2021

Mideast Regimes met the Arab Spring youth with Iron Fists and Sectarianization, but anti-Corruption Protests Continue

Simon Mabon | – As the popular refrain of “ash-shab yurid isqat an-nizam” rang out across the Middle East in the early months of 2011, the nature of political life and relations between rulers and ruled began to fragment. The chant – which roughly translates as “the people want the fall of the regime” – […]

astronomy and outer space

First Arab Muslim Satellite enters Mars Orbit: UAE’s Arabo-Futurism and its Princess Leias

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Americans who are used to imagining Arab Muslim civilization as backward or barbaric might be surprised to hear that the United Arab Emirates, a country made up of seven Gulf Arab Principalities, has become only the fifth country to place a satellite in orbit around Mars. The science team behind […]

Oceans

The Plastic Plague: Fish are eating more Microplastics, and We are eating those Fish

The Conversation

By Alexandra McIntur and Matthew Savoca | – Trillions of barely visible pieces of plastic are floating in the world’s oceans, from surface waters to the deep seas. These particles, known as microplastics, typically form when larger plastic objects such as shopping bags and food containers break down. Researchers are concerned about microplastics because they […]

Authoritarianism

Mr. Erdogan: Cease Turkish Gov’t Campaign against Boğaziçi University, Students, Faculty and Institutions

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North America H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan President of the Republic of Turkey T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Genel Sekreterliği 06689 Çankaya, Ankara Turkey Dear President Erdoğan: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) of North America and its Committee on Academic Freedom to […]

Climate Crisis

Time to Roll up our Sleeves and Fix this: Trump left us with Heightened Climate, Nuclear Danger

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com) – If you live in California, you’re likely to be consumed on occasion by thoughts of fire. That’s not surprising, given that, in last year alone, actual fires consumed over four and a quarter million acres of the state, taking with them 10,488 structures, 33 human lives, and who knows how many animals. […]

Donald Trump

Whites still won’t Mask up: Impeach Trump for discouraging Hygiene in a pandemic and killing hundreds of thousands

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – One of Trump’s biggest crimes for which he is unlikely ever to be held responsible was just discouraging mask-wearing in the midst of a pandemic of a respiratory disease. He, of course, contracted the disease himself, as did most of his prominent staffers, mainly because they refused to socially distance […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis and Water Conflict: How Saudi’s water insecurity led to war in Yemen

Adam Robertson Charlton

Stavanger, Norway (Special to Informed Comment) – In the early hours of 14 September 2019, a fleet of drones attacked the Abqaiq-Khurais oil refinery in Saudi Arabia, the largest oil stabilisation plant in the world. The attack came shortly before Saudi Aramco –the Kingdom’s state-owned oil company – was floated on the market, and Riyadh […]

Inequality

The Gamestop Affair shows that America is over-financialized and needs a tax on speculation

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – It would be unfair to suggest that the titans of Wall Street are oblivious to poverty. One of their central themes is the role that financial literacy can play in teaching citizens how wealth is acquired and maintained. In their worldview saving and investing in the stock […]

Donald Trump

I analyzed all of Trump’s tweets to find out what he was really saying

The Conversation

By Michael Humphrey | – The tally was in, it was clear Donald Trump had lost – and he tweeted: “either a new election should take place or … results nullified.” It sounds familiar, but it wasn’t November 2020. It was February 2016. Trump was just months into his presidential campaign, and was already telling […]

Archives for 2021