James Balog | The National Geographic (Video Report) | – – “Join the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) team on an expedition to South Georgia Island near the Antarctic Peninsula. This trip adds the Southern Hemisphere to a network of 43 time-lapse cameras placed worldwide on 24 glaciers. Capturing one photo per hour of daylight, the […]
Archives for October 2015
Can Russia afford Its Syria Campaign?
By Charles Recknagel | ( RFE/ RL ) Rough estimates suggest that Moscow has spent at least $87 million for air and cruise-missile strikes in the first two weeks of its bombing campaign in Syria that began September 30. With that relatively modest investment, the Kremlin has made itself a player that cannot be ignored […]
Palestinians want West Bank & Gaza to be put under UN protection
By Samer B. Jaber | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – We, a group of professional and trade union figures, intellectuals, and political activists, appeal to the Palestinian leadership within the Palestine Liberation Organization and outside of it, to call on the United Nation and the permanent members of the Security Council to put the […]
Syria: Will US arming of Kurdish-led Northeast Rebels Provoke Turkey?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The intrepid Anne Barnard and Karim Shoumali at the NYT have a piece on how Saudi-supplied TOW anti-tank weapons to rebels in Hama and Idlib are creating a US-Russian proxy struggle in northwest Syria (the CIA is actually the source of the weapons, with Saudi intelligence […]
Does Obama have a Syria Strategy? Putin Does.
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In his “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday President Obama made some remarks on Syria, but do they add up to a policy? Obama said: 1. He is giving up on a Pentagon plan to train thousands of “moderate” Syrian fighters to take on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). […]
3 Memes: Twitter debates as Russian support for Syria intervention Doubles
By Anna Shamanska | ( RFE/RL) | – – Support among Russians for military intervention in Syria has more than doubled, to 31 percent in early October from 14 percent in September, according to independent pollster Levada Center. The increase comes with coverage of air strikes filling Russian state airwaves, press, and the Internet, and […]
Palestine: Of course, it is an intifada: This is what you must know
By: Ramzy Baroud | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – When my book ‘Searching Jenin’ was published soon after the Israeli massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, I was quizzed repeatedly by the media and many readers for conferring the word ‘massacre’ on what Israel has depicted as a legitimate battle against camp-based […]
The Mideast’s New Cold War: Why Russia won’t Defeat Iraq’s Extremists
By Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Since the announcement of a new military alliance including Russia, locals have been trading arguments. Could Iraq become the stage for a new “Cold War”? And how effective can this coalition really be? For many Iraqis, the news that came last week of an alliance […]
Elderly Palestinian man confronts Israeli soldiers over shooting at Youth, before collapsing
Lauren Hampshire | (ODN Video News Report/ ITN) | – – An elderly Palestinian man confronted a group Israeli troops after they clashed with Palestinian youths in Hebron, before he collapsed on the street. Report by Lauren Hampshire. ODN: “Elderly Palestinian man confronts armed Israeli soldiers before collapsing”