Ben Affleck on Bill Maher’s Muslim Problem
By Juan Cole Bravo to Ben Affleck and Nicholas Kristoff for telling Bill Maher off about…
By Juan Cole Bravo to Ben Affleck and Nicholas Kristoff for telling Bill Maher off about…
By Juan Cole ISIL and al-Qaeda have, according to Hizbullah, launched attacks in Syria’s Qalamoun district…
By Juan Cole The pan-Arab London daily Al-Hayat [Life] reports today that ISIL is still expanding…
“ Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) — While the newest Apple and Google smartphones will automatically encrypt data stored on them, that won’t keep U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies from obtaining evidence linked…
By Juan Cole Bravo to Ben Affleck and Nicholas Kristoff for telling Bill Maher off about his chronic case of Muslim-hating bigotry. (He would say he doesn’t hate Muslims, only their religion,…
NASA Richat Structure, Mauritania, Western Sahara Desert “Richat Structure, Mauritania This prominent circular feature in the Sahara desert of Mauritania has attracted attention since the earliest space missions because it forms a…
The Young Turks “Louie Gohmert (R-TX) this week blasted President Barack Obama for sending troops to Africa to help fight an Ebola outbreak, and predicted that they would bring the disease back…
News365 “WASHINGTON — The lead agency tasked with responding to the threat of Ebola both within the United States and abroad has seen its budget drop dramatically in the past four years.…
NSF: “Tighten your seat belt! This runway is made of ice. Welcome to the Ruth Glacier, deep inside Alaska’s Denali National Park. Many of the visitors are here for backcountry skiing, but…
Sam Seder “Watch as Reza Aslan schools CNN anchors and Bill Maher on their Islamophobia…” Sam Seder: “How Stupid Can CNN Hosts Get? THIS STUPID”
ODN/ ITN “Photographed on Saturday, images were taken of at least 35,000 walruses who beached themselves on a remote Alaskan coastline. The huge gathering was spotted during the National Oceanic and Atmospheric…
By Todd Gitlin via Tomdispatch.com Less than two weeks have passed and yet it isn’t too early to say it: the People’s Climate March changed the social map — many maps, in…
By Tom Engelhardt [Note for TomDispatch Readers: My new book, Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World (with an introduction by Glenn Greenwald), is now…
Channel 4 News: “Former deputy prime minister John Prescott calls his ex boss Tony Blair a ‘crusader’ because of Blair’s recent calls to send troops back into the Iraq.” ‘Tony Blair is…
Veritasium: 13 Misconceptions About Global Warming
By Jillian York via EFF The censorship or banning of books is a phenomenon that occurs in countries around the world. Books that are considered “scandalous” or inciteful in some way are…
By Naveena Sadasivam via ProPublica A ProPublica review of U.S. Department of Labor investigations shows that oil and gas workers 2013 men and women often performing high-risk jobs 2013 are routinely being…
The Young Turks: “Michele Bachmann took the stage at the Values Voters Summit today, and fired up the crowd with shots at President Obama and Hillary Clinton, as well as a firm…
BBC “George Galloway told a former member of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s cabinets she killed one million people in Iraq. The former Labour MP, now a Respect MP, turned on Jacqui…
The Young Turks: “Michele Bachmann took the stage at the Values Voters Summit today, and fired up the crowd with shots at President Obama and Hillary Clinton, as well as a firm…
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — World Bank President Jim Yong Kim discusses the growing threat from climate change with Trish Regan on “Street Smart.” Bloomberg News: Climate Change Is Costing Lives: World Bank’s…
MediaMatters4America: mediamatters4america: The Worst Right-Wing Smears About Eric Holder
Siemens “From 2015, DanTysk will supply up to 1.3 billion kWh of electricity – and will also help Munich achieve a more sustainable energy supply system. Siemens: ” Offshore wind for Munich’s…
Foreign Policy
Why is Kobani Important? ISIS advances against Syrian Kurds despite US Airstrikes
AJ+ “The Islamic State Group (aka ISIS or ISIL) is knocking on the doors of Kobani, a Syrian town on the border of Turkey. Desperate Kurdish fighters have been battling them for…
You’ll Never Believe what ISIL has done to Iraq’s al-Anbar Population
BAGHDAD/DUBAI, 6 October 2014 (IRIN) – Nine months of shelling, airstrikes and street battles have taken a heavy toll on Iraq’s “forgotten” province of Anbar, the first to be overrun by militants…
Incivility: On not Bringing up Occupied Palestinians in Polite Company
By Heike Schotten (Ma’an News Agency) In the US, and especially within the US Palestine solidarity movement, the biggest Israel-Palestine news since Gaza Genocide 3.0 (which, with Palestinians dying daily, whether from…
Does Bear + Dragon Trump Eagle? How Russia & China may block the US in Asia
By Pepe Escobar via Tomdispatch.com A specter haunts the fast-aging “New American Century”: the possibility of a future Beijing-Moscow-Berlin strategic trade and commercial alliance. Let’s call it the BMB. Its likelihood is…
The Yasukuni Shuffle: China and Japan duke it out via T.V. Serials on the Wrongs of WW II
By Philip J Cunningham Everyday hundreds, if not thousands of Chinese and Japanese kill one another on Chinese television. Hundreds of Anti-Japan war dramas were churned out last year and the genre…
Pan-Mideast War: ISIL and al-Qaeda attack Hizbullah outposts Near Lebanese Border
By Juan Cole ISIL and al-Qaeda have, according to Hizbullah, launched attacks in Syria’s Qalamoun district (abutting the Lebanese border near Baalbek) on Hizbullah military outposts on the Syrian side. Hizbullah is…
Kurdish Forces Under-equipped, Need ground troop Allies: Peshmerga General
RFE/RL In an interview with Samira Ali Mandee of RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq, General Jabbar Yawar, secretary-general of the Peshmerga Ministry of Iraq’s Kurdish region, discusses the ongoing fight against Islamic State…
ISIL Still Taking Towns in Iraq’s Al-Anbar as Coalition Airstrikes are Delayed
By Juan Cole The pan-Arab London daily Al-Hayat [Life] reports today that ISIL is still expanding its sway in towns in Iraq’s western al-Anbar Province, having just taken Kubaisah in the district…
Defying US, Sweden to Recognize Palestine (First in Western Europe)
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The prime minister of the Kingdom of Sweden on Friday said that the country would recognize the State of Palestine, becoming the first major Western European state to do…
Expansion of Morocco’s Largest Solar Complex to Provide 1.1 Million Moroccans with Clean Energy
World Bank WASHINGTON, September 30, 2014 – The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors approved today a US$519 million project to support Morocco’s ongoing efforts to reduce its dependency on fossil…
The Alamo of the Kurds: Kobane Near Falling to ISIL
By Juan Cole Ismat Sheikh, commander of the Kurdish forces at the border town of Kobane (Ain al-Arab) that is besieged by ISIL tanks and artillery, says that he expects massacres of…
In Iraqi Classrooms, Sunni Muslim Extremists Ban Evolution, Patriotism And Literature
By Ahmad Mohammed | Kirkuk | via Niqash.org In areas under the control of Sunni Muslim extremists, teachers have been issued a special set of instructions. Among other things they say that…
7 Surprising Reasons Turkey is entering war on ISIL
By Juan Cole The Turkish parliament voted by a large margin Thursday to allow Turkish troops to make incursions into neighboring countries if necessary to defeat the so-called Islamic State of Iraq…
Lessons from French Morocco: “Fanaticism Anxiety” about Muslims has been with us since the Colonial Era
By Edmund Burke III Today we hear a great deal about the question of what went wrong in Middle Eastern societies. For an historian of the early twentieth century world, it’s déjà…
Statement by Professors of Jewish Studies in North America Regarding the AMCHA Initiative
Received by email attachment) Statement by Professors of Jewish Studies in North America Regarding the AMCHA Initiative We the undersigned are professors of Jewish studies at North American universities. Several of us…
Denying ISIL Legitimacy and the problem of Radical Returnees
By Akil N. Awan via The National Interest Last week, President Barack Obama chaired a special meeting of the UN Security Council in which member states passed a resolution establishing an international…
Palestine goes to UN Security Council to Demand Israeli Withdrawal by 2016
By Juan Cole AP reports that Palestine is presenting a resolution to the United Nations Security Council (through its “Arab Group”) calling for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, including…
Netanyahu’s Nuclear Hypocrisy on Iran; In fact, Everyone in the ME needs to Disarm
By Farhad Malekafzali With negotiations to limit Iran’s enrichment in return for easing of economic sanctions on the verge of failure, hopes for a step-by-step diplomacy to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program are…
Drone Strikes as much an Obama Legacy as Health Care: John Oliver
John Oliver “The United States has launched a huge number of drone strikes under President Obama. It’s widely accepted and extremely terrifying” Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Drones (HBO)
$22 Billion to Fight ISIL in same Year Congress cut $8.7 bn in Food Stamps
By Juan Cole It was all the way back in February, so the memory of this headline has faded: ” Congress passes $8.7 billion food stamp cut By Ned Resnikoff It’s official:…