Asia

By Andrew Latham, Macalester College | – On Oct. 30, 2023, reports began to circulate that Israel was missing from from the mapping services provided by Chinese tech companies Baidu and Alibaba, effectively signaling – or so some believed – that Beijing was siding with Hamas over Israel in the ongoing war. Within hours, Chinese […]

Afghanistan

A Reflexive Act of Military Revenge Burdened the US – and May do the Same for Israel

The Conversation

By Peter Mansoor, The Ohio State University | – In the wake of the shocking invasion of southern Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to destroy Hamas. “We are fighting a cruel enemy, worse than ISIS,” Netanyahu proclaimed four days after the invasion, comparing Hamas with the […]

Artificial Intelligence

Swarms vs. Swarms: How Intelligent, Artificial or Otherwise, is any of This?

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com) – A war with China may not be inevitable, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks observed recently, but it’s a genuine possibility and so this country must be prepared to fight and win. But victory in such a conflict will not, she suggested, come easily. China enjoys an advantage in certain measures of […]

Artificial Intelligence

AI Goes to War: Will the Pentagon’s Techno-Fantasies Pave the Way for War with China?

William D. Hartung

( Tomdispatch.com) – On August 28th, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks chose the occasion of a three-day conference organized by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the arms industry’s biggest trade group, to announce the “Replicator Initiative.” Among other things, it would involve producing “swarms of drones” that could hit thousands of targets in […]

Afghanistan

‘Their Freedoms Have Been Taken Away’: Afghanistan Sees Surge In Female Suicides Under Taliban Rule

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Ahmad Hanayish and Abubakar Siddique (RFE/RL ) Shabana had a bright future ahead of her. She was studying to become a doctor and preparing to get married. But the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 turned her life upside down. The militant group’s ban on women attending university forced her to abandon her studies. […]

China

New Cold War, Ever-Hotter Planet: What could Possibly Go Wrong?

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – Tell me, what planet are we actually on? All these decades later, are we really involved in a “second” or “new” Cold War? It’s certainly true that, as late as the 1980s, the superpowers (or so they then liked to think of themselves), the United States and the Soviet Union, were still […]

Featured

ISIL Extremists Bomb Mosques in Pakistan, in Bid to outlaw Celebrating the Birth of the Prophet Muhammad (Yes)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Muhammad Shahid at The National (Dubai) reports that there were two attacks on mosques in northern Pakistan on Friday. The bigger explosion targeted worshipers in Mastung, Baluchistan, near the provincial capital of Quetta. This bombing appears to have been aimed at Muslims who were staging a public procession to commemorate […]

Arab World

Expansion of BRICS, the anti-G7, in the Mideast: Is the Oil Gulf no Longer Pax Americana?

Hamdullah Baycar

Exeter (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – BRICS, a group of five developing countries that include China, Russia, and India, has invited another six countries to join the bloc, making the group 11 if all accept the invitation. Among 40 interested states in membership, of which 22 had already officially asked for admission, BRICS leaders […]

BRICS

As US drags out Israel Normalization Deal with Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Drifts toward China

Nick Mehling

Cairo (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – With the announcement of the expansion of the BRICS bloc many were surprised to see traditional US allies like Saudi Arabia and the UAE inducted as new members. Pundits were quick to exclaim the monumental shift, heralding the move as Saudi Arabia charting an independent path and the […]