2023

Arctic and Antarctic Ice Sheets in Danger if we blow Past Paris Limit of 1.5° C. (2.7° F) extra Heating

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jun-Young Park et al. write in Nature Communications that the collapse of the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets may come sooner than climate scientists had expected if humanity misses the Paris Climate Treaty goal of keeping extra global heating to 2.7° F. (1.5° C ) above the pre-industrial average. Humanity […]

Israel/ Palestine

Haaretz: Israel has erected ‘a formal, full-fledged apartheid regime’

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – Israel has erected “a formal, full-fledged apartheid regime,” the editorial of Haaretz newspaper said yesterday, in a stark warning about the direction of the occupation state. Drawing attention to measures introduced by the far-right government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, Haaretz’s editorial said that they include the contentious decision to […]

Authoritarianism

Tunisia: President Intensifies Attacks on Judicial Independence

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Tunis) – Tunisian authorities should immediately reinstate judges and prosecutors President Kais Saied arbitrarily dismissed as part of what he called an anti-corruption campaign, and reverse all measures taken to crush judicial independence, Human Rights Watch said today. The Justice Ministry has refused to reinstate 49 magistrates – a term that includes […]

Christianity

America is Finally Secularizing, as Young People abandon Organized Religion in Droves

The Conversation

By Phil Zuckerman, Pitzer College | – (The Conversation) – About six months ago, Americans’ belief in God hit an all-time low. According to a 2022 Gallup survey, the percentage of people who believe in God has dropped from 98% in the 1950s to 81% today; among Americans under 30, it is down to an […]

Featured

Israeli Squatter Terrorists Fire Guns, Set dozens of Fires in Palestinian Town, Killing One and Wounding 100

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israeli squatters on land owned by Palestinian families went berserk on Sunday, after two squatters were shot by a Palestinian guerrilla in Huwwara, a small town of several thousand residents in the Nablus district. The shooter appears to have been from Nablus and was a member of the “Lion’s Den” […]

Israel/ Palestine

The Words the US and European Press are too Cowardly to Use about Israel’s Occupation of Palestinians: War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity, Apartheid

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – On 20 February, the United Nations Security Council approved a statement, described in the media as a ‘watered-down’ version of an earlier draft resolution which would have demanded that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.” The intrigues that led to the scrapping of what was meant […]

Climate Crisis

The EV Transition isn’t just about Cars – the broader Goal should be Access to clean Mobility for Everyone

The Conversation

By Sita M. Syal, University of Michigan | (The Conversation) – The race to decarbonize passenger cars and light-duty trucks in the U.S. is accelerating. Battery electric vehicles accounted for almost 6% of all new vehicle sales in 2022, up from close to 3% in 2021, and demand is outstripping supply, even as manufacturers roll […]

Bill of Rights

Police gone Wild: When the Scorpions on the Corner Just Might Kill You

Tomdispatch

By Michael Gould-Wartofsky | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – To residents of Memphis’s resource-poor, predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods, the Scorpions were easy to spot. The plainclothes patrols were known for driving their unmarked Dodge Chargers through the streets, often all too recklessly, sowing fear as they went, spitting venom from their windows, jumping out with guns […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency: Extreme Heat Waves will increase 600% in Israel, Middle East, over 80 years, as 70% of Youth consider Emigrating

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ruth Schuster at Haaretz reports on a new study led by Assaf Hochmann at Hebrew University, finding that extreme heat waves in Israel will increase 600% over the next 80 years. Not only will this change strike Israel but also Egypt, Syria, Jordan and southern Turkiye, with the potential for […]

Archives for 2023