Sanders Warns Democrats: Don’t Support Bill to Fast-Track Social Security Cuts

 August 4, 2026
Jake Johnson 

“If the Democratic Party is ever to regain the faith of ordinary Americans it must stand firm on the issue of Social Security,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on May 20, 2026.

Oil shortages escalate from wars in Iran and Ukraine, with few signs of relief

August 4, 2026
Amy Myers Jaffe 

Smoke plumes rise from Saudi Aramco’s oil refinery in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, on July 26, 2026, after Houthi missile and drone strikes were launched from Yemen. Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2026

Trump teases Iran talks as Truth Social starts selling fast access to his posts

August 3, 2026

The sudden cancelation of strikes followed a week of threats that helped keep crude near $90 a barrel

The collapse of national sovereignty in the Middle East

August 3, 2026
Paul R. Pillar

The region has come to look like — to borrow a phrase from 17th Century philosopher Thomas Hobbes — a war of all, against all

Outrage Over Apparent US Use of 2,000-Pound Bomb on Iranian Family Home Builds

August 2, 2026
Jessica Corbett

“Everyone in the chain of command who authorized this should be charged with murder.”

Protesters march in the streets of downtown Austin, Texas to show opposition to the war in Iran during a protest organized by the Austin for Palestine Coalition on April 8, 2026. (Photo by Mikala Compton/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)

ASEAN winners and losers in the era of the Hormuz crisis

August 1, 2026
Chris Taylor

Don’t cry for me Indonesia – and landlocked Laos surprises

A Thai‑flagged cargo ship burns after being hit by Iranian missiles in the Strait of Hormuz on March 11. Photo: Royal Thai Navy

Turkey urges Iran to halt attacks on Kurdish groups

July 31, 2026
Ragip Soylu

Ankara fears further Iranian strikes could push Kurdish opposition groups closer to Israel and undermine Turkey’s peace process with the PKK

Members of Komala, an Iranian Kurdish opposition party, attend the funeral of Peshmerga fighter Ghazal Moulai at Sheikh Ahmed Hindi cemetery in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, on 16 April 2026 (Shwan Mohammed/AFP)

Ukraine strike on Iran, a cynical Zelensky sales pitch

 July 31, 2026

Zelensky’s attack on Iran is aimed at boosting that illusion of Ukraine acting as a benefactor for Western security when, in reality, it is recklessly inciting more war – all to satisfy the corrupt money racket.

Complicity In Plain Sight: The West’s Scarlet Letter of Indifference

July 30, 2026

M. Reza Behnam
The architecture of international justice was built upon a single uncompromising promise: never again.  It was forged in the ashes of 20th century atrocities, with the solemn vow that regardless of station in life, wealth or power, no one is above the law. Today, that pledge is on the verge of collapse.

جنگ جهانی‌ سوم

به منظور ایجاد اسرائیل بزرگ، دولت نتنیاهو سومین جنگ جهانی‌ و تنها جنگ همه‌گیر این قرن را از یک احتمال به یک واقعیت تبدیل می‌کند. دولت صهیونیستی با پشتیبانی‌ بزرگترین قدرت نظامی دنیا، و به منظور تبدیل اسرائیل به بزرگترین دولت خاورمیانه، در پیِ نابودی و یا تضعیف کشور‌هائی در خاورمیانه است که به دولت ترامپ سر تعظیم فرو نیاورده‌ا‌ند. حملهٔ آمریکا به ایران در یکی‌ دو هفتهٔ اخیر، گسترش اسرائیل با حمله به سایر کشور‌های همجوار و با تائید کشورهای دیگر عربی‌ مانند عربستان و امارات و چند دولت دیگر، چنانکه ادامه یابد خطر جنگ جهانی‌ سوم را بیشتر می‌کند. از آنجائی که این جنگ در نهایت اتمی‌ خواهد شد، به نظر می‌رسد که به پایان دنیا نزدیک می‌شویم.اِ

Tehran slams Ukrainian strike on Iranian ship in Caspian Sea

July 26, 2026

Iran said Kiev bears ‘responsibility for the consequences’ of its attack, hours after Ukraine’s president announced the strike

 

The US Culture of Misunderstanding in Iran & the Middle East

July 25, 2026
Andrea B. Rugh
Washington, D.C. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – It has become increasingly clear that effective international communication is impossible without basic knowledge of world cultures. US officials say as much when they admit that failures in Afghanistan and Iraq were due in large part to ignorance of culture and pushing too many programs that conflicted with local values. In Afghanistan, for example, the US pushed tribal leaders to adopt a centralized form of government, when decentralization was a more familiar pattern of the past. It left the Afghan government only controlling Kabul in the end. The US also insisted that USAID-funded projects be staffed by 25 percent Afghan women. But in practice, few Afghan women had the requisite skills or the willingness to join their projects. Even when they did, social norms required that they be accompanied and transported everywhere—costly provisions that forced the cancellation of projects.

U.S. Imperialism Resurgent

July 25, 2026
Costas Lapavitsas
Evidence has been accumulating for more than a decade that the world has entered a period of profound geopolitical turmoil. Large-scale war has become a permanent feature of geopolitics, manifested in the fighting between Russia and Ukraine since February 2022—with the direct and indirect involvement of the United States and its allies—and in the devastation of the Middle East and destruction of Palestinian society and people by Israel. Alongside open violence, there has been widespread economic coercion applied by the United States, including massive commercial sanctions on Russia, freezing the reserves of its central bank, and using interbank payment mechanisms to isolate the Russian and other economies from the global monetary and financial systems.

 

Today’s Headlines: 16 Iranian Cities Hit | Al-Hayya’s Message to Mediators | ‘False Flag’

       July 24, 2026
Abu Obeida Issues Statement: Why Is the West Bank Suddenly Exploding?
PALESTINE CHRONICLE: Friday’s deadly events in Tell triggered a sweeping Israeli escalation, renewed resistance calls, and fears of a broader confrontation across the occupied West Bank.

US ramps up campaign against Iran by turning to a new weapon

July 23, 2026
Jack Davis
B-1 bombers have returned to the sky over Iran as the United States seeks to pound Iran into releasing its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iran Cease-Fire Was Doomed to Fail

 July 22, 2026

Neil Quilliam and Sanam Vakil

Why Transactionalism Won’t Deliver Peace in the Middle East

موجود هوشمند

 آیا ما تنها موجود هوشمند در این دنیا می‌باشیم؟ جهان ما آنقدر وسیع است که بسیاری از دانشمندان احتمال وجود موجودات هوشمند در منظومه‌های دیگر را قریب به یقین می‌دانند. فرضیه‌های بسیاری در مورد اینکه این موجودات چگونه هستند وجود دارد، تا جایی که حتی ضریب هوشی آنها برآورد شده است. 

Iran war live: Kuwait desalination, power plants damaged in fiery attack

July 21, 2026
Mariamne Everett and Christine Maguire

• A desalination facility and power plants caught on fire and suffered serious damage in Kuwait after new Iranian strikes targeted the crucial facilities, along with areas of Bahrain and Jordan, following a 10th-consecutive night of US bombing.
• “Massive fires” broke out on two tankers that “took an unsafe route” in the Strait of Hormuz, says Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
• Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen declare a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia threatening to further disrupt the fragile global energy supply.
• US President Donald Trump warns Iran it will pay “many times over” for the deaths of American soldiers after a week in which at least three US personnel were killed.
• Lebanon’s army says its soldiers have begun deploying in the southern town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh after the withdrawal of Israeli forces as part of a US-mediated agreement.

An Iranian Vision of the New Middle East

July 20, 2026
Javad Zarif

Ending the War and Sustaining the Peace Requires a New Approach to Regional Security

Iran’s Kuwait Water Plant Strike: Oil Prices and Trans-regional War

July 19, 2026
Juan Cole
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In response to the renewed American bombing of southeastern Iran ports and facilities, including civilian infrastructure, the Iranian military responded Saturday with attacks on US bases and the infrastructure of Arab allies of the US, such as a desalinization plant and oil facilities in Kuwait and US personnel and installations in Jordan, where two American soldiers were killed and several more wounded.

Photo of Kuwait City by Optical Chemist on Unsplash