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 […]
Archives for August 2025
Israel’s Plan for massive new West Bank Settlement would make a Palestinian State Impossible
By Leonie Fleischmann, City St George’s, University of London (The Conversation) – The Israeli government has approved a plan for construction of a massive new settlement bloc in the controversial E1 area in the occupied West Bank. In reviving a project first proposed in 1994, which will comprise about 3,500 new dwellings in a line […]
The Silence of the Scholars: How leading Academics gave Cover to Genocide in Gaza
Silver Spring, Md. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The true measure of a scholar is not the number of books they publish or the titles they hold. It is whether they speak when human beings are starved, bombed, and erased as a people. By that measure, some of America’s most visible academics have failed. […]
“But still the Vine her ancient Ruby Yields:” Fitzgerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:5
I continue with my proposed project of writing a commentary on the first edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. FitzGerald was more faithful to the unconventional poetry attributed to Omar Khayyam than is generally thought, but there were moments in his first edition where he drew on images from other […]
‘All Eyes On Gaza City’ as Israel Ramps Up Campaign of Conquest and Ethnic Cleansing
“The explicit goal of turning Palestine’s largest city into a wasteland has nothing to do with hostages or Hamas and everything to do with genocide,” said one critic. By Brett Wilkins | – ( Commondreams.org ) – Operation Gideon’s Chariots 2—Israel’s plan to conquer, occupy, and ethnically cleanse Gaza—intensified Thursday, with fugitive Prime Minister Benjamin […]
Cartoonish Trump is making America a Caricature, and I should Know
( Tomdispatch.com ) – Sometimes I dream — in the sense of a nightmare — about bringing my parents back to this all too strange world of ours to tell them about… yes, of course, Donald J. Trump. They died long before The Apprentice even made it onto TV early in this century, so — […]
America may have invaded Iraq for its Oil, but Solar Power is what Iraqis now Want
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iraqi farmers, tired of high electricity bills and frequent blackouts, are turning to solar panels, according to Khalid Al-Mousuly at Reuters. Farmers need electricity to run water pumps for irrigation. It isn’t just the farmers. With nearly a gigawatt annually in solar panel imports, Iraq has emerged as the third-largest […]
Despite Efforts to Shift the Blame, Israeli Policies Are Starving Children
Plight of Those with Disabilities Only Underscores the Unlawful Blockade Emina Ćerimović Associate Director, Disability Rights Division EminaCerimovic EminaCerimovic @eminacerimovic.bsky.social @eminacerimovic.bsky.social Embed from Getty Images Eighteen-month-old Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq faces life-threatening malnutrition as the humanitarian situation worsens due to ongoing Israeli attacks and the blockade in Gaza City, Gaza, July 21, […]
We’ll all Feel the Abrupt Changes Striking Antarctica Sea Ice and Ocean Currents
By Nerilie Abram, Australian National University; Ariaan Purich, Monash University; Felicity McCormack, Monash University; Jan Strugnell, James Cook University, and Matthew England, UNSW Sydney (The Conversation) – Antarctica has long been seen as a remote, unchanging environment. Not any more. The ice-covered continent and the surrounding Southern Ocean are undergoing abrupt and alarming changes. Sea […]
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