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China’s official Xinhuanet news service is predicting that Iran will compromise with the 5 members of the UN Security Council plus Germany as they meet in Istanbul beginning on Friday. The Chinese news service points out that Iran is suffering 25% to 35% inflation at the moment. Moreover, the Iranian currency has fallen dramatically against […]

Jack Serle writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have published eight formal reports on Syrian human rights violations since the rebellion began. These have appeared alongside almost daily statements and calls for action over the abuses meted out on civilians. And yet the violence has continued for more […]

My essay, “Why Washington’s Iran Policy Could Lead to Global Disaster,” is out at Tomdispatch.com Go to that site for Tom Englehardt’s powerful introduction. Why Washington’s Iran Policy Could Lead to Global Disaster What History Should Teach Us About Blockading Iran By Juan Cole It’s a policy fierce enough to cause great suffering among Iranians  […]

Dear CNN: You are in danger of being sued for false advertising, since you characterize yourself as a news channel. Just so you know, this is your home page as I write and it is mostly not actually news: If you’d like some help with recognizing actual news, you might check this site:

Egypt’s administrative court invalidated the current constituent assembly charged with drafting the new constitution, on the grounds that it is overly stacked with Muslim fundamentalists and is unrepresentative of Egyptian society. The court relied on a 1994 law stipulating that sitting judges and parliamentarians may not be involved in constitutional revisions, lest they misuse their […]

h/t to Texts from Hillary and Kevin Lamarque Rick Santorum on women serving in combat: “I think that could be a very compromising situation where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interest of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved. I was talking about men’s emotional […]