by Alistair Lyon | 29 Mar 2021 | Conflict, Educators' Catalog, Human Rights, World
A civil war in Yemen marked by foreign meddling has created an unparalleled humanitarian disaster with no end in sight, even if a truce were agreed upon. A malnourished child waits to be fed at a hospital in Sana’a, Yemen, 21 March 2021. (EPA-EFE/YAHYA ARHAB) A...
News Decoder is backed by dozens of veteran correspondents who have covered many of the world’s biggest and most complicated stories of the past half-century. Mentors to students in our partner schools, the correspondents are experts in their own right in many of the world’s most intractable and consequential issues. Cutbacks in spending on foreign news means some big stories don’t receive the attention they deserve in mainstream Western media. But Alistair Lyon, a former Middle Eastern diplomatic correspondent for Reuters, won’t let News Decoder readers forget the humanitarian disaster underway in Yemen. Have your students read this article to learn about the complex conflict gripping Yemen and ask them to identify other ongoing humanitarian crises that are not grabbing headlines.
by Bernd Debusmann Jr | 28 Jan 2021 | Conflict, Donald Trump, Human Rights, Joe Biden, Middle East
Donald Trump knit close ties with Israel and Saudi Arabia. The new U.S. administration under Joe Biden is reassessing relations with the Middle East. Then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden sits with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before a dinner in...
by Barry Moody | 11 Oct 2019 | Africa, Human Rights
He has signed a peace deal and delivered sweeping changes to Africa and the Gulf. Ethiopian leader Abiy Ahmed has now won the Nobel Peace Prize. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (L) and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki attend the re-opening of the Eritrean embassy...
by News Decoder | 26 Jun 2019 | Americas, Decoders, Donald Trump, Islam, Middle East, United States
Why are the U.S. and Iran at daggers drawn while Donald Trump has vowed to pull troops out of foreign wars? Mutual antagonism goes way back. Demonstrators protest against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in Tehran, Iran, 9 October 1979. The effects of the 1979 revolution...
by News Decoder | 7 Nov 2017 | Decoders, Middle East, Student Posts, Syria
Rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, aspirants for leadership of the Islamic world, is at the crux of conflict across the Mideast, with deadly results. An Iranian woman in Tehran holds up a poster showing Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent opposition Saudi Shiite...