RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND PERSECUTION
By Donnelly McCleland Today, in Islamic-, Hindu-, and Communist-majority parts of the world, being a follower of Jesus means, at best, losing your job and being rejected by your family. At worst, it can mean imprisonment, beating, and even death. These things are being experienced all over the world right now by our brothers and…
MAJOR BATTLEFRONTS OF 2019
By Andrew Richards and Donnelly McCleland 2019 has been characterised by major ongoing ‘hot’ wars, ‘cold’ wars, proxy wars and trade wars, often involving multiple nations. The ebb and flow in 2019 has seen some advances towards peace in major theatres of war, such as Syria and Yemen, while elsewhere peace has become more elusive,…
HEADLINE MAKERS: ILHAN OMAR – CONTROVERSIAL HISTORY MAKER
By Donnelly McCleland Ms Omar’s decisive victory last year was a ground-breaking moment for American Muslims. The 37-year-old former refugee is the first Somali American to serve in Congress. She and her colleague Rashida Tlaib are the first two Muslim-American women to serve in Congress (Congress had to change its rules to allow her to…
OBITUARY: ABU BAKR AL-BAGHDADI – BLOODSOAKED SCHOLAR
By Andrew Richards On Sunday 27 October, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai), the leader and self-proclaimed Caliph of the Islamic State (IS), killed himself and two children by detonating a suicide vest during a US special forces operation aimed at the capture or killing of al-Baghdadi. Al-Baghdadi was born 28…
OBITUARY: ROBERT MUGABE – REVOLUTIONARY TURNED DICTATOR
By Andrew Richards and Donnelly McCleland On Friday 6 September, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the second President of Zimbabwe, passed away in Singapore where he was receiving medical treatment. He was born into a poor family in the south of the country, on 21 February 1924. He started out as a teacher in Zimbabwe and later…
HEADLINE MAKERS: ETHIOPIAN PM ABIY AHMED – NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER
By Donnelly McCleland Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who assumed the office in April 2018 (after three years of often deadly protests forced his predecessor Hailemariam Desalegn to resign), has earned international praise for an ambitious reform agenda that has included freeing thousands of political prisoners, reining in the country’s security services, lifting a state…
HEADLINE MAKERS: VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY – SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE
By Donnelly McCleland Until his election in April, Volodymyr Zelenskiy was a comedian best known for playing the president of Ukraine on TV, in his hugely popular show, “Servant of the People.” His rapid rise to president is nothing short of meteoric and highlights the Ukrainian peoples’ utter disillusionment with their political elite. Quote: “Could…
SEASON OF DISCONTENT: PROTESTS FLARE AROUND THE WORLD
By Andrew Richards, Alex Pollock and Donnelly McCleland Protests have flared around the world in 2019. Each has had its own trigger, but many of the underlying frustrations are similar. According to Declan Walsh and Max Fisher (New York Times): “In many of the restive countries, experts discern a pattern: a louder-than-usual howl against elites…
DISASTERS AND THE CLIMATE DEBATE 2019
By Donnelly McCleland Scientific American reports that: “2019 is very likely to be Earth’s second warmest year on record, behind 2016.” Based on statistics gathered, “the six warmest years on record globally since 1880 will end up being the last six years—2014 through 2019—with the peak occurring during the strong El Niño year of 2016.”…
HEADLINE MAKERS: VLADIMIR PUTIN – 20 TUMULTUOUS YEARS AS RUSSIAN LEADER
By Andrew Richards and Donnelly McCleland Russian President Vladimir Putin was appointed acting prime minister on 9 August 1999 by then president Boris Yeltsin. He has been in office as president or prime minister ever since, a period spanning two decades. Quote: “The ruling elites have broken away from the people. There is also this…