US politics

By Sambit Bhattacharyya, University of Sussex (The Conversation) – Donald Trump’s tariff policy seems to have morphed into as much of a tool of foreign policy as an economic strategy. But the administration’s decision to impose a 50% tariff on India, a key US ally as part of the Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) along with […]

Climate Crisis

Global Solar skyrockets 64% in H1, as Trump SecEnergy Wright gets Schooled

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Ember energy consultancy reports that in the first half of 2025, the world put in 380 gigawatts of new solar capacity. That compares to 232 gigs in the first half of 2024, for a 64% increase. By the end of June, 2022, the world had only installed 90 new […]

Featured

Why Even “Progressive” Dem Leaders won’t Stand up on Gaza: AIPAC’s Undue Influence

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Why has the Democratic leadership shown such reluctance to take effective legislative action to halt the flow of arms and military supplies to Israel, given the Netanyahu government’s orchestrated genocide and starvation in Gaza? Despite the overwhelming consensus among grassroots Democrats, the Democratic National Committee just last […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Immigrant Gulags: A Bonanza For Private Prison Corporations

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Fl. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – When it comes to for-profit, private corporate incarceration of immigrants, making lots of money is like drinking salt water, the more they drink, the thirstier they get. Roman proverbs say that the more money a rich man has, the more driven and addicted he becomes to accumulating […]

Featured

More Americans now Sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new opinion poll by the Sadat Center at the University of Maryland finds a sea change in the American public on the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. For the first time, the percentage of Americans who say they sympathize with Palestinians (28%) exceeds the percentage who sympathize […]

Genocide

Gaza: US Forces Can Be Liable for Assisting Israeli War Crimes (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

US Arms Transfers to Israel Are Internationally Wrongful Acts

Authoritarianism

Thugs R Us: How MAGA Uses Violence to Consolidate Power

Andrea Mazzarino

( Tomdispatch.com ) – President Trump, his cabinet, and those who have profited from his rise seem to revel in public displays of cruelty. Take former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk, holding a chainsaw at a televised event to celebrate the firing of civil servants. Or Trump’s White House sharing a video […]

Democratic Party

Dem Leaders Are Pretending that U.S. Weapons Don’t Enable the Slaughter in Gaza

Norman Solomon

San Francisco (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – This week will go down in history as a time when the governing body of the Democratic Party had a chance to oppose the U.S. government’s arming of Israel. But with the first Democratic National Committee meeting in seven months getting underway on Monday, the DNC’s leadership […]

Afghanistan

How Musk / DOGE falsely accused an Afghan Refugee and Ruined his and his Family’s Lives

ProPublica

By Avi Asher-Schapiro and Christopher Bing | – DOGE staffers exposed a sensitive U.S.-funded Afghanistan program and falsely suggested a contractor was involved in an off-books mission. ( ProPublica ) – It was early morning on April 1 when Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar, got a panicked message from his son. Halimi’s name […]