Whether Egypt's military authorities are deliberately targeting pro-democratic NGOs or simply unable to stop others from doing so, one thing is clear: Washington's relationship with them is no longer worth $1.3 billion.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's Travel to the United Kingdom, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco
Press Statement
Victoria Nuland Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
February 21, 2012
On February 23, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton will begin a four-nation trip to London and North Africa. In London, the Secretary will attend a conference hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron, dedicated to building stability and peace in Somalia. Heads of state and foreign ministers from over 50 countries as well as representatives of the United Nations and the African Union will attend. The timing of the conference is significant as it convenes six months prior to the end of Somalia's political transition which is set to take place by August 20, 2012.
Secretary Clinton will then travel to North Africa. In Tunisia on February 24 and 25, she will participate in the first meeting of the “Friends of Syria” group as ...
Diane Ravitch
Last week, the New York State Education Department and the teachers’ unions reached an agreement to allow the state to use student test scores to evaluate teachers. The pact was brought to a conclusion af...
Washington should help improve conditions on the ground in Libya before the upcoming parliamentary elections, supporting civil society organizations that include rebels and prodding the interim government toward greater transparency.
The U.S. Government Working for the Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting
Fact Sheet
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
February 18, 2012
Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a traditional practice that ranges from nicking to total removal of the external female genitalia. An estimated 100 to 145 million women have undergone this procedure and at least 3 million girls are at risk of being cut each year, about 8,000 girls a day.1 Though no religion mandates the procedure, FGM/C is practiced across cultures, religions, and continents. It is practiced in 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, northern Iraq, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and new evidence is showing prevalence in other Middle Eastern countries, including Yemen, Iran, Syria, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and parts of South Asia. The practice also can be found in Europe, the United States, Australia, and other countries in the West where immigrants bring their cultural traditions with ...
Victoria Nuland Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
February 18, 2012
The United States welcomes the peaceful departure of the first 397 residents from Camp Ashraf and joins the United Nations in welcoming their safe arrival at Camp Hurriya.
The United States commends the Iraqi government for its facilitation of a secure and peaceful relocation process and its willingness to invest significant resources in that regard. The United States also commends the decision by the Ashraf residents to begin to relocate to Hurriya, where the United Nations will begin a process aimed at facilitating their eventual departure from Iraq. The United States encourages Ashraf residents to continue their cooperation with the Iraqi authorities and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) as they work to complete the relocation to Hurriya. Patience and willingness to resolve issues related to the relocation will be important as the ...
David Bromwich
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Enrique Chagoya: The Headache, A Print after George Cruikshank, 2010
The title “Infinite Jest” gives a very partial impression of the survey of caricatures showing at the Metropolitan M...
New York- I have a piece out in today’s edition of Asia Times Online from my meeting in Istanbul with Khaled Khoja, one of the more vocal member’s of the Turkey-based Syrian National Council, on the past, present, and future of the ever so ...
U.S. Department of State Kicks-Off "Empowering Women and Girls Through Sports Initiative" With U.S. Soccer, Sends Sports Envoys to Engage Youth in Malaysia
Media Note
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
February 17, 2012
As part of the “Empowering Women and Girls Through Sports Initiative,” the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and U.S. Soccer announced today a series of Sports Envoy programs to take place in Algeria, Argentina, Malaysia, Morocco, and Venezuela this spring. Sports Envoys are current or retired athletes, coaches, or sports administrators who travel overseas on behalf of the United States to engage youth.
During her remarks today at the International Olympic Committee’s World Conference on Women and Sport, Ann Stock, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, outlined the new initiative that will mobilize the Sports Envoys and Sports Visitors programs. She also announced a new Sports Mentorship program, which ...
The U.S. troop withdrawal is a less significant of recent Iraqi violence than Washington's policy of giving Prime Minister Maliki a blank check in his campaign to consolidate power.
Sanctions on Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security
Press Statement
Victoria Nuland Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
February 16, 2012
Today the United States Government took three separate sanctions actions against Iran’s primary intelligence agency, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). MOIS was designated for its involvement in the commission of serious human rights abuses against the Iranian people, as well as its support to terrorist groups, including al-Qa’ida, Hizballah and Hamas. It was also designated under a separate executive order for its support to the Syrian regime in brutally repressing the Syrian people. We have imposed visa and financial sanctions on the MOIS for its commission of serious human rights abuses in its own country.
Today’s action exposes the activities of the MOIS, and allows us to identify and sanction individuals, companies and other entities that, among other things, support or act on behalf of the MOIS. We ...
Bill McKibben
The End of Country
by Seamus McGraw
Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale
by Tom Wilber
Gasland
a documentary film by Josh Fox
...
Elaine Blair
The Map and the Territory
by Michel Houellebecq, translated from the French by Gavin Bowd
Alessandro Albert/Getty Images
Michel Houellebecq, Turin, Italy, November 2010
Jed Mar...
Sam Tanenhaus
The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism
by Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson
The Tea Party: Three Principles
by Elizabeth Price Foley
Tea Party Patriots: The Second America...
James Fenton
Downton Abbey
a television series created by Julian Fellowes
Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Memoir That Inspired Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey
by Margaret Powell
...
Katherine Boo
Chiara Goia
The Annawadi slum near the airport in Mumbai, July 2011
Midnight was closing in, the one-legged woman was grievously burned, and the Mumbai police were coming for Abdul and his father. ...
Wisława Szymborska, translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak
I’m a poor audience for my memory.
She wants me to attend her voice nonstop,
but I fidget, fuss,
listen and don’t,
step out, come back, then leave a...
Victoria Nuland Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
February 16, 2012
The United States continues to pursue a peaceful, humane solution to the untenable situation at Camp Ashraf. The critical next step is the voluntary movement of the first group of 400 Ashraf residents to the new transit facility at Camp Hurriya (former Camp Liberty). The United States supports the UN’s call for the Iraqi Government and the residents of Camp Ashraf to continue to cooperate and begin this movement peacefully and without delay. Once the first group arrives at Hurriya, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) can immediately begin verification and refugee status determinations, a necessary step for Hurriya residents to safely depart Iraq.
On January 31, following successful work by the Government of Iraq, the UNHCR and UN Human Rights Office in Baghdad determined that the infrastructure and facilities at ...
Klaus Peters, reply by Anatol Lieven
To the Editors:
As a presumably average reader of The New York Review who considers the magazine a tool and source to fashion informed personal opinions on a broad spectrum of issues outside my own area of...
Herbert Terrace, reply by Peter Singer
To the Editors:
In response to my previous letter [NYR, November 24, 2011], Peter Singer claims that “Herbert Terrace ignores the extensive research carried out subsequen...
Adam Zagajewski, reply by Louis Begley
To the Editors:
In his otherwise highly interesting review of Tom Segev’s biography Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends [NYR, December 8, 2011], Louis Begley says that Wiesenthal was the first recip...
You can call me Henry
FEW sovereigns have shown more diplomatic ambition this year than the emir of Qatar. Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani has brokered a peace deal between the Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, acted as linchpin in A...
A FLUSH of green is spreading across the Arab world, but not because its vast deserts are shrinking. Green is the colour of Islam and Islamist movements have reaped the biggest harvest of the Arab spring. Not all stripes of Koran-le...
