Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On the last day of August, 2025, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, a scholarly body with more than 500 members, passed a resolution with 86% support of those who voted, concluding that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. These scholars study genocide professionally, researching it, theorizing it, and […]

Featured

A Reluctant (Iranian) Exile: Minister without Portfolio

Joseph Richard Preville

A Review of Minister Without Portfolio: Memoir of a Reluctant Exile by Hooman Majd. Detroit (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Everybody needs a home. For Iranian-American writer Hooman Majd, finding a home was an elusive pursuit. He lays out his lifelong struggle for identity and belonging in his wonderful new book, Minister Without Portfolio: […]

Climate Crisis

Global Solar skyrockets 64% in H1, as Trump SecEnergy Wright gets Schooled

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Ember energy consultancy reports that in the first half of 2025, the world put in 380 gigawatts of new solar capacity. That compares to 232 gigs in the first half of 2024, for a 64% increase. By the end of June, 2022, the world had only installed 90 new […]

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A Dangerous Profession, from Palestine to Iran: When Journalists are the Target

Fariba Amini

“Only the person who has experienced light and darkness, war and peace, rise and fall, only that person has truly experienced life.” – ― Stefan Zweig Throughout wars and even in the calmest situations, journalists, especially independent ones, have always been the target of their governments and their cadres. In this war, which is not […]

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Manufactured Famines in Gaza began almost 2 Decades Ago, So why Haven’t they been Halted?

Dan Steinbock

New York (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Recently, international media has highlighted the mass famine in Gaza. Yet, there have been effectively three waves of famine in Gaza since spring 2024. First weaponized 18 years ago in the Strip, these hunger games could have been preempted several times. Why weren’t they? On Friday, August […]

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Why Even “Progressive” Dem Leaders won’t Stand up on Gaza: AIPAC’s Undue Influence

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Why has the Democratic leadership shown such reluctance to take effective legislative action to halt the flow of arms and military supplies to Israel, given the Netanyahu government’s orchestrated genocide and starvation in Gaza? Despite the overwhelming consensus among grassroots Democrats, the Democratic National Committee just last […]

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Türkiye Bans Israeli Ships, Goods at its Ports, Halts Cargo Overflights, Declares Gaza a Genocide

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced Friday that his country would completely cut economic relations with Israel, blocking Israeli ships from docking at Turkish ports and denying Israeli aircraft that might be carrying weapons overflight rights over Türkiye. The latter step imposes extra costs on Israeli cargo flights, which will have […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Immigrant Gulags: A Bonanza For Private Prison Corporations

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Fl. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – When it comes to for-profit, private corporate incarceration of immigrants, making lots of money is like drinking salt water, the more they drink, the thirstier they get. Roman proverbs say that the more money a rich man has, the more driven and addicted he becomes to accumulating […]

Featured

Russia, China, reject attempt of E3 to Reimpose Sanctions on Iran over Nuclear Program

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – France, the United Kingdom and Germany (the “E3”) on Thursday sent a formal letter to the UN Security Council asking for snap back sanctions on Iran over its nuclear enrichment activities, which they maintain breach the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or nuclear deal. The joint letter of […]