Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said Friday that “malnutrition is … on the rise. More than 9,000 children have been admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition since the beginning of the year.” At least 10 NGO aid kitchens have closed in recent weeks for lack of food, and 25 UN […]

Climate Crisis

Jerusalem Hills Wildfires: Climate Breakdown, Gov’t Incompetence and Green Colonialism

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The massive wildfires that broke out near Jerusalem and which threatened residents of the city appear to have been largely extinguished, though some embers have reportedly blazed back up. The fires have provoked a vicious blame game inside Israel. The Jerusalem Post argued that the current extremist government cut funding […]

Academic Freedom

Saying Goodbye to a University System that Supports Genocide

Samer Ali

May 1, 2025. I’m reaching out today to share a public message. Around the world, today is Labor Day, and it’s a good day to let you know that I will be leaving the University of Michigan and in fact exiting the US university system after 25 years. I will be living in beloved Austin TX […]

Featured

Before Gaza, there was the US Genocide in Vietnam

Peter G. Prontzos

Vancouver (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – I am writing this essay on the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Vietnam from the genocidal war that the United States inflicted on this Southeast Asian country (and Laos and Cambodia) for three decades. The story begins in 1887 with French colonialism established over most of Indochina. The […]

Featured

Int’l Court of Justice asked to Declare Israeli Blockade of Aid to Gaza Civilians Illegal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The International Court of Justice on Tuesday heard arguments that Israel is illegally interfering in the provision of aid to Palestinians by UN agencies and bodies, by other NGOS, and by third states. That is, the court is being asked to declare the current Israeli blockade of civilian food and […]

Donald Trump

The Evils of MAGA’s “Moral Distance” — What we Can Learn from Iraq and Sweden

Alex Poppe

(Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Sahar first told me about moral distance one May morning on a beach in Cadiz. Born in Baghdad, Sahar fled her country during the Gulf War, smuggling herself first to Syria before she made her way to Sweden, where she became a mental health counselor. I was living in […]

Biodiversity

The Serviceberry: Native American Ecology and the End of Carbon Capitalism

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – No one wrote more powerfully about humans’ poisoning the Earth and its consequences than biologist Rachel Carson–with a focus on one contaminant, the pesticide DDT. She traced its toxicity through the food chain of nature and the loss of beneficial insects and birds, and then warned of […]

Donald Trump

Trump, the Suez Canal, and the end of Eisenhower’s World Order

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – AFP reports that Trump has said, “American ships, both military and commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez canals!” He went on to allege that “both routes” would not exist in the first place without the United States. News organizations have probably lost […]

Featured

Pope Francis’s Enduring Legacy on Palestine and the Middle East

Ibrahim Al-Marashi

By Mohammad Eslami and Ibrahim Marashi | – Braga, Portugal and San Marcos, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The world now grieves the loss of Pope Francis, a spiritual titan whose moral compass and unwavering voice for the marginalized reverberated far beyond the confines of Vatican walls. At the heart of his papacy […]