Features

Features Elizabeth Tsurkov is taken by ambulance to a hospital after her release in Ramat Gan, Israel, September 10, 2025. REUTERS

Tsurkov’s Final Night in Baghdad: Alone Near the Tigris

In the first week of September 2025, Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah concluded it had no option but to release Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov even if it…

Ali Saray (London)
Features  Omar Abu Kuwaik, six-year-old Gazan child who lost an arm, gestures and poses next to his aunt and caretaker, Maha Abu Kuwaik in the apartment where they reside during his medical treatment in Beirut, Lebanon September 4, 2025. (Reuters)

Missing Limbs and Loved Ones, Gazan Children Begin Treatment Journey Abroad

Six-year-old Omar Abu Kuwaik still believes that by his next birthday, his missing hand will have grown back. He is one of thousands of Palestinian children…

Features Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya sits at a mourning house for assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar, August 2, 2024. (Reuters)

Hamas Leaders Killed by Israel and Those Who Remain

Israel launched an attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar on Tuesday, expanding its campaign against the Palestinian group. Israeli officials told Reuters the…

Features A visitor tries on Meta’s headset at the LEAP conference in Saudi Arabia. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Artificial Intelligence and Oil: An Alliance for the Future

At a time when some claim the world is approaching the end of the oil era, technological shifts suggest otherwise. At the heart of the digital revolution -…

Mohammed al-Mutairi (Riyadh)
Features People gather as a Sudanese official announces recovery of 300 bodies after landslide destroyed Tarsin village, in Sudan, in this handout picture released September 4, 2025. (Sudan Liberation Movement/Army/Handout via Reuters)

'Tears And Pain' After Deadly Sudan Landslide

In the remote mountain village of Tarasin in Sudan's western Darfur, three successive landslides struck without warning last week. "The people lost…

Features Afghan local Hamidullah (top, rear) salvages belongings as he surveys his damaged house in Kunar, Afghanistan, 04 September 2025 (issued 05 September 2025). EPA/HAMID SABAWOON

An Earthquake in Afghanistan’s East Wipes Out Homes, Generations and Livelihoods

Ahmad Khan Safi had a good life in Afghanistan. The farmer raised livestock in the Dewagal Valley of Kunar Province, and people traveled from across the…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Venice Ovation Fuels Hopes for Gaza Girl Film to Reach Global Audience

Venice Ovation Fuels Hopes for Gaza Girl Film to Reach Global Audience

Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania said on Thursday she hopes the rapturous reception given to her new film "The Voice of Hind Rajab" at the Venice Film…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features A drone view shows the dried up Orontes River in Jisr al-Shughour, west of Idlib, Syria, on Aug. 14, 2025. (AP)

The Worst Drought in Decades Is Threatening Syria’s Fragile Recovery from Years of Civil War

The worst drought in decades is gripping much of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, drying out rivers and lakes, shriveling crops and leading to…

Features Israeli settlers use bulldozers to pave a road for a new settlement on the outskirts of the occupied West Bank village of Al-Mughayyir, north of Ramallah, on August 24, 2025. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

Inside Israel’s Settler State and its Hidden Strategy

For decades, settler attacks in the West Bank were largely concentrated in “Area C,” under full Israeli control. But since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on…

Kifah Zboun (Ramallah)
Features A drone boat is seen during a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on September 3, 2025. (AFP)

The Weapons and Military Units on Display in China’s Major Parade 

Some of the weapons and military units in China's major parade were being displayed for the first time. The parade on a central Beijing avenue Wednesday…

Features Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and heads of foreign delegations arrive for a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in Beijing, China September 3, 2025. Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Pool via REUTERS

A Look at the World Leaders Joining China's Military Parade in a Show of Solidarity with Beijing

Leaders from about two dozen countries joined Chinese President Xi Jinping to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with a military parade in…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features  This picture taken on September 1, 2025 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on September 2, 2025 shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (L) as he departs from Pyongyang by special train to visit China. (KCNA via KNS / AFP)

'Fortress' on Wheels: Kim Jong Un's Bulletproof Train 

An olive-green North Korean train, emblazoned with a gold stripe, carried leader Kim Jong Un into China on Tuesday for a grand military parade that President…

Features A person bikes in Tiananmen Square ahead of the 80th anniversary of the second Sino-Japanese War, in Beijing, China, 30 August 2025. (EPA)

Missiles, Drones, Lasers: New Weapons Expected at Beijing Military Parade 

China will showcase a range of new weapons during a vast military parade on Wednesday, in a show of strength that is being seen as a challenge to US military…

Features An eagle tops the US Federal Reserve building's facade in Washington, July 31, 2013. (Reuters)

What the End of Federal Reserve Independence Could Mean

President Donald Trump's attempt to fire a member of the Federal Reserve's governing board has raised alarms among economists and legal experts who see it as…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists take part in a protest against the killing of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, as they gather in Nazareth, Israel, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Press Insignia Becomes a Rallying Cry for Peace as Activists Call for an End to the War in Gaza

In the streets of Nazareth, Israeli and Palestinian activists wore stickers replicating the ‘Press’ insignia emblazoned on flak jackets and other clothing…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features (FILES) The guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson sails near the Colombian coast in the Pacific Ocean on June 29, 2024. (Photo by JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP)

What to Know about the US Warships Sent to South America and the Reaction in Venezuela

The United States is boosting its maritime force in the waters off Venezuela to combat threats from Latin American drug cartels with the expected arrival of…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features Israeli soldiers sit on top of tanks at the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, August 26, 2025. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Here's a Look at Why It Is So Hard to End the War in Gaza

Israel is on the brink of launching another major offensive, this time in famine-stricken Gaza City. The international community, along with nearly all…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)

Iran Faces 'Snapback' of Sanctions over its Nuclear Program. Here's What that Means

France, Britain and Germany have threatened to trigger the “ snapback mechanism ” that automatically reimposes all United Nations sanctions on Iran over its…

Asharq Al Awsat
Features National Security Adviser John R. Bolton listens while US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before a meeting with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the Oval Office of the White House on May 13, 2019, in Washington, DC. (AFP)

What to Know About John Bolton, Former Trump Adviser Whose Home and Office Are Searched by FBI

John Bolton, whose home and office were searched by federal agents on Friday, has been one of the most vocal critics of President Donald Trump since serving as…

Features An aerial view shows smoke rising over Sweida during clashes between Druze and Bedouin tribes, July 19, 2025. (DPA)

Sweida Emerges as First Big Test for Syria’s New Era

In late July, the spiritual leadership of Syria’s Druze minority in Sweida announced the creation of legal and security committees to run the southern province…

Sultan al-Kanj
Features Reservists and former pilots from the Israel Air Force take part in a protest outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, 12 August 2025. (EPA)

As Netanyahu Expands Gaza War, Some Reservists Grow More Disillusioned

As Israel seeks to expand its offensive in Gaza, a measure of how the country's mood has changed in the nearly two-year-old conflict is the discontent evident…

Features United States President Donald J Trump (R) meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 18 August 2025. (EPA)

Takeaways from Trump’s Meeting with Zelenskyy and Europeans: Praise, Security Talks, More Meetings 

During their second meeting in the Oval Office this year, President Donald Trump said the US would be willing to support European efforts to police any peace…

Features Iranians shop in the Grand Bazaar in Tehran on August 13, 2025. (AFP)

Iranians Struggle with GPS Disruption After Israel War

The streets of Tehran have become a confusing maze for driver Farshad Fooladi amid widespread GPS disruption, still ongoing nearly two months after the end of…

Features People carry Syrian flags of the opposition as they celebrate the ouster of the Assad regime in Damascus, in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, 08 December 2024. (EPA)

Mistrust and Fear: The Complex Story behind Strained Syria-Lebanon Relations

A lot has happened in just a year on both sides of the Lebanon-Syria border. A lightning offensive by opposition factions in Syria toppled longtime autocrat…

Asharq Al Awsat