This month it emerged White House senior adviser Stephen Miller promoted white nationalist literature and racist propaganda to conservative news website Breitbart in the run-up to the 2016 election. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which obtained the material, Miller pushed racist immigration stories in hundreds of emails to the website. The SPLC’s findings have thrust the racist and white supremacist tendencies of Donald Trump’s presidency back into the spotlight. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, about six-in-10 Americans (58 percent) think race relations in the United States are bad, and 56 percent think US President Donald Trump has made race relations worse. Many lay the […]
In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Charles Liu, Senior Fellow at Peking University, seasoned Chinese entrepreneur and informal adviser to the Chinese government, on Xi Jinping’s record in power so far, the government’s crackdown on the Uighur Muslim minority, and what role for China if it becomes the 21st century’s military and economic superpower. With the presidential term limit abolished in 2018, critics say that Chinese President Xi Jinping appears to be paving the way to being able to stay in power for life, but Charles Liu, founder of Hao Capital, disputes this. Separately, despite lower-than-predicted growth, China is still growing substantially and is set to […]
In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Erik Prince, the founder and former CEO of Blackwater, on his security firm’s performance during the Iraq w ar, the “exit strategy” he’s proposing for the w ar in Afghanistan, and his support for US President Donald Trump. During the early years of the Bush administration’s so-called ‘War on Terror’, Blackwater grew into one of the most profitable private military contractors in the US. – Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe – Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish – Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera – Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/ #AlJazeeraEnglish #HeadtoHead #Blackwater
In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Danny Ayalon on whether Israel is responsible for the recent killings of Palestinians following months of protests along the Gaza fence. Formerly a deputy foreign minister to Israel and ambassador to the United States, Ayalon has been a key player and trusted adviser in Israel’s foreign policy for more than two decades. He has been a political adviser to three prime ministers – Ariel Sharon, Ehud Barak and, most recently, Bejamin Netanyahu. As the region marks the 70th anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel, which led to the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians in what is referred to […]
Is religion a force for good or evil? A controversial question at times, but one that can’t be avoided in the modern world. From violence and terror, to gender equality, to science, reason, and education, the faithful and the faithless tend to repeatedly clash over whether religion is a net positive or negative, whether it helps humanity more than it hurts it. “Religion is both a force of good and evil because religion is a manmade institution, and human beings are both good and evil,” says Reza Aslan, a scholar of religion and best-selling author. “I don’t know why it would come as a surprise to learn that the religious […]
“One nation, solemnly promised to a second nation, the country of a third.” That’s how one writer famously described the Balfour Declaration – the declaration by then-British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour, on November 2, 1917, that said, “His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. […]” One hundred years later, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continues, with no sign of any sort of resolution. So, how central was the Balfour Declaration to later developments and what role did Britain play subsequently? And should the declaration be celebrated as the first step towards the establishment of the state of Israel […]
Earlier this month it was revealed that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) suspected its Islamabad station chief may have been poisoned by Pakistan’s military intelligence service, the ISI, following the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden. While the reports have not been confirmed, some say such level of suspicion points to growing distrust between the two countries. Those within US intelligence argue Pakistan is playing a “double game” by saying it supports the US’ role in the region, while also supporting the Taliban. Pakistani officials have denied these long-standing allegations, while others believe double games are essential because their interests do not always align with those of the […]
