BRI is not just about trains: telecommunications and energy are key Written byEmre Demir Screenshot from CGTN YouTube channel showing high-speed railway connections built with Chinese investment in Turkey ( Globalvoices.org) – Turkey has strong economic relations with China and is one of the very early partners of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). […]
Archives for March 2023
Boycotters of Israel were denounced as Antisemites, but now 255 US Jewish Businessmen Threaten to pull Investments over Netanyahu’s Plan to gut Courts
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Times of Israel reports that 255 American Jewish businessmen, who have billions of dollars invested in the country, have warned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that they will cease investing in Israel if he goes forward with his plans to gut the Israeli judiciary. The huge irony is that pro-Israeli […]
Is Netanyahu’s Extremist Gov’t driving a Wedge between Israel and the U.S.?
Dr Adnan Abu Amer AdnanAbuAmer2 ( Middle East Monitor) – The US has announced that it will not participate in a conference in Washington DC for senior economists because Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the Religious Zionist Party, will be there. Even though he has been granted a diplomatic […]
Saudi-Iran deal won’t bring Peace to the Middle East but will enhance China’s role as Power Broker
By Simon Mabon, Lancaster University | – (The Conversation) – After more than four decades as seemingly implacable enemies on either side of a deep political-religious divide in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to restore diplomatic relations and reopen embassies. The deal, which was signed in Beijing, comes seven years after […]
Is War with China Inevitable?
( Tomdispatch.com) – Is China really on the verge of invading the island of Taiwan, as so many top American officials seem to believe? If the answer is “yes” and the U.S. intervenes on Taiwan’s side — as President Biden has sworn it would — we could find ourselves in a major-power conflict, possibly even […]
Saudi Aramco Reports Gargantuan $161 Bn in Profits, But will Electric Cars kill the Oil Market within 2 Decades?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dan Murphy at CNBC reports that the giant Saudi Aramco oil company posted an unprecedented profit of $161 billion for 2022. The company’s CEO, Amin Nasser, commented that this was probably the biggest profit ever made in the course of one year by any private company. Murphy reports that Nasser […]
Syrian Earthquake devastated an Area that was already a disaster Zone – and highlights the vital Role of local aid Groups
By Kimberly Howe, Tufts University | – (The Conversation) – Three weeks after the February 2023 earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria, I stood amid the rubble in Jindires, a devastated Syrian village. An estimated 50,000 people had lost their lives in the two countries by that point, with the number of casualties still climbing. Around […]
Mass Protests and False Hope: Israel’s Supreme Court is no Friend of the Palestinian People
Dr Ramzy Baroud RamzyBaroud ( Middle East Monitor ) – As hundreds of thousands, throughout Israel, joined anti-government protests, questions began to arise regarding how this movement would affect, or possibly merge, into the wider struggle against the Israeli military occupation and apartheid in Palestine. Pro-Palestine media outlets shared, with obvious excitement, news about […]
Tunisia: Racist Violence Targets Black Migrants, Refugees
Human Rights Watch – (Tunis) – President Kais Saied’s recent attempt to mitigate the serious harm that a speech he made on February 21, 2023, caused Black African migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in Tunisia does not go far enough, Human Rights Watch said today. Measures announced on March 5 fall far short of the […]