By Joseph Chamie | (Inter Press Service) | – – NEW YORK (IPS) – It first happened in Italy in 1995. Five years later it happened in six additional countries, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Japan, Portugal and Spain. Today the total number of countries where it has occurred stands at 30, including most members of the […]
Archives for August 2016
Gaza Strip: Blockade Causing an End to Fresh Water Resources
By IMEMC News | – – International Solidarity Movement | Gaza Team | – – As every year, during the summer, the water shortage in the Gaza Strip is accentuated. At the same time, the energy shortage caused by the blockade prevents engines and water pumps from pushing it from wells and tanks to houses […]
Google Sparks Outrage by Abolishing Palestine on Maps
TeleSur | – – Google’s decision to wipe Palestine from its map app and portray the occupied territories as Israel sparks online protest campaign. Journalists and activists have excoriated Google for wiping Palestine completely off its map app, depicting the entire occupied Palestinian territories as part of the state of Israel. The Palestinian Journalists’ Forum […]
Looming Aleppo Battle indicts both sides of Civil War for breaking Cease-Fire
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The only thing worse than the new hero status of now-covert al-Qaeda operative Abu Muhammad al-Julani and his Army of Syrian Conquest (ASC) is the news that he plans to subject all of Aleppo. Aleppo is Syria’s largest city, or at least it used to be, […]
On 71st Anniversary of Hiroshima, the Fear of a Nuclear Trump
TeleSur | – – Donald Trump also recently asked a national security expert three times why, since the US has nuclear weapons, it can’t use them. Japan marked the 71st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Saturday as its Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for eliminating nuclear arms. “We must not have […]
Will Syria Issue derail Turkey-Russia Rapprochement?
By Abbas Djavadi | ( RFE/RL ) | – – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travels to St. Petersburg on August 9 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They will focus on improving cooperation in two main areas: the effort to find a shared and joint solution to the Syria crisis, and in business […]
Iowa could go 100% Green with Wind in only 14 years, w/ Few Birds Killed, Mr. Trump
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iowa gets 31% of its electricity from wind turbines, the highest percentage in the nation (though Texas generates more than twice as many megawatts from wind). But you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. Some Iowa planners think that in only 14 years Iowa will be able to […]
Democrats Are Still Divided on Israel, But Clinton Runs Way to the Right
By Naomi Dann | Foreign Policy in Focus | (Originally published in Lobelog) Some see Democratic VP pick Tim Kaine as a promising counterbalance to Clinton’s hawkishness. Following Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s exit as chair of the Democratic Party after the release of emails revealing efforts to undermine Bernie Sanders’s campaign, political analyst Donna Brazile will take […]
Syria: Key ISIL Smuggling city, Manbij, falls to Kurd-Arab Force
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Syrian War is nowhere near over, but the Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) episode may be drawing to an end. Alarabiya reports that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is largely leftist Kurds of the YPG but includes a small Arab auxiliary faction, has taken almost all […]