Asia

( Tomdispatch.com ) – If the world is indeed entering a new Cold War, it bears little resemblance to the final years of that global conflict with its frequent summits between smiling leaders and its arms agreements aimed at de-escalating nuclear tensions. Instead, the world today seems more like the perilous first decade of that […]

Afghanistan

Did Trump’s attempt to Withdraw from Afghanistan and Somalia Prove he Knew he had lost?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It has long been known that on November 11, 2020, as it became clear that Joe Biden had won, then president Donald Trump signed an order for the complete withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Somalia before the January inaugural. At the January 6 Commission public hearing on Thursday, […]

Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, Resistance Means Women: Nationwide Protests Follow Deadly Attack on Hazara Girls Taking Exam

Human Rights Watch

By Sahar Fetrat Assistant Researcher, Women’s Rights Division and Fereshta Abbasi Researcher, Asia Division | – ( Human Rights Watch) – The September 30 suicide attack on ethnic Hazara students at Kaaj Educational Center in Kabul has sparked protests by women and girls in provinces across Afghanistan. The attack, which took place as female students […]

China

The World’s Other Nuclear Flashpoint: Mounting Tensions Over Taiwan

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Thanks to Vladimir Putin’s recent implicit threat to employ nuclear weapons if the U.S. and its NATO allies continue to arm Ukraine — “This is not a bluff,” he insisted on September 21st — the perils in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict once again hit the headlines. And it’s entirely possible, as ever […]

Development

Bohra Muslim digital Entrepreneurship shows how religious Communities can help Women Thrive

The Conversation

By Arwa Hussain, Concordia University | – (The Conversation) – Women from religious communities around the world, like the Dawoodi Bohras, are harnessing the potential of social media platforms to set up or expand their businesses and build entrepreneurial networks. The ease of access, wide reach and collaborative nature of these platforms is providing more […]

Climate Crisis

Scientists Conclude Climate Change Contributed to 1/3 of Pakistan being Under Water; Calls for Debt Relief

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The massive monsoon floods that affected 33 million people in Pakistan, destroyed 1.3 million homes, turned the southern province of Sindh temporarily into a new inland sea nearly 70 miles across, and killed off 80% of the country’s livestock was in part fueled by the human-caused climate emergency. So argues […]

Europe

As Falls Russia, So Falls the World: Exceptionalism Goes Global

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Here’s a nightmare scenario: Unable to recruit enough soldiers from the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin takes North Korean leader Kim Jong-un up on his recent offer to send 100,000 North Koreans to join the Russian president’s ill-fated attempt to seize Ukraine. Kim has also promised to send North Korean workers to […]

infrastructure

After oil: what Malaysia and Iran may look like in a post-Fossil Fuel Future

The Conversation

By Rowena Abdul Razak, London School of Economics and Political Science and Asma Mehan, Texas Tech University | – As the devastation of climate change makes the need to decarbonise clearer by the day, countries face the question of what to do with their old fossil fuel infrastructure. While some environmental activists have taken to […]

Climate Crisis

2022’s supercharged Summer of Climate Extremes from Pakistan to USA: How global warming and La Niña fueled Unprecedented Disasters

The Conversation

By Kevin Trenberth, University of Auckland | – There’s an old joke about the fellow who has his left foot in a bucket of ice water and the right in a bucket of hot water, so that his overall temperature is average. That seemed to apply to the climate during 2022’s northern summer of extremes. […]