Asia

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Although President Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia was ostensibly about petroleum and attempting to lower gasoline prices in the US, it doesn’t seem to me that that rationale entirely explains Biden’s about-face on Saudi Arabia. For one thing, Biden must have been told that Saudi Arabia does not have […]

censorship

Review of Ilham Tohti, We Uyghurs Have No Say: An Imprisoned Writer Speaks

Marc Martorell Junyent

Tuebingen (Special to Ann Arbor) – Review of Ilham Tohti, We Uyghurs Have No Say: An Imprisoned Writer Speaks (London: Verso, 2022). Ilham Tohti, a Chinese intellectual and advocate for the rights of the Uyghurs, the Muslim minority group he belongs to, was jailed in 2014 by the Chinese government. Little has been known about […]

Bangladesh

Climate change and rapid Urbanization blamed for the worst Flood in over a Century in northeastern Bangladesh

Global Voices

By পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha); Translated by Rezwan | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – Bangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the world, as two-thirds of the country is less than 15 feet above sea level. Floods continue to be the biggest threat as each year about […]

India

Ukraine War Fallout: Russia and Iran Plot Alternative Gulf Trade Route to Avoid US Sanctions

Gilbert Achcar

By Gilbert Achkar | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Naturally, one of the consequences of the sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia is to stimulate the latter’s search for ways to bypass the restrictions. Since the actions taken by Western countries to punish Russia for its annexation of Crimea and its first […]

China

Why China Will Decide the Outcome of Russia v. the West

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In its attempt to swallow Ukraine whole, Russia has so far managed to bite off only the eastern Donbas region and a portion of its southern coast. The rest of the country remains independent, with its capital Kyiv intact. No one knows how this meal will end. Ukraine is eager to […]

China

What Difference Does a War Make? The Geopolitics of the New Cold War

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – From his first days in office, Joe Biden and his national security advisers seemed determined to revive America’s fading global leadership via the strategy they knew best — challenging the “revisionist powers” Russia and China with a Cold War-style aggressiveness. When it came to Beijing, the president combined the policy initiatives […]

China

Biden’s Golden Opportunity to Reverse Course on China

John Feffer

Originally published in Hankyoreh. ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Joe Biden has wrapped up his first trip to Asia. He met with new South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to shore up the U.S.-ROK alliance. He traveled to Tokyo to reinvigorate the Quad grouping with Japan, Australia, and India. And he peddled the new […]

censorship

In Demolishing Muslim protestors’ homes, India is taking a Leaf from of Israel’s Book

Omar Ahmed

( Middle East Monitor ) – Over the weekend Indian authorities bulldozed several homes belonging to Muslims in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh (UP). The homeowners were alleged to have taken part in organised protests on Friday in response to inflammatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) made by the now […]

Afghanistan

War as Terrorism: Conflicts We Can’t Win, Suffering We Don’t See

Andrea Mazzarino

( Tomdispatch.com) – Anyone who grew up in my generation of 1980s kids remembers G.I. Joe action figures — those green-uniformed plastic soldiers you could use to stage battles in the sandbox in your backyard or, for that matter, your bedroom. In those days, when imagery of bombed-out homes, bloodied civilians, and police violence wasn’t […]