By Ian Buruma | (Project Syndicate) | – – NEW YORK – Some people might have dismissed Donald Trump’s recent tweet of a video clip showing him punching the face of a man with a CNN logo on his head as yet another example of the US president’s vulgar buffoonery – unseemly, perhaps, but par […]
Hobby Lobby caught smuggling Iraqi Antiquities (TYT)
Cenk Uygur and Brett Erlich | (The Young Turks News Video) || – – “Hobby Lobby just got caught smuggling. Cenk Uygur and Brett Erlich, the hosts of The Young Turks, tell you what they were smuggling. “(CNN)Hobby Lobby agreed to forfeit thousands of artifacts from modern-day Iraq and pay a $3 million fine to […]
We have dire Problems: Don’t be distracted by Trump’s Twitter Cascades
By Tom Engelhardt | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – I don’t tweet, but I do have a brief message for our president: Will you please get the hell out of the way for a few minutes? You and your antics are blocking our view of the damn world and it’s a world we should be focusing […]
Al Jazeera Defies Saudi Bloc’s pressure to close: ‘Journalism itself is under Siege’
AJ+ | (Video News Report) | – – “Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain want Al Jazeera – including AJ+ – to be shut down. Here’s what Al Jazeera journalists think of that.” Al Jazeera Responds To The Qatar-Gulf Crisis | AJ+
Syria: US & Russia Agree to Ceasefire, De-Escalation: But will it Hold?
TeleSur | – – Rex Tillerson praised the agreement as indicative of future cooperation in Syria, but also said that the United States still sees no “long-term role” for the Assad government. The United States and Russia have cooperated to negotiate a ceasefire in the southwest region of Syria, an agreement which will involve a […]
G-20: Germany aims to isolate Trump on Paris Climate Plan
By Dave Keating | Euractiv.com | – – Angela Merkel wants all countries in the group except the US to sign up to a strong statement supporting the Paris Agreement but Saudi Arabia and others may resist. Germany’s hopes to get unequivocal backing for the Paris climate agreement from the G20 in Hamburg are running […]
New Neocon Mantra: Hit Iran, b/c like Soviet Union, it is Collapsing
By Jim Lobe | (Inter Press Service) | – – WASHINGTON, (IPS) – Iran hawks suddenly have a new mantra: the Islamic Republic is the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, and the Trump administration should work to hasten the regime’s impending collapse. It’s not clear why this comparison has surfaced so abruptly. Its proponents […]
Can Total’s Gas deal in Iran vindicate the Nuclear Deal?
By Meysam Tayebipour | (The Conversation) | – – Nine years ago, when sanctions were imposed on Iran by the international community, Total was the last Western energy company to suspend its activity there. Now, following the lifting of nuclear sanctions on Iran in January 2016, Total is the first Western company to return to […]
Do an Unstable President and a Reckless Prince threaten the World?
By Dilip Hiro | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – The Middle East. Could there be a more perilous place on Earth, including North Korea? Not likely. The planet’s two leading nuclear armed powers backing battling proxies amply supplied with conventional weapons; terror groups splitting and spreading; religious-sectarian wars threatening amid a plethora of ongoing armed […]