2022

Southwest Megadrought: Climate-Driven Drop in Lake Powell could Leave Residents with no Water or Electricity

By Autriya Maneshni (Cronkite News ) PHOENIX – Water levels on Lake Powell, the second largest reservoir in the U.S., have dropped below 3,525 feet – a critical level that threatens water supplies and hydroelectricity for millions of people. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had predicted the threshold wouldn’t be reached until August. The reservoir’s […]

Climate Crisis

Plutocrats Fiddling as the World Burns with Global Heating and Nuclear Tensions

Tom Engelhardt

He’s our very own emperor from hell, an updated version of Nero who, in legend, burned down Rome on a whim, though ours prefers drowning Washington. Why, just the other day, Donald Trump — and you knew perfectly well who I meant — bent the ears of 250 top Republican donors for 84 minutes. Among […]

Islam

Crimea’s Peaceful Muslim Tatars Dared come out against Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine

Brian Glyn Williams

( The Conversation ) – As Vladimir Putin’s forces wage a brutal war against Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars living in Russian-occupied Crimea and on the Ukrainian mainland feel particularly threatened by their historic enemy’s latest invasion. Some have vowed to defend Ukraine, a land many fled to in 2014 after Putin’s forces invaded the Crimean […]

Displaced and Refugees

US would be on firmer Ground declaring Putin a War Criminal if George W. Bush had been Tried

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – NPR reports that on Wednesday, President Biden called Russian dictator Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” for the first time. The report notes that this outburst is unusual for Biden, who prizes personal diplomacy and must know that such a charge would make it more difficult to negotiate with Putin down […]

Donald Trump

Will the Ukraine War be the Nail in the Coffin for the Putin-Loving Alt-Right?

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Most of the leaders of the alt-right are scrambling to distance themselves from Vladimir Putin. It might be too late. By John Feffer | March 16, 2022 Many figures on the new right sold their already discounted souls to Vladimir Putin over the last decade. Now, after the invasion […]

History

Kyiv has faced adversity before – and a stronger Ukrainian identity grew in response

The Conversation

By Matthew Pauly, Michigan State University | – This is not the first time residents of Kyiv have fought to defend the city from an encroaching, larger army. On Jan. 30, 1918, a force made up primarily of military cadets and hastily armed students took up positions at Kruty, a railway stop northeast of Kyiv, […]

Russia

The New Cold War and the “Arsenal of Democracy”

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In certain quarters in this country, Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has generated enthusiasm for a new cold war. At the New York Times, Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin have been described as “children of the [old] Cold War” now involved in a “face off,” an “eyeball to eyeball” confrontation harkening […]

Banking

Top 7 Ways Iran evaded US Sanctions that Putin could Follow

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The sorts of sanctions and boycotts the United States and its allies are placing on Russia resemble those applied by Washington to Iran off and on in the past decade, though so far the measures in place against Tehran are still far more severe than what has been done to […]

censorship

Saudi Arabia: Mass Execution of 81 Men: Rampant Abuses in Criminal Justice System, lack of Fair Trials

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Saudi authorities’ execution of 81 men on March 12, 2022 was its largest mass execution in years despite recent promises to curtail its use of the death penalty, Human Rights Watch said today. Rampant and systemic abuses in Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system suggest it is highly unlikely that […]

Archives for 2022