Palestine
ISIS behind West Bank abductions?
Hebron and the West Bank are heavily militarized as Israeli troops hunt for three youths whose abductions have now been claimed (somewhat dubiously) in the name of ISIS.
Author: Bill Weinberg
Iraq
ISIS: too radical for al-Qaeda?
Ayman al-Zawahiri purged ISIS from al-Qaeda and confered the local franchise on the rival Nusra Front. But with the old Qaeda leadership moribund, ISIS now controls much of Iraq.
East Asia
Tiananmen Square: futility of revisionism
The hyper-security in Tiananmen Square on the 25th anniversary of the 1989 massacre speaks to well-grounded fear of a social explosion on the part of China's rulers.
Planet Watch
Obama climate plan: too little, too late
The EPA's Clean Power Plan, bashed by the GOP and industry as draconian, would cut carbon emissions by a grossly insufficient 7% by 2030—and of course through market mechanisms.
Greater Middle East
ISIS behind Brussels Jewish Museum killings?
News that a suspect in the Brussels Jewish museum killings fought in Syria with the insurgent group ISIS comes as European police escalate their crackdown on Syria "returnees."
Mexico
Subcommander Marcos ‘ceases to exist’
A new communique from the Zapatistas' Subcommander Marcos states that he is stepping down as the public voice of the indigenous rebel army in Mexico's Chiapas state.
Europe
Europe’s fascist resurgence: East and West
The rise of far-right "anti-Europe" parties in the Europarliament elections echoes escalating ultra-nationalist and neo-fascist rhetoric on both sides in the Russo-Ukraine conflict.
Africa
#BringBackOurGirls: Obama sends in the drones
The Pentagon deploys 80 Air Force troops to Chad to maintain a drone force to assist in efforts to find the abducted Nigerian schoolgirls—as Nigerians organize self-defense militias.
Greater Middle East
Russia blocks ICC action on Syria, heightening ‘anti-war’ contradiction
"Anti-war" voices in the West have called for International Criminal Court action in Syria as a substitute for military intervention. Will they protest now that Moscow has blocked it?
Central Asia
Xinjiang: terror makes headlines —not repression
The deadly assault on a marketplace in Urumqi makes brief headlines, while the ongoing repression and humiliation of the Uighurs that fuels such attacks is little noted.
New York City
Islamophobia at Ground Zero —again?
Protests are mounting over a supposedly Islamophobic video to be screened at New York's Ground Zero museum—yet few have actually seen it. What is the truth here?
Europe
Ukraine: Blackwater versus Cossacks?
Amid claims that Blackwater mercenaries are fighting for Kiev, come reports of reactionary neo-Cossack paramilitaries fighting for the separatists in Ukraine's east.