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Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa. Details recorded here should be sourced; unknown information is left blank.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Exercise Delawar (Persian: دلاور, lit. 'Courageous') was a joint military exercise in 1964 conducted by the United States and Iran under the auspices of the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO). It took place in southwest Iran. Some 6,800 American military personnel from three military branches took part in this war game, including 2,300 paratroopers. U.S. naval forces, as well as Marines were also deployed in the Persian Gulf and performed amphibious operations, supported by close-air-support of F-100s. According to Čūbīn and Zabih, by this war game, Washington "partially reassured" Tehran of its continued interest in the region.
General elections were held in Bangladesh on 12 February 2026 to elect members of the Jatiya Sangsad. It was the first general election since the July Uprising of 2024 that ended the 15-year-long rule of Sheikh Hasina. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by Tarique Rahman, won a landslide victory in the election, securing two-thirds of seats; Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami secured the second most seats and a constitutional referendum on the July Charter was held alongside the election. More than 127 million people were eligible to vote in the election, making it the "biggest democratic exercise of the year". 2,028 candidates contested for the 299 seats in the election. Major parties contested; however, Hasina's Awami League—the winner of the previous four elections—was banned and could not participate in the election. This made the election a "bipolar contest" between the BNP and the 11 Party Alliance led by the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party. The election took place under the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, which had governed the country since August 2024. Key campaign issues and agendas included unemployment, corruption, extortion, proportional representation (PR), and promises to the youth and the minority voters. A professor at SOAS University believed that the election was decided "less by ideology and more by promises of governance". For the first time in the country, postal ballots were used for the votes of expatriates, polling officials, and detainees. The election was also considered to be the world's first "Gen Z-inspired" election after the series of Gen Z protests around the world.
The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) or Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO; Persian: سازمان مجاهدین خلق ایران, romanised: Sâzmân-e Mojâhedin-e Khalgh-e Irân), is an Iranian dissident organisation. It was an armed group until 2003, afterwards switching focus into political activity. Its headquarters is currently in Albania. The group's ideology has been historically influenced by Islamic and revolutionary socialist philosophies, particularly through a re-interpretative approach to Shia Islam. After the Iranian Revolution, the MEK opposed the new theocratic Government of Iran, seeking to replace it with its own government. At one point the MEK was Iran's "largest and most active armed dissident group", and it is still sometimes presented by Western political backers as a major Iranian opposition group. The MEK was founded in 1965 by leftist Iranian students affiliated with the Freedom Movement of Iran to oppose the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The organisation contributed to overthrowing the Shah during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. It subsequently pursued the establishment of a democracy in Iran, particularly gaining support from Iran's middle class intelligentsia. The MEK boycotted the 1979 constitutional referendum, which led to Khomeini barring MEK leader Massoud Rajavi from the 1980 presidential election. The MEK organised the 20 June 1981 Iranian protests against Khomeini and the ousting of President Abolhassan Banisadr. The protests were violently suppressed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which shot into the crowds, killing 50, before executing 23 further protesters who had been arrested, including teenage girls. On 28 June, the MEK was implicated in the blowing up of the headquarters of the Islamic Republican Party (IRP) in the Haft-e Tir bombing, killing 74 officials and party members. A wave of killings and executions led by Khomeini's government followed, part of the 1981–1982 Iran massacres. Rajavi fled to Paris and during the exile, the underground network that remained in Iran continued to plan and carry out attacks. It allegedly conducted the August 1981 bombing that killed Iran's president and prime minister. In 1983, the MEK began meeting with Iraqi officials. In 1986, France expelled the MEK at the request of Iran, forcing it to relocate to Camp Ashraf in Iraq. In 1987, it founded the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA), with the sole objective of "toppling the Islamic Republic through military force from outside the country". During the Iran–Iraq War, the MEK then sided with Iraq, taking part in Operation Forty Stars, and Operation Mersad. Following Operation Mersad, Iranian officials ordered the mass execution of prisoners said to support the MEK. The group gained significant publicity in 2002 by announcing the existence of Iranian nuclear facilities. In 2003, the MEK's military wing signed a ceasefire agreement with the U.S. and was disarmed at Camp Ashraf. Between 1997 and 2013, the MEK was on the lists of terrorist organisations of the US, Canada, EU, UK and Japan for various periods. The MEK is designated as a terrorist organisation by Iran. Critics have described the group as exhibiting traits of a "personality cult", while its backers describe the group as proponents of "a free and democratic Iran" that could become the next government there.
Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JIP; Urdu: جماعت اسلامی پاکستان, romanized: Jamāt-e-Islāmī Pākistān) is a far-right Pakistani Islamist political party and pressure group. It is the Pakistani chapter of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a global Islamic movement founded in British India in 1941. JIP is a vanguard party, whose members are intended to be leaders spreading party beliefs and influence. JIP members are sometimes called Rafīq (meaning comrade in Arabic). Supporters not thought qualified to be members may become affiliates, and beneath them are sympathisers. The party leader is called an ameer. Although it does not have a large popular following, the party is quite influential and considered one of the major Islamic movements in Pakistan, along with Deobandi and Barelvi (represented by Jamiat Ulema-e Islam political party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan party respectively). Jamaat-e-Islami was founded in Islamia Park, Lahore, British India in 1941 by the Muslim theologian and socio-political philosopher, Abul A'la Maududi. At the time of the Indian independence movement, Maududi and the Jamaat-e-Islami actively worked to oppose the partition of India. In 1947, following the partition of India, the Jamaat split into two organisations, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (the Indian wing). Other wings of Jamaat include Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir, founded in 1953, Jamaat-e-Islami Azad Kashmir founded in 1974, and most notably Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, founded in 1979, which remains the country's main parliamentary opposition. Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan came under severe government repression in 1948, 1953, and 1963. During the early years of the regime of General Zia-ul-Haq, Jamaat-e-Islami's position improved, and it became seen as the regime's ideological and political arm, with party members at times holding cabinet portfolios of information and broadcasting, production, water, power, and natural resources. In 1971, during the Bangladesh Liberation War, JIP militarily opposed the independence of Bangladesh and participated in the genocide and other mass atrocities. However, in 1979, it established Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami with Abbas Ali Khan as the first ameer. Since the early 1980s, it has also developed close links with Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir and acted as the vanguard of the armed insurgency in that province.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →The Greenwood District.