Juan Cole

The USG Open Source Center translates or paraphrases Syrian news items on the economy of the war-torn country: Syrian Economic Roundup 01 – 07 Apr 13 Syria — OSC Summary Tuesday, April 9, 2013 Document Type: OSC Summary [Reports selected and rearranged by J.C.] Al-Iqtisadi on 4 April cited the Damascus Chamber of Commerce, saying […]

The intrepid Max Fisher of WaPo reports that Jon Stewart’s Daily Show satire of North Korea’s menacing statements went viral in China, garnering 2.3 million hits! This news seems to me wonderful in every way. That Chinese youth know where to get real news is most excellent. That China’s new President Xi Jinping allowed the […]

A car bomb killed at least 15 persons in downtown Damascus on Monday and wounded over 60. It is not clear if the bombing is a sign of the increased vulnerability of the capital to its guerrilla opposition or instead a sign of desperation on the part of rebels facing a massive and so far […]

Iceland gets 26% of its electricity from geothermal power, and is a pioneer in the industry, such that Kenyan and other scientists go there for training. It has cut its carbon emissions almost to zero, and is even considering attempting to export electricity to the UK. This video surveys Iceland’s geothermal energy production: The US […]

Democracy Now! interviews the Iceland member of parliament, access to whose twitter account was summarily demanded by the US government because of her involvement in Wikileaks and whistleblowing on US actions in Iraq. Icelandic Lawmaker Birgitta Jónsdóttir on Challenging Gov’t Secrecy from Twitter to Bradley Manning The blurb: “Icelandic Parliamentarian Birgitta Jónsdóttir played a critical […]

The late Margaret Thatcher had an enormous impact on Britain and the world, but her legacy has been a more unequal, less prosperous Britain and world. She championed the wealthy and threw the national income to them; she systematically undermined the poor and middle classes. She championed neo-militarism and refusal to compromise in world affairs, […]

Coralie Pison Hindawi writes in a guest column for Informed Comment On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Iraq invasion (a war unleashed following twelve years of the most comprehensive sanctions regime ever adopted by the UN Security Council), it is particularly ironic to read the numerous reports documenting the worrying impact sanctions […]

Coal plants are the world’s most abundant and most dangerous source of carbon dioxide emissions and the most important single driver of catastrophic climate change. The two biggest CO2 polluters, China and the US, both owe their infamy to their large number of coal plants. All coal plants in the world need to be closed […]

For a different view of Iranian youth than the images of anger and menace most often purveyed in US media (as Rami Khoury rightly argues): 13-year-old Iranian girl sings Adele’s ‘Someone like You’. h/t Youtube & Reddit.com By the way, apparently Google News does not index Lebanon’s Daily Star, since I couldn’t find Rami’s article […]