2020

Ancient Antarctic ice melt caused extreme sea level rise 129,000 years ago – and it could happen again

By Chris Fogwill, Chris Turney, and Zoë Thomas | – Rising global temperatures and warming ocean waters are causing one of the world’s coldest places to melt. While we know that human activity is causing climate change and driving rapid changes in Antarctica, the potential impacts that a warmer world would have on this region […]

Featured

AirBnB, Expedia, Tripadvisor Named by UN as Collaborators with Apartheid Israeli Squatter Settlements on Palestinian West Bank

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday released a long-awaited list of 112 companies that do business with Israeli squatters on the Palestinian West Bank. These squatters have most often been covertly sent in by the Israeli government itself to steal Palestinian land, build on […]

Democratic Party

Israel’s Major US Lobby went after the Democratic Party and it didn’t Go Well

Middle East Monitor

By Nasim Ahmed | @Nasimbythedocks | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The latest clash in the American civil war over Israel, which pits liberal progressives against right-wing reactionary nationalists, ended with an apology at the weekend by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Better known as AIPAC, the anti-Palestinian group issued a full […]

Denialism

How Louisiana Lawmakers Stop Residents’ Efforts to Fight Big Oil and Gas

ProPublica

Louisiana has pioneered ways for other states to discourage environmental protests around “critical infrastructure” projects. Much of it can be traced back to efforts by corporate lobbyists.

Bangladesh

Rich v. Poor: New York faces Climate Crisis, But Bangladesh Faces Climate Apocalypse

The Conversation

By Saleh Ahmed | – Unpredictable weather and climate patterns recently prompted New York Times columnist Paul Krugman to proclaim in January 2020 that “Apocalypse will become the new normal.” Extreme storms, tides and other awful surprises the world has experienced in recent years suggest that Krugman could be right. July 2019 registered the hottest […]

Featured

“Swiss Cheese” or “Frankenstein’s Monster?” Arab Leaders Struggle to Describe the Kushner Apartheid Plan

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Trump administration’s plan for Palestine is so nightmarish that Arab leaders (who rejected it out of hand at a recent Arab League meeting) are having to resort to purple prose to describe it. Senior Saudi prince Turki al-Faisal, who served for two decades as minister of intelligence and also […]

GCC

Gulf Arab Women Are entering the Public Sphere, but must Navigate between Modernity and a Changing Society

The Conversation

By Alainna Liloia | – Arab women, long relegated to the private sphere by law and social custom, are gaining new access to public life. All countries of the Arab Gulf now have workforce “nationalization policies” that aim to reduce dependency on migrant labor by getting more women into the workforce. Saudi Arabia set a […]

Climate Crisis

Congress Needs to Step up on Climate Emergency, Support Clean Energy and cut Big Oil Subsidies

Amanda Millstein

The climate crisis is here. It is real and it is hurting our health. As physicians in Northern California, my colleagues and I see how climate change is making our patients sicker every day. We see infants and children with worsening asthma due to wildfire smoke exposure. We see adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease […]

Donald Trump

Will Trump Ride Pentagon Spending to Reelection? The President Bets on Arms Sales Big Time

William D. Hartung

(Tomdispatch.com) – Donald Trump likes to posture as a tough guy and part of that tough-guy persona involves bragging about how much he’s spent on the U.S. military. This tendency was on full display in a tweet he posted three days after an American drone killed Iranian Major General Qassem Suleimani in Baghdad: “The United […]

Archives for 2020