2021

By Asmaa Abu Mezied | – ( Al-Shabaka ) – In 2013, the UNDP warned of the increasing occurrence of dangerous heatwaves in Palestine over the coming years as a result of climate change. Indeed, at the end of August 2020, the Palestine Meteorological Office issued a warning about an impending heatwave, where the temperature […]

Immigration

Central American Migrants: They’re Here Because We Were There

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Democrats claim to defend an honest rendition of US history, one that will be attentive to the injustices inflicted by slavery and racism. Unfortunately, however, that honesty stops at the water’s edge. While the president prepared for and conducted a widely- covered summit that among other things […]

Africa

The Wealthy Countries are getting Past the Pandemic, but the Poor are in Catastrophe, which is a looming Catastrophe for the Wealthy

Tomdispatch

By Rajan Menon | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Fifteen months ago, the SARS-CoV-2 virus unleashed Covid-19. Since then, it’s killed more than 3.8 million people worldwide (and possibly many more). Finally, a return to normalcy seems likely for a distinct minority of the world’s people, those living mainly in the United States, Canada, the […]

Featured

What does the election of hard liner Raisi in Iran mean for Mideast Flashpoints?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Former chief justice of the Iranian judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi, won the presidential election, as expected, with over 60 percent of the votes. The problem was that less than half of eligible voters bothered to come out to the ballot box. The clerical establishment had so heavily vetted presidential contenders, barring […]

Israel/ Palestine

Imagine Thousands of Bigots Marching through Jewish Neighborhood chanting “Death to Jews” with Police, Political Support; Now substitute “Palestinians” for Jews

Asa Winstanley

( Middle East Monitor ) – Go along with me on a thought experiment for a few minutes. Imagine that British police forces permitted a crowd of thousands to march through an area of London with a high Jewish population chanting “Death to the Jews” and other similar violently bigoted obscenities. Imagine such a group […]

Democracy

Iran: Overseer of Mass Executions Elected President: Further Erosion of Political Rights, Accountability

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – The victory of Ebrahim Raeesi, Iran’s judiciary chief, on June 19, 2021, in a presidential election that was neither free nor fair raises serious concerns about human rights and accountability in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. Raeesi has had a long career in the country’s judiciary and […]

Climate Crisis

As we continue to burn Gasoline, Coal, Rocky Mountain forests burning more now than any time in the past 2,000 years

The Conversation

By Philip Higuera, Bryan Shuman and Kyra Wolf | – The exceptional drought in the U.S. West has people across the region on edge after the record-setting fires of 2020. Last year, Colorado alone saw its three largest fires in recorded state history, one burning late in October and crossing the barren Continental Divide well […]

Featured

Iran’s Leading Candidate for President is a far right Notorious Hanging Judge

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Polling suggests that Ebrahim Raisi will likely win Iran’s presidential election. So who is he? An official Iranian point of view on Raisi goes this way: He was born in 1960 into a family of clerics claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad in the Nowghan district of Mashhad, the largest […]