Michael Petrou

Senior writer Michael Petrou has covered conflict across the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia. He is the author of 'Renegades: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War', which was shortlisted for the Ottawa Book Award, and 'Is This Your First War? Travels Through the Post-9/11 Islamic World', which won it. He has a DPhil from the University of Oxford.

Canada’s secret bid to stop Russian hackers

How Ottawa quietly backed efforts to fight Russian cyber-attacks against Ukraine

Coming soon: The Mohamed Fahmy movie

The Canadian journalist who spent 400 days in an Egyptian prison says a feature film based on his memoir is being made

Mohammed al-Nimr on his father’s execution in Saudi Arabia

Nimr al-Nimr’s son on last words with his father and what Saudi Arabia may do with armoured vehicles from Canada.

Novel cut from Israeli school curriculum becomes bestseller

Borderlife, a novel about an Israeli-Palestinian romance, will be translated into English later this year

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Deported refugee fears for his life in Liberia

Removed from Canada, Cindor Reeves worried that Liberian assassins would try to kill him. They are.

How Litvinenko’s poisoning fits into Putin’s power play

Everything Vladimir Putin has done to reassert Russian power has seemed farfetched, outlandish and inconceivable—until he did it

Why is Canada making arms deals with the Saudis?

The Conservative and Liberal governments alike are ready to make deals with the human-rights-abusing nation

With his words, Raihan Abir honours his slain Bangladeshi colleagues

His colleagues were hacked to death in Bangladesh. He’s endured death threats. And yet Raihan Abir carries on his website’s work, in Canada.

In Ukraine, a gun becomes a necessary tool

Andrey Lomakin’s ‘Amulet’ portrait series captures how the Maidan Revolution changed Ukranians’ view of guns

Germany’s new problem with refugees

The attacks in Cologne have changed perceptions of migrants and maybe the nation’s willingness to embrace them

The Interview: Gulwali Passarlay on his escape from Afghanistan

Passarlay survived human trafficking and a Mediterranean crossing. And he plans to go back home.

Why would Saudi Arabia execute a Shia cleric? It’s all about America.

Saudi Arabia’s execution of a Shia cleric has dangerously escalated regional tensions. That’s just what it wants.

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