LIVE BLOG: Israel Withdraws from Netzarim | Brutal Aggression on West Bank – Day 492

February 9, 2025
Killed= 62,403
Wounded = 111,638
    The Israeli army has begun withdrawing from the Netzarim axis in Gaza, leaving behind massive destruction. The withdrawal is expected to be completed today. 

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan first target of US sanctions

February 8, 2025
International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan is the first person from the war crimes tribunal to be hit by US sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump, Reuters reported on 8 February.

The only way to stop the Netanyahu-Trump plan to eliminate Palestine is to begin rebuilding Gaza now

February 8, 2025
Muhannad Ayyash
Under orders from President Donald Trump, unelected tech billionaire Elon Musk and his rogue unit, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), have taken a political sledgehammer to federal agencies as part of a top-down personnel and cost-cutting shakeup that has been derided by Democrats and legal experts as unconstitutional.

DOGE Ransacks NOAA, Raising Fears About Privatization of Climate Data

February 8, 2025
Mike Ludwig
Under orders from President Donald Trump, unelected tech billionaire Elon Musk and his rogue unit, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), have taken a political sledgehammer to federal agencies as part of a top-down personnel and cost-cutting shakeup that has been derided by Democrats and legal experts as unconstitutional.

 A hurricane specialist works on tracking Hurricane Beryl at the National Hurricane Center on July 1, 2024 in Miami, Florida. Joe Raedle / Getty Images

In Valdai, confronting the “American problem” in West Asia

February 7, 2025
Pepe Escobar
MOSCOW – The 14th Middle East Conference of the Valdai Club in Moscow was hit by a geopolitical bunker buster bomb right in the middle of the proceedings: the announcement, by US President Donald Trump himself, of some sort of future Trump Gaza Riviera Resort and Casino in Palestine. 

A Sales Pitch for Ethnic Cleansing

February 7, 2025

Stanley L. Cohen

 

Moving from a Doomsday Clock to a Peace Clock

February 7, 2025

Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies

This year’s Doomsday Clock Statement landed like a damp squib in a Trump-swamped corporate news cycle on January 28th. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists only moved the hands of the Clock forward by one second, from 90 seconds up to 89 seconds to midnight, which must have come as a relief to the few members of the public who heard about it.

Trump’s Back! With a New and Improved Plan to Pervert American Democracy

February 7, 2025

Stephen Eric Bronner

And, so, it begins—again! Only this time, with new vigor, improved efficiency, and an all-encompassing agenda. Following his four-year layoff from 2020-24, in which he licked his wounds while still dominating the media, Donald Trump’s second presidency has already witnessed a blizzard of executive orders, pardons for fascists and criminals, promises to roll back the welfare state, overt threats to American democracy, and actions that endanger the well-being of the planet. This flurry of activity reflects the sobering truth that, while enough intelligent people expected him to win the election of 2024, no one believed that he would win like he did.

  

People gather in protest against U.S. President Donald Trump during a demonstration at the Texas State Capitol on February 5, 2025 in Austin, Texas.(Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

طرفداران مذاکره پاسخ بی‌شرمانه ترامپ را بشنوند! | با ترامپ چه باید کرد؟

جمعه ۱۹ بهمن ۱۴۰۳

پس از ارسال سیگنال‌های متعدد از سوی غربگرایان داخلی و مدعیان اصلاحات در دولت چهاردهم، ترامپ با انتشار یادداشتی اجرائی، دستورات جدیدی را برای فشار بر اقتصاد ایران در تداوم سیاست پیشین خود یعنی فشار حداکثری اعمال کرد.ا

Netanyahu denies Trump talked about US troops in Gaza

February 6, 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed claims that US President Donald Trump suggested deploying American troops to Gaza.

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.