Abdelrahman ElGendy envisioned the ending of his book would be inspiring, despite all the horrors he would have to recount. Starting at age 17, Mr. ElGendy spent six years and three months in squalid prisons in Egypt, and one way he survived, he said, was to imagine the memoir he would publish if he were […]

When a powerful earthquake struck southern Turkey last month, a lawyer concluded that her relatives had been buried in the rubble of their collapsed apartment. Three days later, rescue workers recovered the bodies of her mother and brother, she said, but days, then weeks, then a month passed with no sign of her father. His […]

When Israeli lawmakers passed a law in 1992 that would give judges the power to block future legislation, an argument broke out on the floor of Parliament that foreshadowed the fight over the judiciary that is engulfing Israel today. “You are subjecting Parliament to the Supreme Court,” declared Michael Eitan, a lawmaker and a critic […]

A new wave of mass demonstrations against a government plan to limit judicial independence swept across Israel on Thursday, with protesters restricting road access to the country’s main airport hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to fly to Italy later in the day. Thousands of demonstrators, some of them in a convoy of […]

The Israeli government’s efforts to overhaul the judicial system have divided the country, set off mass protests, prompted the beginnings of capital flight and caused unrest in the military. But amid the turmoil, a group of law professors and lawmakers has been working behind the scenes for weeks toward a goal that, given the heated […]

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Tuesday to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to the country, less than two weeks before the 20th anniversary of the American-led invasion that transformed the Middle Eastern nation. After meetings with Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and his top military and counterterrorism […]

The Israeli military carried out a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday that it said was aimed at arresting a suspect in the fatal shooting of two Israeli brothers recently. In the spiraling violence, six Palestinians were killed, according to Palestinian health officials, and Israel said one of them was […]

A plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to severely curtail the powers of Israel’s Supreme Court has prompted weeks of demonstrations, rattled the country’s technology sector and raised fears of political violence. Now, protests are emerging even within the nation’s military. Hundreds of soldiers in the military reserves either have signed letters expressing a reluctance […]

An engineer strode onstage at an event in Tehran, wearing pants and a stylish shirt, and clutching a microphone in one hand. Her long brown hair, tied in a ponytail, swung freely behind her, uncovered, in open defiance of Iran’s strict hijab law. “I am Zeinab Kazempour,” she told the convention of Iran’s professional association […]

When a catastrophic earthquake struck Syria last month, President Bashar al-Assad did not declare a state of emergency nor a day of mourning for the victims. It was days before he visited the stricken areas. But from Day 1, his authoritarian government called for the lifting of Western sanctions. The United States initially pushed back, […]