By Simon Levett, University of Technology Sydney (The Conversation) – Journalist Mariam Dagga was just 33 when she was brutally killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on August 25. As a freelance photographer and videographer, she had captured the suffering in Gaza through indelible images of malnourished children and grief-stricken families. In her will, […]
Gaza: Israel is killing far more Civilians than is typical for modern Wars
By Neta Crawford, University of Oxford (The Conversation) – Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel, mostly unarmed civilians, in its surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023. Using Gaza health ministry statistics, the UN says more than 62,000 people have subsequently been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military campaign against […]
Monsoon flooding has killed hundreds in Pakistan – climate change is pushing the rainy season from blessing to looming catastrophe
By Pintu Kumar Mahla, University of Arizona (The Conversation) – Farmers in South Asia rely on the summer monsoon’s rainfall, but extreme monsoon rains in recent years have been destructive and deadly. Since July, flooding during the 2025 summer monsoon has killed more than 700 people in Pakistan as water and mud swept through settlements […]
Risking Regional Chaos: The US-Israeli Plan to End UN Peacekeeping in S. Lebanon
By Vanessa Newby, Monash University and Chiara Ruffa, Sciences Po (The Conversation) – The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) is seen by many as an essential peacekeeping buffer between Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah. But Israeli pressure, US doubts over Unifil’s cost-effectiveness and the fragile state of Lebanon’s politics means there is a risk […]
Hossein Asgari’s Desolation speaks powerfully of the Destructiveness of War and the Hope that lies in Fiction
By Michelle Hamadache, Macquarie University (The Conversation) Hossein Asgari’s Desolation tells the story of Amin, an Iranian man whose life and family are shattered when the USS Vincennes shoots down an Iranian passenger plane in 1988. The plane was carrying 290 passengers as well as crew, all of whom were killed. Among the dead was […]
Israel’s killing of Journalists follows a Pattern of silencing Palestinian Media that stretches back to 1967
By Maha Nassar, University of Arizona (The Conversation) – Five journalists were among the 22 people killed on Aug. 25, 2025, in Israeli strikes on the Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip. Following global condemnation, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying Israel “values the work of journalists.” But the […]
‘Green Islam’: how Muslims are powering environmental Action across the World
By Eva F Nisa, Australian National University and Faried F Saenong, Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII) (The Conversation) – As the world grapples with myriad environmental problems, a growing number of studies shows the role of religion is key. Religion influences people’s worldviews, including how we think about nature and our roles within it. This […]
Ancient Iran’s Paradise Pleasure Gardens: Unimaginable Beauty and Opulence
By Peter Edwell, Macquarie University (The Conversation) – Some of the most enduring ancient myths in the Persian world were centred around gardens of almost unimaginable beauty and opulence. The biblical Garden of Eden and the Epic of Gilgamesh’s Garden of the Gods are prominent examples. In these myths, paradise was an opulent garden of […]
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 […]