2025

Israel’s ‘Refuseniks’: a growing Number of Soldiers are refusing to Serve in Netanyahu’s War on Gaza

By Leonie Fleischmann, City St George’s, University of London (The Conversation) – The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to step up the offensive on Gaza City, despite internal and international condemnation. Amid accusations by the International Association of Genocide Scholars that Israel is committing genocide, some 40,000 reservist soldiers […]

Featured

A Reluctant (Iranian) Exile: Minister without Portfolio

Joseph Richard Preville

A Review of Minister Without Portfolio: Memoir of a Reluctant Exile by Hooman Majd. Detroit (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Everybody needs a home. For Iranian-American writer Hooman Majd, finding a home was an elusive pursuit. He lays out his lifelong struggle for identity and belonging in his wonderful new book, Minister Without Portfolio: […]

Donald Trump

Why Trump’s Fight with India could have global Repercussions

The Conversation

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 […]

Chemical Weapons

Will Cancer Prove to be Another Weapon in Israel’s War in Gaza?

Joshua Frank

( Tomdispatch.com ) – A week after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, a large explosion incinerated a parking lot near the busy Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, killing more than 470 people. It was a horrifying, chaotic scene. Burnt clothing was strewn about, scorched vehicles piled atop one another, and charred buildings […]

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 […]

Omar Khayyam

“But come with old Khayyam and leave the Lot,” FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:9

Juan Cole

As with stanza 1:8, the next quatrain in Edward FitzGerald’s 1859 translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám concerns the fleeting character of political glory, and of life in general. It continues to introduce English-speaking audiences to Iranian kings and heroes, the Persian equivalents of Agamemnon and Achilles: IX. But come with old Khayyam, and […]

Israel/ Palestine

The full Seizure of Gaza: A Path toward Isolation and Collapse

Middle East Monitor

By Timothy Hopper ( Middle East Monitor ) – As tensions rise in the Middle East, Benjamin Netanyahu, with his security cabinet’s backing, has chosen to seize full control of the Gaza Strip; a move that’s as audacious as it is perilous, threatening Israel’s security, economy, and global reputation. Framed as a strike against Hamas, […]

Arctic

Warming Temperatures affect Glaciers’ ability to store Meltwater, contributing to rising Sea Levels

The Conversation

(The Conversation) – Danielle Halle, University of Waterloo and Wesley Van Wychen, University of Waterloo In higher elevations, firn, frozen water that is something between snow and ice, covers the top of glaciers. Firn plays a critical role in regulating glacial meltwater and sea level rise. It does this by absorbing meltwater, the water released […]

Featured

A Dangerous Profession, from Palestine to Iran: When Journalists are the Target

Fariba Amini

“Only the person who has experienced light and darkness, war and peace, rise and fall, only that person has truly experienced life.” – ― Stefan Zweig Throughout wars and even in the calmest situations, journalists, especially independent ones, have always been the target of their governments and their cadres. In this war, which is not […]

Archives for 2025