — provides China the cover to mimic the mechanisms of good governance while blunting...