AFP | — “Conflicts and violence in places like Syria and Ukraine have displaced a record 38 million people inside their own countries, equivalent to the total populations of New York, London and Beijing, according to a watchdog group.” AFP News Agency: “Record 38 million people internally displaced: watchdog”
Archives for May 2015
Lurch to Far Right keeps Netanyahu in power, but for how long?
By Luisa Gandolfo | (The Conversation) | – Only weeks after Israel’s snap Knesset elections, the Likud party was bluntly reminded that winning the most seats does not guarantee an easy ride. It met its latest challenge with a series of coalition-saving deals with the HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) party, whose leader Naftali Bennett agreed […]
Egypt: Mubarak, Sons, given 3-year Wrist Slap for Massive Corruption
Reuters | — “Hosni Mubarak and his two sons are sentenced to three years in jail without parole in the retrial of a corruption case. Nathan Frandino reports.” Reuters: “Egyptian court sentences Mubarak, sons to 3 years in jail”
Hawaii goes Green and other Big Renewables Stories
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – The Hawaii legislature has just passed a bill by an overwhelming margin that sets a goal of 100% renewable energy in the state by 2045. The new law requires that the state get a third of its electricity from renewables by 2020, only five years from now. […]
Is Sen. Tom Cotton right that ISIL is Winning?
John Iadarola, Jimmy Dore, Ana Kasparian | (The Young Turks) — “Senator Tom Cotton has a lot of faith in the military prowess of ISIS, and its fighters, unfortunately though he doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about when he talks about ISIS. John Iadarola (Think Tank), Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show), Ana […]
Palestinians: “”The face of a new form of racist, discriminatory Israel has been revealed”
By IMEMC Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new right-wing religious “government of war” is a blow to an already stagnating peace process, PLO officials said Thursday, vowing to fight it on the international stage. The PLO blasted Israel’s “extremist” cabinet, after Netanyahu announced a coalition government that gave him a slim parliamentary majority and included […]
Why won’t US, Israel Ratify Nuclear Test Ban Treaty but seek Iran Sanctions?
By Kanya D’Almeida UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – With the four-week-long review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) underway at the United Nations, hopes and frustrations are running equally high, as a binding political agreement on the biggest threat to humanity hangs in the balance. Gamma spectroscopy can detect traces of radioactivity from nuclear tests […]
Hizbullah, Syrian Army push back al-Qaeda in Qalamoun as Christian militia mobilizes
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Smarting from a string of losses, the proregime coalition of Hizbullah and the Syrian Arab Army is looking for some victories against the al-Qaeda-linked Support Front (Jabhat al-Nusra). They seek them in the Qalamoun mountain range near the Lebanese-Syrian border, where Hizbullah was victorious last year this […]
Syria: What if Turkey and Saudi Arabia install al-Qaeda in Damascus?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Journalists such as the intrepid Liz Sly covering the Syrian Civil War were struck with the victories of the Army of Conquest coalition in northern Syria, which in recent weeks first took Idlib city (they had already taken most of Idlib province) and then Jisr al-Shughur, a […]