On an ordinary August evening in 2014, Mariam was preparing dinner while her husband, Nabil, closed the small repair shop his family had owned for decades. Their two children were arguing over who would use the television first. Somewhere in the distance, a church bell sounded.
Nineveh Plain, North Iraq -- As the United States has completed its military withdrawal from Iraq, Joseph Sliwa, a former member of the Iraqi Parliament and head of the Bethnahrin Patriotic Union (HBA), argues that the departure should be viewed less as a security vacuum than as a test of the Iraqi state's ability to consolidate control over the country's disputed and vulnerable regions.
Beth Zalin, Syria -- Amid Syria's ongoing political and cultural transformations, renewed debate is emerging over the future of the Assyrian language and its place in the country's educational and constitutional systems, with advocates calling for its recognition as an integral part of Syria's national identity and historical heritage.
On a Sunday morning somewhere in the Middle East, an old church bell still rings. It may sound across a neighborhood in northern Iraq, an ancient quarter of Damascus, or a village tucked into Lebanon's mountains. Inside, families gather beneath stone arches worn smooth by centuries of worship. Some recite prayers in Arabic.
Stockholm -- The Assyrian presence has not been absent from the electoral scene in Sweden. Rather, it has been present, active, and influential, with considerable popularity at the parliamentary and municipal levels.
A security force detained Amer Abdullah Najm al-Jumaili, a lecturer at the University of Mosul, on Monday after he alleged in a Facebook comment that state land near an ancient Assyrian site in Nineveh province was being handed to influential figures, a source told Shafaq News.
The kings of Assyria made certain that history would remember them. Their victories covered palace walls, their names filled cuneiform tablets, and colossal stone guardians stood at the gateways of cities built to display their power. For much of modern archaeology, however, the women who shared that royal world remained little more than shadows beside them.
Iraq has recovered more than 80 antiquities that had been stolen or smuggled out of the country, the Ministry of Justice announced on Monday, as Baghdad continues a wider legal and diplomatic effort to reclaim cultural objects lost through decades of theft, trafficking and archaeological looting.
New York -- The persecution of Christians in the Middle East, including Syria, has drawn renewed international attention during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. US President Donald Trump devoted part of his 22 September address to the persecution of Christians around the world.
For Christians in Iraq, remaining in their historic homeland increasingly depends not only on security but also on whether younger generations can find meaningful work and build stable lives, according to Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil.
When Babylonian and Median forces captured Nineveh in 612 BC, they brought down the capital of a vast empire. The years before the siege had been difficult too. A stalagmite from northern Iraq now gives researchers a long climate record that points to repeated drought during Assyria's final century. It is one piece of a larger story. The empire faced war, revolt and a succession crisis.
Södertälje, Sweden -- Two Assyrian educators, Helena Malki and Johan Mousa, have been recognized among the teachers honored by Södertälje Municipality for their contributions to education, student development and the creation of supportive school environments.
(AINA) -- In her new book, Claire Weibel Yacoub recounts the odyssey of an Assyrian in a historical novel about exile, war, and the unbroken will of a people. With Les tribulations de Paulus l'Assyrien (The Tribulations of Paulus the Assyrian), the French historian and specialist on the Assyro-Chaldean question, Claire Weibel Yacoub, presents a moving novel based on a true story.
Hamilton, Ontario Canada (AINA) -- Dr. Nenos Damerchie, an Assyrian-Canadian chiropractor, small-business owner and longtime Hamilton resident, is running for Hamilton City Council in Ward 8 in the October 26, 2026 municipal election. Dr. Damerchie was born in Kuwait to an Assyrian family and came to Hamilton as a child.
(AINA) -- The Assyrian Arts Institute (AAI) is an organization founded by Nora Betyousef Lacey in 2017 and claims to support Assyrian arts. AAI has sponsored a few events since its founding, including an Assyrian women's choir.
(AINA) -- On July 12 Iraqi president Abdul Latif Rashid repealed the decree recognizing the appointment of Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako as head of the Chaldean Catholic Church and which appointed him to the office of the waqf (وقف), the endowment which oversees all church property. The details of the events leading up to this action are exhaustively covered in this report by MEMRI.
(AINA) -- "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind." With this celebrated statement, Winston Churchill anticipated that great civilizations are measured not by their territorial expansion, but by their capacity to generate, preserve, and transmit knowledge.
(AINA) -- For decades, the world has heard repeated claims that northern Iraq is a region of stability, security, and coexistence. However, many Assyrians living in their ancestral homeland continue to express serious concerns about intimidation, restrictions on their freedoms, and growing pressures that threaten their ability to preserve their identity, voice, and presence in the land of their...
Stockholm -- The history of the ancient civilizations and peoples of Beth Nahrin (Mesopotamia), whom the Suroyo (Syriac--Aramean--Assyrian--Chaldean) people today regard as their ancestors, successors and continuation, extends far beyond science, inventions, economics, trade, language, and military affairs.
Alongside those early accounting systems, the Mesopotamians developed the world's first spreadsheets, as well as sophisticated banking systems. They also invented the concept of credit -- and, with it, interest-bearing loans.