COP30 in Brazil’s Belém concluded with a diluted agreement, which failed to address fossil fuel phase-out or deforestation, amid US federal absence, China’s leadership, and calls for equitable transitions outside UN consensus
The rise of Zohran Mamdani, who is set to become New York’s first Muslim and African mayor of South Asian descent, and his political vision is rooted in his father and Columbia University academic Mahmood Mamdani’s civil rights activism and the idea of linked struggles for freedom
Despite evidence that polygamy is marginal, declining, and not specific to a religious group, it has been weaponised against Muslims to fuel Islamophobia, even as the Quran, the primary source of Islamic law, backs monogamy as the preferred model of marriage, underlining how polygamy can never be fair and just
Israeli airstrike in Qatar shattered assumptions of immunity and marked the first direct violation of the sovereignty of a Gulf Arab nation, raising questions over the durability of the Abraham Accords or normalization of ties between Arab states and Israel, and deepening fears of escalation
Reagan and economist Arthur Laffer used Ibn Khaldun’s ideas to build modern conservative tax policy, although the Islamic roots of supply-side economics and the influence of the Islamic Golden Age remains largely forgotten
The American strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities sparked a fresh sense of emergency that Iran has repeatedly found itself in, and contributed to the survival of the establishment that took power post-1979 revolution, with the same Western hegemony and interferences among the contributing factors
Fazlur Rahman Khan, a Bangladeshi-American structural engineer and architect, revolutionized skyscraper design with his innovative tube structural system, which enabled the construction of taller, more efficient, and safer buildings
Trump tariffs mark a significant shift towards economic nationalism, discarding decades of accepted wisdom on free trade and globalization to boost the economy with potentially unintended consequences, including recession and an acceleration in American decline
Rebels attack Aleppo, reigniting the civil war, Israel continues assaults in Gaza despite expected talks for a ceasefire with Hamas, the latest on protesters demanding the release of Imran Khan, a new carbon-absorbing powder offers hope for climate efforts and record online holiday shopping
The nomination of Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense and Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel signaled a boost to the US’s unconditional support for Israel’s expansionist policies, including the annexation of Palestinian territories driven by Christian nationalist ideologies that view Israeli control over Palestine as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy
