Asia

In October, China unveiled updated climate targets for 2035, a 7-10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions

Conflicting Visions of an International Force for Gaza in Istanbul and Washington

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Two visions of the future of Gaza are congealing, in two different power centers. One is the Arab and Muslim foreign ministers who met Monday in Istanbul, including Türkiye, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan, and Indonesia. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Tuesday morning that the […]

Featured

What I saw in Vietnam, 50 Years after the War and Ecocide

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – This year 2025 is the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Vietnam from the “American War.” The war officially ended in 1973 but the remaining Americans fled South Vietnam in chaotic air and sea lifts two years later as North Vietnam forces invaded to unite their country. […]

China

Juan Cole on Gaza, U.S. Policy, and the Future of the Middle East

Juan Cole

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 […]

Displaced and Refugees

As Gaza rebuilds, what Lessons can be learned from Nagasaki in 1945?

The Conversation

By Gwyn McClelland, University of New England (The Conversation) – At first, there might not seem to be any immediate similarities between a devastated Nagasaki after the US atomic bombing in 1945 and Gaza today, aside from massive destruction. But in considering Gaza’s recovery from war – should the current ceasefire hold – much may […]

Afghanistan

Once Allies, Pakistan And Afghan Taliban Lurch Toward Full-Blown Conflict

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Frud Bezhan and Daud Khattak ( RFE/ RL ) – A full-blown conflict between Afghanistan’s Taliban and neighboring Pakistan seemed unthinkable when the hard-line Islamist group, a longtime ally of Islamabad, seized power in 2021 as international troops withdrew and the government they supported collapsed. But fears have heightened of an all-out war after the […]

Climate Crisis

How Extreme Temperatures Strain Minds and Bodies: A Karachi Case Study

The Conversation

By Gulnaz Anjum, University of Limerick and Mudassar Aziz, University of Oslo (The Conversation) – When the daytime air feels like an oven and night brings no relief, people in Karachi, Pakistan, say the heat “goes straight to the head”. They mean more than dizziness or sweat. It’s the creeping panic of a body that […]

China

How Donald Trump Surrendered on Greentech to China Abroad and to Big Oil at Home

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Ours would be the normal story of imperial powers rising and falling on Planet Earth — nothing new there, of course — if it weren’t for one thing: the fact that this world, too, is now falling. Unfortunately, nothing is truly normal about this planet of ours anymore, as the slow-motion equivalent […]

Donald Trump

Riyadh-Islamabad “Islamic NATO” to Check Israel in Shadow of US Decline

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a dramatic signal that the Arab Gulf nations have completely lost faith in the American security umbrella, on Wednesday September 17, Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defense pact with Pakistan. Mirroring the language of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization charter, they announced that an attack on […]