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Featured

Barack Obama
Saudi Arabia as the Incredible Hulk: King Salman snubs Obama's Gulf Summit

Saudi Arabia as the Incredible Hulk: King Salman snubs Obama’s Gulf Summit

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — Watching Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia nowadays, is like Kremlin-watching in the old days of the Cold War. It is not as if most Western journalists have a really good idea of the maneuverings inside the Saudi palace or know why exactly things happen. Since King Salman […]

Climate Change
Hawaii goes Green and other Big Renewables Stories

Hawaii goes Green and other Big Renewables Stories

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – The Hawaii legislature has just passed a bill by an overwhelming margin that sets a goal of 100% renewable energy in the state by 2045. The new law requires that the state get a third of its electricity from renewables by 2020, only five years from now. […]

Bashar al-Assad
Hizbullah, Syrian Army push back al-Qaeda in Qalamoun as Christian militia mobilizes

Hizbullah, Syrian Army push back al-Qaeda in Qalamoun as Christian militia mobilizes

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Smarting from a string of losses, the proregime coalition of Hizbullah and the Syrian Arab Army is looking for some victories against the al-Qaeda-linked Support Front (Jabhat al-Nusra). They seek them in the Qalamoun mountain range near the Lebanese-Syrian border, where Hizbullah was victorious last year this […]

Featured
Syria: What if Turkey and Saudi Arabia install al-Qaeda in Damascus?

Syria: What if Turkey and Saudi Arabia install al-Qaeda in Damascus?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Journalists such as the intrepid Liz Sly covering the Syrian Civil War were struck with the victories of the Army of Conquest coalition in northern Syria, which in recent weeks first took Idlib city (they had already taken most of Idlib province) and then Jisr al-Shughur, a […]

Featured
Israel's Government Ratchets even Further Right: Great Moments in Colonialism

Israel’s Government Ratchets even Further Right: Great Moments in Colonialism

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Binyamin Netanyahu has succeeded in putting together a shaky coalition of parties that would give him 61 seats in the 120-member Israeli parliament. In such fragile coalitions, each small party has enormous power, since if it left, it would cause the government to fall and provoke new elections. […]

African-Americans
"Killing Me Softly" in Palestine:  Lauryn Hill Cancels Israel Concert under BDS Pressure

“Killing Me Softly” in Palestine: Lauryn Hill Cancels Israel Concert under BDS Pressure

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – In another sign that Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s far-right nationalism is turning Israel into a pariah state, pop star Lauryn Hill has cancelled a planned concert outside Tel Aviv. She was subjected to a great deal of pressure from fans on social media to withdraw the […]

Featured
How Muslim-Americans can avoid being Trolled by Israel-Firsters: Look again at the Prophet's example

How Muslim-Americans can avoid being Trolled by Israel-Firsters: Look again at the Prophet’s example

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – In the period from roughly 610 to 622 CE (“AD”), Muhammad ibn Abdallah of the noble Quraysh tribe in the western Arabian city of Mecca preached monotheism to an outraged polytheistic city dedicated to the worship of ancient Near Eastern goddesses, and the commerce of which deeply depended […]

Banking
Warren Buffett betting big on Wind Energy in Nebraska, & other Planet-Saving News

Warren Buffett betting big on Wind Energy in Nebraska, & other Planet-Saving News

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Wind power is on a roll in the US despite a fickle Congress and the machinations of Big Coal and Big Gas to keep all the subsidies for themselves. And one of the world’s most successful investors, Warren Buffett, has noticed. As of the end of the first […]

Barack Obama
US Airstrike in Syria kills 53 Civilians, 6 Children

US Airstrike in Syria kills 53 Civilians, 6 Children

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) As Mariam Karouny reports for Reuters, the US air strike on Friday that inadvertently hit a village of non-combatants, killing members of six families, raises new questions about the Obama administration’s approach to fighting Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) in Syria. Despite months of bombing raids, Daesh has lost no […]

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