2015 Fireworks: Burj Khalifa, Dubai (New Year Fireworks)
Archives for December 2014
Palestinians ready next Move as UNSC rejects end of Occupation
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) — The UN Security Council yesterday voted down an Arab League resolution on Palestine that would have called for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories within 3 years and a return to 1967 borders. Similar resolutions were passed by the UN Security Council in past, but this […]
We have so much to Learn from Cuba
By Robert F. Kennedy Jr In this column, Robert F. Kennedy – son of Robert F. (Bobby) Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy – looks behind the U.S. embargo against Cuba which, he argues, has been a “monumental failure” and is loaded with powerful ironies that make the United States look hypocritical to […]
Egypt’s 2014 Thermidor: The Counter-Revolution Wins Out
By Simon Mabon and Lucia Ardovini | (The Conversation) — It was a year of huge transition for Egypt. Gone was the Muslim Brotherhood, in both word and deed, while the military regime of Abdel Fatah al-Sisi strengthened its control across the state. Despite facing numerous challenges – political, economic, secessionist and security related – […]
Yemen in 2014: 1500 Killed as Extremist Shiites took over Gov’t, battled al-Qaeda: What Next?
SANAA, December 2014 (IRIN) — After a negotiated transfer of power agreed in early 2012, the annual death toll dropped to about 1,100 and nearly halved again in 2013 to fewer than 600, according to the International Crisis Group. The uptick in violence in 2014 is the result of a number of distinct but inter-related […]
Iraq: Yezidis return home to find Mass Graves, Daesh/ISIL Massacres
Euronews | — “Yazidi refugees from the Iraqi village of Hardan returned to their homes for the first time on Tuesday after being driven out by Islamic militants in August. They were hoping to find out what happened to their friends and family who were captured by ISIL. What they discovered confirmed their worst fears: […]
The Year Iraq Ceased to Exist: Will it ever Again?
In 2014, Iraq was said to lose 42% of its territory to Daesh (the Arabic acronym for what our press calls ISIS or ISIL). This statistic refers to the loss of the mostly Sunni Arab provinces of al-Anbar and Ninewah, as well as parts of Salahuddin and Diyala. It is a little bit misleading, since […]
“Even a 10 percent loss of Antarctica’s ice would cause catastrophic flooding of coastal cities”
NOVA | (PBS) — “Almost three miles of ice buries most of Antarctica, cloaking a continent half again as large as the United States. But when an Antarctic ice shelf the size of Manhattan collapsed in less than a month in 2002, it shocked scientists and raised the alarming possibility that Antarctica may be headed […]
Gap between Wealthy and everyone else in USA is now Insane
Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks) — “”The wealthy are getting wealthier. As for everyone else, no such luck. A report released on Wednesday by the Pew Research Center found that the wealth gap between the country’s top 20 percent of earners and the rest of America had stretched to its widest point in at […]