Author Archives: Linda S. Heard

There is hardly a nation on earth that hasn’t been negatively impacted by the lethal, highly-contagious virus that has swept over our planet killing the most vulnerable, stealing jobs and hurling families into poverty. Egypt hasn’t escaped the pandemic’s tentacles but so far it has weathered the storm with remarkable success when compared to developed nations such as the UK, France, Belgium, Spain and the United States of America that alone accounts for almost a quarter of global cases. Continue reading →

The United States is experiencing what is arguably its most chaotic year in living history. The administration has to contend with a pandemic that has robbed the lives of more than 212,000 of its citizens and is spreading uncontrolled. Continue reading →

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is no peacemaker. He looks for regional vulnerabilities in the form of feuding entities and instead of behaving like a statesman offering mediation he escalates the violence by picking a side. Continue reading →

It is a tragedy of epic proportions that after decades of struggle for their rights the hopes of Palestinians are being systematically dashed. There is no Palestinian state on the horizon and realities on the ground are no longer conducive to what remains the official policy of just about every member of the United Nations. Donald Trump’s pro-Israel bias has ridden roughshod over the few cards that were left in the Palestinian Authority’s hands. Continue reading →

Forgive me for using a broad brush but I cannot help but conclude that Britons may moan about government policies but are ultimately accepting. We are stereotypically known for our stiff upper lips and ability to weather all storms with our calm demeanours, unlike those emotional Latin types poised to revolt en masse over the price of spaghetti. Continue reading →

US President Donald Trump is no foreign policy strategist. His plan to bring US troops home from Afghanistan was one of his most popular pre-election pledges in 2016 and now he is rushing to fulfil it whatever the consequences to boost his flagging campaign which is why his administration is brokering negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Continue reading →

The world is convinced that a political rival of the Russian president was deliberately poisoned by the state, which Moscow vehemently denies. Continue reading →

An oil-rich country torn apart by a Western military intervention, divided along ideological lines and coveted by foreign jackals seeking a part of the action is finally embracing a unifying path, the path to peaceful engagement … or so it seems. Continue reading →

The Palestinians have endured unending loss, humiliation and hardship throughout generations. No peoples on earth have been treated so unfairly for so many decades, not only at the hands of the occupying power but also by Western powers and the United Nations that has merely supported Palestinian rights on paper. Continue reading →

‘The Arab World’ is an obsolete construct. The MENA region is torn by fractures and disagreements permitting malevolent foreign entities to exert influence and power. Never has the time been so auspicious for Arab states with a similar world view to unify so as to create an Arab Army on the lines of NATO. Continue reading →

Polls and pundits cannot be trusted when it comes to predicting the winner of a US presidential ballot. In early November 2016, pollsters and so-called expert election analysts were left with egg on their faces. Continue reading →

Most Britons love to moan and groan about their country’s unstable weather, unreliable trains, high taxes and the underfunded NHS not to mention ‘the idiots’ in government, but when the chips are down, they invariably morph into fierce patriots. Continue reading →

In spite of nine years of negotiations since Ethiopia took advantage of the chaotic Arab Spring to begin construction of the $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile the concerned parties—Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa—are still far from reaching an agreement on various technical and legal issues. Time is now of the essence to agree a solution to avoid possible all out military conflict. Continue reading →

It appears that the British prime minister is failing to grasp the big picture. Boris Johnson seems unaware that his country is no longer a big power or that its global influence has waned since the UK-Sino declaration on the future status of Hong Kong was signed in 1984 by the ‘Iron Lady’ Margaret Thatcher. Continue reading →

Under Boris Johnson’s leadership Britain has again been dubbed ‘The sick man of Europe’ due to his mismanagement of Covid-19, a failure of judgement that has propelled his nation to the top of Europe’s fatality charts. Continue reading →

Since Western powers leapt into the fray to remove the long-standing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the oil-rich country, once the wealthiest in Africa, has been embroiled in conflicts. Continue reading →

Stuck inside my home in Egypt in between railing at the sun’s rays for bathing my neighbour’s terrace while skirting the edge of my balcony, my mind keeps wandering back to my early childhood in Wales where I lived with my parents in a whitewashed two-up, two-down cottage. Continue reading →

How much longer will global leaderships permit Israel and the United States together with its sycophant across the pond to ride roughshod over international law and basic human decency? Continue reading →

Britons of all camps were desperate for the divisive three-year-long Brexit saga to end. Continue reading →

I frequently hear news anchors refer to this current planetary scourge as “a great leveller” that does not discriminate in terms of social status and is not deterred by borders. While I can understand the reasoning behind that conclusion it is open to challenge. Continue reading →

Why has China succeeded in getting a handle on the coronavirus while one of the world’s richest countries—the United States—now holds the dubious number one ranking with respect to total cases and new cases? Continue reading →

I’m beginning to feel as if I’ve woken up in an alternative universe. It’s hard to fathom that a bowl of bat soup consumed in a Chinese market could result in millions of humans being forcibly quarantined en masse at pain of arrest or that family pets, wrongly suspected of being virus carriers, being thrown out of windows to their death. Continue reading →

Details of the US president’s much-touted ‘Deal of the Century’ are scheduled to be announced at the White House today to coincide with visits by Israeli political rivals Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White centrist alliance. Continue reading →

Divided loyalties, competing ideologies, sectarian rivalries and foreign interference combine to tear Iraq apart. This once powerful Arab state that stood as a buffer against Iranian expansionism is in urgent need of a unifier, a strong and charismatic figure who can bring together Iraqis of all faiths and sects under one flag. Continue reading →

In just two weeks, Britain will officially be out of the European Union although during the 11-month transition period the country remains obliged to comply with EU rules and regulations. For roughly half the population January 1, 2021 will be a day to celebrate freedom from EU diktats and to welcome an era of unlimited possibilities. Continue reading →

Nowadays the US wields the threat of sanctions or crippling tariffs over the heads of trusted allies that rail against toeing Washington’s line — a far cry from the message of ‘America First’ candidate Donald Trump who had no desire to interfere in the affairs of other nations. Conversely President Trump has emerged as the Free World’s Punisher-in-Chief. Continue reading →