South Asia

The Water Wars Begin: Did Climate Change contribute to Saturday’s Deadly Iran-Afghan Border Clash over Helmand River?

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reports that on Saturday deadly clashes broke out between Iranian border guards in the Zabul district of Sistan and Baluchistant Province and their opposite numbers on the Afghanistan side in the Keng District of Nimruz Province. Tasnim wrote, “Conscript “Mehdi Ahmadi” was martyred while guarding the […]

Bangladesh

Iran leads charge for De-Dollarization at Asian Banks Meeting

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Asian Exchange Union is not a famous international organization, but its meeting on Tuesday in Tehran may have started the ball rolling on a momentous change in global finance, since it dealt with the possibility of de-dollarization. According to the Iranian press, banking representatives from Iran, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan, […]

Far Right

White Nationalists, Hindu Supremacists: the Pathologies of the World’s Two Largest Democracies

Tomdispatch

By Priti Gulati Cox and Stan Cox | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Are you worried about the rising political power of violent white nationalists in America? Well, you’ve got plenty of company, including U.S. national security and counterterrorism officials. And we’re worried, too — worried enough, in fact, to feel that it’s time to […]

Afghanistan

Women’s secret war: the inside story of how the US military sent female soldiers on covert combat missions to Afghanistan

The Conversation

By Jennifer Greenburg, University of Sheffield | – A US Army handbook from 2011 opens one of its chapters with a line from Rudyard Kipling’s poem The Young British Soldier. Written in 1890 upon Kipling’s return to England from India, an experienced imperial soldier gives advice to the incoming cohort: When you’re wounded and left […]

China

Goodbye to the American Century: China India and the Emerging New World Order

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com) – Not so long ago, political analysts were speaking of the “G-2” — that is, of a potential working alliance between the United States and China aimed at managing global problems for their mutual benefit. Such a collaborative twosome was seen as potentially even more powerful than the G-7 group of leading Western […]

Climate Crisis

Pakistan’s Trans Community battles Climate Catastrophe and Exclusion

The Third Pole

Trans people affected by floods in Pakistan’s Balochistan province gather to receive aid from the non-profit Al-Khidmat Foundation, in partnership with Unilever Pakistan (Photo courtesy of Al-Khidmat Foundation) Adeel Saeed ( The Third Pole) – This winter was very hard for Bunti, a transgender woman, or Khawaja Sira as trans people are known in […]

Children

After the Worst April-May Heatwave in History, Indians and Pakistanis must Demand these Urgent Climate Actions

The Third Pole

Aditi Mukherji ( The Third Pole ) – When heatwaves disrupt our children’s education, it is time to demand climate action. I am writing this as a climate scientist and a mother of two young children. I was a member of the team that wrote the latest climate report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on […]

Climate Crisis

Deadly Heatwaves threaten to reverse India’s Progress on Poverty and Inequality

The Conversation

By Ramit Debnath, University of Cambridge and Ronita Bardhan, University of Cambridge | – (The Conversation) – Record-breaking heatwaves in April 2022 put 90% of people in India at increased risk of going hungry, losing income or premature death, according to our new study. After 2022 was designated the hottest in 122 years, extreme heat […]

Canada

Recent Mosque attacks raise Questions about the Affinity between White Supremacy and Far-Right Hindu Nationalism

The Conversation

By Zeinab Farokhi, University of Toronto | – (The Conversation) – During Ramadan, a man attacked a mosque in Markham, Ont. He allegedly yelled slurs, tore up a Qu’ran, and attempted to run down worshippers in his vehicle. Some people on Twitter have raised the idea that the attacker was connected to Hindu extremist groups; […]