Heavy Machinery and Patriotic Demolition in the Service of Genocide
Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv is a well-respected holy man in Israel with some devoted followers. He is a dayan, a judge in the rabbinical courts of Tel Aviv, dispensing wisdom in matters of religion and Jewish law. He’s also a reservist in the Seyeret Givati brigade of the IDF and is currently serving in Gaza. There, […]2025-08-08 | Uncategorized
No, Nuking Cities Did Not Save Lives
Reprinted From World Beyond War It’s oddly encouraging that the New York Post had to bring up its kookiest rightwing propagandist on Friday to argue that nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved lives. It’s almost as if the New York Times’ kookiest rightwing propagandist’s claiming that killing Palestinians is not genocide had to be one-upped by the Post. It’s even more encouraging that the Post felt obliged […]2025-08-06 | Uncategorized
Eighty Years of Nuclear Terror
Ever since the atomic bombings of Japanese cities in August 1945, the world has been living on borrowed time. The indications, then and since, that the development of nuclear weapons did not bode well for human survival, were clear enough. The two small atomic bombs dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed between […]2025-08-06 | Uncategorized
Here’s What Gabbard’s Russiagate Report Missed
“An easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia — from a position of strength — is possible. Common sense says this cycle of hostility must end.” Candidate Donald Trump said that on April 27, 2016. At first glance that might sound rather irrelevant to Gabbard’s Russiagate revelations. But let me connect the dots for […]2025-08-05 | Uncategorized
Entering a Golden Age for War Profiteers
When, in his 1961 farewell address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the unwarranted influence wielded by a partnership between the military and a growing cohort of U.S. weapons contractors and came up with the ominous term “military-industrial complex,” he could never have imagined quite how large and powerful that complex would become. In […]2025-07-30 | Uncategorized
Abandoning Ukraine
The war with Russia is now going very badly for Ukraine. But Ukrainians must feel like the world, and not just Russia, is treating them badly. At the beginning of July, the Russian armed forces took full control of the Luhansk region for the first time. And, though it is too early to tell if […]2025-07-29 | Uncategorized
Performance artist calls out lawmakers for ‘homophobic slurs,’ says LGBTQ community ‘not something to fear’
Performance artist Holok Chen and an activist outside the Cotton Tree Drive Marriage Registry on July 28, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Performance artist Holok Chen urging support for the government’s same-sex partnerships registration bill outside the Cotton Tree Drive Marriage Registry on July 28, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Performance artist Holok Chen and an activist are questioned by police outside the Cotton2025-07-28 | Hong Kong, Law & Crime, LGBTQ & Gender
Letting gay couples who wed online register locally will ‘twist one’s definition of marriage,’ lawmaker says
Holden Chow, vice-chair of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, meets the press outside the government headquarters on November 3, 2023. Photo: Hans Tse/HKFP. The Legislative Council complex in Hong Kong. Photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP. Top court ruling The Court of Final Appeal. File photo: GovHK. Azan Marwah. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.2025-07-25 | Hong Kong, Law & Crime, LGBTQ & Gender
Hong Kong activist sentenced to 120 hours of community service for defrauding gov’t in welfare scheme
Hong Kong activist Eddie Tse at the Eastern Law Courts Building on July 24, 2025. Photo: Hillary Leung/HKFP. Social Welfare Department. Photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP. Legal aid application Great egrets and little egrets in a fishpond in San Tin, an area which will be redeveloped into a large-scale tech hub. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.2025-07-24 | Hong Kong, Law & Crime, Politics & Protest
Is Trump’s Ukraine Arms Deal a Deception?
U.S. President Donald Trump has consistently insisted that the war in Ukraine “is not Trump’s war. This is a Biden war, this is a Democrat war.” But on July 14, it started to look a lot like Trump’s war, as Trump announced “billions and billions” of dollars of American military equipment to be sent to […]2025-07-23 | Uncategorized
Israel’s Conservative Counter-Revolution
After its far-right election victory in late 2022, the Netanyahu cabinet’s newly-appointed justice minister, Yariv Levin, claimed that “judicial activism” had ruined public trust in the legal system and made it impossible for the government to rule effectively. Sensing a historical opportunity to remake the Israeli legal system, the new government would seek to “reform” […]2025-07-23 | Uncategorized
NATO’s Proxy War against Russia Becomes Increasingly Reckless
The strategy that the United States and its European allies have adopted to use Ukraine as their military proxy in a war to weaken Russia has always involved a sizable element of risk. At some point, Russian leaders might no longer be content with just attacking the puppet that NATO members were using to torment […]2025-07-22 | Uncategorized
Hong Kong airport to handle 1,076 flights in aftermath of Typhoon Wipha
Outbound passengers sit and wait while others queue to check in as flights resume at the Hong Kong International Airport, while Typhoon Wipha moves away from the city on July 20, 2025. Photo: Peter Parks/AFP Strong winds and massive waves at Heng Fa Chuen Promenade at noon on July 20, 2025 as Typhon Wipha neared the city. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.2025-07-21 | Hong Kong, Travel & Transport, Airport Authority Hong Kong
In Pictures: Hong Kong sees floods, flights cancelled as Typhoon Wipha prompts T10 signal
Strong winds and massive waves at Heng Fa Chuen Promenade at noon on July 20, 2025 as Typhon Wipha neared the city. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Heng Fa Chuen braces for Typhoon Wipha on July 20, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Heng Fa Chuen braces for Typhoon Wipha on July 20, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. A man loses control of his umbrella in Heng Fa2025-07-20 | Community & Education, Environment & Health, Hong Kong
Typhoon Wipha: Hong Kong hoists T10 hurricane warning – highest signal – as residents urged to stay home
Hong Kong’s Heng Fa Chuen Promenade saw big waves as the Observatory raised the T10 storm signal for the first time since 2023 in the morning of July 20, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Typhoon Whipa as of Sunday morning, July 20, 2025. Photo: Hong Kong Observatory. Heng Fa Chuen braces for Typhoon Wipha on July 20, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Heng Fa2025-07-20 | Community & Education, Hong Kong, Not Main
Exclusive: ‘Is it a coincidence?’ – Hong Kong independent bookstores, publishers face simultaneous tax probes
Hunter Bookstore on June 10, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Opened in 2022, Hunter Bookstore is located in Sham Shui Po. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. 💡HKFP grants anonymity to known sources under tightly controlled, limited circumstances defined in our Ethics Code. Among the reasons senior editors may approve the use of anonymity for sources are threats to safety, job security or fears of reprisals. Hong2025-07-20 | Arts, Lifestyle & Events, Business, HKFP Features
Tropical Cyclone Wipha: Hong Kong raises T3 storm signal, will consider T8 in early hours of Sunday
Tropical cyclone Whipa as of Saturday lunchtime, July 19. Photo Observatory. Tropical cyclone Whipa as of Saturday lunchtime, July 19. Photo Google. Typhoon Signal 3 Classes of kindergartens and schools for children with physical or intellectual disabilities will be suspended. Scheduled ferry services may be cancelled as conditions worsen. Bus and MTR services are not affected. Residents should secure loose objects like flower pots or2025-07-19 | Environment & Health, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Observatory
Hong Kong Observatory to consider T3 storm signal on Saturday as tropical cyclone nears
A tropical cyclone currently to the east of the Philippines is forecast to move towards Hong Kong on July 17, 2025. Photo: Hong Kong Observatory. Typhoon Signal 3 Classes of kindergartens and schools for children with physical or intellectual disabilities will be suspended. Scheduled ferry services may be cancelled as conditions worsen. Bus and MTR services are not affected. Residents should secure loose objects2025-07-17 | Environment & Health, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Observatory
Trump’s Tariffs Threats Against the Global South, ASEAN and the Philippines
In early April, the Philippines responded with “guarded optimism” to US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, saying higher rates placed on its neighbors could present an opportunity. Hit with Trump’s reciprocal levy of 17%, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) sought to re-frame it by stating that the “the new tariffs put the Philippines […]2025-07-16 | Uncategorized
Iran-US Negotiations: Will Non-Violence Prevail?
For the first time in a generation, there was a national consensus in Iran that negotiations with the United States are necessary to resolve the issues over Iran’s nuclear program. Practically every political group and faction, as well as the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supported talking with the United States. With Israel’s brutal war […]2025-07-16 | Uncategorized
Smoothing market entry in a state-guided economy: China's new Private Economy Development Bureaus
Smoothing market entry in a state-guided economy: China's new Private Economy Development Bureaus H.Seidl Tue, 07/15/2025 - 15:21 picture alliance / NurPhoto | Ying Tang Comment Jul 16, 2025 5 min read Smoothing market entry in a state-guided economy: China's new Private Economy Development Bureaus Fewer conflicting regulations could make market entry more predictable for firms Political alignment increasingly determines a company’s chance2025-07-15 |
Yörük cuisine in resorts
Many years ago, tourism in Türkiye centered around cultural tours of the country. Tours typically began in Istanbul, exploring key sites on the historic peninsula, particularly the iconic trio of Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and Topkapı Palace, before heading eastward to Anatolia, starting in Cappadocia. After visiting the fairy chimneys and several cave churches, tour buses would head westward2025-07-14 | Arts & Life
Could NATO Burden-Sharing Be a Subtle Snare for the United States?
Both Donald Trump and his legions of critics in Europe are celebrating the outcome of the latest NATO summit. The centerpiece of NATO’s renewed image of solidarity was an agreement among all Alliance members (except Spain) to boost their annual defense outlays to at least 5 percent of their yearly gross domestic product (GDP). Although […]2025-07-04 | Uncategorized
A Big Beautiful Bill for the Military-Industrial Complex
The US Senate worked through the weekend on the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The goal was to pass it quickly to ensure the House will then pass it and send it to President Trump’s desk before the July 4th holiday. However, disagreements among Republican Senators over reductions in spending on programs including Medicaid and food stamps […]2025-07-01 | Uncategorized
How the US and Israel Used Rafael Grossi To Hijack the IAEA and Start a War on Iran
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), allowed the IAEA to be used by the United States and Israel – an undeclared nuclear weapons state in long-term violation of IAEA rules – to manufacture a pretext for war on Iran, despite his agency’s own conclusion that Iran had no nuclear weapons […]2025-06-24 | Uncategorized
Israel’s Attack on Iran: The Violent New World Being Born Is Going To Horrify You
Western politicians and media are tying themselves up in knots trying to spin the impossible: presenting Israel’s unmistakable war of aggression against Iran as some kind of “ efensive” move. This time there was no rationalising pretext, as there was for Israel to inflict a genocide in Gaza following Hamas’ one-day attack on 7 October 2023. […]2025-06-20 | Uncategorized
Family of Kenyan man shot at close range by police demands accountability
Boniface Kariuki was shot by a masked police officer at close range while a protest against police brutality was underway in Nairobi on Tuesday. According to his family, Kariuki, who was holding a packet of face masks when he was shot, was working as a street vendor and not threatening police.2025-06-19 |
Can Russia Help End the War in Iran?
No one has been able to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, but could Russia help end the war in Iran? Russia is one of the rare powers that has very close relationships with both Iran and Israel, and both Iran and Israel trust Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken to both Iranian President Masoud […]2025-06-19 | Uncategorized
Democracy in Georgia Is Under Threat by the US Congress and the Helsinki Commission
Tbilisi – It was Lincoln who once said “I would like to see someone proud of the place in which they live.” The 16th president never made it to the South Caucasus, but here reside a people quite justly proud of the place in which they live. Among the most striking differences between the vision … Continue reading "Democracy in2025-06-12 | Uncategorized
Don’t Fund the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: It’s a Genocidal Smokescreen
Recent reports say that US AID is considering giving $500 million to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – an “aid” initiative launched at Israel’s request. At first glance, that might sound like a generous effort to help desperate Palestinians in Gaza. But peel back even one layer, and you’ll find a deadly political scheme masquerading … Continue reading "Don’t Fund2025-06-09 | Uncategorized
Is There a Crack in Western Support for Genocide?
After twenty months of horror in Gaza, political rhetoric in Western countries is finally starting to shift – but will words translate into action? And what exactly can other countries do when the United States still shields Israel from efforts to enforce international law, as it did at the UN Security Council on June 5th? … Continue reading "Is There2025-06-06 | Uncategorized
Israel Is Fully Integrating Its Gaza ‘Food Aid Hubs’ Into the Genocide
It is entirely unsurprising that Israel has yet again been caught out in a lie – a lie that the BBC once again spread far and wide on its news services. Israel claimed that it had not fired at starving Palestinians queueing on Sunday morning to get food from one of its highly militarised “aid … Continue reading "Israel Is2025-06-04 | Uncategorized
Punishing Freedom: Trump’s Attack on the First Amendment
All attempts by the government to evaluate the content of speech and deter or punish what the government and its benefactors hate or fear is un-American, unconstitutional and unlawful; and if not stopped, will reduce the American people to serfdom. During the past three months, the Trump administration has sought to withhold the delivery of … Continue reading "Punishing Freedom:2025-05-29 | Uncategorized
Netanyahu’s Endgame: Isolation and the Shattered Illusion of Power
There was a time when Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to have all the cards. The Palestinian Authority was largely passive, the occupied West Bank was relatively calm, Israel’s diplomatic reach was expanding, and the United States seemed ready to bend international law to accommodate Israel’s desire for complete control over Palestine. The Israeli prime minister had … Continue reading "Netanyahu’s Endgame:2025-05-23 | Uncategorized
Why the Wall of Silence on the Gaza Genocide Is Finally Starting To Crack
Who could have imagined 19 months ago that it would take more than a year and a half of Israel slaughtering and starving Gaza’s children for the first cracks to appear in what has been a rock-solid wall of support for Israel from western establishments. Finally, something looks like it may be about to give. … Continue reading "Why the2025-05-22 | Uncategorized
Jeremy Bowen’s interview with Gaza aid chief was shameful – and he knows it
There was yet more shameful reporting by BBC News at Ten last night, with international editor Jeremy Bowen the chief culprit this time. He prefaced an interview with Philippe Lazzarini, head of United Nations refugee agency UNRWA, with an utterly unwarranted disclaimer – as though he was talking to a terrorist, not a leading human … Continue reading "Jeremy Bowen’s2025-05-20 | Uncategorized
Surprising Developments in the Iran Nuclear Negotiations
In the past several days, there have been surprising developments in the negotiations between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s civilian nuclear program. U.S. President Donald Trump has frequently, but not always, defined the goal of the negotiations as being limited to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. He repeated that definition as recently as … Continue reading "Surprising Developments2025-05-19 | Uncategorized
Can Trump Slip the Grip of the Neocons?
During the 1988 campaign, George W. Bush came to the Courthouse in Maryville, TN to speak at a rally for his Dad. As we were leaving, I told my friend and later Chief of Staff, Bob Griffitts, “Bob, he is better than his Dad.” When he ran for President in 2000, then Governor Bush went … Continue reading "Can Trump2025-05-19 | Uncategorized
America’s Weaponization of Space Continues Whilst NASA Sees Budget Cuts
If flagship NASA missions like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Mars Sample Return mission are being cancelled at the same time that defense spending amounts the majority of last year’s increase in global government space investment, that’s a clear signal how the elected officials in Washington view the Final Frontier. At a … Continue reading "America’s Weaponization2025-05-16 | Uncategorized
The Deep State’s Favorite Columnist Just Turned on Bibi
Thomas Friedman’s message to President Trump, published in The New York Times, cuts sharper than most of the foggy, ideologically neutered op-eds that clutter that paper. It is, quite simply, one of the most brutally honest assessments of America’s relationship with Israel in years – from Thomas Friedman, of all people: an institutionalist and a … Continue reading "The Deep2025-05-14 | Uncategorized
What Will Trump Find in the Middle East This Week?
President Trump’s return to the Middle East this week, the first since his first-term 2017 visit, will take place amidst great turmoil. It is a region that bears little resemblance to the Middle East of 2017 and it appears, at least from media reporting this past week, that the Trump Administration has some understanding of … Continue reading "What Will2025-05-13 | Uncategorized
US priorities shift: Israel no longer first
ALBAWABA — Columnist Uriel Daskal makes the harshly critical claim that U.S. President Donald Trump has made a major shift in American foreign policy by essentially ignoring Israel in favor of short-term economic interests and strategic agreements, including with the Houthis and possibly Iran, in an opinion piece published by the Hebrew daily Maariv...2025-05-10 | NEWS, Main Headlines, Conflict with Israel
We Were So Close: Life After Conscience and the Abraham Accords
“We were so close,” Cassandra Dixon wrote, from Malta -where she had hoped to board Conscience, the aptly named Freedom Flotilla ship which two weaponized drones bombed on May 2, 2025, almost certainly launched by Israel. Cassandra had traveled to Malta after spending six weeks in Masafer Yatta, the West Bank region where, for two … Continue reading "We Were2025-05-09 | Uncategorized
The Myth of Conquest: Why Gaza Will Never Be Subdued by Israel
To conquer a place is to fundamentally subdue its population. This must be clearly differentiated from ‘occupation’, a specific legal term that governs the relationship between a foreign “occupying power” and the occupied nation under international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention. When Israeli forces were ultimately compelled to redeploy from the Gaza Strip in … Continue reading "The Myth2025-05-01 | Uncategorized
The Marketplace of Ideas Works Only If We Leave the Doors Open
In 1958, Soviet intellectuals Alexander Yakovlev and Oleg Kalugin arrived at Columbia University as Fulbright scholars for a year of graduate studies. They weren’t defectors. They were loyal Party apparatchiks, sent to study how America’s “propaganda machine” worked so they could better defend socialism back home. Instead, they encountered something far more dangerous to totalitarianism … Continue reading "The Marketplace2025-05-01 | Uncategorized
The Path to Peace: Europeanization Then Normalization
Reprinted with permission from The Realist Review. Much has been made of Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky’s tête-à-tête in Saint Peter’s Basilica over the weekend. If nothing else, the optics were stunning: The US and Ukrainian president looked to be patching things up – perhaps the spirit of Pope Francis awakened the better angels of … Continue reading "The Path2025-04-30 | Uncategorized
Iran and the United States: Nuclear Argy Bargy
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” ~ Voltaire, Enlightenment author and philosopher (1694-177 Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the United States and Israel have been zealous in their efforts to disempower it. Israel has used its powerful hasbara (propaganda) machine to peddle absurdities about Tehran as a nuclear threat … Continue reading "Iran2025-04-30 | Uncategorized
50 Years On: US Elites Learned Nothing From the Vietnam Defeat
April 30, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of the final, definitive defeat of the U.S. military crusade in Vietnam. The images of U.S. helicopters desperately flying American diplomats and Washington’s high-level South Vietnamese collaborators from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon effectively captured not only the chaotic environment, but also the extent of … Continue reading "50 Years2025-04-29 | Uncategorized