A weekly selection of opinions and analyses from the Arab media around the world. By THE MEDIA LINE FEBRUARY 15, 2025 00:08 US PRESIDENT Donald Trump meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem, 2017. (photo credit: PPO via Getty Images) Trumpism: Risks and opportunities Asharq Al-Awsat, London, February 6 For more stories from The Media Line go to themedialine.org Many assert that the words of Donald Trump, the returning American president, are mere bluster. In my view, Trump could be anything – either an empty sound bomb or a truly destructive force. We are on the brink of four potentially extraordinary years that could either morph into our worst fears, leaving Palestinians without a land, or realize the dream of a Palestinian state. His policies might ignite a dangerous regional
Tag Archives: Politics
Over 100 Kenyan MPs and other high-ranking VIPs are set to land in the Ethiopian capital on Thursday, February 13, to witness the AU Commission elections The MPs intend to “observe” the elections and offer support to Raila Odinga, who faces a stiff challenge from Djibouti’s Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf The government clarified that the entourage of legislators would foot their own bills to and fro the continental headquarters Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga, is one of the top contenders for the African Union Commission chairship elections slated for February 15-16 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Raila Odinga hopes to succeed Moussa Faki as AU Commission chair. Photo: Tony Karuma.Source: Getty Images Over 100 MPs and other high-ranking VIPs are set to land in the Ethiopian capital on Thursday, February
Feb
The billionaire has brought his four-year-old to numerous Washington events. February 11, 2025, 7:40 PM As camera crews and reporters crowded into the Oval Office on Tuesday, trying to focus on President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s first public comments on slashing the government, the dramatic scene at times got stolen — by Musk’s son, “Lil X.” “This is X, and he’s a great guy — high IQ,” Trump said at the top of his remarks, chuckling and calling the four-year-old a “high-IQ individual.” President Donald Trump is joined by Elon Musk and his son X Æ A-Xii, as he signs a series of executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 11, 2025 in Washington. Alex Brandon/AP While defending his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
Feb
See Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC. By BENJAMIN NETANYAHU FEBRUARY 5, 2025 09:09 US President Donald Trump greets Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he arrives at the North Portico of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2025. (photo credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) “Thank you, Mr. President. I’m honored that you invited me to be the first foreign leader to visit the White House in your second term. This is a testament to your friendship and support for the Jewish state and the Jewish people. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House. That’s why the people of Israel have such enormous respect
Jan
(FILES) A local resident walks past the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Lagos office in Lagos on September 24, 2024. (Photo by Olympia DE MAISMONT / AFP) Junta-led countries Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have officially withdrawn from the Economic Community of West African States. They officially exited West Africa’s main political and trade group on Wednesday after more than a year of diplomatic tensions. The withdrawal has shaken ECOWAS, which many consider to be the continent’s most important regional group and this year marks its 50th anniversary. While its leadership said in a statement that the group would “keep ECOWAS doors open” to the three countries, their departure has left the organisation’s future uncertain. The rupture was sparked by the July 2023 coup in Niger, after military
![South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol attends his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Seoul on January 21, 2025 [Kim Hong-Ji/Pool via AFP]](https://esbecgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/South-Koreas-anti-graft-agency-recommends-insurrection-charges-for-Yoon.jpg)
Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials says president sought to ‘disrupt the constitutional order’. South Korea’s anticorruption agency has recommended that President Yoon Suk-yeol be charged with insurrection and abuse of power following a probe into the impeached leader’s short-lived martial law declaration. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said on Thursday that it requested prosecutors to file the charges after finding that Yoon had suspended civil rule with “the intent to exclude state authority or disrupt the constitutional order”. Following the CIO’s transfer of the case, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office will have 11 days to decide whether to charge Yoon and send him to trial. Yoon, who has been suspended from his duties since a December 14 impeachment vote by the National Assembly, was arrested
Jan
President Joe Biden on Wednesday will give his last Oval Office address as he prepares to hand over power to President-elect Donald Trump and exit politics after a decadeslong career. Biden is delivering his farewell address to the nation in prime time. He is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET. Biden is leaving the White House after four years with a complex legacy bookended by Trump’s historic return to Washington. The speech comes just five days before Trump’s inauguration. Biden will be in attendance as his successor is sworn in, resuming a tradition of American democracy that Trump himself sidestepped in 2021. In a letter released Wednesday morning, Biden reflected on where his administration started in the shadows of COVID and the Jan. 6 attack by a pro-Trump mob
Jan
As deadly wildfires burn through Southern California, President-elect Donald Trump has spent the week attacking Democratic officials and continuing a pattern of spreading misinformation about natural disasters. “I think that Gavin is largely incompetent, and I think the mayor is largely incompetent, and probably both of them are just stone-cold incompetent,” Trump said on Thursday night while hosting Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Since the fires broke out, Trump has pointed fingers at Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden, spreading false claims about California’s water policy and federal assistance. For example, Trump blamed Biden as he falsely claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had “no money” to help California despite Congress recently passing a disaster relief supplemental totaling $29 billion. The president-elect also pushed exaggerated claims as
Jan
As several fires spread across Southern California, President-elect Donald Trump blamed policies from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden for causing the outbreak. “He is the blame for this,” Trump wrote about Newsom on his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday. But the governor’s office called Trump’s evidence “pure fiction.” A person uses a garden hose in an effort to save a neighboring home from catching fire during the Eaton Fire, Jan. 8, 2025, in Altadena, California. Mario Tama/Getty Images “Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in
RICHMOND, Va. — Three special elections taking place on Tuesday to fill seats in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates will determine whether Democrats or Republicans have control of the Statehouse in Republican Glenn Youngkin’s final year as governor. In northern Loudoun County, Republican Tumay Harding and Democrat Del. Kannan Srinivasan are vying to succeed Suhas Subramanyam in the state Senate after the Democrat was elected to the U.S. House in November. Also on the ballot are Democrat JJ Singh and Republican Ram Venkatachalam, who are racing to replace Srinivasan in the state House of Delegates after he vacated his seat to run in the special Senate election. In central Goochland County, Republican Luther Cifers is up against Democrat Jack Trammell, a college professor, in a state Senate race.
Jan
President Joe Biden began his term in the White House with a broad promise to protect transgender Americans against Republican policies that painted them as a threat to children and sought to push them out of public life. “Your president has your back,” Biden assured trans people in his first State of the Union address in 2021, and he repeated a version of that statement in subsequent speeches. But with President-elect Donald Trump days away from taking office after piling on transgender people throughout his campaign, some worry Biden did not do enough to shield them from what’s likely to come. The president-elect has declared that “it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders — male and female,” and pledged to
Nov
Fred Harris, a former U.S. senator from Oklahoma, presidential hopeful and populist who championed Democratic Party reforms in the turbulent 1960s, died Saturday. He was 94. Harris’ wife, Margaret Elliston, confirmed his death to The Associated Press. It was not immediately clear where he died, but he had lived in New Mexico since 1976 and was a resident of Corrales at the time of his death. “Fred Harris passed peacefully early this morning of natural causes. He was 94. He was a wonderful and beloved man. His memory is a blessing,” Elliston said in a text message. Harris served eight years in the Senate, first winning in 1964 to fill a vacancy, and made unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1976. It fell to Harris, as chairman of the Democratic
Nov
As controversy continues to cloud some of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, his team has an ominous warning for Republicans who don’t fall in line behind his nominees. ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl reports that one senior Trump adviser said the message to lawmakers is, “If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary.” “That is all,” the adviser told Karl. “And there’s a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it.” “The president gets to decide his Cabinet. No one else,” the adviser added. President-elect Donald Trump attends the America First Policy Institute Gala held at Mar-a-Lago, Nov. 14, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images The threat comes as Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth (tapped for attorney
Nov
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for the director of national intelligence, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, has little experience working with the nation’s spy agencies and a long track record of echoing the Russian disinformation they work to expose and to counter — a combination her critics claim should be disqualifying. Gabbard, 43, who represented Hawaii as a Democrat from 2013-2021 and ran for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020 before becoming a Republican earlier this year, has been accused of harboring sympathies for the Kremlin and parroting propaganda generated by Russia to justify its invasion of Ukraine. At the outset of the conflict, Gabbard blamed the Biden administration and NATO, claiming they had provoked Russia’s aggression by ignoring what she called its “legitimate security concerns” about Ukraine potentially becoming a member
Nov
Lawmakers running for reelection loathe tough votes. And for senators up in purple states in two years, those tough votes are coming early. President-elect Donald Trump is moving at a lightning pace to stock up his administration, mixing in conventional picks like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state with controversial moves like putting up Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for health and human services secretary. For frontline senators who hold the key to the next Senate majority, navigating their confirmations will be a minefield. Republicans will be defending the seats of North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, while Democrats will be working to protect Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and Michigan Sen. Gary Peters. Their confirmation votes for