Iran Believed to Be Developing ICBM to Target America

JohnRossomando

April 29, 2023

Iran’s missile program has received considerably less attention than its nuclear program; however, it could directly threaten the U.S. homeland.

First Iranians escape Sudan strife via Saudi Arabia

AFP

April 29, 2023

The first Iranian evacuees to escape the Sudan conflict through Saudi Arabia arrived on Saturday in Jeddah, relieved that their country has settled its differences with the regional rival.

زن ایرونی‌

ایرانی‌هائی که در سنین جوانی و پس از آن مهاجرت کرده‌ا‌ند و در  کشورهای غریب زندگی میکنند، نه فرهنگ ایران را، که هر آینه در حال تحول است،  دارند و نه فرهنگ کشور میزبان را کاملا پذیرفته‌ا‌ند. کسانی که در کشور میزبان خود ده‌ها سال زندگی کرده‌ا‌ند، تغییر فرهنگ را در آن کشور و در عرض آن مدت تجربه کرده‌ا‌ند. چرا که فرهنگ هیچگاه ساکن نیست و همیشه در حال تغییر و تحول است. به همین دلیل، زمانی که مهاجر به کشور مبدأ پس از سالها باز میگردد، خود را در یک فرهنگ غریبه میابد. در واقع این اشخاص از هر دو فرهنگ عقب مانده‌ا‌ند، و هر چقدر هم پا بزنند به هیچکدام نمیرسند!

Iran seizes oil tanker ‘trying to flee’ in Gulf waters

Al Jazeera

April 27, 2023

Iran’s army has said it seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman after it collided with an Iranian boat, injuring several crewmen, state media reported.

High-ranking Iranian cleric assassinated

DarrylCoote

April 26, 2023

A powerful high-ranking Iranian cleric was gunned down Wednesday in a bank in northern Mazandaran province, according to Iranian news reports.

Iran court orders US, Obama to pay $313m for ‘terrorist’ attacks

Maziar Motamedi

April 26, 2023

Tehran, Iran – An Iranian court has ruled the United States government and a number of individuals and entities, including former President Barack Obama, must pay compensation for 2017 attacks carried out by the armed group ISIL (ISIS).

Iran charges two actresses for not wearing hijab

Maziar Motamedi

April 25, 2023

Tehran, Iran – Two renowned actresses in Iran have been charged for not wearing headscarves, as authorities intensify efforts to crack down on people violating the country’s mandatory hijab laws.

Ukraine planned to attack Russian forces in Syria: Pentagon leaks

News Desk

April 21, 2023

A leaked top-secret US intelligence document has revealed that Ukrainian military intelligence planned covert attacks against Russian forces in Syria through Kurdish groups

Capitalism, Racism and Selling the AR-15

Andres D. Medellin

April 21, 2023

When it comes to mass shootings in the United States (like the one that just took place in Nashville), the figures are unequivocal. “Active shooter” cases have become more common in recent years. The percentage of mass shooters using semi-automatic rifles in those incidents has risen since 2009, with those armed with such rifles killing more people on average than those with handguns. One particular weapon, the AR-15-style rifle, stands out in recent incidents.

The Non-Profit Industrial Complex

RebeccaGordon

April 21, 2023

We’ve just passed through tax time again. (Unless, like me, you live in one of several states ravaged by recent extreme weather events brought on by climate change. In that case, you can wait until October.) It’s also that moment when the War Resisters League — slogan: “If you work for peace, stop paying for war” — publishes its invaluable annual “Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes” pie chart and publicizes a series of Tax Day events nationwide.

Iran says its navy forced US submarine to surface in Gulf waters

Al Jazeera

April 20, 2023

An Iranian official says Iran’s navy obliged a US submarine to surface as it entered the Gulf “violating its border” in the latest report of an apparent confrontation between Iranian and US forces in the region.

Asghar Farhadi Talks Uprising in Iran: ‘The Result Will Be Rewarding’

NickVivarelli

April 19, 2023

Two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi, Iran’s best-known director, was at the Zurich Film Festival last September when protests following the death of Mahsa Amini erupted in his home country.

Iran unveils off-brand version of Dacia Logan for Iranian, Russian markets

IntelliNews

April 18, 2023

The Iranian “Sandero”, a car that might in fact be taken for an analogue of the Mark 1 Dacia Logan and will be sold in both Iran and Russia, has been unveiled.

The Emerging New World Economy

Richard Wolff

April 17, 2023

The emerging new always both frightens and inspires the fading old. History is that unity of opposites. Sharp-edged rejections of what is new clash with enthusiastic celebrations of it. The old gets pushed away even as bitter denials of that reality surge. The emerging new world economy displays just such contradictions. Four major developments can illustrate them and underscore their interactions.

Iran steps up enforcement of mandatory hijab for women

Miriam Berger

April 16, 2023

Iranian authorities plan to prosecute people who encourage women to remove their headscarves and have also installed cameras in public places and on highways to catch violators of the country’s strict dress code, according to local media and a senior judicial official.

US Moral Authority Is Dead And Buried

CaitlinJohnstone

April 16, 2023

Seven progressive Democrats from the House of Representatives have signed a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for the Biden administration to drop the charges against Julian Assange and cease seeking his extradition.

Reclaiming the US

Chris Hedges

April 5, 2023

“At what point does a beleaguered population living near or below the poverty line rise up in protest?” From the author’s talk on April 4 at the Independent National Convention in Austin, Texas.

Why Socialism?

AlbertEinstein

April 15, 2023

Albert Einstein is the world-famous physicist. This article was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review (May 1949). It was subsequently published in May 1998 to commemorate the first issue of MR‘s fiftieth year.

—The Editors

US Military: Losing Wars is making Recruitment Harder

NanLevinson

April 14, 2023

After more than 20 years of losing wars, recruiting for the U.S. Army is now officially a mess. Last year, that service fell short of its goal by 15,000 recruits, or a quarter of its target. Despite reports of better numbers in the first months of this year, Army officials doubt they will achieve their objective this time around either. The commanding general at Fort Jackson, the South Carolina facility that provides basic training to 50% of all new members of the Army, called the recruiting command’s task the hardest since the all-volunteer military was launched in 1973. The Army’s leaders were alarmed enough to make available up to $1.2 billion for recruitment incentives and related initiatives.

The US Could Use Some Separation Of Media And State

CaitlinJohnstone

April 14, 2023

The US State Department’s spokesperson Ned Price is being replaced by a man named Matthew Miller. Like Price, Miller has had extensive prior involvement in both the US government and the mass media; Price is a former CIA officer and Obama administration National Security Council staffer who for years worked as an NBC News analyst, while Miller has previously had roles in both the Obama and Biden administrations and spent years as an analyst for MSNBC.

Russia, China FM attend high-level conference on Afghanistan

AssociatedPress

April 13, 2023

The top diplomats from Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan attended a conference Thursday that focused on ensuring regional security in light of the situation in Afghanistan.

From Forever to Eternal War

KarenJ. Greenberg

April 12, 2023

“It is time,” President Biden announced in April 2021, “to end the forever war” that started with the invasion of Afghanistan soon after the tragic terror attacks on this country on September 11, 2001. Indeed, that August, amid chaos and disaster, the president did finally pull the last remaining U.S. forces out of that country.

90 Seconds to Midnight: The Doomsday Clock and Me

Frida Berrigan

April 11, 2023

I’m not a TikTok person. I’m too old. But when I finally ventured onto that popular but much-maligned app, which traffics in short videos and hot takes, I was surprised to find many videos about the Doomsday Clock. It’s nothing like a conventional timepiece, of course. It’s meant to show how close humanity has come to nuclear Armageddon — to the proverbial “midnight.”

Vladimir Pozner: Why was Russia's EU & NATO bids rejected?

https://youtu.be/rfGJjrb3fZ8

Jan 26, 2023

148 views • Jan 26, 2023

Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner is a French-born Russian-American journalist and presenter. He is best known in the West for his television appearances representing and explaining the views of the Soviet Union during the Cold War

The Hypocrisy of the Christian Church

Chris Hedges

April 6, 2023

This is a talk I gave on April 6 at a protest at Princeton Theological Seminary demanding the removal of hedge fund billionaire Michael Fisch as chair of the seminary's trustee board.

We are not here to debate the moral squalor that defines the life of the hedge fund billionaire and chair of the seminary’s trustee board, Michael Fisch.

Analysis: Will Azerbaijan-Iran tensions lead to war?

Maziar Motamedi

April 8, 2023

Tehran has warned it cannot ignore what it considers a security threat emanating from growing Azerbaijan-Israel ties.

Iran installs cameras in public to crack down on women refusing to wear headscarves

GeorgeStyllis

April 8, 2023

Cameras are being installed in Iran to catch and punish women walking in public without a headscarf, as the regime in Tehran cracks down on those defying strict dress codes.

How has the Saudi-Iran divide affected the Middle East?

Story by Al Jazeera Staff

April 7, 2023

Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to follow up on arrangements to reopen their diplomatic missions to Tehran and Riyadh respectively and to discuss resuming flights between them.

Azerbaijan expels four Iranian diplomats amid rising tensions

Al Jazeerah

April 6, 2023

Azerbaijan said it would expel four Iranian diplomats over “provocative actions” in the latest deterioration of relations between the neighbours.

The Poisonous Atmosphere That Pervades Iran

RoyaHakakian

April 6, 2023

In late November, a journalist named Ali Pour-Tabatabaie reported that 18 girls from an arts academy in the city of Qom, Iran, had fallen sick, apparently from the effects of poison. The story got little attention at the time, as the country was consumed with the protests that had begun after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. The 22-year-old woman had been arrested by the morality police on grounds of not wearing the hijab, or mandatory headscarf, properly. Two weeks after that first report of poisoning, 51 students were hospitalized in Qom. By the end of December, a dozen more cases of suspected mass poisoning of students, most of them female, were reported in states around the country. The timing of these incidents, occurring within weeks of the nationwide anti-regime protests led by women and girls, has raised suspicion for many Iranians that the attacks are a form of retribution for dissent.

Fascism Denial American Style: Exceptionalism in the Ivory Tower

AnthonyDiMaggio

April 5, 2023

It borders on cliché the number of times historians lament how “fascism” is an over-used term. But Sinclair Lewis, writing about the specter of fascism a century ago, understood something most historians don’t – that U.S. intellectual culture is loathe to acknowledge fascist undercurrents in this country. I attribute this hostility to intellectuals’ belief that their nation is an exceptionalist democracy – hence fascism “can’t happen here.”

As Tax Day Approaches: Is the Federal Budget Moral or Immoral?

H.Patricia Hynes

April 4, 2023

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – April, the month tax filings are due, prompts us to ponder what our income taxes pay for.  Are they used to provide all citizens sufficient resources and public goods for human security and well-being – the core of our national security?

Western News Media Downplay Ukraine War Crimes

Ted Galen Carpenter

April 4, 2023

In late March, the United Nations issued a new report on war crimes being committed by both Russian and Ukrainian forces. The document provides a shocking litany of brutal behavior on the part of both militaries, although the investigators concluded that Russian units have committed the majority of offenses. Given the extent of Western pressure and the UN’s own biases, it is hard to determine the accuracy of that conclusion. However, the evidence cited of Ukrainian abuses is far from trivial.

Iranian media claims naval forces warned US Navy aircraft against entering its airspace

BradfordBetz

April 2, 2023

Iranian media on Sunday reported that the country’s naval forces had warned off a U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft from entering Iran’s airspace over the Sea of Oman.

Iran arrests women for not wearing hijab after man threw yogurt on them

AdamSchrader

April 2, 2023

Authorities in Iran have arrested two women at a store in the city of Shandiz after a man was seen throwing yogurt at them Thursday, officials said.

Partnering With Neo-Nazis in Ukraine: An Inconvenient History

Ted Snider

March 31, 2022        

Volodymyr Zelensky defeated Petro Poroshenko in the 2019 election on a platform that included making peace with Russia and signing the Minsk Agreements. The Minsk Agreements would have granted a degree of autonomy to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of the Donbas that had voted for independence from Ukraine after the 2014 US backed coup put a government in power that was handpicked by the US and that was pro-West and anti-Russian. It was intense pressure from the far right wing ultranationalists that bent Zelensky from a Minsk backer into the shape of a Minsk rejecter. Under that pressure from neo-Nazi parties that have large power that is disproportionate to their small support, Zelensky abandoned his campaign peace promise and refused to talk to the leaders of the Donbas and implement the Minsk Agreements.

Milley Says the US Should Attack Iran’s IRGC Quds Force

Dave DeCamp

March 30, 2023

Direct US attacks on the Quds Force could spark a full-blown war with Iran

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told Congress on Wednesday that the US should be targeting Iran’s Quds Force, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), following a drone attack in Syria that killed a US contractor.

Iran denies it had plans to invade the Kurdistan region of Iraq

SETH J. FRANTZMAN

Pro-regime media in Iran published an article over the weekend saying that Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq has denied claims that Iran sought to invade northern Iraq.