Arab World

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The super-super tanker Ever Given is stuck kitty-corner in the Suez Canal, having apparently run up on a sand bar. It is blocking dozens of other ships from going through the canal. The ship, one of the largest in the world, is a quarter of a mile long and can […]

Displaced and Refugees

Yemenis face Famine of the Century and Mass Starvation unless President Biden pressures Saudis to Stop Port Blockade

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The head of the UN World Food Program, David Beasley said at a news conference this week covered by al-`Arabi al-Jadid (The New Arab) that five million out of 28 million Yemenis are in severe danger of starvation and 16 million are food-insecure. Food insecurity is a state of being […]

Joe Biden

Syria needs Long-Term Housing for the Neediest, and the US needs to Stop Blocking it

Global Voices

By Hany Al Banna | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – March 15, 2021, will mark a grim milestone—the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the popular uprising that led to the civil war still engulfing Syria. As we all grapple with the deadly crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the world’s […]

Syria

Every day is war’ – a decade of slow suffering and destruction in Syria

The Conversation

By Ammar Azzouz | – Abduljalil sent me a photo of his ruined home in Homs, Syria. “It is the third floor”, he told me over WhatsApp. The building still stands but it looks like an empty skeleton. Most of its facade has been destroyed, while piles of debris surround it. Residents have not been […]

Featured

10 Years after the Outbreak of the Syrian Revolution, the US is Still Prolonging the Agony

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On March 15, 2011, ten years ago this week, the first tiny demonstrations took place in Damascus in Syria. A larger protest, however, was staged in the town of Deraa south of the capital on March 18, from which most observers start the Syrian revolution. The first wave of protests, […]

Democracy

Why Tunisians are still out on the streets — a decade after the Arab Spring

The Conversation

By Saerom Han, Andrea Teti, and Pamela Abbott | – It has been 10 years since nation-wide protests in Tunisia led to the ousting of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his regime. Ben Ali led Tunisia for 23 years. Tunisia’s “Dignity Revolution” marked the first time a long-standing Arab autocrat was removed […]

Featured

Oil Spikes on Yemeni Houthi droning of Saudi Petroleum Cities, in Argument for Wind and Solar Power

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – According to Al Jazeera, the Saudi military acknowledged that the Helpers of God or Houthis [pronounced like Ruthie] of Yemen targeted the Saudi oil port of Ras Tanoura on Sunday with a drone and ballistic missiles. A drone hit Ras Tanoura from the Gulf and pieces of a ballistic missile […]

journalism

‘Rightly’ as a New Soft Power Tool: The Motivation behind Al Jazeera’s American Right-Wing Platform

Hamdullah Baycar

Exeter (Special to Informed Comment) – Al Jazeera announcement to launch a right-wing media platform, Rightly, in the US surprised many people, including its employees. Over 100 hundred employees from Al Jazeera penned an open letter to the Al Jazeera administration asking the halt of the platform based on not fitting their ‘values.’ Michael Weaver, […]

Featured

Ayatollah Sistani Affirms Religious Freedom to Pope Francis in HIstoric Iraq Meeting

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday, Pope Francis met in the holy city of Najaf with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the spiritual leader of most of the world’s Shiite Muslims outside Iran. Back in 2004 when US Marines were fighting young Shiite militiamen in Najaf (quite against Sistani’s will), I tried to signal to […]