2023

Assault on Religious Freedom: Violent Crackdown by Israeli Police on Christian Worshipers in Jerusalem

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Arabic press is reporting violent assaults Saturday evening by Israeli police against Palestinian Christian worshipers in Jerusalem attempting to make their way to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for the “Saturday of Light” commemoration. The police attacks took place at the entrance to the Church of the Holy […]

Corruption

Trump’s Al Capone Moment

OtherWords

By Mitchell Zimmerman | ( Otherwords.org) – The Prohibition Era mobster and thug Alphonse “Al” Capone comes to mind as we see the man who incited the January 2021 Capitol insurrection, among other misdeeds, finally face a criminal charge: falsifying business records. Al Capone was the boss of a murderous Chicago criminal enterprise that […]

Authoritarianism

Heavy Fighting Breaks out in Sudanese Capital, Imperiling Revolution

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – Clashes erupted Saturday between the conventional Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), formerly known as the Janjaweed militias, in the capital Khartoum. The RSF had been deployed in 2019 by the military junta against the civilian revolutionary movement that overthrew dictator and war criminal Omar […]

Afghanistan

The Taliban is not playing Straight with the west over Easing of Sanctions – and Women and Girls are paying much of the Price

The Conversation

By Kambaiz Rafi, SOAS, University of London | – The economic and political isolation of Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August 2021 has worsened a humanitarian crisis in the country. The World Food Program has projected that between November 2022 and March 2023 the number of food-insecure Afghans would rise to 20 million – […]

Featured

US in Eclipse: 240,000 Palestinians worship at al-Aqsa in Jerusalem as Iran, Lebanon, Show Solidarity on Jerusalem Day

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Quds (Jerusalem) Day is commemorated on the last Friday of Ramadan, and was held yesterday. “Al-Quds” is the Arabic name for Jerusalem, meaning “the Holy.” Revolutionary Iran established this custom, and some of the biggest Quds Day crowds gathered in Tehran. Demonstrations were held, however, all over the Muslim world. […]

Iran

A Renewed Yemen Truce Is No Substitute for Justice

Peter Certo

By Peter Certo | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The news that Saudi officials, who have been leading a bombing campaign in Yemen for eight years, met with the Houthi officials who control much of the country on April 9 to possibly renew a truce that ended in October is positive. But […]

Climate Crisis

Boosting EV Market Share to 67% of US Car Sales is a huge Leap – but Automakers can meet EPA’s tough new Standards

The Conversation

By Alan Jenn, University of California, Davis | – (The Conversation) – One big question keeps surfacing after the Biden administration announced plans to raise auto standards so sharply they would likely boost electric vehicle production to 67% of all new passenger vehicle sales in under a decade: Can automakers pull that off? The proposal […]

Climate Crisis

Paris is Burning: France Braces for 7.2° F. Heating in its ‘Turning Point’ Strategy

Clean Energy Wire

By Claire Stam | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Shocked by recent heatwaves, floods, wildfires and ongoing droughts, France is currently rebooting its strategy to cope with the impacts of climate change. In a “turning point” in the country’s adaptation efforts, the plans will also include proposals on how to deal with 4 […]

Featured

Christian Archbishop slams Israel’s Restrictions on Worship at the ‘Festival of Lights’ as “Racist”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On the Saturday before Orthodox Easter, which falls a week later than in the Western churches, typically 10,000 worshipers gather at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, waiting for the holy fire [to phos) to emerge. It is said to derive from the tomb in which Jesus was initially buried […]

Archives for 2023