TeleSur | – – The decision comes as a blow to environmentalists and Indigenous groups opposing the controversial projects. U.S. President Donald Trump signed executive orders Tuesday to revive the controversial Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines. Trump’s signature has left Indigenous groups and environmentalists fuming but determined to carry on their struggle against the […]
Archives for January 2017
Israeli former Minister Cancels Belgium Visit fearing Arrest for Gaza War Crimes
IMEMC News | – – Former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has reportedly cancelled her trip to Belgium, according to the PNN, over threats of arrest for war crimes in Gaza. On 23 June, 2010, a group of victims filed a complaint in Belgium, with the Federal Prosecutor, against a number of Israeli military officials, […]
Trump to al-Sisi: Syria’s al-Assad is a Brave, steadfast Man (Beirut Report)
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – al-Diyar (The Lands) [Beirut] reports on what Egyptian officials allegedly leaked about the telephone conversation between Donald J. Trump and Egyptian president `Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. There is no way to certify the truth of this report. For all I know it is Egyptian propaganda, or Syrian […]
Netanyahu vows Israeli squatter settlement expansion in Palestinian E. Jerusalem
Ma’an News | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised his far-right government on Sunday that he would lift all restrictions on settlement construction in occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli media reported. Netanyahu’s announcement came as Israel’s Jerusalem municipality approved permits for the construction of at least 566 new illegal Israeli settlement […]
Your Presidency Sucks: The Republican Party and its Orange Bunny
By David Faris | (Informed Comment) | – – When the late Roger Ebert saw director Vincent Gallo’s film The Brown Bunny at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003, he gave it one of the most savage appraisals that ever appeared under his byline. Ebert, who was known to end reviews of aggressively terrible movies […]
Oil-Rich Arab States Quietly Join Israel in Cheering for Trump
TeleSur | – – Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf Arab allies are happy to see Obama leave office as President Donald Trump would be “very, very tough” on Iran. While the world watched with horror as Donald Trump delivered his aggressive “America First” speech on the day of his inauguration, Saudi Arabia and its […]
Will Saudi Reforms be enough to Forestall big Trouble ahead?
By Bernard Haykel | (Project Syndicate) | – – In 2017, Saudi Arabia will continue to pursue two key goals: to reduce its economy’s dependence on oil revenues and government spending; and to position the Kingdom as a regional hegemon that can meet any threat. The country’s transformation will be difficult, but it is necessary, […]
Kurds Will Come Together to Discuss Independence With Baghdad
TeleSur | – – Kurdish independence “is a reality that will come true,” said Masoud Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. Kurdish parties will meet with the Iraqi government to discuss independence, reported Kurdish media on Saturday. The delegation will include five Kurdish parties, who will meet with Turkmen, Chaldean and Assyrian […]
Trump to CIA: We now have 2nd Chance to take Iraq’s Oil
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Donald Trump has had a contentious relationship with the US intelligence community, in part over their conviction that the Russian Federation attempted to use cyber tradecraft to interfere in the US election on behalf of Trump. His visit to the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters at Langley, […]