Russell E. Lucas, Michigan State University The first stop on Donald Trump’s first trip as U.S. president was to Saudi Arabia. That was no accident. His decision was surely based on the fact that the alliance between Saudi Arabia and the United States is one of the foundations of American foreign policy in the Middle […]
Rouhani’s win a Victory for Reform, will Trump waste Opportunity?
By Shahram Akbarzadeh | (Informed Comment) | – – In Iran’s election, Hassan Rouhani’s re-election was not a forgone conclusion. Criticism of Rouhani’s performance focused on growing unemployment, as the economy was not keeping pace with new entries into the workforce. Official rates put unemployment at 12% but this rate is estimated to be much […]
Erdogan, Trump, the Russians and General Flynn: The Tangled Web
By Carl Max Kortepeter | (Informed Comment) | – – When Sally Yates testified that she had told the Trump Organization, before his appointment as National Security Adviser, that General Flynn was in the pay of Turkey, for $600,000, President Trump should not have made the appointment. Appointments have consequences. General Flynn was acting erratically […]
Was/Is there an Islamic Enlightenment? (de Bellaigue)
William Eichler interviews Christopher de Bellaigue | Informed Comment | – – Eichler: 1. In the conclusion to The Islamic Enlightenment you describe modern jihadists as “miracle-grow Muslims” who have been “incubated in the hothouse of modernity.” You write it is hard to attach the label “Muslim” to them. What is the relationship between today’s […]
America Should stay the Course with Rouhani
By Robert Harvey | (Project Syndicate) | – – LONDON – Hassan Rouhani has won re-election as Iran’s president in a landslide, meaning that it is he who will be dealing with an antagonistic US President Donald Trump. What will their relationship mean for the 2015 international agreement that has, for now, frozen Iran’s nuclear […]
Should Facebook & Google be Taxed to fund Journalism?
Ben Eltham | (The Conversation) | – – There was a fascinating moment towards the end of Wednesday’s hearings of the Senate Inquiry into the Future of Public Interest Journalism. Journalist Michael West was at the stand. West’s experience is in many ways emblematic. Once a marquee investigator for Fairfax Media with multiple scoops to […]
Alabama Passes Bill to Protect Confederate Monuments even at cost of Economy
TeleSur | – – Some Southern cities are rethinking the appropriateness of keeping such emblems on public property. Not Alabama. Alabama lawmakers on Friday approved a bill that prohibits the removal of Confederate monuments and other long-standing historical markers. The bill, passed in both the House and Senate, prohibits “the relocation, removal, alteration, renaming, or […]
Palestinians: ‘Day of Rage’ against Trump in occupied West Bank
Ma’an News Agency | – – RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Palestinian factions in the central occupied West Bank city of Ramallah have called upon the Palestinian people to partake in a “Day of Rage” on Tuesday, during the planned visit by US President Donald Trump to the occupied Palestinian territory. Trump left the US for his […]
If Trump can Hunt the Undocumented by Cell Phone, what can he do to You?
By Adam Schwartz | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – – In the latest sign of mission creep in domestic deployment of battlefield-strength surveillance technology, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this year used a cell site simulator (CSS) to locate and arrest an undocumented immigrant, according to a report yesterday by The Detroit News. […]