Middle East

By RFE/RL’s Radio Farda ( RFE/ RL ) – The awarding of the prestigious Palme d’Or to It Was Just An Accident, the latest film by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, has sparked widespread reactions in Iran and across the global Iranian diaspora. The accolade at the 78th Cannes Film Festival marks a significant milestone for […]

Climate Crisis

The 136 Largest Coastal Cities, including Egypt’s Alexandria, face $1 Trillion Losses per Year from Sea Level Rise by 2050

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a new paper, Chris R. Stokes et al. write in Communications Earth and Environment that even if we manage only to heat up the earth 1.5º C. (2.7º F.) above pre-industrial norms, that might be enough to provoke massive melting of the world’s principal ice sheets — those in […]

China

China, the ASEAN Nations of S.E. Asia, and the Gulf take up Palestine at Summit

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – At the 2025 ASEAN-GCC-China Summit in Kuala Lumpur, leaders from Asia and the Arab world gathered under the glow of diplomatic language and cautious optimism. The joint statement from the summit acknowledged key developments — including the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion deeming Israel’s occupation unlawful, and praised […]

Donald Trump

Is Trump’s Axis of the Plutocrats Marginalizing Israel?

Juan Cole

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Colorful career criminal Willie Sutton once may (or may not) have been asked why he robbed banks. “Because that is where the money is,” he supposedly replied. A similar principle may explain the first foreign trip of President Donald J. Trump’s second term, which was not to a traditional U.S. ally […]

Israel/ Palestine

10% of Gaza Palestinians have been Killed, Injured, Detained or are Missing

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – Ten per cent of Gaza’s Palestinian population has been killed, injured, disappeared, or detained as a result of the genocide committed in the Strip by Israel since 7 October 2023, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported yesterday. The Geneva-based monitor published an infographic marking 600 days since the beginning of […]

Featured

Turkiye gets 11% of its Electricity from Wind, plans $1.5 Bn. Investment this year

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkiye’s wind power sector continues to grow, albeit at a somewhat slower pace than at the beginning of this decade. The country gets 11% of its electricity from wind. Turkiye is third in Europe for onshore wind power growth, It installed 1.5 gigawatts of new wind in 2024, more than […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Massacre of Gaza’s Children: A Stain on Humanity

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – There are moments in history that burn into the conscience of humanity—so steeped in injustice that to look away is to become complicit. Gaza is one such moment. As we scroll through our screens on social media, the hollow eyes of wounded children in Gaza stare back at us. […]

Israel/ Palestine

IDF firing ‘Warning Shots’ near Diplomats sets an unacceptable Precedent in International Relations

The Conversation

By Andrew Forde, Dublin City University (The Conversation) – The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) appears to have “crossed the Rubicon” in the West Bank town of Jenin, when it opened fire in the vicinity of a group of visiting diplomats on May 21 – in flagrant violation of international law. The group of diplomats representing […]

Featured

German Chancellor Merz in Historic Rebuke of Israel: Attacks on Civilians not Justified by Hamas Terror

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Because of the Nazi Holocaust in which six million European Jews were murdered, German governments have felt a need to provide Israel with unqualified support. Without German persecution of Jews in the 1930s and then the genocide of the 1940s, arguably Israel would never have come into existence. There were […]