Chemnitz, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Germany and the United States have very different political cultures, but also some similarities. They are both federal states and have seen in recent times how their political future could be partly decided in courts of law. In the US, former President Donald Trump is currently facing […]
Archives for March 2024
How Moscow Terror Attack fits ISIL-K Strategy to Widen Agenda against Perceived Enemies
By Sara Harmouch, American University, and Amira Jadoon, Clemson University | – Russia is reeling from the worst terror strike on its soil in a generation following an attack on March 22, 2024, that killed at least 137 concertgoers in Moscow. The attack has been claimed by the Islamic State group. And despite Russian authorities […]
A Slow-Motion World War III? Imperial decline in the Age of Climate Change
( Tomdispatch.com ) – I’ve been describing this world of ours, such as it is, for almost 23 years at TomDispatch. I’ve written my way through three-and-a-half presidencies — god save us, it could be four in November! I’ve viewed from a grave (and I mean that word!) distance America’s endlessly disastrous wars of this […]
The Middle East Ranks at the Bottom of Gallup’s Happiness Index, except for Rich Oil States; is the US to Blame?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The annual Gallup report on happiness by country came out this week. It is based on a three-year average of polling. What struck me in their report is how unhappy the Middle East is. The only Middle Eastern country in the top twenty is Kuwait (for the first time in […]
Total U.S. Billionaire Wealth is Up 88 Percent over Four Years
By Chuck Collins and Omar Ocampo | – ( Inequality.org ) – Four years ago, the United States entered the Covid-19 pandemic. Forbes published its 34th annual billionaire survey shortly after with data keyed to March 18, 2020. On that day, the United States had 614 billionaires who owned a combined wealth of $2.947 trillion. Four […]
Echos of our Lost Home in Gaza
By Haneen Abo Soad | – The author’s four-generation land and home were destroyed by Israeli F16 rockets in January, reducing it to rubble. Photo provided by the author, used with permission. ( Globalvoices.org ) – On January 12, a message arrived from my sister in Gaza, bearing the devastating news: our parents’ home, a […]
Is ISIL attack on Moscow Concert Blowback for Chechnya and Syria?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Friday an ISIL terrorist team killed dozens of people and wounded over 145 at the Crocus City Music Hall on the outskirts of Moscow. They later announced that they had committed the deed. The four attackers sprayed the crowd with machine gun fire and threw grenades, setting the facility […]
Climate Crisis could drive 200 million Africans to Extreme Hunger by 2050
By Philip Kofi Adom, University of the Witwatersrand | – (The Conversation) – African countries will suffer significant economic loss after 2050 if global warming is not limited to below 2°C, a new study by the Center for Global Development has found. Environment and energy economist Philip Kofi Adom is the author of the report. […]
Invisible No More: The Gov’t could Soon include Americans of Middle East and N. African Origin in its Data
By Simon Marshall-Shah | ( Michigan Advance ) – Without equitable data systems, governmental policies will always come up short of fairly representing all of the people they are intended to serve. It is with that in mind that we at the Michigan League for Public Policy and many of our partners have long advocated […]