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In the Human Interest – Mel Gurtov

In the Human Interest – Mel Gurtov

Critical appraisals of foreign affairs and politics from a global-citizen perspective

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20Sep 202620 Sep 2026
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Post #527: The Crimes of the Trump Regime

(Note to the Reader: This is the fifth iteration of a blog originally posted after the first two weeks of…

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17Sep 202617 Sep 2026
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APB: The US Denies Visas to Palestinian UN Delegation

For a second consecutive year, the US State Department has denied visas to members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and…

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16Sep 2026
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Post #526: Is Xi Coming, and Will AI and Human Rights be on the Agenda?

Xi Jinping has indicated that if the US approves a second major arms shipment to Taiwan, it would cross a…

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Post #516: The Retreat from Global Warming and Environmental Protection

16 Jul 202616 Jul 2026
Walking It Back We once took for granted that everyone concerned with global warming outside the Trump administration’s orbit accepted the scientists’ conclusion that 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming was…
BLOG…

Post #515: Putin’s Predicament

12 Jul 202616 Jul 2026
Three Policy Directions President Vladimir Putin’s increasingly problematic position in the war with Ukraine would seem to lead Russia in three possible directions: stay the course and keep throwing soldiers…
BLOG…

Post #514: Out of Control

4 Jul 2026
Mentally Unstable Ordinarily, July 4 would be a time to celebrate the virtues of America. But whatever virtues we once possessed, Donald Trump and his inner circle of family and…
BLOG…

Post #513: The Missing Art of the Deal with Iran

26 Jun 202626 Jun 2026
Understanding the MOU Most of the critical commentary on the Trump administration’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran centers on the specific commitments each side is supposed to have made…
BLOG…

Post #512: Dissecting the US-Iran Agreement

18 Jun 2026
The US-Iran memorandum of understanding (MOU) has now been revealed, and it is clear why it took days before a US official read it out to reporters in advance of…
BLOG…

Post #511: Lebanon, Netanyahu’s Nightmare and Opportunity

8 Jun 20268 Jun 2026
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chances of reelection hinge on carrying on the war Hezbollah and keeping the fires burning with Iran. At the same time, he must assuage Donald…
BLOG…

Post #510: Defeats in the Middle East, One Place at a Time

3 Jun 2026
President Donald Trump hates to lose, but he is on a losing streak in the Middle East—not just in Iran, where his illegal war has been a strategic and diplomatic…
BLOG…

Post #508: This Reported End-of-War Agreement Shows Its Pointlessness

28 May 2026
We’ve seen this movie several times already: Trump issues threats, Iran refuses to kneel, negotiators rush to Qatar, Trump or Rubio announces an imminent deal, and then optimism evaporates as…
BLOG…

Post #507: The Trump-Xi Summit and the New World Order

15 May 202616 May 2026
A Transformed Relationship A study of five decades of US-China summitry by the Asia Society finds that “these meetings rarely transform the relationship. What they can do, when handled well,…
BLOG…

Post #506: China Plays It Smart in the Iran War

7 May 2026
China has played a cautious hand on Iran. It has chosen not to try to defend a country that is a major source of oil and officially a “comprehensive strategic…
BLOG…

Post #505: Cuba’s Fate Should Not be in US Hands

25 Apr 2026
Another Venezuela? Negotiations are ongoing between the US and Cuba as the Trump administration decides whether or not to apply the Venezuela model to Cuba. The US embargo remains in…
BLOG…

Post #504: Where We Are and Where We Need to Be on Iran

21 Apr 202621 Apr 2026
As another week of Trump’s war begins, it becomes ever more clear that all his presumptions about how the war would go have proven wrong. Iran’s economy has bent but…

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  • Post #527: The Crimes of the Trump Regime
  • APB: The US Denies Visas to Palestinian UN Delegation
  • Post #526: Is Xi Coming, and Will AI and Human Rights be on the Agenda?
  • Post #525: Losing Hand in the Iran War
  • Post #524: The Arsenal

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Listen to my "Global Citizen" commentaries every Tuesday, 5:25 pm, on KBOO.fm (Portland area) and Wednesdays on KXCR.net (Florence, OR area). The Global Citizen International Digest of the week's news is on KBOO Thursdays at 5:30 pm and is also on SUBSTACK, free, via https://melgurtov.substack.com

  • A philanthropist makes a grand pledge for conservation
  • Making China a U.S. enemy is counterproductive
  • BLOG ARCHIVE
  • Canada’s PM Sets an Independent Course
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