Asia

By Phillip Stalley | – When it comes to climate change, no nation is more important than China. It consumes more coal than the rest of the world combined, and it is the leading emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for nearly 30% of global emissions. Unless China takes rapid steps to control its greenhouse gas […]

Afghanistan

“Even If You Go to the Skies, We’ll Find You”: LGBT People in Afghanistan After the Taliban Takeover

Human Rights Watch

(Human Rights Watch ) – Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Afghanistan, and others who do not conform to rigid gender norms, have faced an increasingly desperate situation and grave threats to their safety and lives since the Taliban took full control of the country on August 15, 2021.[1] Human Rights Watch and […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan Report: U.S. Marines Returned Fire After Suicide Bombing, but No Enemies Were Shooting at Them

ProPublica

By Brian J. Conley and Mohammad J. Alizada, Alive in Afghanistan, and Joshua Kaplan and Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica | – ( ProPublica ) – During the final days of the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan in August, a suicide bomber killed 13 American service members guarding an entrance to Kabul’s airport and scores of Afghan civilians […]

Afghanistan

Afghan Women’s Rights Activists Forcibly Disappeared (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

By Patricia Gossman | Associate Asia Director | ( Human Rights Watch ) – The Taliban’s response to the apparent enforced disappearance of Tamana Paryani, Parwana Ibrahimkhel, and other women activists in Afghanistan has laid bare their intent to eradicate critical women’s voices through unlawful use of force. Taliban leaders have denied arresting the women, […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Taliban Deprive Women of Livelihoods, Identity (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (New York) – Taliban rule has had a devastating impact on Afghan women and girls, new research shows, Human Rights Watch and the Human Rights Institute at San Jose State University (SJSU) said today. The organizations looked at the conditions for women since the Taliban took control in Ghazni province, in […]

Afghanistan

Taliban 2.0 aren’t so different from the first regime, after all

The Conversation

By Atal Ahmadzai and Faten Ghosn | – The international community is closely monitoring the Taliban, after the group re-seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. There is legitimate reason for concern. The Taliban are again ruling through fear and draconian rules. The Taliban’s last regime, in the mid-1990s, was marked by human rights violations, […]

Central Asia

Eurasia’s Ring of Fire: The Epic Struggle over the Epicenter of U.S. Global Power

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Throughout 2021, Americans were absorbed in arguments over mask mandates, school closings, and the meaning of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Meanwhile, geopolitical hot spots were erupting across Eurasia, forming a veritable ring of fire around that vast land mass. Let’s circle that continent to visit just a few […]

Afghanistan

After Afghanistan, US military presence abroad faces domestic and foreign opposition in 2022

The Conversation

By Michael A. Allen, Carla Martinez Machain, and Michael E. Flynn | – In August 2021, the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan after fighting a war there for nearly 20 years. In addition to Afghanistan, the U.S. has reduced its military presence in several other conflict zones in recent years. It has lowered troop levels […]

China

Is this Wise? Washington Tightens the Noose around China in new Cold War of Encirclement

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com) – The word “encirclement” does not appear in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), signed into law by President Joe Biden on December 27th, or in other recent administration statements about its foreign and military policies. Nor does that classic Cold War era term “containment” ever come up. Still, America’s top leaders […]