International Politics and Economy

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis has struck down Fox Cable News’ motion to dismiss the libel lawsuit against it of Dominion, the maker of voting machines. Dominion alleges that Fox anchors repeatedly hosted Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who made false and inflammatory claims about Dominion voting […]

Books

You heard that Right – “Peace Movements in Islam” – Juan’s new Book Challenges Stereotypes

Juan Cole

Today is a special day for me. In 2015, at the height of the ISIL cult’s influence in Iraq and Syria and during a time of extreme bigotry toward Muslims in the United States, I conceived a project on “Islamic Peace Studies.” The point was not to deny the violence of cult-like movements such as […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: heroin and human trafficking are the only two sectors of the economy still thriving

The Conversation

By Jonathan Goodhand and Jan Koehler | – In the frontier town of Zaranj on Afghanistan’s border with Iran, young men jostle one another as they cram into pickups that leave at regular intervals to be smuggled across the border. Human trafficking is one of the few sectors of the Afghan economy that is thriving. […]

Climate Crisis

Climate activism has gone digital and disruptive, and it’s finally facing up to racism within the movement

The Conversation

By Nina Hall, Charles Lawrie and Sahar Priano | – To understand the agreement states reached at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last month, it’s important to explore how climate activism has grown and changed since the Paris Agreement in 2015. Climate activists have played a pivotal role. They have kept the pressure on […]

Congress

Stop Normalizing Islamophobia: Hateful attacks on Ilhan Omar and other Muslims should be forcefully condemned

OtherWords

By Farrah Hassen | – ( Otherwords.org) – In her latest act of demonizing Muslims, Rep. Lauren Boebert recently insinuated at multiple events that Rep. Ilhan Omar could have been a suicide bomber because of her Islamic faith. This might be business as usual for the Colorado Republican. But for Muslim Americans like myself, it’s […]

Donald Trump

The Donald Also Rises? The Far Right Continues to Build Its International

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com) – What alt-right guru Steve Bannon failed to create, German taxpayers have just stepped in to revive: a Nationalist International. Thanks to the German government, the far right is about to get its own well-heeled global think tank, complete with the sort of political academy that was so dear to Bannon’s plan for […]

Congress

Lauren Boebert is the one with Terrorist ties, not Ilhan Omar

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) was caught on camera boasting of taunting Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) that she is a terrorist. The taunt was ironic given that Hunter Walker at Rolling Stone reported that Boebert was one of a handful of representatives on the Hill who repeatedly met with conspirators planning […]

censorship

Apple Sues Israeli gov’t-backed NSO Spyware Company: “Notorious Hackers – Amoral 21st C. Mercenaries”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Apple is suing the NSO group, which produced the spyware that Israel uses to keep under surveillance the 5 million Palestinians it holds in thrall to its Occupation. The NSO group is believed to be close to the Israeli state. They have sold their hacking tools to repressive governments around […]

Authoritarianism

For First Time, US joins Brazil and India as “Backsliding Democracy”: GOP is making US a Third World Country

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sweden’s International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance finds this year that the United States of America has joined the ranks of “backsliding democracies,” joining India, Brazil, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. The IDEA institute notes, “Democratic backsliding, namely the sustained and deliberate process of subversion of basic democratic tenets by […]