By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – 1. In three years, all Dutch electric trains will be powered by wind turbines, either turbines in the Netherlands itself or in nearby Belgium or Scandinavia. The Dutch rail system transports 1.2 million people a day and was releasing 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide before this […]
Aqsa Crisis: PM Netanyahu wants Israeli Forces to use Live Fire against Rock Throwing Demonstrators
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Thousands of demonstrators came out in Jordan on Friday to protest what appears to be a new Israeli assertion of authority over Muslim sacred space in Jerusalem, which includes the third holiest place in the world for Muslims, the al-Aqsa mosque complex. King Abdullah II of […]
Trump Pledges to “Look into” Paranoid Charges of Muslim-American Terror camps
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump has probably benefited so far from giving long stemwinders of a speech on the hustings, saying enough outrageous things in each one to inflict on journalists information overload. He got away with a lot of awful statements because journalists only had room to focus […]
Rouhani: forget Geopolitics: Iran’s real Enemies are Water & jobs Shortages & Drugs
By RFE/RL | – – – Iran’s President Hassan Rohani has warned that water shortages, unemployment, inflation, and problems like drug addiction are threatening the Islamic republic. Rohani made the remarks in a September 15 speech to commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Rohani said: “Our enemies are not just Zionists, America, and […]
Pope Francis Endorses Iran Deal: Another Dilemma for GOP Catholic Candidates
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Republican presidential candidates are virtually unanimous that human-caused climate change is a hoax and burning fossil fuels is good for us; that Obamacare is evil and must be repealed; and that the UN Security Council’s deal with Iran restricting its nuclear enrichment program must be […]
Mexican Tour Organizers, Buddhist Healers, Baffled by Egyptian Army Attack
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Gabriela Bejarano Rangel, the sister and daughter of the Mexican organizers of the tour to Egypt that met with tragedy Sunday, has been interviewed at Excelsior.com. The Egyptian military mistook the tourist convoy in the western desert near Siwa Oasis for terrorists and attacked them, killing […]
US Intel Chief: Iraq and Syria may not Survive as States
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Public remarks by the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency and by John Brennan, director of the CIA, suggest that Washington is making its peace with a break-up of Syria and Iraq. They hastened to say that break-up was not US policy, they simply saw […]
Sanders surges in Iowa as Clinton faces Enthusiasm Gap
Anthony Salvanto | (CBS Face the Nation Video) | – – “A new CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker poll shows presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, leading in both Iowa and New Hampshire. With 78 percent of Sanders fans “enthusiastically” supporting his candidacy, states across the nation are feeling the Bern.” CBS Face the Nation: […]
Germany seeks Talks with Russia over Syria as Putin conducts Naval Maneuvers off Tartous
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Agence France Press Arabic says that Cypriot officials are reporting that Russia has asked them to alter airline routes this coming week because it is planning naval military maneuvers off the Syrian coast near its leased naval base, Tartous. The maneuvers are called “routine” by Moscow […]
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