By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Kate Duguid at Reuters reports the alarm at UBS that China’s new oil futures exchange will hurt the standing of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. That development in turn would start the reverse snowball down the hill, with the dollar falling against other currencies, […]
Apocalyptic Numbers: The Saudi-Trump War on Yemen
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Three years ago this month, the then 29-year-old Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia (now its crown prince) launched a ruinous war on Yemen. Yemen had been in Saudi Arabia’s back pocket in the 1990s and 2000s, and was a major recipient of Saudi aid, which […]
Netherlands to Build 1st Wholly unsubsidized Offshore Wind Farms
By Sam Morgan | EURACTIV.com The Dutch government has begun to follow through on its renewable energy pledges by awarding Swedish firm Vattenfall two contracts for what will be the world’s first wind farms to be built entirely without public money. The Dutch government has announced that its call for tender for zero-subsidy offshore wind […]
Palestine RIP
By Hossam Shaker | (Middle East Monitor) | – – They do not want to recognise the truth. The project of an independent Palestinian state has ended forever, and any talk about a “Palestinian state” today remains a dead letter that does not go along with its meaning. This is what the Americans, Europeans, Israelis […]
Trump Happy, Bolton Sad? Syrian Regime claims 90% of E. Ghouta as 105k civilians Flee
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – One of the last major rebel enclaves in Syria, East Ghouta, is near to falling back completely under the control of the Baath regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The enclave consists of three districts, Harasta, Zamalka-Irbin-Jobar, and Douma, east and south of the capital. Although […]
Budget Bill: Even GOP Congress defies Trump on Green Energy Funding
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Emma Foehringer Merchant at Greentech Media reports that the GOP Congress defied Trump’s priorities on green energy almost across the board. She notes the following: $2.32 bn.– The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) $353 mn. — the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) $6.3 […]
Let’s call Bolton what he is, a War Criminal with Terrorist Ties, not just “Hawkish”
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – John Bolton helped lie our country into an illegal war of aggression that killed several hundred thousand Iraqis, wounded over a million, and displaced 4 million from their homes, helped deliver Baghdad into the hands of Iran, and helped create ISIL, which blew up Paris. In […]
Trump and the American Fearscape as Hell for Muslim-Americans
By Nate Terani | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Understand this: I’m an American veteran. I’m also a Muslim-American in a country in which, in these years, that hasn’t exactly been the happiest category to fall into. Now, let me tell you a little story. Recently, I had an ominous dream. It was noon on […]
Afghanistan: How a Shrine Bombing in Kabul tells us Trump’s Surge won’t Succeed
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – This year, the merriment of Now-Ruz in Kabul was marred by a suicide bombing that killed at least 33 persons and wounded 68, according to the Afghani Ministry of Health. The perpetrator was allegedly a member of ISIL (which really needs another name, since it isn’t […]