By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The terrorist organization known as Daesh in the Middle East and Europe but as ISIS or ISIL in the US is in a death spiral. Daesh hit its peak of territory in 2015 on taking Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s al-Anbar province. Since then, it has […]
The Russian Job: The Plot Thickens
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – An avalanche of news about the connection of key Trump political operatives to Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation rolled down ominously on the West Wing on Wednesday. The evidence for collusion between Trump figures and the Russian Federation to gain the White House for Trump […]
Top 4 Worst pieces of Climate News from WMO in Age of Trump
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The World Meteorological Organization of the United Nations issued its annual report on the climate on Tuesday, making a full and final assessment of 2016. It was not good news. It was big news, but it wasn’t good news. Also, surprise, it wasn’t reported on most […]
It is Comey who should be Investigated
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – FBI Director James Comey confirmed Monday that his agency has since last summer been investigating the circle of Donald J. Trump for their contacts with the Russian Federation during last year’s election campaign. He also denied Trump’s allegations that former president Barack Obama ordered wiretaps on […]
Does Trump’s slashed Foreign Aid Budget give China the Advantage?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The US foreign aid budget is not mainly about helping the poor. It is an instrument for buying influence in countries important to the US. The poorest countries in the world do not get much help from the US. Israel, which is a wealthy country, gets […]
Trump picks fights with US Allies: Germany, NATO, EU, Britain etc.
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – After Trump falsely accused President Obama of having him wiretapped at Trump Tower during the campaign, Sean Spicer upped the ante by charging that Obama could have used the British GCHQ electronic surveillance agency to carry out the monitoring. GCHQ does in fact outrageously invade people’s […]
Why the UN branded Israel an Apartheid state
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Note: Apparently the Trump administration at Israeli urging threatened to defund the UN if this report was not withdrawn. The UN Secretary-General caved, and the executive director of ESCWA (who was also an under-secretary general of the UN), Rima Khalaf, has resigned. The legal case built […]
I Am an Enemy of the People (Feffer)
By John Feffer | ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) | – – If Trump cracks down on journalists, there might be less uproar than you’d think. Even before the election of Donald Trump — and his extraordinary declaration that the media are the “enemies of the people” — U.S. journalism was in trouble. According […]
Hawaii Judge: Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0 still Violates the Constitution
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Derrick Watson, US District Court judge in Honolulu, has issued a nationwide Temporary Restraining Order against Trump’s second attempt at an Executive Order excluding people from Muslim-majority countries from the United States. Watson found that the state of Hawaii, which brought the suit, was likely to […]
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