( Middle East Monitor ) – Eid Al-Adha, or the “Feast of Sacrifice”, is right around the corner and Muslims around the globe are preparing for one of Islam’s most significant festivals, Anadolu Agency reports. It is the second major festival for Muslims after Eid Al-Fitr, which is celebrated at the end of Ramadan, the […]
Archives for June 2023
Right-to-Charge Laws bring promise of EVs to Apts., Condos and Rentals
Eleftheria Kontou, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | – (The Conversation) – More than 3.6 million electric cars are driving around the U.S., but if you live in an apartment, finding an available charger isn’t always easy. Grocery stores and shopping centers might have a few, but charging takes time and the spaces may be […]
Violently Melting Down: The Human Costs of Global Heating and of our Response to it
By Stan Cox | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Several times in recent weeks I’ve heard people suggest that Mother Nature has been speaking to us through that smoke endlessly drifting south from the still-raging Canadian wildfires. She’s saying that she wants the coal, oil, and gas left in the ground, but I fear her […]
Biden Administration bows to Int’l Law, Ceases funding Israeli research done on Stolen Land in Palestinian West Bank
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Biden administration has reverted to the longstanding practice of not funding Israeli institutions in the Palestinian West Bank. AFP reports that State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “engaging in bilateral scientific and technological cooperation with Israel in geographic areas which came under the administration of Israel after 1967 and […]
Unveiling Resistance: The Struggle for Women’s Rights in Iran
Tara Sepehri Far Iran and Kuwait Senior Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division @sepehrifar ( Human Rights Watch ) – The sweeping public protests that erupted across Iran in response to the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in custody of Iran’s morality police last September have been characterized by many observers as the first […]
Israel Approves thousands of illegal Building Permits in Palestinian West Bank
( Middle East Monitor ) – Israel’s nationalist-religious government approved the construction of 5,700 additional illegal housing units for Jewish settlers in the Occupied West Bank on Monday, despite US pressure to halt settlement expansion that Washington sees as an obstacle to peace with Palestinians, Reuters reports. The plans for approval of the housing units in various areas of […]
Plastic Pollution: Campaigners around the World are using the Courts to Clean Up, but Manufacturers are Fighting Back
By Sam Varvastian, Cardiff University | – Plastic pollution has become such major problem that it’s threatening our human rights. That’s the view of two UN special rapporteurs (human rights advisers) who recently issued a joint statement, warning against the “overwhelming toxic tidal wave” of plastic endangering us and the environment “in a myriad of […]
Wind and Solar are Saving Texas from Brownouts during deadly Heat Dome, but Republicans want to Abolish Them
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Kristoffer Tigue at Inside Climate News reports that climate change made the brutal heat wave assaulting Texas worse, but that the state’s renewable power sources have helped keep the air conditioners running. Temperatures are predicted to stay over 100°F this week, with a slight break owing to a thunderstorm system. […]
Put People’s Rights first in Syria Sanctions
Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – The United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union should urgently renew the earthquake-related humanitarian exemptions they introduced to their Syria sanctions’ regimes in February 2023 to more effectively facilitate aid to the Syrian people, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch issued a question-and-answer document examining […]