2023

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – January 22 marks the second anniversary of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a global lifeboat supported by 70% of the world’s countries. Meanwhile, the US Department of Energy’s 2023 budget request for nuclear weapons’ upgrade is more than $21 billion and close to $8 […]

Authoritarianism

Clampdown Reported In Iranian Kurdistan After Slain Protesters Mourned

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Ardeshir Tayebi | – ( RFE/RL) – Demonstrators in the western Iranian city of Javanrud were set on by security forces and have reportedly faced a martial-style clampdown since gathering in a local cemetery on December 31 to mark the end of the 40-day mourning period for seven protesters killed by security forces in […]

Comic Books

100 years of Stan Lee: how the Comic Book King challenged Prejudice

The Conversation

By Alex Fitch, University of Brighton | – December 28 2022 marks 100 years since the birth of the world’s most famous comic book writer: the late Stan Lee. The 1960s were Stan Lee’s most astonishing decade, during which he came up with ideas and scripts for the first appearances of such heroes as the […]

Featured

Rabbi Close to Religious Extremists in Israeli Gov’t says Gay Speaker “Diseased,” attracting “Evil” on People

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al-Hadath reports that 300 former Israeli soldiers have written a letter to their new government pleading with it not to inflict harm on the LGBTQ community. At the same time, two prominent rabbis close to the new government launched an attack on the Knesset members who voted in Amir Ohana, […]

Israel/ Palestine

Deadliest Year for Palestinians in Decades: Israeli Forces Kill 240, including 47 children

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – Another critical year for Palestine has folded. While 2022 has wrought much of the same in terms of Israeli military occupation and increasing violence, it also introduced new variables to the Palestinian struggle – nationally, regionally and internationally. Palestine, the War and the Arabs The Russia-Ukraine War starting in […]

Campaign Finance

In One State, Voters backed a Law Exposing Political ‘Dark Money’ that is hailed as Model

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Emilee Miranda | – ( Cronkite News) – WASHINGTON – It could be months before the impact of Proposition 211 is seen in Arizona, but experts are already hailing the new law aimed at exposing “dark money” in politics as a model for the rest of the nation. “Other states have passed laws that […]

Debt

Is the Russian Economy headed for Collapse?

The Conversation

By Eric Werker, Simon Fraser University | – (The Conversation) – To justify invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has painted Russia as a hegemonic power re-asserting its rightful claim to imperial greatness. Yet even before the invasion, Russia’s economic capabilities were hardly capable of sustaining an empire. Now, with foreign sanctions presiding over a plummeting Russian […]

Featured

2023 Prediction: The 2 Major Headaches for U.S. Foreign Policy, aside from Russia, will be Israeli and Iranian Fundamentalism

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Despite the desire of all recent presidents to pivot away from the Middle East, Israel, fundamentalism and Iran have made it difficult to do so. In 2023, I believe that the Biden administration will have to spend far more time on Iran and Israel-Palestine than it had imagined, despite the […]

Climate Crisis

3/4s of German Homeowners are Ready to Put Solar Panels on their Roofs: Survey

Benjamin Wehrmann

( Clean Energy Wire ) – Three in four houseowners in Germany wish to put a solar PV array on their roofs, according to a survey commissioned by the country’s solar industry lobby group BSW Solar. One in five houseowners aims to install solar PV arrays within the next twelve months, the survey by pollster […]

Archives for 2023

Imagining a World Without Nuclear Weapons