By Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and Lesley Hughes | – Imagine, for a moment, a different kind of Australia. One where bushfires on the catastrophic scale of Black Summer happen almost every year. One where 50℃ days in Sydney and Melbourne are common. Where storms and flooding have violently reshaped our coastlines, and unique ecosystems have been […]
Archives for April 2021
Over objections of Dem Hawks, Biden agrees to indirect Talks with Iran in Vienna to return to the 2015 Nuclear Deal
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – AFP reports that an arrangement was reached at Friday’s teleconference in Vienna between the current signatories to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to mediate indirect talks between Iran and the United States next week. State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the US had agreed to participate in the discussions […]
Why has Israel Just demolished the Palestinian Village of Al-Araqeeb for the 185th Time?
By Nabil Al-Sahli | – (
Green hydrogen could reduce CO2 emissions by up to 25 million tonnes in German Ruhr region
By Charlotte Nijhuis | – Green hydrogen technology can help reduce emissions from industry, transport and heating in the German Ruhr region up to 72 percent by 2050 compared to 2018, the private industry-sponsored German Economic Institute (IW) shows in a report commissioned by the Ruhr Regional Association (RVR). The IW looked at six different […]
An Egyptian woman writer who dared: the Nawal El Saadawi I knew
By Omnia Amin | – Throughout the Middle East and beyond, the name Nawal El Saadawi is not one that can be received with indifference. During her lifetime and even after her passing on 21 March 2021, the Egyptian author, physician and activist evokes intense feelings that range from love and respect to hatred and […]
UN Security Council to meet with Iran without the US in quest to Restore 2015 Nuclear Deal breached by Trump
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The European Union announced yesterday that today, Friday, Iran will meet by video with the current signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal or Joint Collective Plan of Action (JCPOA) with a view toward returning the parties to compliance. The US under Trump withdrew in May, 2018. The Biden administration welcomed […]
The Biden Administration is back to calling Palestinians ‘Occupied,’ but can’t see them being Colonized
( Middle East Monitor) – In another move that shows US President Joe Biden is navigating between the Trump administration’s era and the return to the two-state politics, the US State Department’s 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights presented two facets of the current administration’s policy. The title reads, as it did during former US […]
Suez canal: what the ‘ditch’ meant to the British empire in the 19th century
By Jonathan Parry | – The week-long blockage of the Suez canal by the Ever Given container ship has reminded us that the canal, though immensely important to the world’s commerce, is also very vulnerable. Since its completion in 1869, it has symbolised global interconnectedness. But it has also demonstrated how fears, rivalries and bottlenecks […]
Stumbling into War? Could the U.S. and China Face an Unintended Blowup in the Western Pacific in the Biden Years?
( Tomdispatch.com) – The leaders of China and the United States certainly don’t seek a war with each another. Both the Biden administration and the regime of Chinese President Xi Jinping view economic renewal and growth as their principal objectives. Both are aware that any conflict arising between them, even if restricted to Asia and […]