Europe

Montréal (Special to Informed Comment) – The “partial mobilization” announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 21 has triggered mass protests throughout the country and launched a mass exodus of Russian citizens fearing the draft. Many who previously supported the “special operation” in Ukraine are now having second thoughts. But with the price of […]

Climate Crisis

Solar Power Record Year for Germany: Unprecedented 51 Terawatt Hours already Reached in September, ’22

Julian Wettengel

By Julian Wettengel | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – 2022 will become a record year for solar power generation in Germany, data by research institute Fraunhofer ISE’s Energy Charts suggests. “By mid-September, solar plants in Germany had already generated more electricity in 2022 than in the whole of 2021 or 2020,”Bruno Burger of […]

nuclear weapons

Ukraine war: Putin calls up more Troops and threatens Nuclear Option – But is it a Sign of Weakness?

The Conversation

By Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham and Tatyana Malyarenko, National University Odesa Law Academy | – Declaring a partial mobilisation and threatening the use of “lots of Russian weapons” in response to alleged western nuclear blackmail, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has upped the ante once more in his war against Ukraine. Indeed, Putin nearly went […]

Algeria

“Cheb Macron’s” ode to Algerian gas: French President’s Arab Pop Music Reference Backfires

Global Voices

Written by Mariam Abuadas مريم أبو عدس and Faizah Falah فايزة فلاح | – ( Globalvoices.org) – On August 29, French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his three-day visit to Algeria with a historic stopover in the city of Oran, during which he visited the fortress and the Church of Santa Cruz, two of the country’s […]

Displaced and Refugees

Endless Tragedies in the Mediterranean Sea: Europe’s Commitment to Rescue Would Save Lives

Human Rights Watch

By Judith Sunderland, Associate Director, Europe and Central Asia Division |- ( Human Rights Watch ) – Last week, a four-year-old Syrian girl named Loujin died after spending days with others adrift on a boat that had set off from Lebanon. Yesterday, we learned of three more Syrian children, one-, two-, and twelve-years-old, and three […]

Europe

As Falls Russia, So Falls the World: Exceptionalism Goes Global

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Here’s a nightmare scenario: Unable to recruit enough soldiers from the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin takes North Korean leader Kim Jong-un up on his recent offer to send 100,000 North Koreans to join the Russian president’s ill-fated attempt to seize Ukraine. Kim has also promised to send North Korean workers to […]

Cold War

When Politicians get involved in Science: The marble statue of Gregor Mendel

Anne-Ruth Wertheim

It is 2022, the bicentenary of the birth of the Augustinian friar Gregor Mendel, the founder of genetics, and this is being celebrated in all kinds of ways. In 1955, as a biology student, I travelled with a group of young people to Brno (then part of Czechoslovakia), where he had done his experiments with […]

Climate Crisis

Germany to turbocharge Rooftop Solar by Slashing Taxes, Red Tape amid Ukraine War Energy Crisis

Clean Energy Wire

By Sören Amelang | – dpa / Süddeutsche Zeitung / Clean Energy Wire. ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The German government is introducing tax breaks for the operation of small-scale photovoltaic systems and removing other bureaucratic hurdles to speed up the rollout of renewables. Income from systems with a capacity of up to 30 […]

Featured

Iran, seeking Counter to US Sanctions, is Joining Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Warming up to Russia

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran’s foreign minister, attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) conference in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, has signed key membership papers to formalize its entry into the Eurasian security body led by China and Russia. Although Iran is now considered by the US State Department to be in what it calls the “Middle […]