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Archives for August 2018

Arms Sales
How Trump is Turning US Diplomats into Arms Merchants to the World

How Trump is Turning US Diplomats into Arms Merchants to the World

William D. Hartung

New York ( Tomdispatch.com) – American weapons makers have dominated the global arms trade for decades. In any given year, they’ve accounted for somewhere between one-third and more than one-half the value of all international weapons sales. It’s hard to imagine things getting much worse — or better, if you happen to be an arms […]

Saudi Arabia
Saudi Women can Finally Drive, But are their Voices Being Heard?

Saudi Women can Finally Drive, But are their Voices Being Heard?

The Conversation

By Nermin Allam | – Earlier this summer, Saudi Arabia lifted the decades-long ban on women’s driving. The move is part of a series of reforms that the country has been implementing. In April the kingdom loosened male guardianship laws – under which women need the permission of a male guardian to work, travel or […]

Featured
Defying Trump, Iraq’s PM walks Back Pledge to Boycott Iran, says will avoid Dollar Trade

Defying Trump, Iraq’s PM walks Back Pledge to Boycott Iran, says will avoid Dollar Trade

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iraqi caretaker prime minister Haidar al-Abadi on Monday walked back his pledge last week that Iraq would participate in the US sanctions regime imposed on Iran. Al-Abadi now will only say that Iraq will not trade with Iran in dollars. I suppose that the two could instead use Euros or […]

Foreign Policy
Is the US-Turkish Military Alliance Doomed?

Is the US-Turkish Military Alliance Doomed?

AFP

by Thomas WATKINS | – Washington (AFP) – The crisis in US-Turkish relations, which already has put Turkey’s economy under massive strain, also risks souring military ties between the two NATO allies, unleashing unknown geopolitical consequences. US President Donald Trump last week announced new tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum, causing the country’s currency to […]

Green Transportation
Elon Musk says in Talks with Saudis on Taking Tesla Private

Elon Musk says in Talks with Saudis on Taking Tesla Private

AFP

By Rob Lever | – Washington (AFP) – Tesla chief executive Elon Musk disclosed Monday that he was in talks with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and other investors to take the electric automaker private. The revelation came after Musk claimed in an August 7 Twitter post that financing for a deal to take Tesla […]

United Kingdom
UK Labour's Corbyn Refutes Netanyahu's Smears, Calls out Policy of Shooting Gaza Kids

UK Labour’s Corbyn Refutes Netanyahu’s Smears, Calls out Policy of Shooting Gaza Kids

Middle East Monitor

London (Middle East Monitor) – Israel’s nation-state law discriminates against the country’s Palestinian minority, British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said Monday, Anadolu reports. Corbyn made the remarks on Twitter in reply to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who joined the criticism against Corbyn over his alleged participation in a wreath-laying ceremony in Tunisia four […]

Iran
Iran’s Khamenei Pledges No War with US, but Rejects Talks under Sanctions Shadow

Iran’s Khamenei Pledges No War with US, but Rejects Talks under Sanctions Shadow

Eric Randolph

Tehran (AFP) – Iran’s supreme leader said Monday there would be neither war nor negotiations with the United States, and that the country’s problems were the result of government mismanagement more than renewed sanctions. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments add to the pressure on President Hassan Rouhani following a collapse in the currency and widespread protests […]

Featured
Multi-Cultural Crowd Rallies in Tel Aviv against Likud Apartheid Law

Multi-Cultural Crowd Rallies in Tel Aviv against Likud Apartheid Law

Juan Cole

“The most excluded and oppressed group in Israel, and the one most seriously harmed by the nation-state law, proudly made its voice heard in the city square”

Afghanistan
Farmers in War-Torn Afghanistan Hit by Worst Drought in Decades

Farmers in War-Torn Afghanistan Hit by Worst Drought in Decades

AFP

With Emal Haidary | – Mazar-i-Sharif (Afghanistan) (AFP) – After his wheat crop failed and wells dried up, Ghulam Abbas sold his animals and joined thousands of other farmers migrating to cities as Afghanistan’s worst drought in living memory ravages the war-torn country. A huge shortfall in snow and rain across much of the country […]

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