2024

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Helpers of God (Ansar Allah) or Houthis in Yemen are proving a bigger challenge for the Biden Administration’s attempt to run interference for the Israeli atrocities in Gaza than Washington had expected. Just Monday morning the Yemeni forces fired a ballistic missile at the US-owned and -operated M/V Torm […]

Religious Right

Abortion Ban Extremists are using a Slavery-Era Texas Law against Women

OtherWords

By Jim Hightower | – ( Otherwords.org ) – Here’s our big word of the day: extraterritoriality. It expresses a sketchy legal theory asserting that rulers in one state have a right to enforce their laws in another state. Its most prominent was in the infamous Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required officials in […]

Pentagon

War is Bad for you — And the Economy: Biden touts the Alleged Benefits of the Arsenal of Democracy

William D. Hartung

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Joe Biden wants you to believe that spending money on weapons is good for the economy. That tired old myth — regularly repeated by the political leaders of both parties — could help create an even more militarized economy that could threaten our peace and prosperity for decades to come. Any […]

Featured

Thousands Protest in Israel, Demand Netanyahu Step Down, new Elections, Hostage Deal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that the Israeli police dispersed a crowd of demonstrators from a major Tel Aviv thoroughfare, Kaplan Street, after they attempted to block it, and that the police used water cannons on the crowd. At least 21 persons were arrested. It is thought to be […]

Israel/ Palestine

Gaza: Will Biden go Big on Diplomacy or on Military Destruction?

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – On the horizon, shimmering like some heavenly ideal, is a grand bargain to end the war in Gaza, establish an independent Palestinian state, and stabilize the Middle East. Also on the horizon, blazing like an infernal nightmare, is the prospect of an escalation of the current war in […]

Climate Crisis

Why Planting Forests alone is no Panacea for the Climate Crisis

The Conversation

By James Weber, University of Reading; and James A. King, University of Sheffield | – (The Conversation) – Tackling climate change by planting trees has an intuitive appeal. They absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere without using expensive technology. The suggestion that you can plant trees to offset your carbon emissions is […]

Displaced and Refugees

UN-Appointed Human Rights Experts Demand Halt of Arms Shipments to Israel for Violations of Laws of War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – More than thirty independent experts appointed by the Office of the High Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations said Friday that arms exports to Israel must cease immediately, given Israeli violations of the international laws of war and the government’s announced intention to invade Rafah in south Gaza, […]

Hamas

Iran’s “Axis of Resistance:” Different Groups, Similar Goals

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Kian Sharifi ( RFE/RL ) – Iran’s so-called axis of resistance is a loose network of proxies, Tehran-backed militant groups, and an allied state actor. The network is a key element of Tehran’s strategy of deterrence against perceived threats from the United States, regional rivals, and primarily Israel. Active in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, […]

Egypt

Microplastics found in Nile River Fish: Toxic Pollution threatens World’s Longest River