2021

New Biden EPA Auto Emissions Rules mandate 10-fold Increase in annual Electric Vehicle sales by 2026

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In good news for electric vehicles and the greening of US transportation, the Biden administration on Monday substantially toughened automobile and light truck emissions standards, mandating that they get an average of 40 miles per gallon by 2026. The incremental toughening begins next fall with the 2023 models. The Biden […]

Food Insecurity

The Year in Inequality in 10 Charts: Our Economic and Racial Divides grew Wider in 2021

Inequality.org

Blogging Our Great Divide by Sarah Anderson Brian Wakamo | – A year ago we had such high hopes. We expected the Covid vaccine rollout to bring a swift end to the pandemic, opening a window for pushing bold solutions to the long-standing economic, racial, and gender divides that had grown even wider under Covid. […]

Dissent

US-Backed Al-Sisi’s Gov’t in Egypt Unjustly Sentences Dissidents to Years in Prison for “Spreading False News”

Human Rights Watch

( Human Rights Watch – An emergency court sentenced Alaa Abd al Fattah to five years in prison, and Mohamed al-Baqer and Mohamed “Oxygen” Ibrahim to four years each on charges of “spreading false news.” “The egregious miscarriage of justice handed down by this exceptional court to punish peaceful expression reveals how Egypt’s justice system […]

Carbon Footprint

Don’t care about the Build Back Better Act? Hearing People’s personal Stories might change that

The Conversation

By Angela Bradbery | – When U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said that he wouldn’t support President Joe Biden’s signature Build Back Better Act, he set off a wave of breaking news alerts. It was fitting. For months, media coverage has breathlessly focused on the behind-the-scenes wrangling and hour-by-hour negotiations around the legislation. How much […]

Climate Crisis

Revenge is a Dish best Served Green: Biden could get around Manchin with GOP Senators Supporting Wind, Solar, Battery

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Senator Joe Manchin has attempted completely to shoot down the Build Back Better bill, underlining the thin legislative margin with which President Biden has to work. With a 50/50 Senate, Biden’s legislative agenda going forward will need to be bipartisan. The successes this approach can garner are apparent in the […]

Arab World

Is the Return of Dictatorship in Tunisia the end of the Arab Spring Youth Movements?

Global Voices

By Yosr Jouini | – ( Globalvoices.org) – On July 25, 2021, Tunisian President-elect Kais Said announced the dismissal of the prime minister, a freeze of the elected parliament, and his rule by decree. While Tunisia has been lauded as the only Arab Spring country to succeed in its democratic transition, this latest announcement fuelled […]

Environment

Biden, Infrastructure Law in Hand, Will at Last replace all Poisonous Lead Water Pipes from Coast to Coast

The Conversation

By Gabriel Filippelli | – The Biden administration has released a plan to accelerate removal of lead water pipes and lead paint from U.S. homes. As a geochemist and environmental health researcher who has studied the heartbreaking impacts of lead poisoning in children for decades, I am happy to see high-level attention paid to this […]

Environment

Let’s de-commercialize Christmas this Year and give our Kids the Gift of a Liveable Earth

Frida Berrigan

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Confession time: this year, I don’t want to buy my kids anything for Christmas. Big one, right? Okay, let me soften that just a bit. I have bought a few modest, useful things. But that’s it! No new games, no new toys, no new clothes (other than socks)… nothing. They already […]

Featured

Israeli Squatter-Settler Mobs attack Palestinian Hamlets, wrecking Cars and Homes and Hospitalizing 2

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Quds reports that on Saturday, Israeli squatter-settler mobs assembled outside Palestinian hamlets in the suburbs of Nablus, near the settlement of Homesh, with mayhem on their minds. The local Palestinians set up a neighborhood watch at the entrances to the hamlets to forestall attacks and vandalism. It was the second […]

Archives for 2021