The Syrian civil war spilled over onto Lebanon dramatically on Sunday and again on Monday morning when violent clashes broke out between the Salafi militia of Sheikh Ahmad Asir in Sidon and the Lebanese army and Shiite Hizbullah fighters. The army maintains that the Salafis (hard line Sunni Muslims influenced by Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabism) attacked […]
- Africa (253)
- Asia (1,255)
- Australasia (36)
- Authoritarianism (391)
- Canada (8)
- Culture (566)
- Economy (1,068)
- Agriculture (3)
- Banking (67)
- Boycotts (1)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (54)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Degrowth (1)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Downward Mobility (1)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (21)
- Homelessness (16)
- Industry (5)
- Inequality (426)
- Inflation (5)
- infrastructure (10)
- Insurance (1)
- Investment (93)
- Market Crash (12)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (8)
- Neoliberalism (204)
- Plutocracy (632)
- Poverty (209)
- Poverty (16)
- Regulation (3)
- Retirement (1)
- Sanctions (4)
- Tariffs (4)
- Taxes (37)
- Technology (3)
- Trade (118)
- Weapons sales (7)
- Education (190)
- Energy (1,755)
- Batteries (53)
- Coal (140)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Fossil Fuels (329)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (422)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (6)
- Hydroelectric (1)
- Hydroelectric (15)
- Mining (1)
- Natural Gas (107)
- Nuclear Energy (160)
- Petroleum (303)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (422)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (9)
- wind energy (347)
- Environment (2,722)
- Climate Change (1,666)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (26)
- Biodiversity (14)
- Climate Refugees (4)
- CO2 (128)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (149)
- Desalinization (4)
- Desertification (161)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (6)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Heat (398)
- Extreme Weather (298)
- Flooding (138)
- Food Supply (3)
- Forests (18)
- Green New Deal (41)
- Green Recycling (2)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (62)
- Methane (20)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (12)
- Sea Level (338)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (265)
- wildfires (241)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,354)
- Drought (296)
- Ecology (2)
- Ecology (12)
- Environmentalism (393)
- Green Transportation (256)
- Ice Melt (139)
- Invasive Species (2)
- Islands (1)
- Oceans (103)
- Oil Spills (8)
- Pollution (234)
- Water (97)
- wildlife (22)
- Climate Change (1,666)
- Europe (1,386)
- Featured (4,258)
- Haiti (1)
- Health (710)
- History (363)
- Human Rights (1,632)
- Apartheid (263)
- censorship (322)
- Death Penalty (30)
- Disappeared (4)
- Displaced and Refugees (581)
- Food Insecurity (30)
- Gay rights (29)
- Genocide (66)
- Human Rights Watch (91)
- Indigenous Rights (1)
- Migrants (4)
- privacy (21)
- Rights (90)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Starvation (4)
- Torture (102)
- Trans Rights (3)
- Transgender Rights (4)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (109)
- Unlwful Killing (81)
- War Crimes (423)
- War Rape (9)
- International Politics and Economy (2,126)
- Arms Sales (73)
- BRICS (3)
- Corruption (268)
- Crime (132)
- Democracy (336)
- Dissent (449)
- Domestic Terrorism (15)
- Drones (113)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Hacking (8)
- Immigration (4)
- Immigration (21)
- Islamophobia (383)
- Migrants (2)
- military (125)
- nationalism (117)
- NATO (37)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- Peace (144)
- Policing (2)
- Politics (309)
- Politics&Culture (21)
- Propaganda (13)
- Smuggling (1)
- Juan Cole (270)
- Latin America (102)
- media (487)
- Middle East (10,035)
- Arab World (5,307)
- Iran (1,357)
- Israel (956)
- Israel/ Palestine (3,664)
- Israel/Palestine (9)
- Kurds (294)
- Red Sea (1)
- Turkey (601)
- Turkiye (128)
- Patriarchy (10)
- racism (473)
- religion (1,520)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (174)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (280)
- Terrorism (1,096)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,082)
- United Nations (178)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,380)
- US politics (5,493)
- Anti-War Movement (13)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (22)
- Central Intelligence Agency (63)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (80)
- Conspiracy Theories (24)
- Constitution (411)
- Courts (15)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (976)
- Democratic Socialists of America (22)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (124)
- Ethnicities (393)
- Far Right (399)
- FBI (48)
- Federal Government (1)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (97)
- Immigration (252)
- Israel Lobbies (130)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (274)
- National Security State (477)
- Native Americans (41)
- Nuclear arsenal (7)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (577)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (10)
- Private Prisons (3)
- Progressive Politics (13)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (15)
- Reproductive Choice (69)
- Republican Party (3,089)
- Supreme Court (133)
- Voter suppression (36)
- Whistleblowers (7)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (35)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (622)
- White Supremacists (238)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (568)
- workers (234)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (217)
Middle East
Obama’s New Syria Strategy is Nixon’s Vietnam Negotiation Tactics Redux (Meyer)
Carlyn Meyer writes in a guest column for Informed Comment For better or worse, Obama came of age well after the Vietnam war. Had he lived through the daily body counts, he may have stood strong against arming the Syrian opposition. The President’s new ‘strategy’ is to get enough arms to the ‘right people’ in […]
Climbing the Burj Khalifa in Dubai – World’s Tallest Building (Video)
Joe McNally videos the climbers climbing the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building:
Egypt’s Morsi Provokes Anger, Astonishment with appointment of Governor from former Terrorist Group
As Egyptians demonstrated against him again on Friday, in preparation for big rallies on June 30, President Muhammad Morsi has shot himself in the foot with a series of ill advised appointments of provincial governors. Morsi continues to demonstrate that he is politically tone deaf and that his decision-making takes place in a small circle […]
Iran’s New President is on a Collision Course with the Supreme Leader (Kadivar)
Mohsen Kadivar writes at IslamiCommentary A key was the symbol of Hassan Rowhani’s presidential campaign, but what, if any, doors to real power will it unlock? Mohsen Kadivar “This is the victory of wisdom, a victory of moderation and a victory of commitment over extremism,” Iranian president-elect Hassan Rowhani declared on TV shortly after election […]
The Struggle over the Qur’an in Morocco (Video report)
In Morocco, as in most Muslim countries, there is a lively contest over the meaning of the Qur’an and Islam. The official government-approved Qur’an contains some commentary of a moderate, Sunni, sort, intended to combat narrow-minded Wahhabi interpretations emanating from Saudi Arabia. (The reporter confuses some technical terms here; “warsh” is not commentary but a […]
Iran’s Pres. Rouhani News Conference: Transparency on Nukes and Talks with US
CNN profiles Iran’s new president Hassan Rouhani and interviews Hillary Mann Leverett: The USG Open Source Center translated the first news conference held by newly elected President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. Some excerpts are presented below, ordered in pyramid form with the most important first (out of the sequence of hte original). Iranian President-Elect Addresses […]
Russia: Iran is ready to Cease Enriching Uranium to 20%
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated in an interview with the Kuwaiti press on Tuesday an assertion he has made before, i.e. that Iran stands ready to cease enriching uranium to 19.75% for the purpose of fueling its medical reactor. This level of enrichment was forced on Iran when it ran out of enriched uranium […]
Why Cheney is the Traitor, and Why we Can’t Believe Obama on Safeguards (The Ultimate Clip of Gov’t Lies)
Dick Cheney on Monday called NSA leaker Edward Snowden a traitor, and Snowden shot back that given Cheney’s own lies about Iraq, it is an honor for any American to be accused of treason by the former vice president. On Monday evening, Barack Obama came on Charlie Rose and insisted that the NSA would never […]