Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al-Jazeera reports that the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in the Arabian Sea port of Aden has declared independence. Aden is a little more populous than Philadelphia inside city limits, at about 1.7 million, which makes it about 5 percent of Yemen’s 28 million population. The STC maintains that the Riyadh […]
Netanyahu confident Trump will Let him Annex vast Swathes of Palestinian Territory
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he is confident that the Trump White House will sign off on his planned annexation of vast swathes of Palestine this summer. Netanyahu secured agreement on the illegal annexation, reminiscent of Mussolini’s annexation of Nice from France during World War II, from […]
Trump’s Buddies in Saudi Arabia abolish Flogging, but Dissidents are Still Dying in its Jails and Journalists being Threatened
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Middle East Online reports that Saudi Arabia has abolished flogging as a punishment. Henceforward, offenders will be fined or jailed instead. It had been one of some 29 countries that still apply corporal punishment. Most of these countries are formerly British colonies that have retained older British penal laws from […]
Sneak Peak at Juan Cole’s Exciting new translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Bloomsbury is offering a Sneak peak at The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in Juan Cole’s new, “radically modern” translation. .@ibtauris is publishing @jricole's new, radically modern translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam on April 30th. Find a sneak peek here: https://t.co/ZyFDW6wcma and DM us if you'd like a review copy #Rubaiyat #translation #persian #literature […]
Israel’s Occupation Policies may Contribute to deaths of Many Elderly Palestinians, But Palestinian Youth are Poised to Flourish
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The age bias of the novel coronavirus has geopolitical implications. Although it is not true that it leaves children and youth alone, it is true that their symptomatic infection rate and mortality is tiny compared to that of the elderly. In Europe, WHO reports that up to half of coronavirus […]
Trump goes Peak Batshit Crazy, Urging UV Irradiation and Chlorine Injections, and Cable TV Greedily Broadcasts it
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jeff Zucker, the CEO of the Cable News Network, has a Harvard B.A. in American History and his father is a cardiologist, so he definitely knows better. So too does Steve Burke, the CEO of Comcast / NBC Universal. Suzanne Scott at Fox Fable News probably doesn’t know better, but […]
Trump failed to vanquish Coronavirus with Hot Air, now wants to “shoot down” tiny Iranian Skiffs
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The diarist and attorney James Boswell recorded that the writer Samuel Johnson remarked on the evening of April 7, 1775 that “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” He wasn’t condemning a healthy love of country but the manipulation of public opinion for narrow sectional purposes. Johnson might observe […]
Amid Trump’s Immigration ban, Muslim-Americans step up on Covid-19 to donate Masks, PPE, to Hospitals and to help Unemployed, Homeless
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Muslim-Americans have stepped up to help in the fight against the novel coronavirus in ways that may not be apparent from watching cable television. They are disproportionately a first- and second-generation American community who have faced discrimination at Trump’s hands, and are among the targets of his two-month ban on […]
US Oil “Technically Worthless,” and Coal Plants Shuttered, as a Tidal Wave of Bankruptcies Looms
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – May contracts for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil went as low as -$37.63 on Monday. So report Jillian Ambrose and Martin Farrer at The Guardian. The price, well below zero, was a first for the US oil market, and showed the conviction of traders that the economy would not […]
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