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Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Voices from the Right wing, prominently featured in Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, are warning that the grisly murder of Jamal Khashoggi by a hit squad made up of persons close to crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman should not mean the end of the close US relationship with Saudi Arabia. […]

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Saudi war on Yemen: World’s Worst Famine in a Century could Claim 13 Million

Juan Cole

Yemen is a country of some 29 million persons, but over a third of them are at risk of starvation if Saudi and UAE bombing campaigns continue. Lise Grand, the United Nations coordinator for Yemen, has warned that the world has only 3 months to halt the slide toward catastrophe. She seems to think that […]

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Tokyo’s Net Carbon Zero Olympics, as Japan surges toward 65 GW Solar

Juan Cole

But will it be enough to avoid turning the Pacific Ocean into Godzilla?

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Iran: Khashoggi was Murdered because West Shielded Saudis from Criticism

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment): According to the invaluable BBC Monitoring press surveys of Middle Eastern newspapers, the coverage of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul has differed enormously from country to country. In Lebanon, which has a diverse and somewhat free press, former journalist Paula Yaqoubian told al-Jadid […]

Climate Change

Future of Climate Activism: Dutch Court orders Gov’t to Reduce CO2 Emissions Dramatically

Juan Cole

An appeals court in the Netherlands has upheld a 2015 lower court ruling in a class action case that the Dutch government needs to do more to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. So far the Netherlands has only reduced 13% from 1990 levels. The court appealed to the principle […]

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On not Writing Recommendation Letters for the Occupiers in Palestinian Territories

Juan Cole

An Open Letter to the University of Michigan on Palestine

Climate Change

Ron DeSantis’s Policies Helped Summon Hurricane Michael and he Should not be Governor

Juan Cole

* WaPo reports of the most powerful storm to hit Florida’s panhandle in recorded history, coming in as a level 4 and briefly becoming 5: “Hurricane Michael roared ashore Wednesday near the Florida Panhandle, one of the most intense hurricanes to ever hit the United States. With winds as high as 155 mph, the Category […]

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Hating Muslims in the Age of Trump: The New Islamophobia looks like the Old McCarthyism

Juan Cole

(Reprinted at Informed Comment courtesy Tomdispatch.com.) – These days, our global political alliances seem to shift with remarkable rapidity, as if we were actually living in George Orwell’s 1984. Are we at war this month with Oceania? Or is it Eastasia? In that novel, the Party is able to erase history, sending old newspaper articles […]

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Top 5 Reasons for Americans to Admire the Prophet Muhammad

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In his presidential campaign, Donald Trump notoriously said, “I think Islam hates us.” As is usual with this erratic, fact-free president, the assertion is not true. If we take Muslim-Americans, who at about 3.4 million persons constitute some 1.1 percent of Americans, over 90% say they are proud to be […]