'Tis the season of endless "best of" lists. Newspapers, magazines, and social media sites have been flooded with their cultural critics' views of 2022's ten best books, plays, restaurants, "hatemongers," and, of course, movies.

A glance at these lists, particularly the "ten best films," suggests how utterly out of touch some of the nation's most prominent film critics are with what Americans want to watch.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

Mohsen Shekari, 23, was not the first Iranian protester to be killed Thursday for demanding freedom in the nation-wide demonstrations that have rocked Iran since September. Human rights groups estimate that over 450 civilians been killed, and some 18,000 arrested, in the nearly three months of demonstrations that have morphed into a nation-wide protest of clerical rule that the regime has been unable to contain.

But the government's announcement of Shekari's execution for "waging war against God" marks an escalation of its campaign to suppress the protests that could well signal the start of an even more violent phase of its crackdown.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

While threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction against Ukraine, Russia has repeatedly accused, without evidence, the United States and Ukraine of working with dangerous pathogens to make bioweapons in 30 labs across the country, in violation of a 1972 treaty banning such weapons. Though both Washington and Kyiv have denied the charges as "preposterous," Chinese media and those of other American rivals have widely disseminated Russia's claims as part of an effort to dilute American and allied support for Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin himself has cited a "network of Western bioweapons labs" as one of the threats that justified Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

On the eve of a potential nuclear deal with neighboring Iran, Iraq is in chaos – yet again. But this time, in what many Iraq analysts consider one of the most serious challenges yet to Iraq's sovereignty and preservation of the state, Washington seems to have been missing in action.

As David Schenker, a former Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East under former President Trump wrote a week ago, senior State Department and National Security Council officials visited Iraq only twice in the nearly nine months between the national election last October and the most recent outbreak of violence this week.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old American of Lebanese origin, wasn't born yet when Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued his infamous fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie's murder for "insulting Islam" 33 years ago. While the motive behind Matar's heinous attack on the celebrated author remains unclear, his assault reflects two dangerous trends across the political spectrum in America — the growing hostility to free speech and the legitimation of violence as an acceptable form of political protest.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles