Asia

By Elizabeth B. Hessami | – If a seven-day truce between the United States and the Taliban holds until Feb. 28, 2020, Afghanistan’s decades-long conflict may finally end. A peace deal could be signed as soon as Feb. 29, according to the State Department. The draft accord follows months of stop-and-go negotiations between the United […]

Bangladesh

Rich v. Poor: New York faces Climate Crisis, But Bangladesh Faces Climate Apocalypse

The Conversation

By Saleh Ahmed | – Unpredictable weather and climate patterns recently prompted New York Times columnist Paul Krugman to proclaim in January 2020 that “Apocalypse will become the new normal.” Extreme storms, tides and other awful surprises the world has experienced in recent years suggest that Krugman could be right. July 2019 registered the hottest […]

China

With Visa Ban, has Trump’s US just Lost Nigeria to China?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump and his white nationalist pet Stephen Miller have placed Nigeria on their racist visa ban. But Nigeria is not Chad, and there could be serious repercussions for the United States of slapping around Africa’s most important country. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country at over 200 million persons, and […]

Displaced and Refugees

World Court Rules against Buddhist Burma on Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims

Human Rights Watch

International Court of Justice Unanimously Orders Measures to Prevent Genocide

China

Top Ten Ways China Looms over the Iowa Caucuses

Xiaodong Fang

Washington, D.C. (Special to Informed Comment) – The 2020 Iowa Caucuses will take place on Monday, February 3, 2020, as the first official nominating contest in the presidential races. As presidential candidates and campaign media are heading for the Hawkeye State, China, on the other side of the world, is closely watching the 2020 Iowa […]

Afghanistan

The Global War of Error: and No, that is not a Typo

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – Yes, our infrastructure stinks, our schools are failing, this country’s a nightmare of inequality, and there’s a self-promoting madman in the White House, so isn’t it time to take pride in the rare institutional victories America has had in this century? Arguably, none has been more striking than the triumphal success of […]

Afghanistan

Trump threatens Armageddon on yet Another Country: Crimes against Humanity in Afghanistan

Nick Turse

(Tomdispatch.com) – On February 4, 2002, a Predator drone circled over Afghanistan’s Paktia province, near the city of Khost. Below was al-Qaeda’s founder Osama bin Laden — or at least someone in the CIA thought so — and he was marked for death. As Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld put it later, both awkwardly and […]

Afghanistan

Top Five Countries that will Present Foreign Policy Challenges in 2020

The Conversation

By Catesby Holmes | – Where will the world’s attention turn in 2020? The United States’ impeachment trial of Donald Trump and the United Kingdom’s long-awaited Brexit are sure bets. And after the U.S. military withdrawal from northern Syria in October, Bashar al-Assad may well win his civil war this year. Many other countries will […]

Afghanistan

‘Art-ivist’ Omaid Sharifi: “There is so much more the world should know about Afghanistan”

contributors

By Lin Xin and Luzie Mayer | Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung: The Green Political Foundation | – Interview: Omaid Sharifi is a pioneer Afghan activist and one of the co-founders of ArtLords, an artist association which has been attracting widespread international attention in recent years. How did you start your career as a painter and artist? I am […]