Human Rights

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Earlier this month, the Trump administration released its new National Security Strategy, or NSS. Normally, such documents are poor predictors of what’s likely to happen in the real world. They are more like branding tools that communicate the attitudes of a given administration while rarely offering a detailed or accurate picture […]

Displaced and Refugees

1/4 of Syrian Expat Refugees Have Returned, but many to Destroyed Homes, Land Disputes

The Conversation

By Sandra Joireman, University of Richmond (The Conversation) – Close to 1.5 million Syrian refugees have voluntarily returned to their home country over the past year. That extraordinary figure represents nearly one-quarter of all Syrians who fled fighting during the 13-year civil war to live abroad. It is also a strikingly fast pace for a […]

Israel

Israel’s Airstrikes on Lebanese Reconstruction Equipment, Factories are War Crimes

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – The Israeli military’s repeated attacks on reconstruction-related equipment and other civilian facilities in southern Lebanon throughout 2025 violate the laws of war and are apparent war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. Residents and local municipal authorities told Human Rights Watch that the attacks have hampered reconstruction efforts and […]

Donald Trump

Inside the Trump Administration’s Man-Made Hunger Crisis

ProPublica

By Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester, photography by Brian Otieno for ProPublica. | – ( ProPublica) – On July 18, a mild, overcast night in Nairobi, Kenya, a team of President Donald Trump’s top foreign aid advisers ducked into a meeting room at the Tribe Hotel, their luxury accommodations in the city’s diplomatic quarter, […]

Academic Freedom

Trump Administration Concedes U.S. Researchers may Talk with Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Despite Sanctions

Middle East Studies Association

Middle East Studies Association of North America | – ( MESA Press Release ) – WASHINGTON—In response to a letter sent by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the Treasury Department last week confirmed that a scholarly organization—the Middle East Studies Association (MESA)—may hold an event with U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese even […]

Constitution

Who’s Responsible When a Military Order is Illegal? (Don’t Ask Donald Trump!)

Tomdispatch

By Nan Levinson ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Any story about resistance within the military must begin by recognizing that it’s not an easy thing to do. Apparently, that’s true even for a much-decorated retired Navy commander, former astronaut, and sitting United States senator. I’m talking about Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. He was one of six Democratic […]

Academic Freedom

Rebuking UC Berkeley over Suspension of Lecturer for Palestine Advocacy

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North America | – Letter to the University of California, Berkeley, expressing concern about the suspension of Lecturer Peyrin Kao Chancellor Rich Lyons Office of the Chancellor University of California, Berkeley chancellor@berkeley.edu Benjamin Hermalin Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost University of California, Berkeley hermalin@berkeley.edu […]

Authoritarianism

Sudan’s Agony: Surprising Lessons for the US Resistance to Trump

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Follow a line south and west from the Gaza strip, continue through Egypt, and you’ll end up in another place where a genocide is in progress. It’s one we don’t hear much about in the United States, probably because it’s happening in an African nation, one of those places Donald Trump […]

Donald Trump

Trump as Nero: The Bible Condemns Rich Predators, Not Poor Trans Lovers

Liz Theoharis

( Tomdispatch.com ) – As more of the Epstein files are released, reminding us of Donald Trump’s close association with Jeffrey Epstein and the young people he abused and trafficked, as well as the president’s ongoing array of misogynist insults and actions (like calling journalist Catherine Lucey “piggy” and name-calling Marjorie Taylor Greene to the point where […]