William Christou - Al-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

William Christou

William Christou is an Amman-based journalist covering the politics of the Levant and the Mediterranean. On Twitter: @will_christou

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY MAHER MOUNNES
A Syrian man and two youths sell locally extracted and refined fuel from a makeshift refinery in Qamishli, a Kurdish-majority city in Hasakeh province, on July 15, 2015. A Kurdish local administration decided to take matters into its own hands, restarting extraction at 150 wells and creating around 20 makeshift refineries producing around 15,000 barrels of oil a day, more than the barely 10,000 bpd that Syria's government generates. AFP PHOTO / YOUSSEF KARWASHAN

Fuel shortage chills northeast Syria as oil production lags

William Christou

William Christou

A combine harvests wheat in a field in the countryside of al-Kaswa, south of Syria's capital Damascus, on June 18, 2020. - Heavy rain and reduced violence provided a relief to Syrian farmers with a good harvest this year, as a tanking economy leaves millions hungry across his war-torn country. Prior to the outbreak of the conflict in 2011, Syria produced more than 4.1 million tonnes of wheat, enough to feed its entire population. But production plunged to record lows during the war, boosting reliance on imp

Syrians in Kurdish-administered regions struggle with price of bread

William Christou

William Christou

Syrian refugee patients from the makeshift Rukban camp, which lies in no-man's-land off the border between Syria and Jordan in the remote northeast, cross over to visit a UN-operated medical clinic immediately on the Jordanian-side for checkups, on March 1, 2017.
Conditions in the Rukban camp deteriorated sharply after Jordan sealed its border almost a year prior, following a cross-border jihadist attack that killed seven Jordanian border guards in June 2016. / AFP PHOTO / KHALIL MAZRAAWI (Photo cred

Birth in the desert: Team of nurses, Zoom deliver baby in al-Rukban

William Christou

William Christou

In Jordan, female engineers lead way in sustainable agriculture

William Christou

William Christou

Jordan accuses teachers union of 'economic crimes' in crackdown

William Christou

William Christou

A man shouts slogans during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed Middle East peace plan, and a government's agreement to import natural gas from Israel, in Amman, Jordan, February 14, 2020. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed - RC2D0F9CTTZQ

Will West Bank annexation harm US-Jordan security cooperation?

William Christou

William Christou