Image via NASA NASA’s Earth Observatory writes: “Global sea level rise has been accelerating in recent decades, according to a new study based on 25 years of NASA and European satellite data. This acceleration has been driven mainly by increased ice melting in Greenland and Antarctica, and it has the potential to double the total […]
Archives for February 2018
The Age of Total War in Syria
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – One of the most distressing take-aways of the Syria War since 2011 is that the United Nations does not work and all the hopes of the framers of its charter in 1945 have been dashed. World War II was a total war that polished off some […]
Saudi dreams of an anti-Iran Axis with Israel Evaporating: Khashoggi
Middle East Monitor | – – The well-known Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi confirmed that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince has started a relationship with Israel and tried to pressure the Palestinians to accept the so-called “deal of the century”. However, this approach has floundered. Khashoggi was speaking during a seminar in Istanbul hosted by the “Riwaq […]
Israel: Netanyahu’s Top Allies Arrested in Ongoing Corruption Probe
TeleSur | – – A former Netanyahu spokesman and the former director of the communications ministry are among the persons arrested. Two close associates of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have been named in the ongoing corruption probe against Netanyahu. Nir Hefetz, a former Netanyahu spokesman, and Shlomo Filber, the former director of the communications […]
Trump’s $700 Bn. Bag of Goodies for the Military-Industrial Complex
By Danny Sjursen | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Think of it as the chicken-or-the-egg question for the ages: Do very real threats to the United States inadvertently benefit the military-industrial complex or does the national security state, by its very nature, conjure up inflated threats to feed that defense machine? Back in 2008, […]
Turks Threaten al-Assad if he sends Army to Defend Syrian Kurds
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Rumors swirled on Monday that the Democratic Union Party in the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria had made an agreement for Syrian government troops to come defend them from the current Turkish assault on them . Reports were circulating (some of them from the […]
Why Black Panther’s Wakanda Is the Black Utopia We’ve Been Waiting For
By Ingrid LaFleur | ( Yes! Magazine) | – – Before the film was released, the nation of Wakanda was taking shape in our minds. Ingrid LaFleur posted Feb 07, 2018 “When I wondered if imagination could be necessary for the revolution and transformation, you said yes, you said our dreams and visions matter, they […]
Church Shooting ‘Nothing To Do With Islam,’ Say Russian Muslim Leaders
RFE/RL | – – The mainstream Muslim leadership in Russia’s Daghestan region has condemned an attack that killed five people outside a Russian Orthodox church, saying that the suspect had “nothing to do with the true Islam.” In a February 19 statement, the office of the region’s chief mufti also extended condolences to the relatives […]
Is the Syria War over and has Putin won it?
By Danny Makki | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | – – The end game is clear: Assad, Russia and Iran will emerge victorious. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (2nd L, Front) and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin (2nd R) view a military parade in the Russian-run Hmeimim Air Base in the coastal city of Latakia, Syria, on Dec. […]