One-third of Iran’s population reportedly lives in extreme poverty. Some people are so poor that they have resorted to selling their organs on the black market to make ends meet. (file photo) Share (RFE/RL ) – I’m RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari. Here’s what I’ve been following during the past week and what I’m […]
Archives for May 2023
United Nations for First Time Recognizes 1948 Israeli Ethnic Cleansing (Nakbah) of Palestinians
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Today, May 15, for the first time a commemoration will be held at the United Nations HQ in New York City of the 1948 ethnic cleansing of about half of all the Palestinians, the bulk of which was carried out by Jewish military forces, as Israeli intelligence admitted at the […]
Time for some Climate Optimism: These 4 Charts on the Unstoppable Growth of Solar will Blow your Mind
By Andrew Blakers, Australian National University | – (The Conversation) – Last year, the world built more new solar capacity than every other power source combined. Solar is now growing much faster than any other energy technology in history. How fast? Fast enough to completely displace fossil fuels from the entire global economy before 2050. […]
Israeli Military Apologizes for Killing US Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a Year after the Shooting
( Middle East Monitor ) – Israel’s military has apologised for its killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, after a year of denial of its responsibility for the shooting. Shireen Abu Akleh, the correspondent who covered the West Bank for Al Jazeera for two decades, was shot in the back of the head […]
Divest, Decarbonize and Dissociate – Inside the Bold new Push to Get Fossil Fuels off Campus
By Nick Engelfried ( Waging Nonviolence) – From late November through early March of this year, visitors to the University of Washington Career Center in Seattle would have found students sitting in a circle on the floor, some doing homework on laptops as they participated in one of the longest-running recent climate protests at the […]
Not just Cards and Flowers: The 1st ‘Mother’s Day for Peace’ was Held in New York in 1872
Greenville, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment – Feature) – The 19th century origins of Mother’s Day differ vastly in spirit and purpose from celebrations of it in the 20th and 21st centuries. Mother’s Day was first inspired by two women with diverse but compatible social and political purposes. Prior to the Civil War, Ann Reeves […]
The Nakba: 75 years after losing their Home, the Palestinians are still Experiencing the “Catastrophe”
By Dina Matar, SOAS, University of London | – When Palestinians commemorate the Nakba (the catastrophe) on May 15, they are not only remembering a violent historical event that took place 75 years ago which led to the uprooting of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland. Nor just the destruction of more than 400 villages […]
In Turkey, Election Manipulation Abounded in the Run-up to Today’s Presidential Election
( Globalvoices.org ) – In Turkey, ahead of the country’s most important election in recent memory, being held today, Sunday May 14, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) seems to be resorting to foul play and tricks to steer the votes in their favor. There are fake stickers, physical violence, dark web rumors, manipulated […]
On One-Year Anniversary of Israeli Army Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh: Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable
. ( Committee to Protect Journalists ) – The May 11, 2022, killing of Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh is part of a deadly, decades-long pattern. Over 22 years, CPJ has documented at least 20 journalist killings by members of the Israel Defense Forces. Despite numerous IDF probes, no one has ever been […]