International Politics and Economy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – The Senate is on the verge of passing the distinctly misnamed “big beautiful bill.” It is, in fact, one of the ugliest pieces of legislation to come out of Congress in living memory. The version that passed the House recently would cut $1.7 trillion, mostly in domestic spending, while providing the […]

Archaeology

Early Farming in Middle East, Sometimes Matriarchal, Spread through Learning, not Conquest

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new study by Dilek Koptekin et al., a Swiss-Turkish team, has appeared in Science that combines archeological and genetics research to shed new light on the emergence of farming in the Middle East in the transition from hunting and gathering called the Neolithic Revolution. The authors find that big […]

Featured

The Assault on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: The US v. Canada

Hugh J. Curran

“These first few months [have resulted] in the Trump administration’s cuts to scientific and medical research, clampdown on any efforts promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), newly aggressive policies for students with loan debt, revoking of visas for international students and more”…. In recent months… [elimination of] programs meant to train scholars and diversify the sciences as part of an effort to […]

Corporate Surveillance

How will Your Data be Used in an Age of Dark Enlightenment?

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Sometime in the late 1980s, I was talking with a friend on my landline (the only kind of telephone we had then). We were discussing logistics for an upcoming demonstration against the Reagan administration’s support for the Contras fighting the elected government of Nicaragua. We agreed that, when our call was […]

Bill of Rights

Protesting to San Jose State U. for Firing Tenured Professor Sang Hea Kil for Palestine Protest

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Cynthia Teniente-Matson President San José State University sjsupres@sjsu.edu . . . Dear President Teniente-Matson and colleagues: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern at the […]

Bill of Rights

Mahmoud Khalil, Released on Bail from ICE Detention, says “Justice will Prevail”

Common Dreams

The student organizer condemned the Trump administration’s treatment of “hundreds of men” he met while imprisoned in Louisiana for more than three months. By Julia Conley | – ( Commondreams.org ) – Leaving an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana after being imprisoned for 104 days for protesting Israel’s U.S.-backed bombardment of Gaza, former Columbia […]

Colonialism

Resistance Works: How Small Groups Took on Great Powers and Won a Victory for Decolonization, Africa, Indigenous Peoples, and More

David Vine

David Vine ( Tomdispatch.com ) – At a time when many may feel that good news has gone the way of the dodo, look no further than the homeland of that long-extinct bird — Mauritius — for a dose of encouragement. There, among the islands of the Indian Ocean, news can be found about the […]

Authoritarianism

American Spring? How nonviolent Protest in the US is Accelerating

Waging Nonviolence

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the size and scale of anti-Trump protests this year have dwarfed those in 2017, and they have been extraordinarily peaceful. Erica Chenoweth, Soha Hammam, Jeremy Pressman, and Christopher Wiley Shay June 12, 2025 ( Waging Nonviolence ) – On streets and highway passes, at intersections and in parks, millions of Americans […]

Donald Trump

Approaching the End of Liberal Internationalism: Will America Ever Rejoin the International Community?

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com ) – “We’re back,” I tell the room. It’s January 21, 2029, and I can barely contain my excitement. “America is back!” I expect applause, but there is none. I try again, louder this time. “After four long years, America is finally back! We’re ready to resume our international obligations!” The members of […]