Month

Archives: April 2017

GOP Politician: ‘ISIS Has Won’ After Confederate Monument Removed

Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks) | Video News Clip | - - "Hey Confederates: your side lost. Yankees kicked your traitor slaver asses. Deal with it. Cenk Uygur, host of The…

Climate Change Is Melting Antarctica From the Inside Out: Study

TeleSur | - - Two recent studies published in the journal Nature detail Antarctica's internal melting while explaining its consequences. Scientist have discovered that Antarctica, like Greenland, is melting from the inside…

As Millions March for Climate, Stab in Back by EPA & NYT

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - An estimated 200,000 climate protesters rallied in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, braving record temperatures in the 90s, well above the average temperature for…

On Day of Climate March, Remember advance of Solar globally

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The US public may have to march today for our government to recognize the dangers of climate change. But in the rest of…

Trump has it Backward: It is Dirty Coal that’s Killing Green Jobs

Trump has it Backwards: It is Dirty Coal that’s Killing Green Jobs

By Basav Sen | (Otherwords.org) | - - Wind and solar could create many, many more jobs than coal — especially if the government stops propping it up. When Donald Trump announced…

Obama Mic Drop: Obamacare more Popular than Trump

Wochit News | (Video Clip) | - - "Former President Barack Obama hailed the political resilience of his signature health care law at a private event Thursday, pointing out that Obamacare is…

Tasmanian Devil: Donald Trump’s 100 days of u-turns, bombs and cake

By Todd Landman | (The Conversation) | - - The hundredth day of an American president’s term traditionally marks the end of the honeymoon period – a time to take stock of…

Climate March: How many more atomic bombs is Trump setting off in our Atmosphere?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The People's Climate March on Saturday will protest the Trump administration's pro-Climate Change policies of increasing US carbon dioxide and methane emissions. Just…

Russia’s Neo-Feudal Capitalism

Anders Åslund. | (Project Syndicate) | - - WASHINGTON, DC – Vladimir Putin’s Russia is looking more and more like the sclerotic and stagnant Soviet Union of the Leonid Brezhnev era. But…

Rightwing False Flag: German Officer Posed as Syrian Refugee, Planned Attack

TeleSur | - - The man knew no Arabic and is of German heritage, but successfully posed as a Syrian asylum-seeker. German authorities have uncovered the case of a man who posed…

In Photos: Palestinians launch general strike in support of imprisoned hunger strikers

Ma'an News Agency | - - BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A general strike was held across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem on Thursday, as thousands of Palestinians shut down their shops…

Planet Ravagers: How Trump & GOP are like Aliens in “Independence Day”

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - "They're like locusts. They're moving from planet to planet, their entire civilization. Once they consume every natural resource, they move on." — President…

Dear Marine Le Pen: Only a Fascist would Praise Colonialism . . . Oh Wait

Jessica Northey | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | - - Marine Le Pen's declaration that colonialism was a positive thing is not only a denial of France's painful history, but an example of the…

Can Progressives Mobilize to Save the Middle Class?

By James A. Haught | (Charleston Gazette-Mail) | - - The progressive vision for America -- to make life better for all families, not just the privileged elite at the top --…

Climate March: Can we Save the Planet without Taking on the Pentagon?

By H Patricia Hynes | ( Portside ) | - - If we are not united in peace, we cannot save the planet. - Thich Nhat Hanh War and Warming: Can We…

Trump Sanctuary Threat Quashed by Court – Is anything he does Constitutional?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - US district judge William Orrick responded to a lawsuit by the county of San Francisco and by Santa Clara county against a Trump…

Syria’s forgotten pluralism and why it matters today

By Andrea Williams | (The Conversation) | - - The Syrian Civil War has been raging for six years. It has killed nearly half a million people and left over 12 million,…

Do Illegal Flynn Russia-Turkey Payments Implicate Trump White House?

Al Jazeera English | (Video News Clip) | - - "Michael Flynn, former national security adviser, may have broken the law by not disclosing payments he received from Russia when applying for…

Refugees, Militias, Sectarianism: Middle East Engulfed by a ‘Perfect Storm’

By Baher Kamal | (Inter Press Service) | - - ROME (IPS) - A perfect storm has engulfed the Middle East, and continues to threaten international peace and security. Hardly anyone could…

The Criminalization of Immigrants From Clinton to Trump

By Aviva Chomsky | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - Ever since he rode a Trump Tower escalator into the presidential race in June 2015 and swore to build his “great wall”…

The Last time there was this much CO2 in the air, Florida was under Water

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii has reported that in April, for the first time in human history the level of carbon dioxide…

Can Climate Solutions also help Low-Income Consumers fight inequality?

By Basav Sen. | ( Inequality.org) | - - Renew Oregon is advancing innovative climate justice proposals, building on a legislative victory to expand the state’s use of renewable energy, with strong…

Merkel Had To Explain EU Trade To Trump ELEVEN TIMES

Cenk Uygur | (Video News Clip) | - - "Trump has been bragging about what great chemistry he has with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks…

No Woman Has Ever Run For Iranian President. Will Azam Taleghani Be The First?

By Golnaz Esfandiari. | ( RFE/RL) | - - Update: Ms. Taleghani has been disqualified. Her journey is still amszing. On April 14, a tiny, frail-looking woman wearing a chador and using…

100 Days: How much Damage has Trump already done to the Earth?

By Martin Khor | (Inter Press Service) | - - PENANG (IPS) - This week, Donald Trump will mark his first hundred days as US President. It’s time to assess his impact…

For First Time, a US President backs a Fascist France

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - While she is highly unlikely to win the run-off presidential election on May 7 against the Bill Clinton of France, Emmanuel Macron, Marine…

Trump’s Hunger Games are Deadly Serious

By John Feffer | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | - - As famine descends on a huge swath of the globe, the White House is rolling back aid, ramping up conflict, and…

UK: Labour’s Corbyn Says Could Halt Syria Airstrikes If Elected

TeleSur | - - Corbyn also said he would have to consider whether he would authorize a drone strike against the leader of Islamic State group to limit civilian deaths. The leader…

Trump’s Warmongering on Steroids: But who Supplied the Steroids

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - MOAB sounds more like an incestuous, war-torn biblical kingdom than the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, aka “the mother of all bombs.” Still,…

As Scientists March, Will Trump give away US Science Lead to China?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The marches for science in the United States and around the world are an expression of alarm about the Trump administration's budget proposals,…

How Trump put the Foxes in charge of the Hen House at Education, Health, Justice

By Steven Harper | ( BillMoyers.com | - - "Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s…

Taliban Attackers Kill at Least 140 Soldiers at Afghan Base: Officials

TeleSur | - - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani visited the base on Saturday, and in a statement condemned the attack as "cowardly" and the work of "infidels." At least 140 Afghan soldiers…

Is there such a thing as a ‘Muslim vote’ in France?

By Fatima Khemilat | (The Conversation) | - - On April 8, the well-known French television show Salut les terriens turned sour when guests discussed the very sensitive topic of the so-called…

What if Marine Le Pen won the French election? Graphic Novels imagine Fascist Dystopia

Beatrice Mabilon-Bonfils | (The Conversation) | - - Update: The 2017 presidential campaign in France has been full of surprises, from François Hollande’s decision not to run for a second term to…

Trump Puts WikiLeaks and Julian Assange in the Crosshairs

TeleSur | - - The U.S. has not formally laid charges against Assange, but many within the new administration are signaling a hostile approach. United States Attorney general Jeff Session said the…

ISIL Terror-Trolls French Election, Supporting far Right; Will French Fall for It?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Thursday's shooting at the Champs Elysee, left one policeman dead, another gravely injured, a third lightly wounded along with a German tourist shot…

AG Jeff Sessions implies Asian-Americans in Hawaii not Real Americans

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Attorney-General Jeff Sessions was caught on tape saying the following: "“We are confident that the President will prevail on appeal and particularly in…

Trump’s 1984: Peace is War, Environment is Pollution, Health is Sickness

By Steven Harper | (BillMoyers.com) | - - "If you look at these Cabinet appointees, they were selected for a reason. And that is for the deconstruction [of the administrative state]." At…

Human-Caused Climate Change is Human-Caused Genocide

By Michael T. Klare | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - Not since World War II have more human beings been at risk from disease and starvation than at this very moment. On…

Does Climate change increase Threat of Terrorism?

By Manon Flausch | EURACTIV.fr | translated by Samuel White | - - "Poverty and insecurity can be factors in radicalisation." [Manon Flausch] From South America to the Middle East, the effects…

Top 5 Ways Bill O’Reilly gave us Trump and cheapened America

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Bill O'Reilly is off the airwaves, but it doesn't really matter. The despicable strategy of presslord Rupert Murdoch of orienting his Fox Cable…

Why humans are so bad at thinking about climate change (If only poisonous CO2 were black)

Vox/ UCLA | (Video News Clip) | - - "The biggest problem for the climate change fight isn’t technology – it’s human psychology. This is the first episode of Climate Lab, a…

Is Trump Taking Us to War Everywhere?

By Olivia Alperstein | (Otherwords.org) | - - No one expected Trump to be a peace president, but he seems bent on taking us to the verge of World War III. No…

Palestinians decry Israeli Double Standard over NYT Op-ed

Ma'an News Agency | - - BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Activists and commentators have denounced the dishonesty of Israeli criticism of The New York Times for publishing an op-ed in defense of a…

The Coming Muslim Century: Bad news for President Bannon

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Demographically, the 21st century will be the Muslim Century, as the Pew Research Center on Religion in Public Life has shown. Muslims will…

How Middle Eastern Immigrants Boost US Competitiveness

Sami Mahroum | ( Project Syndicate) | - - DUBAI – In his 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein chose a Muslim linguist, “Dr. Mahmoud,” to…

Don’t want to lose the Next Mideast War? Don’t Fight One

Danny Sjursen | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - Make no mistake: after 15 years of losing wars, spreading terror movements, and multiplying failed states across the Greater Middle East, America will…

Mideast Partition Plans won’t Bring Peace, just Imperial Social Engineering

By Laura Robson | (Informed Comment) | - - The idea that partition and population exchange might represent “solutions” to Middle Eastern conflict, long advocated by a wide variety of observers and…

Can the Left Rebuild in the Deep South?

The Atlantic | (Video News Clip) | - - "Georgia’s sixth congressional district is a Republican stronghold—a Democrat hasn’t won in nearly 40 years. Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old documentary filmmaker and former…

As Leftist Turks Protest, Trump congratulates Erdogan on Authoritarian Turn

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Several hundred Turks demonstrated in Istanbul on Monday in protest at the referendum result on Sunday transforming Turkey into a presidential system and…

Was US Airstrike on Syrian Mosque a War Crime?

Human Rights Watch | - - (Washington, DC) – United States forces appear to have failed to take necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties in a March 16, 2017 strike that killed…

Trump White House Taking “Marching Orders” from Hundreds of CEOs: Report

Nadia Prupis, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org ) | - - One of every five of the corporate executives who met with the Trump administration within the first 100 days represented the…

Over 1,000 Palestinian Prisoners Launch Mass Hunger Strike

TeleSur | - - “Salutes of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. Glory to the martyrs. Freedom for the prisoners of freedom,” stated the PFLP in support of the strikers. On Palestinian Prisoner’s Day Monday, hundreds…

Turkish Democracy in Trouble, but not Because of Presidential System

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Turkey's historic referendum on Sunday will move the country from a parliamentary to a presidential system. Many observers are sounding a death knell…

Neoconservatives almost Giddy over Trump Syria Strike

By Jim Lobe | FPIF | (Originally published in Lobelog) | - - Many architects of the Iraq War openly hope Trump will go further in pursuing regime change in Syria —…

Can a New Era of Progressive Protest Revolutionize our values in Age of Trump?

By Ira Chernus | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | - - You could hear the deep sadness in the preacher’s voice as he named “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today --…

Everyone could celebrate Easter in Jerusalem except Palestinian Christians

By IMEMC. | - - Thousands of Christian followers of the Orthodox and Catholic faiths from all over the world, gathering at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Old City,…

Why Population Exchange Fails: Over 100 Dead as Buses Bombed

by Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Someone detonated a car bomb in the (rebel-held) Rashideen district of Aleppo Province Friday night, killing over 100 and wounding over 500. It…

Turkey’s Referendum on Democracy vs. Illiberal Rule

By Natalie Martin | (The Conversation) | - - When the Turkish government announced its plans to transform itself into an executive presidency, no-one was particularly surprised. This plan, which has been…

After the Chemical Attack, It’s Time to Get Rid of the ‘Muslim Ban’

By Peter Certo | (Otherwords.org) | - - Now that he cares about the fate of Syrian children, I hope Trump will open up our country — not bomb theirs. When I…

Joint statement: 1 million Palestinians detained by Israel since 1948

1 million Palestinians detained by Israel since 1948: Joint statement

Ma'an News Agency | - - RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities have detained approximately one million Palestinians since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent occupation of…

40% of California Grid Power from Solar, Sometimes Costs less than Nothing

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - For the first time, on the day of March 23, 40% of Californian grid power between 11 am and 2 pm was generated…

What is Trump trying to Hide by disappearing WH Visitor Logs?

By Nadia Prupis, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org ) | - - 'The only reasonable conclusion is to believe the Trump administration has many things it is trying to hide' The decision…

No, MSM: Man-Baby Trump didn’t become President with Missile Strikes

By Bill Moyers | BillMoyers.com | - - It’s been a week now since Donald Trump once again became our president. Here’s how it happened. After he unleashed missiles on a Syrian…

Syria: to Assad & Kurds go the Spoils; Sunni extremists have Lost

By Mehmet Ozalp | (The Conversation) | - - The devastating gas attack in Syria, attributed to the Assad regime, and the swift US missile response is a game-changer for all parties…

In 3 months, Trump has Charged into 4 Mideast Wars, to no Avail

Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - In his less than three months in office, Donald Trump has escalated four wars, and all of his escalations have been failures. To be…

‘Sicide belts Everywhere’: As Iraqi Forces Close in, ISIL prepares to Drink the Coolaid

‘Suicide belts Everywhere’: As Iraqi Forces Close in, ISIL prepares to Drink the Coolaid

Special Correspondent | (Baghdad) | (Niqash.org) | - - As pro-Iraq forces close in on the Islamic State fighters in Mosul, civilians trapped in the city with them, say the extremists roam…

Global Warming in Atlantic driving Rapid Arctic Sea Ice Retreat

Tom Rippeth | (The Conversation) The seasonal sea-ice retreat across the Arctic Ocean is perhaps one of the most conspicuous indicators of climate change. In September 2012, a new record was set…

Who Profits from Trump’s dramatic but useless Bombings?

By William Astore | (Tomdispatch.com) | - - What does an “America-first” foreign policy look like under President Donald Trump? As a start, forget the ancient label of “isolationism.” With the end…

Can we survive simultaneous Trump, Ahmadinejad Presidencies?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - BBC Monitoring, which translates foreign-language news reports, has a rundown on reactions in Persian to the surprise registration by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to run…

1 in 50 new Jobs in US is in Solar Energy, despite Trump

Bill Ritter, Jr. | (The Conversation) | On Tuesday, March 28, President Trump traveled to the Environmental Protection Agency to sign an executive order rolling back a number of climate-related regulations that…

ISIL Now Controls only 7% of Iraq: What will its Defeat Mean for the Country?

Peter Bartu | (OpenDemocracy.net) | - - The west has treated ISIL as enemy number one while local actors see it as a sideshow in a political arena stretching from the Mediterranean…

Trump: We’re Not Going Into Syria . . . Unless We Do (TYT)

Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola, & Jayar Jackson |The Young Turks|(Video)| - - "Our Dumbass-In-Chief can’t figure out how to not contradict himself inside the same sentence. Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola, and Jayar…

Washington’s demonization of Foes jumps Shark with Sean Spicer on Hitler

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - White House spokesman Sean Spicer is as ill-suited for his job as his boss Donald Trump is ill-suited for his own. The most…

“Steve Bannon just Snapped” – “Super-Scary” (TYT & Maz Jobrani)

The Young Turks | (Lively Video Discussion) | - - "The Trump Administration would like you to think they aren't still plagued with infighting. Wrong. Sad. Babies. Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola, and…

Bill O’Reilly driven from air by Advertiser Boycott over Sexual Harassment?

Lawrence O'Donnell | The Last Word | (Video News Clip) | - - "Bill O'Reilly is off the air for Easter "vacation," but Gabe Sherman reports the Murdochs are fighting over O'Reilly's…

Risk of Mass Starvation Rising Rapidly in Africa, Yemen

TeleSur | - - "This really is an absolutely critical situation that is rapidly unfolding across a large swathe of Africa from west to east." The risk of mass starvation in four…

Can António Guterres Fend Off America’s War on the UN?

By Dulcie Leimbach | (Inter Press Service) | - - UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - When António Guterres was chosen by the United Nations Security Council in October to become the next leader…

What Trump looks like from Cuba …

By Mattea Kramer | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - I’ll tell you up front that my personal vehicle has crowns of rust on the rear wheel wells and an interior that smells…

Russia’s not Leaving: Syria is about old-Fashioned Sphere of Influence, not Oil

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Russia is not going to yield its sphere of influence in Syria to Donald Trump or anyone else. Russia has all but won…

Donald Trump: Global Ecocide

By John Feffer | ( Foreign Policy in Focus) | - - Can one determined and willfully ignorant man both stem the green tide and push the world over the brink into…

Asian Doctor Violently Pulled Off US Plane by Security Guards

TeleSur | - - While he was allowed back on the flight, the man’s face was bleeding from the force the guards exerted. A viral video has yet again stirred controversy around…

Sorry, Trump: China is Leading World toward first “Ecological Civilization”

David Tyfield | (The Conversation) | - - The Trump administration’s hostility towards climate action and research leaves a void in global climate politics. Could China step up? The world’s largest absolute…

Sharpening Contradictions: ISIL Strikes Egyptian Christians on Palm Sunday

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) claimed responsibility Sunday for two suicide bombings at Christian churches in Lower Egypt on Palm Sunday, which left over 40…

Why We Need Political Islam

By Shlomo Ben-Ami | (Project Syndicate) | - - MADRID – US President Donald Trump has put on the back burner an executive order that would designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a…

Can the West Coast throw up a Green wall against Trump’s Assault on Environment?

By Arun Gupta. | ( Yes! Magazine ) | - - Despite a string of victories in the last few years limiting the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure on the West Coast,…

Will the US missile strike be the turning point in Syria’s shifting war?

By Harout Akdedian | (The Conversation) | - - The US has struck the Syrian airbase used to launch a suspected sarin gas attack against Khan Sheikhun that killed more than 80…

Recalling Heartbreaking Zionist Massacre of Palestinian Civilians at Deir Yassin

Ma'an News Agency | - - BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) marked on Sunday the 69th anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre, when at least 100 Palestinians were killed…

Al-Sadr: Russia, America and al-Assad should all get out of Syria!

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Saturday issued a broadside demanding that Russia and the United States withdraw from Syria and that strongman…

“No new Coal Plants!” – European Energy Companies

Newsy |. (Video News Clip) | / The Tree | - - "Energy companies representing almost the entire European Union have promised not to build new coal power plants after 2020." Newsy:…

When it comes to Climate Change, you are what you Eat

By Sarantis Michalopoulos | ( EURACTIV.com) | - - Governments are “trapped” by lobbyists, and it’s hard to fight climate change. But if young people are mobilised and turn to healthy lifestyles,…

Can you do anything for Israeli-Palestinian Peace?

By Mike Merryman-Lotze | (Otherwords.org) | - - The White House is creating new problems in Israel-Palestine, but ordinary people can start setting things right. While news swirled around health care and…

Russia would accept West Jerusalem as Israeli Capital if Peace Agreement Reached

IMEMC | - - On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that, if a peace agreement between Israeli and Palestinian people could be reached, Russia could acknowledge West Jerusalem as the capital…

Russia: US attack on our Sovereign ally Illegal

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday slammed the Trump administration for its strike on Syria, calling it "illegal" and based on faulty intelligence.…

Disgust as Corporate Media and DC Politicians Gush Over Trump’s New War

By Nika Knight, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org ) | - - According to DC pundits, Trump was a dangerous maniac...until he started bombing?' "We see these beautiful pictures at night from…

Even once ISIL is defeated, the problem of Manhunts and Reprisals

Mustafa Habib | (Baghdad) | Niqash.org | - - While Iraqi forces battle the Islamic State in west Mosul, intelligence services work in the east, to hunt down former members of the…

Trump: Syrian Refugees can have Tomahawks but not Asylum in US

By Lyndal Rowlands | (Inter Press Service) | - - UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - U.S. President Donald Trump Thursday night described the deepening Syrian refugee crisis as partial justification for the first…

Trump intervenes in the Great Mideast Civil War in Syria

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The Syrian Civil War has a domestic, a regional and an international dimension. Domestically, it has become a fight between some largely rural…

Trump Straining to bring back Torture, Indefinite Detention?

By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - When George W. Bush and Dick Cheney launched their forever wars -- under the banner of a “Global War on Terror” -- they…

Kushner of Arabia: Can Trump’s Son-in-Law Figure out Iraq?

By Shahram Akbarzadeh | (Informed Comment) | - - Days before President Donald J. Trump ordered cruise missile strikes on Syria, his son-in-law Jared Kushner visited Iraq to learn first-hand how the…

We are heading for the warmest climate in half a billion years

By Gavin Foster, Dana Royer, and Dan Lunt | (The Conversation) | - - Carbon dioxide concentrations are heading towards values not seen in the past 200m years. The sun has also…

Washington’s Supreme Hypocrisy on Chemical Weapons and Civilian Deaths

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - The use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Army in Idlib is an atrocity and the pictures of dead children tug at the…

Bannon booted from US National Security Council, takes swipe at Susan Rice

TeleSur | - - "General McMaster has returned the NSC to its proper function,” Bannon said in a statement. U.S. President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has been removed from the…

As Trump Breaks it, Top Ten Things we need to do to Fix America

By William R. Polk | (Informed Comment) | - - Let me suggest what seem to me to be the major categories of challenges men who care about the country face, but…

Climate Change Solutions Can’t Wait for Trump

By Desmond Brown | (Inter Press Service) | - - BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (IPS) - From tourism-dependent nations like Barbados to those rich with natural resources like Guyana, climate change poses one of…

ISIL: Imbecilic Buffoon Trump leading America to Extinction

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Disturbing signs emerged Tuesday that Donald J. Trump's odd self-presentation and erratic pronouncements could be a serious security threat to . . .…

Trump Ordered 70 Airstrikes in Yemen, Twice as Many as Last Year of Obama

TeleSur | - - U.S. President Trump also greenlighted a group operation in Yemen in February that killed more than 30 civilians. The young U.S. administration of Donald Trump has carried out…

How our Standing Wars are Warping Us

Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - On successive days recently, I saw two museum shows that caught something of a lost American world and seemed eerily relevant in the Age…

Can the Global Mining Industry go Green?

By Joseph Kirschke | (Next Billion) | - - In recent months, events across three continents showed how clean energy use by the mining industry, which consumes 11 percent of global energy,…

Strongman: The Bloodstained Rise of Global Populism

By Alfred W. McCoy | ( Tomdispatch.com) | - - In 2016, something extraordinary happened in the politics of diverse countries around the world. With surprising speed and simultaneity, a new generation…

PM May: Take back the Balfour Declaration – Israel reneged on the Bargain

By Ian Berman | (Informed Comment) | - - Dear Prime Minister May: The centennial of the Balfour Declaration is upon us. Accordingly, we think it is time the British Government revisited…

Trump, al-Sisi and Tightening up the Pressure Cooker

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - President Trump met Monday with Egyptian field marshal/ president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Trump effused, “We agree on so many things. I just want…

What history reveals about surges in anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant sentiments

By Ingrid Anderson | (The Conversation) | - - This February, more than 100 gravestones were vandalized at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society Cemetery outside of St. Louis, Missouri and at the…

Has Trump deferred to Russia in Syria?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Elizabeth Palmer reported from Ankara last Thursday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had difficult and inconclusive discussions with Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan…

ISIL Threatens To Conquer Iran, issuing Rare Video In Persian

Golnaz Esfandiari | ( RFE/RL) | - - The militant group Islamic State (IS) has vowed in a rare video message in Persian that includes the apparent beheading of four captured soldiers…

The Hundred Days From Hell

David Faris | (Informed Comment) | - - As the sun rises on the 11th full week of the disgrace-riddled Barnum & Bailey dystopia known as the Trump Administration, revelations about the…

Is Trump really a Fascist?

By David Prochaska | (Informed Comment) | - - The “highly unusual,” “unprecedented” Trump administration is leading us into “uncharted territory,” but where exactly? Since last November’s election, some commentators trying to…

Iran is Back: With Int’l Sanctions lifted and Putin Friendly, Tehran is on a Roll

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Iranian petroleum sales to its top four Asian customers rose nearly 60% year on year in March, and total exports have reached nearly…

The White House Wouldn’t Post Trump Staffers’ Financial Disclosures. So We Did

by Ariana Tobin and Derek Kravitz | (ProPublica) | - - In a remarkable Friday night news dump, the Trump administration made dozens of White House staffers' financial disclosure forms available. But…

Israel knicks 25 Acres Of Palestinian Lands In Salfit for Colonial Purposes

IMEMC | - - The Israeli government is planning to illegally confiscate 25 acres of Palestinian lands, in Salfit district, in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank, to build a…

Mosul: ISIL Deploys Ideological Booby Trap As It Retreats

David Patrikarakos | ( RFE/RL ) | - - The coalition battling to take the Iraqi city of Mosul from the extremist [so-called] "Islamic State" group (IS) is closing in. Earlier this…

Putin joins ranks of Denialists in support of Trump

Putin joins ranks of Climate Denialists in support of Trump

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Russian President Vladimir Putin has abruptly become a climate-change denialist, apparently under the influence of key figures in the Trump administration, which Putin…

Iraqis Weigh in on Airstrike That Killed Hundreds In Mosul

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | - - There is plenty of speculation about how hundreds of non-combatants were killed in Mosul, all apparently by accident. US and Iraqi forces have…

No, supremacists, the Vikings wouldn’t have put up with “Teuton” Donald Trump

By Keith Ruiter | (The Conversation) | - - It has been suggested that Donald Trump “may get his assertive rather than passive manner from his alleged Viking ancestors”. Or so says…

Palestinians condemn Israel’s new illegal squatting in West Bank

Ma'an News Agency | - - BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Palestinian leaders on Thursday and Friday strongly condemned an Israeli security cabinet vote on Thursday night that unanimously approved the establishment of a…