Links 19-30 June 2018

Buy on Amazon

Do check out the latest episode of the Bulaq podcast, in which Marcia and Ursula talk to the legendary Karl Sharro aka @KarlRemarks about his new book and more. And buy Karl's book, his Twitter account alone is a public good for mental sanity! 

The links for the last couple of weeks are below.

• Anfass propose une loi d'amnistie générale en faveur des activistes des mouvements sociaux - Le Desk
  General amnesty proposed for Rif convicts.
• Au Maroc, les militants du Rif écopent d’une vie en prison | Mediapart
  Extensive coverage of Rif verdict (FR)
• Abdellah Tourabi: pourquoi “le procès du Rif” est une erreur historique - H24info
  Important column on Rif verdict in Morocco.
• Prisoners of a Vision: Dissidents in Sisi’s Egypt
  Tom Stevenson in LA Review of Books.
• Leaders of protests in Morocco's Rif region (calling for hospitals, schools, an end to corruption) get 20 year prison sentences
• Seymour Hersh on Syria: "There's no such thing as a chlorine bomb"
  La vieillesse est un naufrage.
• Morocco jails protest leaders for up to 20 years for 2016 rallies
  This is an outrageous injustice.
• The World Today With Tariq Ali - Saudi Arabia: A Brute in the Driver’s Seat
  Interview with Madawi al-Rasheed.
• A Ghost Army of Workers Is Paid to Do Nothing in the Gulf | Bloomberg
• Why Russia’s Middle East Gamble Has a Limited Payoff | WSJ
  Yaroslav Trofimov.
• Who controls Libya's oil riches? | Al Jazeera English
• Russian Forces in Syria and the Building of a Sustainable Military Presence | Arab Reform Initiative
  Interesting paper on how Russia is actually running the Syrian army.
• China Smells Opportunity in the Middle East’s Crisis | Foreign Policy
• Libya’s lawless skies | Airwars
• The U.S. Has Conducted 550 Drone Strikes in Libya Since 2011 — More Than in Somalia, Yemen, or Pakistan | The Intercept
• La politique du feuilleton (2/2) : l’Arabie saoudite refait le passé | CPA
  Yves Quinjano-Gonzalez.
• Trump's 'Deal of the Century' for the Middle East Might Live or Die in Cairo | Haaretz
  Almost everything in this Zvi Bar'el article is ludicrous.
• Egypt taking risks with sharp subsidy cuts, economists say | Reuters
• One Chlorine Bomb, Dozens Killed in Syria: How Assad Gassed His Own People | NYT
  Must-watch
• The other Lebanese | Synaps
  On Palestinan youth in Lebanon.
• Migrants : l’Europe à la dérive | Libération
  Excellent overview of EU migration debate, which seems to boil down for Macron-Merkel to processing camps for migrants in Southern Europe and North Africa (neither wants them).
• Asmarat: The state’s model housing for former ‘slum’ residents
  Great reporting by @madamasr on Orwellian housing project: no trees, no shops, no vendors, and guards at the gate!
• A Website Seeks to Show ‘How Alive Arabic Is’
  @ursulind profiles self-proclaimed "Arabic nerd," greater of online dictionary Living Arabic, for @alfanar
• Conventional Humanitarian Solutions Fail the Test
  Parastou Hassouri in MERIP on the untenable current system for helping refugees
• Algeria and Iraq shut down internet to prevent exam cheating
  Absurd, stupid, neanderthal.
• What Happens Now in Syria? | LobeLog
  Interview with Joshua Landis.
• Limiting Change Through Change: The Key to the Algerian Regime’s Longevity | Carnegie
  Dalia Ghanem-Yazbeck.
• Israel Charges a Former Minister With Spying for Iran | NYT
• Why Arab states have lots of expensive villas | The Economist
  And not enough cheap homes.
• The last salt miners of Morocco | Al Jazeera
• A New Standard for the Gulf States | LRB blog
  Pretty shocking stat from Oliver Miles: over 1200 workers have died in last 3 years in Qatar, largely on World Cup 2022 projects.
• Early Elections Would Be a Disaster | Foreign Affairs
  Frederic Wehrey and Wolfram Lacher - yup!