China’s economy in 2024 continued to far outgrow the U.S.

February 5, 2025

John Ross

(This is an edited version of an article which originally appeared in Chinese at Guancha.cn.)

China’s GDP growth of 5.0% in 2024 meant it successfully hit its GDP goal of “about 5.0%” for the year. More significantly for China’s strategic economic development, Figure 1 shows that it means its economic growth continues to be ahead of the target discussed at the time of the adoption of the 14th Five Year Plan of doubling GDP between 2020 and 2035.1

 

Trump administration imposes first Iran sanctions since taking office

February 6, 2025

Washington, DC – The United States has imposed the first batch of sanctions against Iran since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, as the president pushes to reimpose “maximum pressure” on Tehran.

 

Protesters burn pictures of Joe Biden and Donald Trump during a demonstration against the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's top nuclear scientist, in Tehran, November 28, 2020 [File: Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]

Israel's West Bank assault displaces 26,000 from Jenin and Tulkarm camps

February 5, 2025

Lubna Masarwa and Heba Nasser

The Israeli military has displaced 26,000 Palestinians from their homes in Jenin and Tulkarm since launching its major assault on the occupied West Bank last month.

 

 Smoke rises over buildings in Jenin refugee camp during an Israeli forces assault, 2 February 2025 (Mohammad Mansour/AFP)

یادشت‌های یک آدم بی‌سواد

والله این موهبتیه که آدم باسوادی مثل شما یادداشت‌های من بیسواد رومی‌خونین. حالا اگه اظهار فضل هم کردم به بزرگی خودتون ‌ببخشین. به قول معروف، یارو رو تو ده راش نمیدادن سراغ خونهٔ کدخدا رو می‌گرفت. زیادم این بیسوادی تقصیر من نیست. ‌تا اونجایی که یادم میاد، همیشه عادت داشتم همهٔ کارامو با دست چپ بکنم. تا اینکه یه روز آقامون این‌رو دید و هرچی تو دست چپم داشتم به دست راستم داد و سرم داد زد که آدم که با دست چپ کار نمی‌کنه. دست چپ واسهٔ تمیز کردنه و دست راست واسهٔ چیزی تو دست گرفتن. خیلی‌ عذر می‌خوام منظورش تو توالت بود. ولی‌ خوب دست چپ برام راحت‌تر بود، و وقتی‌ که آقامون نیگا نمی‌کرد، با دست چپ کار می‌کردم.ا

Russia, Iran, and the Caucasian Chalk Circle

February 5, 2025

Pietro A. Shakarian

It was only a few weeks ago that Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met to ink the historic Russo-Iranian Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.  The pact itself was a milestone, so much so that commentators around the world are still widely discussing its implications.  Perhaps one of the most striking elements of the treaty is the major focus on Eurasia.  Although Western analysts tend to focus on Russo-Iranian cooperation in the Middle East, the treaty indicates that Eurasia is of even more immediate geopolitical significance to both Moscow and Tehran.  To historians and long-time observers of Iran and Russia, this is hardly a surprise.  The Eurasian region – that is, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Caspian Sea – forms an integral part of the common Russo-Iranian neighborhood.

 

Death penalty in the United States and Europe

February 4, 2025 

This infographic compares Europe and the United States in terms of legality and applicability of the death penalty.

The Great March of Hope: Gaza’s Defiance against Erasure

February 4, 2025

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – The return of one million Palestinians from southern Gaza to the north on 27 January felt as if history was choreographing one of its most earth-shattering events in recent memory.

Rosa Parks: How a Simple Act Sparked a Civil Rights Revolution

February 4, 2025

Helen Tarver

When we think of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, many iconic figures come to mind: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the legendary activists of the era. But one of the most powerful and transformative moments came from an ordinary woman who, by simply refusing to give up her seat on a bus, sparked a revolution. That woman was Rosa Parks, whose act of defiance became a powerful symbol of resistance and catalyzed one of the most significant movements in American history.

 

Elon Musk is in Your Underwear

February 4, 2025

Dean Baker

Okay, as far as I know Elon Musk is not literally in your underwear, but it seems that he is in your tax, Social Security, and Medicare records. This probably also means that Musk has access to your banking information since tens of millions of people pay their taxes through a bank transfer and get Social Security checks through direct deposit.

In Syria, the lunatics are running the asylum

February 4, 2025

Fuad Walid Itayim

For years, many speculated what Syria—a country with deep religious and cultural diversity—would look like if the armed, extremist-dominated opposition managed to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s government.

 

Israeli forces killed 70 in West Bank this year, Health Ministry says Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/3/israel-kills-70-in-west-bank-this-year-pa-condemns-ethnic-cleansing#ixzz8zEdqsgcl

February 3, 2025

Israeli forces have killed 70 people, including 10 children, in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says.

 

Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed in an Israeli raid, in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, February 3 [Raneen Sawafta/Reuters]

As Trump’s War on Migrants Transcends Borders, Resistance Grows in Latin America

February 3, 2025

Camilo Pérez-Bustillo

Colombia, along with Mexico, Brazil and Honduras, are already resisting the Trump administration’s neo-imperial regional aspirations.

 

 Colombia's President Gustavo Petro (L) speaks next to Honduras's President Xiomara Castro during the CELAC Summit in Buccament Bay, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, on March 1, 2024. RANDY BROOKS / AFP via Getty Images

Israel destroys neighbourhood in Jenin refugee camp, damaging hospital

February 2, 2025

Alex MacDonald and Fayha Shalash

Israel has pounded Jenin refugee camp and destroyed residential buildings as part of its ongoing large-scale operations in the occupied West Bank.

 

 Smoke billows from the site of multiple explosions during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on 2 February 2025 (Mohammad Mansour/AFP)

On the 46th Anniversary of Iranian Revolution: An Interview with Amb. John Limbert

February 2, 2025

Fariba Amini

Ambassador John Limbert is a career foreign service official who was taken hostage by student radicals in Iran in 1979 and held for 444 days. He emerged in Washington as a voice of reason and dialogue on Iran. The interview has been edited regarding the order of the anecdotes and observations.

Over 180 Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons, many show signs of 'torture, starvation'

February 1, 2025

Israel released 183 Palestinian detainees in exchange for three Israeli captives on 1 February as part of the fourth prisoner swap under the ceasefire agreement underway in Gaza.

 

Rebuilding our homes and ourselves

February 1, 2025

Noor Alyacoubi

It’s been almost two weeks since the ceasefire came into effect in Gaza City, yet I haven’t adjusted to the calm we were deprived of for so many months.

 

A Palestinian man surveys the rubble of destroyed buildings in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on January 30, 2025. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)

The Israelis Left behind in 50 mn. Tons of Bomb-Infested Rubble in Gaza, as Hundreds of Thousands Stream Home

January 31, 2025

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli systemic destruction of civilian building infrastructure in Gaza generated over 50 million tons of debris by 1 December 2024.

 

 “Unexploded Munitions,” Digital, Dream / Dreamland v3 / Clip2Comic, 2024

Trump's Big, Bad, Destructive, and Unpeaceful Imperialism

January 31, 2025

Phyllis Bennis

Even as Donald Trump and his MAGA movement have seized virtually complete control of the Republican Party, there remain at least two factions competing for dominance of foreign policy: an isolationist gang and a warmongering interventionist cabal. The strains between them seemingly remain unresolved, and there are real strategic debates and disagreements about what direction Trump’s foreign policy should take.

  

U.S. President Donald Trump (looks on as U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks about the mid-air crash between American Airlines and a military helicopter, at the White House on January 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

A Fools Paradise: Thomas Friedman and the Middle East

June 30, 2025

Melvin Goodman

Thomas Friedman, the New York Times’ most influential columnist, has comprehensively recorded his dreamscape for the Middle East.  It tells Donald Trump that “you have a chance to reshape this region in ways that could fundamentally enhance the peace and prosperity of Israelis, Palestinians and all the region’s people, as well as the national security interests of America.”  Friedman believes that Benjamin Netanyahu is “ready to complete Israel’s withdrawal and finalize the border” with Lebanon, and that the United States has an “enormous opportunity to truly end the civil war [in Lebanon] and put the country back together.”  Finally, he produces a threat: Iran’s nuclear program and malign regional strategy need to be eliminated, and if Trump can’t do this through “peaceful negotiations,” it needs to be “done kinetically.”  That’s right: Friedman is willing to commit the United States to a war against Iran.

Trump lays out blueprint to deport pro-Palestinian foreign nationals

June 30, 2025

Umar A Farooq

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued a new executive order that aims to deport any international students on university campuses who have expressed pro-Palestinian sentiments or participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in front of the University of Southern California campus, a day before commencement ceremonies, on 7 May 2024 in Los Angeles, California (Mario Tama/AFP)