2019

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon of the social-democratic Scottish National Party has called a “climate emergency,” doing so in response to a call from “Extinction Rebellion Scotland.” The latter is a youth protest group that has staged walk-outs from high schools and engaged in civil disobedience in numerous cities around […]

Iran

Trump appointee Bolton inventing a new “Axis of Evil,” including Iran, to put US on War Footing

John Feffer

(Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Bolton’s broadsides against Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela hint at ambitions for much more dangerous geopolitical conflict — and nothing short of a new Cold War. If you’re in the market for a troika of tyranny, Donald Trump, John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo certainly fit the bill. Or, if you’d […]

Israel/ Palestine

Palestine, International Law, and a Radically Just Future

Noura Erekat

By Noura Erakat Introduction Al-Shabaka – In her new book, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine, Al-Shabaka Policy Analyst Noura Erakat breaks new ground in her approach to international law as it pertains to Palestine. Analysts have generally considered the law in this context as either essentially beneficent if deployed properly, or […]

Pentagon

Will Technology Make America’s Forever Wars Permanent?

Tomdispatch

By Allegra Harpootlian and Emily Manna | – (Tomdispatch.com) – Here’s a question worth asking about America’s seemingly endless global conflicts: if you kill somebody and there’s no one there (on our side anyway), is the United States still at war? That may prove to be the truly salient question when it comes to the […]

Antisemitism

Hatred of One is Hatred of All: San Diego Synagogue Shooter had Attempted to Burn down Mosque

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – One person is dead and three are wounded after a shooting at a synagogue in San Diego, which the mayor has branded a “hate crime.” The attack came a day after an Iraq War veteran was arraigned in Sunnyvale, Ca. in the north of the state for running over 8 […]

Feminism

The Most Dangerous Time for Women’s Rights in Decades

Martha Burk

(Otherwords.org) – Merely banning abortion isn’t enough for some on the rabid right — a few are even threatening women with the death penalty. By Martha Burk | April 24, 2019 We’re living in the most perilous time for abortion rights and reproductive freedom since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. While some erosion […]

Green Energy

Emirates aiming for 30% Renewables by 2030; Good for an Oil State, but not Nearly Enough for Paris

Global Voices

By Sania Aziz Rahman | – (Globalvoices.org) – UAE wants to get 30% of energy from clean energy by 2030 Posted 23 April 2019 22:15 GMT A parabolic trough which collects solar heat in Abu Dhabi called “Shams 1″. Image credit: Masdar via Flickr In January, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) published a report […]

Islamophobia

“Islam” and “the West” are no longer useful Terms: No ‘Clash of Civilizations’ in a Globalized World

The Conversation

By Philip Almond | – Less than a week after the attack on the Twin Towers in New York on 11 September 2001, US President George W. Bush gave a remarkable speech about America’s “Muslim Brothers and sisters”. “These acts of violence,” he declared, “violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith.” After quoting from […]

Featured

The American Tragedy: Veteran Rams Hindu Family, thinking they were Muslims, in Sunnyvale