By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani has written a letter to the parliament of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government announcing that he will not run for president again and will go out of office on November 1 as his much-extended term of office ends. Barzani had taken heart from […]
Scotland Wind Revolution: First Offshore floating Turbines power 20,000 Homes
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The BBC reports that five massive floating wind turbines off the coast of Aberdeenshire in Scotland have gone operational. They generate enough electricity to power 20,000 homes. This “Hywind” project was built by the Norwegian firm Statoil. It is an exciting development, since a lot of […]
Iraq: How Youtube & Facebook Fake News Raised Kurdish-Shiite Tensions
By Histyar Qader | Erbil | (Niqash.org) | – – After clashes in northern Iraq this week, hundreds of fake pictures have flooded Iraqi social media. Some are real, some not, but leaders on both sides say it’s leading to a dangerous escalation of tensions. Given the partisan nature of much of the media funding […]
Continued Conflict: Iraqi PM rejects Kurdish offer, insists Referendum be Annulled
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi was in Tehran on Thursday for consultations with the Iranian government (no, Abadi isn’t afraid of Trump.). During his meeting with Iranian vice president Ishaq Jahangiri, his office released a statement replying to Massoud Barzani. Barzani is the president of the […]
“Secret” JFK Assassination Files Reveal Bizarre Allegations
TeleSur | – – Nearly 3,000 documents previously kept secret are now in the process of being published online by the National Archive. As much as 88% of the collection has been available to the public since the late 1990s, but a small portion is still being withheld. Conspiracy theorists have been quick to seize […]
Solar: Elon Musk already got a San Juan Hospital running & more to Come
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – As Techdirt reported, Elon Musk has already put up a solar power generating facility at the Hospital del Nino in San Juan, with a Powerwall storage capacity so that the electricity will still be there at night. Musk believes that this model could replace Puerto Rico’s […]
Top 7 ways Saudi could learn from Qatar about Moderate Islam
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman has announced that he wants to take his kingdom toward a more moderate Islam. The state religion of Saudi Arabia is what outsiders call Wahhabism, a puritanical and strident interpretation of the religion. Only about 40% of Saudis are thought […]
Will Trump’s Iran moves Backfire, Enabling Hard Liners?
By Reese Erlich | ( 48hills.org )- – In Washington DC, Trump’s moves against the Iran nuclear agreement are seen as getting tough on a dangerous enemy. In Iran, they are seen as the first steps towards another war in the Mideast. Last week, Trump refused to certify the nuclear agreement. Under that accord Iran […]
The Break-Up of America: Donald Trump and the Fourth Great Shattering
By John Feffer | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – When the historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., published his bestseller The Disuniting of America in 1991, he didn’t seriously entertain the worst-case scenario suggested by the title. At the time, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were imploding, while separatist movements in Quebec, East Timor, Spain’s Basque […]
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