By Hyeran Jo, Texas A&M University and Ece Göztepe Çelebi, Bilkent University (The Conversation) – President Donald Trump announced while in Saudi Arabia on May 14, 2025, that the United States would lift sanctions on Syria. The turnaround was a huge victory for the government of Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa as he attempts to consolidate […]
Archives for May 2025
Gaza: The Horror, The Horror . . .
Orono, Maine (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – There are mornings when we are unable to bear to listen to the news taking place in Gaza as it is so deeply distressing that the mind shuts down at the daily bombing and the horrific death count. The only parallel in literary terms can be found […]
Stopping Israel’s Attack on Civil Society, Justice and Human Rights: A Call to Action
( Human Rights Watch ) – With the start of Israeli Knesset’s summer session on May 4, the undersigning organizations observe with grave concern the series of legislative initiatives and policy measures, currently making their way through the legislative process, that pose existential threats to the survival and mandate of human rights organizations in Israel. […]
Detained! Trump’s America as one Big Black Site
( Tomdispatch.com ) – I don’t know about you, but the news continues to stress me out. Trump administration officials are using any excuse they can think of to detain and deport people whose points of view — or whose very existence on U.S. soil — seem to threaten their agenda. Deportations to El Salvador […]
Gaza, Yemen, Iran: Trump’s Opening Gambits in the Middle East (Juan Cole on The Bitchuation Room with Francesca Fiorentini)
Juan Cole Interviewed by Francesca Fiorentini: “The Bitchuation Room (with Francesca Fiorentini): How To Lose a Country In 100 Days with Josh Gondelman & Juan Cole (Ep 278) ” Follow Francesca’s YouTube channel at the link above and sign up for her Patreon here . I fed the computer-generated transcript through ChatGPT to clean it […]
The Gaza Precedent: Criminalizing Humanitarian Aid
On 6 May, 55 iNGOs sounded the alarm by releasing a letter calling for urgent action from the international community against Israel’s new registration rules for humanitarian organisations. These measures, introduced in March 2025 and set to take effect within six months, require all currently registered NGOs in the occupied Palestinian territories to either reapply […]
The Gulf States have Long Boosted US Economic Dominance, even if not every President Got a Free Private Jet
By Adam Hanieh, University of Exeter (The Conversation) – After signing a US$142 billion (£107 billion) arms deal with Saudi Arabia, Donald Trump said the US bond with that country was “more powerful than ever”. He was also reportedly quite pleased with the gift of a private jet from Qatar. But these arrangements are just […]
Libyan Gov’t Decries Fake News about Taking 1 mn. Palestinian Refugees: “Committed to the Palestinian Cause”
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Abu Dhabi-based Erem News reports that the Prime Minister of Libya’s internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli, Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibeh, has vehemently denied the report in the “American Thinker” by what Libya called the “notorious conspiracy theorist” Jerome Corsi that the Trump administration is negotiating with the […]
A New Aid Regime for Gaza: Humanitarian Facade, Military Core
A US-backed aid scheme staffed by ex-military and private security risks embedding occupation under the guise of humanitarian aid. Written by Saher ( Global Voices ) – A new controversial US-backed initiative, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), has emerged to control the flow of aid into Gaza, sparking concerns that it may serve as a […]
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