By Anoa J. Changa | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – The phrase “War on Terror” invokes many different feelings and images depending upon one’s position in America and the world. While many understand it merely as a descriptor for a new frontier in American foreign policy and war, for others it has meant […]
Archives for April 2022
Confiscating Palestinian Land for a Horse Farm: Israel’s Separation Barrier Restricts Livelihoods in the Occupied West Bank
By Eric Goldstein, Deputy Director, Middle East and North Africa Division | – ( Human Rights Watch) – On April 14, 2002, Israel’s cabinet approved construction of a “separation barrier,” ostensibly to halt a wave of deadly attacks inside Israel by Palestinians from the occupied West Bank. Last week, 20 years later, I drove up […]
How Big Oil fuels both Rising Authoritarianism and worsening Climate Crisis
By Eve Darian-Smith, University of California, Irvine | – Around the world, many countries are becoming less democratic. This backsliding on democracy and “creeping authoritarianism,” as the U.S. State Department puts it, is often supported by the same industries that are escalating climate change. In my new book, “Global Burning: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate […]
Biggest Solar-and-Battery Installation in World, at Darwin, Australia, to Power Singapore 3,000 miles Away
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Moving the world to renewable energy can’t be done purely on the basis of the nation-state. The challenge of the climate crisis requires cross-border cooperation among nations. Sun Cable‘s plans for an enormous 20 gigawatt (GW) solar farm outside Darwin, Australia, along with 42 GW of battery storage, which will […]
Azmi Bishara, “Palestine: Matters of Truth and Justice” – Review
Tübingen (Special to Informed Comment) – Book Review – Azmi Bishara, Palestine: Matters of Truth and Justice. London: Hurst and Co., 2022. 2021 saw Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump leave power in Israel and the United States, being replaced by Naftali Bennett and Joseph Biden. This, however, has not led to any significant improvement in […]
A year of Hunger: How the Russia-Ukraine War is worsening climate-linked Food Crises
By Ro McFarlane, University of Canberra; Nenad Naumovski, University of Canberra; and Shawn Somerset, University of Canberra | – Global wheat prices have soared since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The two nations account for 30%of the world’s wheat exports. That means many low-income nations who are net food importers are bracing for a year […]
Bodies beyond Bucha: The Civilian Deaths You Haven’t Heard About
( Tomdispatch.com ) – Madogaz Musa Abdullah still remembers the phone call. But what came next was a blur. He drove for hours, deep into the Libyan desert, speeding toward the border with Algeria. His mind buckled, his thoughts reeled, and more than three years later, he’s still not certain how he made that six-hour […]
Disney Targeted on Gay Rights by both DeSantis’ Christian Taliban and Saudi Muslim Obscurantism
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis notoriously just came after the Walt Disney Co. for its opposition, if belated, to his “don’t say gay” legislation forbidding school teachers to mention the subject of gay relationships to children under 9. The act vaguely insists that mentions before children older than that had to […]
Stop the Wars. Save the Planet
Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – This report “is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.” Such was the response of UN secretary general Antonio Guterres to the February 28, 2022 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) documenting the present and future impact of the […]