Columnist

It is a sad irony that during this, the most acute period in Palestinian history, when there is such an urgent need for a strong and capable Palestinian Authority, one that could unite the governance over the West Bank and Gaza, it is barely functioning.

The civil war in Sudan, ignited in April 2023 by a ruptured power-sharing pact between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has devoured the nation with a ferocity rivaling its darkest historical chapters.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to have shifted from Gaza to the West Bank, with little international accountability, even though there are no hostages being held there.

The single biggest foreign policy disaster of the Biden administration was the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, which fundamentally altered how the US was perceived globally.

Freshwater ecosystems around the world are under intense pressure owing to a warming climate, pollution and declining biodiversity. Indeed, some 35 percent of wetland areas were lost between 1970 and 2015 — a rate three times faster than deforestation.