By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Syrian anti-aircraft batteries scored a rare shoot-down of an Israeli F-16 late Saturday morning local time. It is being alleged by a whole range of analysts that this shoot-down could not have happened without Russian help. It required that the anti-aircraft personnel break Israeli radar jamming. […]
Archives for February 2018
Another Reason for Renewables: Growing Israel-Lebanon Conflict over Gas
Middle East Monitor | – – Lebanon will fully use energy block disputed by Israel – minister Israel claims gas field put out to tender by Lebanon Lebanon’s energy minister said on Friday there would be full exploration in an offshore energy block that partially lies in waters disputed by neighbouring Israel. Lebanon said on […]
Turkish Jets again Strike Syria, hitting US-Allied Kurdish YPG Targets
TeleSur | – – Turkey views the growing Kurdish power along its border as a national security threat. Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish YPG militia targets in Syria’s Afrin region, the army said Friday, and a monitoring group reported that seven fighters and two civilians were killed in strikes. The overnight attacks came after a lull […]
The hidden superpower of ‘Black Panther’: Scientist role models
At a time of a war on science, scientific role models are more important than ever #blackpanther #marvel
US, having Destroyed Iraq, won’t give a Dime to Reconstruction
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In an exclusive, Reuters reports today that the Trump administration is going into the Iraq reconstruction conference in Kuwait next week with no plans to contribute a dime to the effort. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will attend. Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi estimates that Iraq […]
Yemeni Peace Nobelist Karman: Saudi Arabia, UAE are occupying Yemen
Middle East Monitor | – – Yemeni Nobel Peace laureate Tawakkol Karman called for an end to the Saudi-led coalition’s military occupation of Yemen in an exclusive interview with Reuters today. Tawakkol Karman, Via Belfer Center, YouTube “The Saudi-Emirati occupation … betrayed the Yemenis and sold them out, exploiting the coup of the Houthi militia […]
In Blow for British White Nationalists, Their Ancestor was Black
TeleSur | – – The connection often made between Britishness and whiteness was “not an immutable truth,” said Yoan Diekmann, a computational biologist. Cutting-edge DNA analysis of the oldest complete skeleton found in Britain has revealed that the first modern humans living on the territory had “dark to black skin.” Tom Booth, an archaeologist at […]
Why Iranians are Really protesting Compulsory Veiling Laws
By Moujan Mirdamadi | (The Conversation) | – – Protests against Iran’s mandatory hijab law – which requires all women to wear it in public – have sprung up across Iran in the first few weeks of 2018. Women, acting individually, stood on utility boxes in public places, taking off their headscarves and holding them […]
Did the Pentagon’s War on Drugs Confound Counter-Terrorism?
By Nick Turse | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – 2017 was a year of investigations for U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). There was the investigation of the two-star commander of U.S. Army Africa who allegedly sent racy texts to an enlisted man’s wife. There was the investigation into the alleged killing of a Special Forces soldier by […]