Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday, Muhammad al-Bakhiti, a member of the Politburo of the Helpers of God (Houthi ) government of northern Yemen, announced that it had completely closed off shipping to Israel via the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea. Actually, the Helpers of God have more or less closed Red Sea […]
- Africa (237)
- Animals (1)
- Asia (1,219)
- Australasia (8)
- Australia (25)
- Authoritarianism (382)
- Canada (6)
- Cats (1)
- Celtic Religion (1)
- Culture (516)
- Dehydration (1)
- Democracy (323)
- Dissent (420)
- Ecology (1)
- Economy (1,020)
- Agriculture (3)
- Banking (67)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (50)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Downward Mobility (1)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (21)
- Homelessness (15)
- Industry (5)
- Inequality (422)
- Inflation (5)
- infrastructure (10)
- Investment (92)
- Market Crash (10)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (8)
- Neoliberalism (200)
- Plutocracy (612)
- Poverty (205)
- Regulation (2)
- Sanctions (4)
- Taxes (37)
- Technology (3)
- Trade (113)
- Weapons sales (6)
- Education (137)
- Elderly (3)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Energy (1,696)
- Batteries (49)
- Coal (137)
- Fossil Fuels (317)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (409)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (5)
- Hydroelectric (14)
- Natural Gas (107)
- Nuclear Energy (157)
- Petroleum (297)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (398)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (9)
- wind energy (333)
- Environment (2,594)
- Climate Change (1,539)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (25)
- Biodiversity (12)
- Climate Refugees (2)
- CO2 (114)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (145)
- Desalinization (4)
- Desertification (158)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (6)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Weather (294)
- Flooding (135)
- Food Supply (2)
- Forests (17)
- Green New Deal (39)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (61)
- Methane (20)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (11)
- Sea Level (334)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (250)
- wildfires (232)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,245)
- Drought (288)
- Ecology (10)
- Environmentalism (392)
- Green Transportation (249)
- Ice Melt (132)
- Invasive Species (2)
- Islands (1)
- Oceans (100)
- Oil Spills (7)
- Pollution (226)
- Water (92)
- wildlife (19)
- Climate Change (1,539)
- Europe (1,334)
- Featured (3,880)
- fiction (5)
- Food (13)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Health (662)
- History (342)
- Human Rights (1,407)
- Apartheid (258)
- censorship (287)
- Death Penalty (30)
- Disappeared (3)
- Displaced and Refugees (560)
- Food Insecurity (16)
- Gay rights (29)
- Genocide (36)
- Human Rights Watch (90)
- Migrants (4)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Starvation (1)
- Torture (97)
- Trans Rights (3)
- Transgender Rights (4)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (99)
- Unlwful Killing (75)
- War Crimes (375)
- War Rape (7)
- Immigration (20)
- International (791)
- Islamophobia (374)
- Juan Cole (270)
- Latin America (99)
- Latinos (4)
- leisure (21)
- media (469)
- Middle East (9,292)
- Arab World (5,146)
- Iran (1,283)
- Israel (877)
- Israel/ Palestine (3,088)
- Israel/Palestine (8)
- Kurds (289)
- Turkey (575)
- Turkiye (101)
- military (123)
- Modernism (3)
- nationalism (116)
- NATO (36)
- Natural Disasters (13)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- nuclear weapons (103)
- Patriarchy (10)
- Peace (136)
- Persian mythology (1)
- Pete Buttigieg (1)
- Planetary Exploration (1)
- Popular Culture (24)
- Poverty (12)
- privacy (21)
- racism (462)
- Rape (8)
- religion (1,467)
- Rights (139)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (149)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Sexual Assault (2)
- South Pacific (2)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (278)
- Terrorism (1,091)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,075)
- United Nations (137)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,282)
- US politics (5,235)
- Anti-War Movement (12)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (22)
- Central Intelligence Agency (63)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (78)
- Conspiracy Theories (23)
- Constitution (397)
- Courts (12)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (942)
- Democratic Socialists of America (22)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (124)
- Ethnicities (380)
- Far Right (388)
- FBI (47)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (94)
- Immigration (236)
- Israel Lobbies (124)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (271)
- National Security State (471)
- Native Americans (40)
- Nuclear arsenal (7)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (557)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (9)
- Private Prisons (2)
- Progressive Politics (12)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (15)
- Reproductive Choice (66)
- Republican Party (2,918)
- Supreme Court (125)
- Voter suppression (35)
- Whistleblowers (5)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (35)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (499)
- White Supremacists (225)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (550)
- workers (231)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (208)
Arab World
Not “Surrounded by Enemies:” Regional Powers Egypt and Turkey retain Ties with Israel during Gaza Conflict despite Critical Rhetoric
Istanbul (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – A recent conversation in Israel was reported by The Forward: “‘We are surrounded by our enemies,’ muttered a Jewish history teacher to his student Moshe Klein.” Maybe decades ago this statement had some truth to it, but it is outdated and irrelevant in today’s geopolitical climate. Israel is […]
Moscow and Gaza: Is Russia ready for a major Shift in its Middle East Policy?
( Middle East Monitor ) – Gaza was among the main topics on the agenda of Russian President Vladimir Putin as he arrived in the Middle East on 6 December. Some news reports referred to the trip as “rare”, especially since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022. We know that the situation […]
Why Yemen’s Houthis are Intervening in the Israel-Hamas Conflict and how it Could Disrupt Global Shipping
By Leena Adel, Curtin University; and Ben Rich, Curtin University | – In recent days, three Israeli-linked commercial vessels were targeted by ballistic missiles and drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, marking a clear escalation in maritime attacks in the critical Bab el Mandab strait between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The Houthis […]
The History of Gaza: On Conquerors, Resurgence and Rebirth
( Middle East Monitor ) – Those unfamiliar with Gaza and its history are likely to always associate Gaza with destruction, rubble and Israeli genocide. And they can hardly be blamed. On 3 November, the UN Development Programme and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) announced that 45 per cent of […]
Can US Threats Prevent a wider War in the Middle East?
( Code Pink ) – While Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has been frantically shuttling around the Middle East trying to stop the Israeli coflict in Gaza from exploding into a regional war, the United States has also sent two aircraft carrier strike groups, a Marine Expeditionary Unit and 1,200 extra troops to the Middle […]
COP28: inside the United Arab Emirates, the Oil Giant hosting 2023 Climate Change Summit
By Emilie Rutledge, The Open University and Aiora Zabala, The Open University | – The United Arab Emirates (UAE), the world’s seventh largest oil producer, will host the 28th UN climate change summit (COP28) in Dubai from November 30 to December 12. Presiding over the conference will be the chief executive of the UAE state-owned […]
Juan Cole: Infidel or Pagan? Understanding Kufr (كفر) in the Qur’an | Muhammad the Prophet of Peace
Gabriel Said Reynolds of Notre Dame writes: “In this video I interview Professor Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. We discuss the historicity of Muhammad’s raids as well as the picture of the messenger that is obtained when one focuses on the Qur’an alone. The bulk […]
Juan Cole on Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” (StayTunedNBC)
Here is the interview Alex Greaney of StayTunedNBC did with Juan Cole about the Egypt scenes in Ridley Scott’s film, “Napoleon.” StayTunedNBC: “Juan Cole on Ridley Scott’s depiction of Napoleon in Egypt” I wrote a book about Bonaparte in Egypt for those of you who want to know more about the first major Western colonial […]