By Farrah Hassen | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – This year had the unwelcome distinction of being the first to see over 100 million people displaced worldwide. Such a staggering milestone reminds us that greater efforts are needed to address the underlying causes forcing so many innocent people to flee their homes. […]
Archives for December 2022
Where the Climate Target of 1.5°C (2.7°F) Came from, and Why we must not Lose Sight of its Importance
By Piers Forster, University of Leeds | – The US economist William Nordhaus claimed as early as the 1970s, when scientific understanding of climate change was still taking shape, that warming of more than 2°C would “push global conditions past any point that any human civilisation had experienced”. By 1990, scientists had also weighed in: […]
2022 was Deadliest Year for Palestinians under Occupation on Record, with 153 Killed by Israeli Forces, Squatters: UN
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The UN Officer of the High Commissioner on Human Rights has issued a press release detailing the views of its experts on the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians during the past year, which they say has seen the worst death rate among the Occupied population since the organization began systematically […]
Iran: dissent by public figures has amplified the protest across the country – and the world
By Roja Fazaeli, Trinity College Dublin | – Iran’s Islamic Republic continues to violently suppress ongoing pro-democracy protests, which broke out in September in response to the killing of a young woman who had been arrested for not wearing a proper head covering. According to the NGO Iran Human Rights at least 458 protesters have […]
Facing Houthi Victory in Yemen, US Changes Tactics
By Edward Hunt | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – After years of backing a disastrous, Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, the United States is shifting its approach to the war, supporting a UN-brokered truce that has resulted in the most significant reduction of violence since the war began. Bowing to the reality that […]
America’s Night Raids in Afghanistan: An Ongoing Nightmare
By Lynzy Billing. Video by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons | – Prologue March 2019 • Rodat District, Nangarhar Province This story contains graphic descriptions and images of war casualties. ( ProPublica ) – On a December night in 2018, Mahzala was jolted awake by a shuddering wave of noise that rattled her family’s small mud house. […]
Net Zero by 2045: “California is leading most significant economic transformation since Industrial Revolution”
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – California’s Air Resources Board has announced a wide-ranging set of plans aimed at taking the state to net carbon zero by 2045. This step will involve radically reducing the use of fossil fuels, to the point where any carbon dioxide they emit is less than or equal to the carbon […]
Why Istanbul’s mayor was sentenced to jail – and what it means for Turkey’s 2023 presidential race
By Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University | – A Turkish court’s decision on Dec. 14, 2022, to jail Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu for two years and seven months for insulting public officials hung on comments he made three years ago. But its impact will be felt on an event taking place in a […]
Will Saudi’s Bin Salman cancel his Grandfather’s Agreement with Roosevelt on US Alliance?
By Amira Abo el-Fetouh | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – On 14 February, 1945, while US President Franklin D Roosevelt was returning from the Yalta Conference where he met Britain’s Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin of the USSR, King Abdulaziz Al-Saud, the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was summoned to meet […]