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Archives for April 2025

Featured
The Vietnam War Ended 50 Years Ago: People Still Get it Wrong

The Vietnam War Ended 50 Years Ago: People Still Get it Wrong

Arnold Oliver

Tiffin, Ohio (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – April 30th marks the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War’s end when Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon, soon to be renamed Ho Chi Minh City. The war was a terrible experience for the United States, but even more so for the people of Vietnam and much of the […]

Human Rights Watch
Lebanon: Indiscriminate Israeli Attacks on Civilians must be Investigated as War Crimes (HRW)

Lebanon: Indiscriminate Israeli Attacks on Civilians must be Investigated as War Crimes (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Two unlawful Israeli strikes on the northeastern Lebanese town of Younine between September and November 2024, which killed 33 civilians, 15 of them children, were apparent indiscriminate attacks on civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. At least one of the attacks used an air-dropped bomb equipped with a United States-produced […]

Bill of Rights
If Permanent Resident Mahmoud Khalil can be Deported for Political Speech, the 1st Amendment is at Risk for All

If Permanent Resident Mahmoud Khalil can be Deported for Political Speech, the 1st Amendment is at Risk for All

The Conversation

By Erin Corcoran, University of Notre Dame The Trump administration has revoked the visas of more than 1,000 foreign university students since January 2025. Many of the individual cases that have made headlines center on foreign-born university students who participated in Palestinian rights protests. In early March, the federal government arrested, detained and began deportation […]

Featured
Iran’s Islamic Revolution and the US: Why Diplomats Matter

Iran’s Islamic Revolution and the US: Why Diplomats Matter

Fariba Amini

George B. Lambrakis was a State Department Foreign Service officer from 1957 to 1985, after two years with USIS in Vietnam and Laos. He served in Iran during the Islamic Revolution 1978-1979. He is interviewed by Fariba Amini. Fariba Amini: The first Trump administration abandoned the JCPOA.    Why do you think now in his second […]

Bill of Rights
Deporting Dissent: The dangerous Precedent set by the Persecution of pro-Palestine Activists

Deporting Dissent: The dangerous Precedent set by the Persecution of pro-Palestine Activists

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – “Rights are granted to those who align with power,” Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student, eloquently wrote from his cell. This poignant statement came soon after a judge ruled that the government had met the legal threshold to deport the young activist on the nebulous ground of “foreign […]

Pentagon
The Wasteful and Ever-Expanding War Machine avoids DOGE’s Axe

The Wasteful and Ever-Expanding War Machine avoids DOGE’s Axe

William D. Hartung

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Under the guise of efficiency, the Trump administration is taking a sledgehammer to essential programs and agencies that are the backbone of America’s civilian government. The virtual elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and plans to shut down the Department of Education are just the most visible examples […]

Featured
How Pope Francis Divinized Palestinian Suffering: The Gaza Pietà

How Pope Francis Divinized Palestinian Suffering: The Gaza Pietà

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936 in Buenos Aires to Italian immigrant parents, is dead at 88 after a prolonged illness. Almost alone of Western leaders, he showed enormous sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian civilians of Gaza. He called the small Catholic community there every evening. […]

Climate Crisis
The Countdown to Iran’s Day Zero: A Crisis of Water, not War

The Countdown to Iran’s Day Zero: A Crisis of Water, not War

Global Voices

Environmental collapse, mismanagement, and ethno-political fault lines are converging in a slow-motion disaster caused by a water crisis Written by Reza Talebi for UntoldMag This article by Reza Talebi is written in partnership with UntoldMag.org. The original version was published on April 18, 2025. An edited version is published by Global Voices under a partnership […]

Christianity
Three Ways Pope Francis influenced the Global Climate Movement

Three Ways Pope Francis influenced the Global Climate Movement

The Conversation

By Celia Deane-Drummond, University of Oxford The death of Pope Francis has been announced by the Vatican. I first met the late Pope Francis at the Vatican after a conference called Saving Our Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth in July 2018. My colleagues and I sensed something momentous was happening at […]

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