Europe

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The European Space Agency isn’t as well known in the U.S. as NASA or even Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. The $7 bn.-a-year agency funded by 22 European states, however, has what could turn out to be a game-changing idea for solar power. ESA is contemplating installing a solar panel […]

Climate Crisis

City of Berlin adopts $5.2 bilion Climate Protection Fund to Reduce Fossil Fuel Dependency

Clean Energy Wire

By Jennifer Collins | – Clean Energy Wire / Tagesspiegel / RBB ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Berlin’s Senate has adopted a five-billion-euro climate protection fund to flow into mobility, energy efficiency in buildings, power supply and the economy. The goal of the fund, which could be doubled to 10 billion euros by 2026, […]

Featured

As long as Nukes are on the Table in Ukraine, We are Skating at the Edge of Global Catastrophe

Peter G. Prontzos

Vancouver (Special to Informed Comment; Featured) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has broached he use of battlefield nuclear weapons in Ukraine, We all hope it is an empty threat, since such an escalation could possibly trigger an all-out global holocaust. However, nothing is certain in war, and there are many scenarios in which nuclear weapons […]

European Union

Turkey has a long Road ahead with renewed European Union Bid

Arzu Geybullayeva

Written byArzu Geybullayeva ( Globalvoices.org) – On July 20, European Union foreign ministers met to discuss Ankara’s renewed accession demands and agreed to re-engage with Turkey. In the European Commission report on enlargement for 2022, they noted the EU’s concerns over the country’s “continued deterioration of democracy, the rule of law, fundamental rights and the independence […]

Climate Crisis

Germany on Track to 3 new Gigawatts of Onshore Wind this Year as Expansion Accelerates

Benjamin Wehrmann

By Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The speed of Germany’s onshore wind power expansion is accelerating, but it is still too slow to put the country on track towards its 2030 capacity targets, the German Wind Energy Federation (BWE) and engineering industry association VDMA have said. In the first half […]

Climate Crisis

Game Over? Even BP and TotalEnergies are Shelling out $14.7 Bn. for Right to Build Baltic Sea Wind Farms

Clean Energy Wire

By Sören Amelang | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Oil majors BP and TotalEnergies pledged to pay a combined 12.6 billion euros [$14.7 bn.] for the right to build wind farms in the North and Baltic seas in the world’s largest ever offshore wind auction. Environmentalists hailed the result as a “quantum leap” […]

Featured

Is Turkey abandoning Russia to turn back toward the West?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Given the decisions announced by Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, some have speculated that Turkey is “turning back toward the West” after a long period of estrangement and flirtation with Russia. Erdogan finally dropped his opposition to Sweden joining NATO. He backed NATO membership […]

Displaced and Refugees

The French “Nahel” Protests spring from Systemic Racism, not Immigration or Islam

Mohamed Jegham

Sousse, Tunisia (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Since June 27, every news channel has been covering the recent protests in Paris. On the surface, these disturbances are the result of a police shooting of an unarmed 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk who was attempting to flee the police at a traffic stop. However, many news outlets […]

military

Turkey’s Erdogan abruptly lifts veto on Sweden in NATO: What it means for the Alliance and Ukraine War

The Conversation

Simon J Smith, Staffordshire University and Jordan Becker, United States Military Academy West Point | – In a surprise move, Turkey has ended its veto on Sweden joining Nato, thereby removing all the barriers to its membership of the military alliance. Hungary quickly followed suit and, as a result of the two countries’ support, a […]