On March 1, 2024, the Islamic Republic of Iran will hold elections for the sixth term of the Assembly of Experts. The major responsibility of this 88-member body is to designate the future supreme leader after the current leader’s death or when he becomes incapable of fulfilling the position’s responsibilities. At present, there is no verified information about the health of 84-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. However, since the sixth Assembly of Experts will continue its term until 2032, this next assembly may very well be charged with designating Khamenei’s successor — if the Islamic regime continues to rule Iran until then. The supreme…

Last week, the United States conducted the most expansive military action against Iran’s militia network since the Iraq War; but the five-day delay in launching the strikes meant that all Iranian IRGC personnel had evacuated, along with militia commanders and leaders. For now, this appears to be in keeping with the Biden administration’s desire to avoid targeting Iran or Iranians specifically — a strategy that does little except feed Iranian confidence that its long-term proxy-driven attritional campaign against the US is working. In launching a wave of strikes on Iranian proxy militant targets in western Iraq and eastern Syria late…

Widespread reports say at least 39 were killed in the Friday US airstrikes on Iran-linked targets across Western Iraq and Eastern Syria, which used over 125 bombs and precision munitions, according to a Pentagon statement. There are reportedly civilians among the dead. The Baghdad government on Saturday said that 16 Iraqis, among them civilians, were killed - while on the other side of the border the Syrian Defense Ministry confirmed that both militants and civilians were killed but without providing a figure. The Syrian military said that "many civilian and military martyrs" died. The anti-Assad monitoring group, UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that the Syria strikes killed…

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) refused to implement the most crucial demand made by South African jurists: “the State of Israel shall immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.” But at the same time, it delivered a devastating blow to the foundational myth of Israel. Israel, which paints itself as eternally persecuted, has been credibly accused of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Palestinians are the victims, not the perpetrators, of the “crime of crimes.” A people, once in need of protection from genocide, are now potentially committing it. The court’s ruling questions the very raison d'être of the “Jewish State”…

In 2011, the Great British Class Survey was conducted, in collaboration with academics from the University of Manchester, the London School of Economics, and the University of York. The British have always been obsessed with class, so it is not surprising that British academics would attempt something of this nature. The survey polled 161,400 people, and in a fit of obviousness, they concluded, “We demonstrate the existence of an ‘elite’, whose wealth separates them from an established middle class.” They also concluded that class distinctions had broadened into a multitude of seven classes. This is an expansion of the Marxist model of…