2021

With Raft of Normalizations with Israel, Everything changed for Palestinians this Past Year . . . but They’re still Occupied

By Anjuman Rahman | – ( Middle East Monitor) – Landmark developments seem to have changed everything and nothing for Palestine this past year. The flurry of normalisation deals is one of them and arguably the most significant. In advance of the US presidential election and the possibility of these being his final months in […]

Acidification of Oceans

It might be the world’s biggest ocean, but the mighty Pacific is in peril

The Conversation

By Jodie L. Rummer, Bridie JM Allan, Charitha Pattiaratchi, Ian A. Bouyoucos, James Cook, Irfan Yulianto and Mirjam van der Mheen | – The Pacific Ocean is the deepest, largest ocean on Earth, covering about a third of the globe’s surface. An ocean that vast may seem invincible. Yet across its reach – from Antarctica […]

Democratic Party

Is Arizona Turning Blue? The Shape of Democratic Victory

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Catherine Fusillo | – ( Cronkite News ) – WASHINGTON – For years, Democrats have argued that Arizona was about to turn blue, and this year they came closer than they had in decades, winning the presidential race and unseating an incumbent Republican senator. Close, but not the “blue wave” Democrats had been hoping […]

Donald Trump

Trump and Iran in Last 17 Days: Will they or Won’t They?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – There is a lot of buzz inside the Beltway, most of it generated inside the Beltway, about possible hostilities between Iran and the Trump administration in the Mad President’s last 17 days in office. Some of this buzz is around today’s January 3rd, 2020, anniversary of Trump’s assassination of Gen. […]

Climate Crisis

UN Trumpets Warning: Rich Nations aren’t Acting Urgently enough to cut planet-wrecking Carbon Dioxide Emissions

China Dialogue

By Catherine Early | – ( China Dialogue ) – New net-zero pledges are welcome but need to be met with rapid action in national climate plans, according to the UN Environment Programme. The number of countries committing to net-zero emissions goals by mid-century is a “significant and encouraging development”, the United Nations Environment Programme […]

Bill of Rights

The Trump Administration’s Final Push to Make It Easier for Religious Employers to Discriminate

ProPublica

By Lydia DePillis | – ( ProPublica ) – It was the hectic week before Thanksgiving, and Amrith Kaur — the legal director of an advocacy group called the Sikh Coalition — was not prepared for a surprise update from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that could have dramatic consequences for her clients. With little […]

Epidemics

How 3 prior pandemics triggered massive societal shifts

The Conversation

By Andrew Latham | – Not so anymore. People are beginning to understand that the little changes COVID-19 has already ushered in or accelerated – telemedicine, remote work, social distancing, the death of the handshake, online shopping, the virtual disappearance of cash and so on – have begun to change their way of life. They […]

Displaced and Refugees

The Apartheid Pandemic: As 10% of Israelis get Covid Vaccine, Zero Occupied Palestinians have– Will wait Months

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some ten percent of Israelis have already been given the coronavirus shot, showing what an efficient government can do for its citizens with the right medical and administrative infrastructure. The Trump administration has not been able to ramp up the actual shots in arms, despite shipping millions of doses of […]

Climate Crisis

COVID-19, the US Election and our Desperate Need for Clean Air, Green Energy

Middle East Monitor

By Elif Selin Calik | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – One of the enduring images of 2020, the year of the pandemic, has been the sight of people connected to ventilators in hospitals. It is an image that helped us realise the importance of being able to breathe. Many have died because they […]

Archives for 2021