By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has called for Iraq’s Shiite militias to come under control of the central government. One of the problems facing the Middle East has been the rise of autonomous militias, who are often more powerful than the state and its army. You have […]
Turkey to defy Trump, open Embassy to Palestine in E. Jerusalem
Middle East Monitor | – – Turkey will open an embassy in East Jerusalem, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, days after leading calls at a summit of Muslim leaders for the world to recognise it as the capital of Palestine. “God willing, the day is close when officially, with God’s permission, we will open […]
Puerto Rico: On top of Everything Else, GOP Tax Bill is Racist
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló Nevares, sent a letter to all the members of Congress yesterday, begging on bended knee for a supplemental disaster aid appropriation. That he had to write this letter is a profound embarrassment to the United States, since he had to remind […]
Having had Green Electricity for 300 days, Costa Rica Moves to EVs
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Costa Rica, which has among the cleanest electrical grids in the world, has just passed a law promoting electric vehicles. The transportation sector in this Central American country of 5 million is heavily dependent on dirty petroleum and accounts for about half of its emissions of […]
Trump did this: Israeli Troops injure Palestinians
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Redirect: This article is found here {click)
FCC begins restoring Corporate Privilege to the Internet
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – This web site amounted to anything because of net neutrality, which I prefer to call internet liberty. That liberty is now going or gone. The internet was originally based on the principle that everyone’s web site is as easily reached by users as everyone else’s. All […]
Palestinians outraged but unsurprised by Trump on Jerusalem: ‘World already ignores our existence’
By Joey Ayoub | ( GlobalVoices.org) | – – US President Donald Trump's declaration that the country would move its embassy in Israel to the city of Jerusalem was met with shock throughout the world. Among Palestinians, however, it was outrage mixed with a distinctive lack of surprise. Jerusalem is a controversial site of contention […]
Over 700 Rohingya Children Killed by Myanmar Military
TeleSur | – – An estimate from Doctors Without Borders shows that at least 6,700 refugees have been killed during the first month of militarized persecution. At least 730 Rohingya children under the age of five have been mercilessly slaughtered by Myanmar police forces in an almost six-month crusade against the Muslim community, Doctors Without […]
Global Spec Ops in Trump’s Pentagon: Elite Commandos in record 149 Countries
By Nick Turse | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – “We don’t know exactly where we’re at in the world, militarily, and what we’re doing,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in October. That was in the wake of the combat deaths of four members of the Special Operations forces […]