By Daniel Korschun, Boryana V Dimitrova, and Yoto V. Yotov | (The Conversation) | – – U.S. News and World Report recently published its annual “Best Countries” ranking, based on how thousands of people around the world perceive other nations. Switzerland topped the 80-country ranking, followed by Canada and the United Kingdom. One big surprise […]
Boycott Trump! Hit him where it Hurts
By Mattea Kramer | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – In normal times, Dee from New York would have ordered her copy of The Handmaid’s Tale from Amazon, but these are not normal times. Amazon is on the Grab Your Wallet list, a campaign to boycott retailers that sell Trump family products, which began as […]
What is the Sunni-Shiite Divide into Which Trump just Stepped?
Ken Chitwood | (The Conversation) | – – In his address in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, May 21, while calling on Muslim leaders to lead the fight against terrorism, President Donald Trump identified Iran as a despotic state giving safe harbor and financing terror in the Middle East. As Iran is a Shia state and […]
Fascist, Go Home! After Bombing, Manchester Residents Shut Down Anti-Muslim Demo
TeleSur | – – “The people of Manchester don’t stand with your xenophobia and racism,” one man shouted at the English Defence League racists. In the aftermath of Monday’s tragic bombing, the people of Manchester showed little patience with the racist opportunists of the extreme right English Defence League, quickly confronting EDL attempts at provoking […]
Trump, Saudi Arabia and yet another arms deal
Russell E. Lucas, Michigan State University The first stop on Donald Trump’s first trip as U.S. president was to Saudi Arabia. That was no accident. His decision was surely based on the fact that the alliance between Saudi Arabia and the United States is one of the foundations of American foreign policy in the Middle […]
Rouhani’s win a Victory for Reform, will Trump waste Opportunity?
By Shahram Akbarzadeh | (Informed Comment) | – – In Iran’s election, Hassan Rouhani’s re-election was not a forgone conclusion. Criticism of Rouhani’s performance focused on growing unemployment, as the economy was not keeping pace with new entries into the workforce. Official rates put unemployment at 12% but this rate is estimated to be much […]
Erdogan, Trump, the Russians and General Flynn: The Tangled Web
By Carl Max Kortepeter | (Informed Comment) | – – When Sally Yates testified that she had told the Trump Organization, before his appointment as National Security Adviser, that General Flynn was in the pay of Turkey, for $600,000, President Trump should not have made the appointment. Appointments have consequences. General Flynn was acting erratically […]
Was/Is there an Islamic Enlightenment? (de Bellaigue)
William Eichler interviews Christopher de Bellaigue | Informed Comment | – – Eichler: 1. In the conclusion to The Islamic Enlightenment you describe modern jihadists as “miracle-grow Muslims” who have been “incubated in the hothouse of modernity.” You write it is hard to attach the label “Muslim” to them. What is the relationship between today’s […]
America Should stay the Course with Rouhani
By Robert Harvey | (Project Syndicate) | – – LONDON – Hassan Rouhani has won re-election as Iran’s president in a landslide, meaning that it is he who will be dealing with an antagonistic US President Donald Trump. What will their relationship mean for the 2015 international agreement that has, for now, frozen Iran’s nuclear […]