Paul Rogers ( OpenDemocracy.net ) – As senior officials from Donald Trump’s US administration travel to Israel to try to save the ceasefire in Gaza, the extent of the ongoing violence by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) is becoming clear. Israel has violated the 10-day-old ceasefire at least 80 times, killing at least 97 Palestinians […]
Archives for October 2025
Saudi Arabia: Spate of Executions of Child Offenders
Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Saudi authorities on October 20, 2025, executed a man convicted of alleged crimes committed as a child, Human Rights Watch said today. Abdullah al-Derazi had been sentenced to death on terrorism charges related to participating in protests and funeral processions. He was the 300th person executed by Saudi authorities […]
Juan Cole on Gaza, U.S. Policy, and the Future of the Middle East
I was welcomed onto David Lin’s Podcast, “The David Lin Report” to talk about Gaza, the Middle East and the US-China rivalry. Embedded video and transcript below. He describes it this way: The David Lin Report! I’ll be reporting on the most impactful market-moving events, as well as interviewing experts in finance, economics, science, and […]
Drought, Sand Storms and Evacuations: how Iran’s Climate Crisis gets Ignored
By Sanam Mahoozi, City St George’s, University of London (The Conversation) – Iran and Israel fought a 12-day war in June. Although a ceasefire was declared the same month, news coverage of Iran continues to focus on the conflict’s aftermath and the Middle East’s tense political situation. Meanwhile, Tehran – home to more than 10 […]
Victims Without Victimizers: How Corporate Democrats Led to the Trump Era
( Tomdispatch.com ) – The human condition includes a vast array of unavoidable misfortunes. But what about the preventable ones? Shouldn’t the United States provide for the basic needs of its people? Such questions get distinctly short shrift in the dominant political narratives. When someone can’t make ends meet and suffers dire consequences, the mainstream […]
Academic Freedom Under Siege: Right Wing Repression and Principled Resistance
By Mehmet Rakipoğlu and İbrahim Özcoşar | – Exeter, UK and Mardin, Türkiye (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – In the aftermath of 7 October 2023 – when Hamas’s surprise “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack and Israel’s devastating genocidal war on Gaza shook global politics – Western academia has entered its own crisis. From the United States […]
Israel’s Latest Strikes on Gaza expose the fragile illusion of Peace
by Ronny P Sasmita ( Middle East Monitor ) – The latest Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have once again exposed the frailty of what the world had hoped would be a lasting truce. Barely days after the so-called Gaza Plan was endorsed in Cairo as a new framework for postwar reconstruction and governance, the […]
Trump pushing Allies to Buy US Gas is bad Economics and a Climate Catastrophe
By Christoph Nedopil, Griffith University (The Conversation) – The price of partnership with the United States has changed. Washington is now using assurances of defence and trade access to pressure allies in Europe and Asia to buy more of its fossil fuels under decades-long contracts. The scale is immense. The European Union intends to import […]
The New Model of Autocratic Cooperation: The US, Russia and the Middle East
Quincy, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Today, and particularly in the Middle East, concepts like national interest, class, and geopolitics are fading compared to analysis of political intent, frequently accompanied by accusations of heinous motives (terrorism, genocide). It may be useful to supplement these views with a more cold-eyed analysis of intent, focused […]
© 2026 All Rights Reserved