Habib Siddiqui

  Trump, despite all of the criticism that has come with the controversial new league in general and specifically this week, had plenty of kind words to say about Saudi Arabia, which is bankrolling the venture. "I've known these people for a long time," Trump said,  via ESPN . "They've been friends of mine for a long time. They've invested in many American companies. They own big percentages of many, many American companies and, frankly, what they're doing for golf is so great. What they're doing for the players is so great. The salaries are going to go way up." This week’s tournament — which marks the third for LIV Golf — has  drawn significant blowback from families of 9/11 victims . Trump National Golf Club Bedminster sits about 50 miles from New York City. Saudi Arabia has been connected to the attacks in 2001.  Families have called on Trump and others to cancel the event , and have been protesting it outside the course. They sent  Trump a le...

In this photo taken on July 4, 2021, members of the internally displaced Rohingya community gather by their makeshift shelters at the Baw Du Pha IDP Camp in Sittwe in Myanmar's western Rakhine state. Photo: AFP As Myanmar stands poised to mark the fifth anniversary of the 2017 Rakhine crisis that saw a brutal onslaught against the Muslim Rohingya by the military forcing over 700,000 to flee to Bangladesh, Myo Swe, a political observer looks back at the long and troubled history of the country’s most oppressed minority. Myo Swe tells Mizzima that the origin of the problem for Rohingya living in northern Arakan or Rakhine State revolves around statelessness, the early years of Burmese independence, and the actions of military coup-maker General Ne Win. “There has been a debate where the Rohingya originated. As far as I have heard, the debate started during the time when two major political parties were competing during the tenure of Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League,” said Myo...

  Bottom Line Up Front Four pro-democracy activists, including a former lawmaker, were executed by the military junta in Myanmar (also known as Burma) following a widely critiqued closed-door trial for “terrorist acts.” Recently, soldiers from the military in Myanmar, known as the Tatmadaw, confessed to killing, torturing, and raping civilians; protests against the coup and ousting of Aung San Suu Kyi last year have led to widespread detention and death. The junta in Myanmar has also used the premise of fighting terrorism or militants as a rationale for its latest violent crackdown on the Rohingya community in Rakhine state. Despite the scale of violence visited by the junta on the people of Myanmar, there has been little international accountability; however, the landmark  The Gambia v. Myanmar  case at the International Court of Justice offers a path to some accountability. Four pro-democracy activists, including a former lawmaker, were executed by the military junta in...

  Looking at the recent decision of the ICJ International Court regarding Myanmar, military leaders,  Tom Andrews, UN Special Representative for Human Rights in Myanmar, said that all those who obeyed their orders must pay for the atrocities they committed.  Although the ICJ rejected all objections of the Burmese military council to the case of committing genocide, which was charged in the ICJ, the military council responded by saying that they have to defend themselves in accordance with international law.  Ma In Qin Naing has given a full presentation. Before the announcement on July 25 that the military council had executed four opponents of the military coup in Myanmar, including two prominent democracy activists, on July 22 the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands, issued a verdict regarding Myanmar.  The ICJ rejected Myanmar's objection not to accept and hear the case brought by Gambia that Myanmar committed genocide against the Roh...

  The Iranian police have arrested the alleged leader and four other members of a spy network they suspect is affiliated to Israel’s secret services, Iranian law enforcement authorities have said. They did not give the nationality of those arrested but said on Thursday that they had received training for armed operations and sabotage. KEEP READING list of 3 items list 1 of 3 Iran says suspected Israel cell members planning attack arrested list 2 of 3 Iran says it has new ideas on nuclear deal after EU proposes text list 3 of 3 Unprecedented price hikes put the squeeze on Iranian tenants end of list “The arrested five members of this spy network were given various pledges from [Israel’s] Mossad, including financial promises, to gather information from important areas across the country,” the law enforcement intelligence organisation said in a statement reported by the semi-official ILNA news agency. In Israel, the Prime Minister’s Office, which oversees the foreign intelligence agen...

  To judge US President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Israel and Palestine as a ‘failure’ in terms of activating the dormant ‘peace process’ is simply a misnomer. For this statement to be accurate, Washington would have had to indicate even a nominal desire to push for negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian leadership. Political and diplomatic platitudes aside, the current American administration has done the exact opposite as indicated in Biden’s words and actions. Alleging that the US commitment to a two-state solution “has not changed”, Biden  dismissed  his Administration’s interest in trying to achieve such a goal by declaring that the “ground is not ripe” for negotiations. Considering that the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly  announced  its readiness to return to negotiations, one can only assume that the process is being stalled due to Israel’s  intransigence . Indeed, none of Israel’s  top leaders ...

  A few days ago among the many solicitations for funds to support Democratic candidates around the country in the 2022 elections came one that caught my eye with this obviously phony seductive line “I’d like to give you a call, Richard.” Reading the next line, none other than the U.S. President apparently with much time to waste, was supposedly eager to learn my views on what government might do better on my behalf, purporting even to be on a first-name basis with me despite the utter absence of any prior contact. To dumb down the President for the sake of a hypocritical sales pitch struck me as distasteful, but also revealing. The approach became even more personal a day or two later when the same lure line was attributed to Jill Biden, cast in the role of a political party team player. The First Lady went on to expatiate upon the cynical view that Democrats are so desperate for a chance to interact with the President that they would fall for any come on, however absurd. In her...