Thai police said that they had allowed the Saudi girl, Rahaf Mohammed Al-Qunun, to leave Bangkok airport under the care of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Al-Qunun tweeted a photo of UN staff with Thai security after she left her room as well as a copy of her passport that she had […]
Archives for January 2019
What the Witty, Irreverent, Sensual Poetry of Ghalib can Teach Americans
Foreword to Intimations of Ghalib (Orison Books, 2018) by M. Shahid Alam By Guy Rotella, Emeritus Professor of English Literature, Northeastern University, Boston. I first encountered Ghalib in the early 1970s. I was in graduate school, studying poetry. Then, as now, I had no Urdu. The medium of transmission—translation—was Aijaz Ahmad’s Ghazals of Ghalib, from […]
President Bolton overrules Feckless Trump Tweet on Syria Withdrawal
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Last Two Neoconservatives in the Trump administration, National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have swung into action to repeal Trump’s troop withdrawal from Syria. Bolton visited Israel to reassure prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the US will look after the interests of allies as […]
Climate Sabotage & Forever Wars: Is America the Most Dangerous Country in the World?
(Via Tomdispatch.com ) – Sixty-six million years ago, so the scientists tell us, an asteroid slammed into this planet. Landing on what’s now Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, it gouged out a crater 150 kilometers wide and put so much soot and sulfur into the atmosphere that it created what was essentially a prolonged “nuclear winter.” During […]
Israeli Squatter attacks against Palestinian Natives Tripled in 2018
Settler attacks against the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank tripled in 2018, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Sunday. Israeli settlers carried out at least 482 attacks against Palestinians last year, up from only 140 in 2017, the daily said. The settler attacks ranged from “beating up and throwing stones at Palestinians, painting nationalist and […]
Saudi Men can no Longer Divorce Wives without Telling Them
Saudi courts now have to inform wives by text message that their husbands want a divorce in a bid to end surprise separations on the part of their husbands. Starting Sunday, courts in Saudi Arabia are required to notify wives by text on any rulings confirming their divorces. However, women still remain subject to male […]
Rashida Tlaib and Working Class Authenticity v. Trump’s Plutocrat Pretense
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Why does Donald Trump get a pass on speaking and acting obscenely but Rashida Tlaib is pilloried for calling him a Mofo? It is because US corporate media and political elites expect the wealthy to do bad imitations of working class profanity (so as to fool the rubes into voting […]
How Corporate Monopolies and High Prices are Making you Poor and Rich Richer
(Inequality.org) – Andrew Leigh, a member of the Australian parliament, has a side gig. He just happens to be a working economist. Other lawmakers may spend their spare hours making cold calls for campaign cash. Leigh spends his doing research — on why our modern economies are leaving their populations ever more unequal. Leigh’s latest […]
What is Behind Iran’s Anti-Corruption Protest Drive?
By Mina Yousefi | – (International Center for Non-Violent Conflict ) – For a little over a year, Iran has witnessed a new wave of civil resistance, which had been brewing in various towns and cities around the country since the 2009 Green Revolution. Corruption and economic hardship—-although not entirely new problems—-are the two main […]
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