2019

By Sören Amelang | – Tesla’s announcement to build a “gigafactory” for e-car production in Germany is likely to speed up the slow shift to electric mobility in the country, politicians and mobility experts have said. Media called the announcement a “head-on attack” on the country’s mighty carmakers BMW, Daimler and VW that will force […]

Archaeology

Did Ancient Iraq’s Huge Assyrian Empire Rise and Fall on Climate Change?

The Conversation

By Ashish Sinha and Gayatri Kathayat | – Ancient Mesopotamia, the fabled land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, was the command and control center of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This ancient superpower was the largest empire of its time, lasting from 912 BC to 609 BC in what is now modern Iraq and Syria. […]

Islam

Jazz Legend Talib Dawud: Be-Bop and Islam’s “Elevation of the Mind”

Shalom Goldman

(Informed Comment) – Jazz Trumpeter Talib Dawud, whose given name was Alfonso Nelson Rainey, was one of the early American jazz converts to Ahmadiyya Islam. In the mid-twentieth century over a hundred other jazz musicians would follow in Dawud’s path. The background to these many conversions was articulated forcefully and dramatically by John Coltrane’s first […]

Featured

European Court of Justice rules Israeli Squatter Products from Stolen Palestinian Lands must be Labeled

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Associated Press reports that the European Court of Justice has ruled that goods produced in the West Bank by Israeli squatters on Palestinian land must be labelled as such, and cannot pretend to be from Israel proper. The move does not go as far as some EU members. Ireland’s […]

US Foreign Policy

Foreign Powers are Buying American Policy and it is all Perfectly Legal

Tomdispatch

By Ben Freeman | – (Tomdispatch.com) – Foreign influence in America is the topic du jour. From the impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s request that a foreign power investigate a political opponent to the indictment of associates of his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, for illegally funneling foreign money into U.S. elections, the nation has been […]

Donald Trump

How the Trump Administration has Made Iranian Nuclear Enrichment only Rational

Akan Malici

By Akan Malici (Informed Comment) – It would be rational for Iran to pursue a nuclear bomb. Ironically, the U.S. has long been compelling it in this direction. The U.S. also bears the blame for the newest escalation, as it does for the enemy relationship generally. U.S. leaders will be quick to discard these statements […]

Climate Crisis

Since Trump Dumped the Paris Climate Agreement, is it Game Over?

The Conversation

By Henrik Selin | – Editor’s note: On Nov. 4, the Trump administration formally notified the United Nations that it planned to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change, which 196 countries adopted in 2015. The pact is designed to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial […]

Climate Crisis

“Catastrophic” Wildfires Threaten Sydney, Australia as Gov’t Backs Coal

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Australians in New South Wales and part of Queensland face “catastrophic” wildfires today according to government authorities. Based on the latest forecast, we have mapped where fires on the north coast are likely to spread during tomorrow's dangerous weather. The red shows the predicted spread of fire. Check https://t.co/NXTTCbYtYQ for […]

Iran

Iraq Protests Heat Up Long-Standing Rivalry Between Iraqi And Iranian Shiite Religious Leaders

Niqash

By Elias Thomas | – ( Niqash.org) – Behind the scenes of Iraq’s demonstrations, a decades-old rivalry between two centres of religious learning and authority, one local and the other in Iran, is playing out. 3.11.2019 Politics Protests in Baghdad. In early October, snipers shot at unarmed protesters on the streets of Iraq, who were […]

Archives for 2019

Brexit decides Tesla to Open Gigafactory in Germany in Win for E-Mobility