
Homs, Syria after five years of war
Drone video footage shows there’s no life left in Syria’s third largest city

My pick for travel in 2016 is Iran
As I write in Travel + Leisure, for the traveler the nuclear accord makes Iran newly accessible

On the attacks in Paris
Le Ca Rillon and Le Petit Cambodge, both hit by Islamic State, were two of my favorites in Paris

Charles de Gaulle campaign poster
After the attacks by Islamic State in Paris the old slogan “With You, For You” is fitting

The late Omar Sharif in a magazine called Alive
I remember Omar Sharif best for a 1997 interview in a forgotten magazine in Cairo

Syrian-American composer who plays for peace
A symphony for Syria reminds me of Sarajevo and the hope that cosmopolitan tolerance will survive

My family in central Turkey, 1948
A nothing moment on their travels that seems to capture a life now lost

Bashar al-Assad stonewalls Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose gets in a theater of the absurd debate with Assad and loses

Activists in Raqqa exposing the Islamic State
We owe a great debt to the people documenting the devastation around them

The cultural destruction of war in the Middle East
My beloved Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo may not be a total loss but much is elsewhere

The amazing marginalia of In Search of Fatima
A reader hostile to everything lets her feelings be known

Were the Turks behind the sarin gas attacks in Syria?
Obama publicly blamed Assad but Seymour Hersh contends Erdoğan was trying to force an attack

My favorite museum in Cairo damaged by a car bomb
Terror attack on Egyptian police HQ badly damages the Museum of Islamic Art, an overlooked marvel

98.1% of Egyptians vote for the Sisi constitution
By comparison, Mubarak only claimed 88.6% of Egyptians voted for him in his last election in 2005

Two constitutions, one triumph
Tunisia got it right with their new constitution while Egypt reverted to old authoritarian habits

Dead, but right, in Beirut
Hezbollah can’t kill everyone in Lebanon who believes it should give up its weapons

Interview with History by Oriana Fallaci, 1976
Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci lost the plot at the end but she was a wonder in her prime

Prayer of Fear by Mosireen
The media collective Mosireen perfectly captures the current moment in Egypt

Robin Wright carves up the Middle East
Wright is wrong and her analysis risks looking prescriptive rather than descriptive

Was the coup in Egypt even necessary?
Morsi might have been forced from power anyway, but the military short circuited that

Draft articles of impeachment for Morsi now
Even elected leaders can lose their legitimacy; Egypt needs a legal statement to that effect

Video drones over Taksim Square in Istanbul
When the police control the streets, video drones can see what they are up to

Egypt Independent is strangled in its crib
Independent journalism is a bad business everywhere but in Egypt politics makes it worse