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the movement was decapitated after its political leaders voiced support for the millions of people who took to the streets to challenge the fairness of the vote.

reformists

force during the presidential contest of 2009

Anyone can apply to be a candidate (men and women, clerics and laypeople), but in both elections, the Parliament and the assembly, they are then vetted by the Guardian Council to ensure they are “good Muslims” and support the Islamic republic.

signed up to participate in these elections

most — of them reformists

But many Iranians look upon the elections as an opportunity to cast a “revenge vote,” the only occasion they have to come back at the hard-liners many of them intensely despise.

Parliament to carry through on the second part of his promise

ran’s foreign policy, firmly controlled by the supreme leader, is unlikely to change

A hard-line victory would not endanger the nuclear deal, since Ayatollah Khamenei signed off on it. But a huge turnout for the moderate and reformist factions might allow Mr. Rouhani to at least continue establishing relations with Europe with less pressure and obstacles raised by the hard-liners.

Ansar al-Sharia, an umbrella group for al Qaeda militants in Yemen, said it is not responsible for the attacks. It warned journalists to avoid reporting that it is responsible.

"Our honorable people of Aden, we Ansar al-Sharia deny any connection or relation to the operation that targeted the elders' house," the group said in a statement Sunday. "This is not our operation and it's not our way of fight."

The impoverished Muslim nation has faced violence for years, some of it tied to al Qaeda elements that call it home

The latest round of unrest started in 2014 amid angry protests

The Houthi rebels seized the presidential palace in January last year, forcing out President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi on the way to taking over Sanaa, the capital city, and other areas.

In January, he reported over 8,100 casualties, including 2,800 deaths. That number is expected to go up when new numbers are released.

The Houthi rebels seized the presidential palace in January last year, forcing out President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi on the way to taking over Sanaa, the capital city, and other areas.

None of them have been able to attend school -- or at least a real school.

There is no education. Five to 11-year-old kids are in the same class. Teachers don't show up and older kids harass them."

"You can count the number of doctors on one hand and they only service ISIS. Every day hundreds gather for free food hand outs. It's not a lot. You stand there being humiliated trying to get something to eat."

"ISIS gives anything for free to people who join them. The rest of us get nothing. There is no food, electricity or money. The people join ISIS out of hunger.

Electricity lasts for roughly 12 hours a day.

"Generally, the strikes kill a relatively low number of ISIS fighters. When we were in Raqqa city, for example, the court (was) hit three times. It was empty.

Following the French airstrikes, ISIS cracked down on internet usage, fearing their targets might be revealed.

We've seen a lot of people who've been beheaded and killed, accused of being spies."

Kids, some as young as 10, patrol the street. They are trained in ISIS camps."You can see a 10-year-old kid holding a Russian AK47. It's surreal," he said. "That kids can shout at you and sometimes they stop you and you can't say anything because he is a member of ISIS."

hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees making the dangerous journey to Europe's shores.

I've lived in the Middle East for almost four decades and always thought this part of the globe was a "man's world." This encounter disabused me of this sexist, antiquated illusion.

he women, mostly in their early twenties, were commanded by 21-year-old Telhelden (Kurdish for "revenge"), who was dismissive of the ISIS fighters she and her comrades had driven out of Al-Houl.

"They believe if someone from Daesh [ISIS] is killed by a girl, a Kurdish girl, they won't go to heaven. They're afraid of girls."

Efelin, 20, giggled when I asked her if ISIS ever tried to approach their position. "If they do," she replied, "we won't leave one of them alive."

Al-Qamishli is one of the few places in Syria where different groups -- Kurds, Arabs, Christians, Turkmen -- seem to live together in relative harmony. And in this era of whipped up hysteria about Syrian refugees, Al-Qamishli has an interesting past. One hundred years ago Armenian Christians found refuge here, fleeing genocide in Turkey. Assyrian Christians also found refuge there after similar persecution in Turkey and Iraq. Kurds came here fleeing crackdowns in Turkey and Iraq.

range in age from 18 to 27

all share the same surname, Sleiman, suggesting that they are related.

they had not admitted to supporting the Islamic State in their interrogations.

About 34 Arab citizens of Israel have been arrested over the last year on suspicion of activities related to the Islamic State

said that there had been a slight increase in the number of Israeli citizens suspected of Islamic State-related activity in 2015 compared with 2014

accused of having trained for battle by slaughtering sheep and riding horses at a local farm

Palestinian citizens of Israel, about a fifth of the country’s population, have rarely participated in organized armed attacks.

some might be attracted because of longstanding grievances about discrimination in Israel.

most recent arrests suggested the first plot to carry out an Islamic State-inspired attack in Israel.

gradually heading toward people who will try to do something like that in the name of the Islamic State, similar to the attack in San Bernardino,

described the suspects as “wannabes who have access to guns.”

been “holding suspicious meetings and conducting weapons training.

suspects had obtained a Russian SKS semiautomatic rifle and a Carl Gustaf, a Swedish submachine gun.

“He used to say he was against ISIS and against terrorism.”

As the supreme Shiite spiritual leader — whose religious authority surpasses that of Iran’s supreme leader — he instructs the pious in how to pray, how to wash and what to eat.

Despite his undeniably powerful influence, his public role in Iraq has often been described as “fatherly”: guiding politics from on high, intervening at difficult times, but otherwise staying aloof from the fray of governing.

“In recent months he felt a great danger on the political and security scene,” said Ali Alaq, a Shiite lawmaker in Baghdad. “He felt a patriotic duty to act,” he continued, and using an honorific for the ayatollah added, “Sayyid Sistani represents the conscience of the Iraqi people.”

The marjaiya’s support over the years lent crucial legitimacy to the Shiite religious parties that came to dominate politics and that are now the source of great anger for the masses that began protesting against Iraq’s government in August.

Ayatollah Sistani has become increasingly concerned that those militias are a threat to the unity of Iraq, experts say, in part because many of the militia leaders and their affiliated politicians have challenged efforts by the government to reconcile with Iraq’s minority Sunnis, a priority for the clerical leader.

Mr. Khalaji said that when it comes to Iran, Ayatollah Sistani is primarily worried about tensions between Sunnis and Shiites and Iran’s role in worsening sectarian divisions in Iraq.

One diplomat in Baghdad, referring to the Shiite holy cities from where instructions to politicians are given at Friday sermons, noted that in much the same way as Iranian political leaders look to Qom for guidance, “Every Friday we look to Karbala and Najaf.”

Here in Najaf, where Ayatollah Sistani, three other senior ayatollahs and countless clerics collectively represent the Shiite religious establishment, known as the marjaiya, there is a sense of regret for lending crucial support for Iraq’s Shiite political class in the years after the 2003 invasion.

Mr. Abadi has reduced the salaries of lawmakers and the number of their bodyguards, and has eliminated several high-level positions, including deputy prime minister and vice president, but there has been no serious effort yet on corruption or reforming the judiciary.

The question, then, is whether Ayatollah Sistani’s prominence in politics will be lasting — and whether there is a growing desire among the public and political leaders for that increased role.

Yet, Ayatollah Sistani’s son, Muhammed Ridha Ali, in a brief interview here, suggested that the intervention in politics is not designed to be permanent.

Among the options discussed on Monday were establishing safe zones for civilians on Syria’s borders with Turkey and Jordan

But the Pentagon presentation laid out how many aircraft and personnel would be required, making it clear that there would have to be a significant escalation of American air power in the region, according to officials who described private deliberations on the condition of anonymity

credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance,” constitutional reform and U.N.-supervised elections within 18 months

parties will participate in the conference, while excluding those deemed as terrorist organizations 

“terrorists” and “mercenaries,” as well as the sectarian nature of many rebel factions on the ground.

use of shelling and aerial bombardment against civilians, safe and voluntary refugee transfer, and unfettered access for humanitarian agencies to besieged areas of Syria.

“useful” and that he is “looking forward to the active participation of relevant parties in the Geneva talks.”

“From the government’s point of view, they’re not keen on negotiations anyway,” Rabbani said.

The talks face another stumbling block in soaring tensions between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia,

Iran’s Shiite leadership has backed Assad, a member of the Alawite sect that is related to Shia Islam.

Last week, Saudi Arabia executed an influential Shiite cleric, enraging Iran and leading to a cutoff of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

an has similarly called for calm, while diplomatic efforts from Iraq and Oman continue to encourage a reconciliation between the two countries

Previous attempts at jump-starting peace talks have failed because of what was viewed as the government's intransigence regarding rebel participation.

don’t at all see that the proposed date is a realistic one, especially since on the ground there were no confidence-building measures,”

He cited the situation in Madaya, a town with an estimated population of 40,000 located 25 miles northwest of Damascus that has been besieged by pro-government forces since July.

“The issue of Madaya has become a key point. The Syrian cannot go to negotiations while Syrians are dying of hunger and cold,”

the Syrian government said it would allow aid to enter Madaya in the coming week.

In recent days, Madaya has become a media battleground for the warring parties in Syria.

he furor also has affected the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, an ally of the Assad government, which is accused of perpetrating what Madaya residents have described as a nightmare

Hateet also accused rebel fighters bunkered inside Madaya of holding civilians hostage, barring their exit from the town.

And there is the relentless physical and psychological contraction of their communities,

“I don’t go anywhere,” said Maleka Jabir, 85, who said she inherited American citizenship from her father, a World War I veteran, and is so disabled from hunger and heart problems she can hardly walk

This portrait of life in Madaya is drawn from interviews with more than a dozen residents, conducted over several months and in recent days by telephone and over the Interne

While details of their experiences could not be independently confirmed, international aid workers who have visited the town or been in direct contact with groups on the ground provided accounts that echoed the residents’.

While parts of Homs and the Damascus suburbs have been blockaded for years, Madaya managed to survive relatively unscathed, until last summer

Both local residents and Hezbollah officials say most of the fighters in Zabadani are affiliated with a Syrian Islamist group called Ahrar al-Sham, and smaller numbers with the more moderate Free Syrian Army and the Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

Looking for leverage, rebels allied with the local insurgents began blockading and bombarding Fouaa and Kfarya, two isolated, pro-government Shiite towns in Idlib Province, in Syria’s northwest.

The medical clinic in Madaya, which works with Doctors Without Borders, was bombed, and thus was moved to a basement. Mr. Mohammad, an anesthesia technician who has been acting as a doctor, said he was overwhelmed with cases he could not treat properly: broken bones, amputations, abdominal wounds

giving the most endangered children syrupy medicines, for the glucose, further depleting supplies.

Finding food was getting harder. Aid workers and residents said fighters on both sides profited from smuggling it across the lines.

The announcement comes on a day when the United Nations' nuclear watchdog is expected to announce whether Iran is in compliance with a July deal to restrict its nuclear program.

"Based on an approval of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and the general interests of the Islamic Republic, four Iranian prisoners with dual nationality were freed today within the framework of a prisoner swap deal," the semi-official Iranian FARS news agency quoted the office of the Tehran prosecutor as saying.

Rezaian was detained by Iran in 2014 and eventually charged with espionage and other crimes, according to the Washington Post.

Hekmati was detained in 2011, weeks after arriving in Iran to visit his grandmother, according to his family's website. The former Marine infantryman and Arabic and Persian linguist was accused of espionage and other charges in 2012.

He appeared on Iranian television and said he was working for the CIA in a confession her mother and the U.S. State Department has said was forced and fabricated.

The punishment was later overturned, but Hekmati was later convicted of "cooperating with hostile governments" and sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to a website set up by his supporters.

Abedini, an Iran native and convert to Christinanity, was arrested in 2012 and convicted the next year on charges of attempting to undermine the Iranian government. He had been sentenced to eight years in prison.

The American Center for Law and Justice, a Washington-based group dedicated to protecting religious and constitutional freedoms, reported that Abedini has endured torture during his imprisonment and was beaten by fellow prisoners in June.

Abedini's wife, Naghmeh Abedini, said in the statement that the release was "an answer to prayer."

The releases appear to leave unresolved the fate of Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent and CIA contractor who disappeared after visiting Iran in 2007. As described in Iranian media, the deal does not appear to include Levinson, who is not Iranian-American.

We can confirm that our detained U.S. citizens have been released and that those who wished to depart Iran have left

The nuclear agreement "accelerated" the prisoner swap

were released, along with four other Iranians held in other parts of the U.S., Mechanich's attorney

concluded Tehran was in compliance with the deal governing its nuclear program.

U.S. federal officials said they will not comment on the names of anyone who is part of the agreement until after the four Americans are in U.S. custody

seven Iranian men walked free from detention in the United States after being pardoned and released

he freed prisoners are expected to be transported to a U.S. military hospital in Germany for medical evaluation

Iranian officials to "continue cooperating with the United States to determine the whereabouts of Robert Levinson,

FBI agent and CIA contractor, went missing in Iran in 2007.

men had been involved in exporting products and services to Iran in violation of trade sanctions against the country.

agreed to drop charges against 14 other Iranians whose extradition to the United States seemed unlikely

Three Americans freed in a prisoner swap with Iran arrived in Germany on Sunday evening after a brief stop in Switzerland, two White House officials said.

The fourth prisoner released in the swap, identified by U.S. officials as Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, decided not to leave Iran, senior White House officials said. "It's his free determination" whether he wants to stay in Iran, one official said. "We don't make that judgment."

Nearly a year after the war began between Houthi rebels and forces allied with the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, more than 80 percent of the country needs some form of humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.

At least eight journalists or news media workers were killed covering the conflict last year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. As the war has become more treacherous, foreign news organizations have relied on local journalists.

Before that attack, he had become desensitized, he said. “I’ve been to dozens of bomb sites,” he wrote. “Every day, I wake up to hear that 10 people were killed last night, or 20, or 40. It almost stops feeling real.”

The outcome undermined one of the few areas of international cooperation in seeking accountability for atrocities committed in the Syria war and cast fresh doubt on whether users of chemical weapons in the conflict will ever be held to account.

“Let’s not pretend we don’t understand what’s taking place here,” Mr. Nebenzia told the council on Tuesday shortly before the vote was held. “It’s intended, once again, to show up and dishonor Russia.”

“Russia has made it clear that it does not care about stopping the use of chemical weapons in the world.”

The Russians had argued that the panel’s methods were faulty.

two missiles were launched within 60 minutes of each other, but in both incidents they missed the ship and landed in the water.

US warship was conducting routine operations in international waters off the Yemen coast when it was targeted Wednesday,

Pentagon said its destroyer USS Nitze launched Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting the coastal radar sites controlled by the Houthi group in "self defense."

all three targets were destroyed

strikes were in remote areas with little risk of civilian casualties or collateral damage

Those who threaten our forces should know that US commanders retain the right to defend their ships, and we will respond to this threat at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner,"

"there is no truth to these allegations"

the accusations were aimed at covering up a "heinous" Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a funeral service Saturday in Sanaa

increased pressure over its support of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen,

Hadi himself is believed to be in exile in Saudi Arabia, as are several senior members of his administration.

"The United States, United Kingdom, and other governments should immediately suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia."

calling the attack an "apparent war crime.

could further drag the US into the war in Yemen and contribute to the worsening humanitarian crisis.

. The crisis quickly escalated into a war that allowed al Qaeda and ISIS -- other enemies of the Houthis -- to thrive amid the chaos

conflict has killed about 10,000 Yemenis and left millions in need of aid

Being tough on terrorism became a core conservative value that was expressed, in part, as support for Israel — specifically, as support for harsh Israeli policies toward the conflict. This also aligned with increasingly negative attitudes toward Muslims. And an atmosphere of us-versus-them politics equated supporting Israelis with opposing Palestinians.

Though George W. Bush, then the president, encouraged both inclusion of Muslims and neutrality on Israel, polarization pulled some conservatives toward a zero-sum view of the conflict, in which maximally opposing Palestinians became a matter of identity. Photo

This opened a gap between the identity politics of the Republican base and the policies of its leaders — precisely the sort of gap that Mr. Trump would exploit in his presidential primary bid. As he rose by saying what others would not, he supercharged the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s salience to identity issues among what would become his base.

Mr. Trump advocated severe restrictions on legal and illegal immigration, particularly from Muslim-majority countries whose citizens he said posed a threat. In doing so, the president aligned fear of demographic change with fear of terrorism.

These policies meet rising conservative demands that the United States abandon its traditional neutrality on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and instead side overtly with Israel

While some say pro-Israel groups are responsible for this shift, Mr. Trump, who has had an icy relationship with those groups, in fact appears to be following the Republican base. In 2014, 51 percent of Republicans said the United States should lean toward Israel in peace talks. That number has since grown to 58 percent.

Mr. Trump represents the culmination of a trend that pro-Israel groups resisted for years: the loss of Jewish support. Even as Jews grew more liberal, many supported strongly pro-Israel policies. But as “pro-Israel” becomes synonymous with “conservative Republican,” Jews are drifting away. They oppose moving the embassy by almost 3-to-1.

Party politics started this process. In 2015, Republicans invited Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s right-wing prime minister, to address Congress in opposition to Mr. Obama’s policies on Iran. Though intended to turn American Jews and others against Mr. Obama, it had the opposite effect, polarizing them against Mr. Netanyahu.

Mr. Trump has taken it drastically further. He has indulged hard-core conservative instincts to a degree that, deliberately or not, attracted support from a white nationalist fringe that also tends to be hostile to Jews.

He is moving the idea of being “pro-Israel” even further right, separating it even from the Jewish support that is ostensibly critical to Israel’s long-term survival.

Critics have accused Edelstein of acting in defiance of the public will. They point to the timing of a tweet he made on Sunday, just moments after President Rivlin tasked Gantz with trying to form a new government.

Edelstein argued on Twitter that he did not close the Knesset so much as order an "intermission" to allow time for negotiations between Netanyahu's Likud and Gantz's Blue and White to create a unity government between the two main parties -- rather than a coalition of center-left parties supported in some form by the Joint Arab List party and a right-wing party led by former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.

The opposition leader blasted Edelstein and Netanyahu, calling the refusal to convene the legislature unprecedented and anti-democratic. "No crisis, whatever its scope, should be exploited as a means to trample upon values of national decorum and responsibility, and to undermine the will of the voting public," Gantz said in a video statement. "The Knesset is a critical institution at all times, including times of crisis. It is neither possible nor desirable to manage a crisis of this scope without a functioning parliament."

"I call on Blue and White to stop distributing fake news ... and to join a national emergency government to fight for saving lives of the citizens of Israel," Netanyahu said in a message on Facebook. "This is a moment of leadership, of national responsibility, and cooperation. We can and should form a government now."

“Today confrontation is the name of the game,” said Joseph A. Kechichian, a scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who is close to the royal family. “This young man, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is not willing to roll over and play dead. If you challenge him, he is saying, he is going to respond.”

The accusations raise the threat of a direct military clash between the two regional heavyweights at a time when they are already fighting proxy wars in Yemen and Syria, as well as battles for political power in Iraq and Lebanon.

Even before the launching of the missile on Saturday, which was intercepted en route to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, the crown prince had staged another surprise demonstration of the kingdom’s newly aggressive posture toward Iran and Lebanon

Mr. Trump has encouraged Saudi Arabia and its allies “to be more forceful against Iran, and to take more charge of their own neighborhood, and they have taken that to heart,” Mr. Jordan said. “They know America will have their back.”

The canal, originally owned by French investors, was conceived when Egypt was under the control of the Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century. Construction began at the Port Said end in early 1859, the excavation took 10 years, and the project required an estimated 1.5 million workers.

According to the Suez Canal Authority, the Egyptian government agency that operates the waterway, 20,000 peasants were drafted every 10 months to help construct the project with “excruciating and poorly compensated labor.” Many workers died of cholera and other diseases.

A few accidental groundings of vessels have closed the canal since then. The most notable, until this week, was a three-day shutdown in 2004 when a Russian oil tanker ran aground.

The British powers that controlled the canal through the first two world wars withdrew forces there in 1956 after years of negotiations with Egypt, effectively relinquishing authority to the Egyptian government led by President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Poor visibility and high winds, which made the Ever Given’s stacked containers act like sails, are believed to have pushed it off course and led to its grounding.

pulling it with tugboats, dredging underneath the hull and using a front-end loader to excavate the eastern embankment, where the bow is stuck. But the vessel’s size and weight, 200,000 metric tons, had frustrated salvagers as of Thursday night.

A prolonged closure could be hugely expensive for the owners of ships waiting to transit the canal. Some may decide to cut their losses and reroute their vessels around Africa.

Saudi Arabia has been targeting Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen since 2015, with the support of the US and other Western allies.

The Saudi-backed Yemeni government has repeatedly denied CNN visas to enter the country's north after coverage last year that exposed Saudi Arabia's dramatic drop in humanitarian funding for the war.

US President Joe Biden announced a new Yemen strategy, giving momentum to the search for a ceasefire and eventual political solution.

"Dealing with Yemen as a country by itself that has its own problems, and cutting it away from the problems of Saudi-Iranian problems ... is very important to lead to peace."

The Obama administration was supportive of Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemen in 2015 and offered the Kingdom arms deals worth more than $115 billion total, more than any other US administration in the history of US-Saudi relations, according to a report by the Center for International Policy.

"First of all, President Biden was a partner of President Obama, and during that time they declared that they would join the coalition against our country. They also agreed about and gave the green light for the coalition to continue perpetuating the killing in our country," he said.

2.3 million children under the age of 5 in Yemen are projected to suffer acute malnutrition this year, up 16% from 2020.