Live: Rubio says US open to meeting Iranian officials at UN

September 22, 2026
Key Points

• France welcomes Pakistan’s mediation efforts between Iran and the US
• Pezeshkian says people cannot be forced into submission through military pressure
• Saudi Arabia issues an alert in Najran as Houthi attacks on the kingdom continue

 

Live: Rubio says US open to meeting Iranian officials at UN

September 22, 2026
Lorenzo Maria Pacini
The Twelve-Day War, targeted assassinations, and U.S.-Israeli strikes have replaced proxy violence.

 

Iran's war economy is squeezing the wrong people

9/21/2026
Amir Hossein Mohaddes
Washington’s blockade is draining Iran’s revenues, but Tehran still decides how the burden is shared. Fuel hikes, weak price controls, and scarce currency for luxury imports risk shifting costs onto ordinary households instead of those higher up the economic ladder.

The Economics of Destruction

9/21/2026
Joan Robinson
We are sitting around discussing ideas totally beside the point. The important question is not whether the rate of inflation is high or low or can be brought under control but whether our generation will succeed in destroying the world. We are seeing the supply of arms pile up as the Americans and Soviets advance from one missile system to the next. This same threat lies before the next generation. We should realize that the stockpiling of destruction precedes discussion of inflation and unemployment. The arms race is too serious a matter for us to be content to dispute economic theories that float off into the stratosphere.

What are Iran’s latest conditions to end its war with the US?

September 20, 2026
Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei has laid out Tehran’s latest set of conditions to end its war with the United States.

 

Iranian army says it received intel of imminent US attacks backed by regional states

September 20, 2026

Tehran said it will strike US assets across the region 'without limitations' if new attacks are launched by Washington

Iran & Reaping the Russian Whirlwind – Interview of Touraj Atabaki

September 19, 2026
Fariba Amini

“Russia cannot be understood with mind alone” – Fyodor Tyutchev

An unaffordable car market highlights Iran’s cost-of-living crisis

September 19, 2026
Maziar Motamedi

Some officials and state media have long openly described the industry as a ‘mafia’ system that transfers costs to households.

Cars and motorcycles are seen in front of a billboard displaying the Iranian flag

Stuxnet Versus Skynet

September 17, 2026
Joseph L. Flatley

The AI apocalypse may not require “conscious” machines at all, but only supercharged digital attack worms like the one released against Iran in 2010.

 

We don't need intelligent machines in order to bring about an AI apocalypse. (Adobe Stock)

The Houthis could tip the Iran war in Tehran's favor

September 18, 2026
Paul R. Pillar

Rapid changes on the ground in Yemen are a serious setback for Washington's military effort

‘Reasonable grounds’ to believe US committed war crimes in Iran – UN

September 17, 2026

Indiscriminate attacks, such as the strike on an elementary school in Minab, went beyond negligence, a new report has found

Iran war live: UN mission says US likely committed war crimes in Iran

September 17, 2026
Stephen Quillen, Federica Marsi, Mahmoud Sayed and Tracy J. Jawad

• US President Donald Trump says he’s approaching a crucial decision on whether to “annihilate” his Iranian foes.
• The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says fighting along Yemen’s Red Sea coast has displaced an estimated 125,000 people.
• A UN fact-finding mission has found “reasonable grounds” to believe the US was behind two attacks in Iran, including on a school in Minab in February, which it says constituted war ⁠crimes.
  
• Yemeni government forces are trying to prevent Houthi advances on several fronts, including the strategically important Kahbub mountains near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and Taiz, with Saudi Arabia providing air strike support in areas around the city.
• Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi has described Saudi claims that a drone attack targeted Mecca as “an ugly lie” and said his fighters are primarily targeting Saudi military sites and oil infrastructure.
• Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif says the time has come to implement the Mecca mutual defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Turkiye following Houthi attacks on the kingdom.
• One ⁠person ⁠has been killed and two ⁠others injured in a drone ⁠interception in Saudi Arabia’s southwest governorate of Taif, reported ‌Saudi state TV.

When Britain Used Torture to Control the Strait of Hormuz

September 16, 2026
Amaar Chowdhury
Amaar Chowdhury reports on the emergence of new details about the extreme measures that British soldiers used to support a Gulf autocrat.

 

Map of Oman for use on Wikivoyage, English version. (Burmesedays / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

انقلاب‌ها

انقلاب آمریکا در دو و نیم قرن پیش، جرقه بسیاری از انقلاب‌های دیگر در سراسر جهان، به‌ویژه انقلاب‌های فرانسه، روسیه، کوبا و چین را زد. هر یک از این انقلاب‌ها — و بسیاری دیگر — سیمای اجتماعی، سیاسی، اقتصادی و جغرافیایی جهان را دگرگون کردند. یکی از این انقلابات که به چهل و هفت سال پیش بازمی‌گردد و گرچه اخیراً کمتر در صدر اخبار بوده اما پیامدهایش هر از گاهی خود را نشان می‌دهند، انقلاب ایران است. در دهه گذشته، تقریباً هر دو هفته یک‌بار شاهد تعاملاتی میان دولت‌های غربی و حکومتی بوده‌ایم که حدود نیم قرن پیش از دل آن انقلاب سر برآورد. مسئله هسته‌ای ایران جدیدترین مورد از مسائل متعددی است که پس از انقلاب سال پنجاه و هفت رخ داده است؛ مسائلی همچون بحران گروگان‌گیری، ماجرای ایران-کانترا و جنگ با عراق، که تنها چند نمونه از آن‌ها به شمار می‌روند. بمب‌های دولت ترامپ و عکس‌العمل دولت ایران با از بین بردن تسلیحات نظامی آمریکا در منطقه، پیشروی اسرائیل در مناطق فلسطینی با سلاح‌های آمریکا، و جنگ‌های متفرقه در مناطق دیگر دنیا، خبر از یک جنگ جهانی‌ جدید می‌دهند که همواره در زمان افت یک قدرت جهانی‌ (آمریکا) و گسترش نیروی جهانی‌ دیگر (چین) تاریخ بارها شاهد آن بوده است.ا

Pentagon Iran War Report admits to Worst Drubbing since Vietnam

September 15, 2026
Juan Cole
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Department of Defense report on the Israeli-US war on Iran admits that it has been costly, has seen extensive destruction of US facilities in the Middle East, and has run down Pentagon munitions. Since it is being issued by a department headed by notorious liar and braggart Pete Hegseth, it is hard to take the report too seriously on the positive side. But to the extent that it admits any downsides to the war on Iran at all, that admission is especially interesting coming from this administration.

Iran: Ongoing Unlawful Execution Campaign Against Protesters

September 14, 2026
Within a span of only five months, between March 18 and the end of August 2026, Iran’s authorities announced the executions of 29 people in connection with recent protests. These executions were unlawful and in violation of international human rights law. Several protesters executed were teenagers aged 18 and 19. Scores more remain at imminent risk of execution. Some executions have been carried out in public to further instill fear, marking a significant escalation.

Iran Reports One Killed in Attack on Iranian Commercial Ship Near Qeshm Island

September 13, 2026
Dave DeCamp
When asked who was responsible for the attack, President Trump said, 'I don't want to say'

A man walks on a road while vessels are in the Strait of Hormuz near the beach of Bandar Abbas, Iran, June 30, 2026. Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA/WANA via Reuters

Pezeshkian urges BRICS to form 'permanent secretariat,' independent payment mechanisms

September 12, 2026

The Iranian president urged the bloc to trade in national currencies and build payment channels that no single country can shut off

Forever War: How 9/11 Unleashed U.S. Violence on Civilians Abroad & Attacks on Rights at Home

September 11, 2026
We look at how post-9/11 policies and the so-called war on terror reshaped the country and the world with two Columbia faculty members who convened a two-day symposium on “The Forever War and the First Amendment.” The symposium brought together journalists, scholars, lawyers and activists to explore the legacy of the “war on terror,” specifically focused on the impact on democratic rights, including the freedoms of speech and the press.

Real History: After 9/11, the “War on Terror” Was a War of Terror

September 10, 2026
Norman Solomon
Three days after terrorists killed almost 3,000 people in the United States on September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush stood behind a pulpit at the Washington National Cathedral and spoke to a nation in shock. “Our responsibility to history is already clear,” he proclaimed, “to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.” The vow was, of course, preposterous. Yet the “war on terror” that followed was scarcely more realistic.