Economy

RT | (Video report) — “Saudi-led coalition warplanes are continuing to pound Houthi targets in Yemen despite the rebels agreeing to UN-backed peace talks. The strikes have killed 58 people across the country over the past two days, according to the Houthis. And the humanitarian situation is getting worse by the day, according to the […]

Climate Change

Coal comeback in Europe threatens Climate, Environment (already kills 18,000 a year)

contributors

Euractiv | – – Forcible displacements, thousands of deaths and harmful CO2 emissions – the “2015 Coal Atlas”, published by Germany’s Heinrich Böll Foundation, shows some of the devastating effects of coal power, calling on the EU to stand up to energy corporations. EurActiv Germany reports. Every year, coal-fired power plants pump 15.5 billion tonnes […]

Balkans

“Nationalism and terrorism are constructed things to divide us”: Macedonian elections and a Balkan “War on Terror”

contributors

By Frances Trix | (Informed Comment) | – Now it appears, thanks to EU mediation, there will be new national elections in Macedonia next April 2016. In one sense it is quite early—there were national elections in April 2014 in which Nikola Gruevski, president since 2006, was once again elected. But in another sense, these […]

Antisemitism

Are there Echoes of the old Anti-Semitism in today’s Islam-Hatred?

contributors

Anne-Ruth Wertheim | (Informed Comment) | – Recently, the head of the Dutch national police Gerard Bouman warned against the poison that was seeping into his organisation: Muslims were continually being forced to prove their loyalty. Has Islamophobia really come this far? And can what is happening now be compared to pre-World War II anti-Semitism? […]

Democratic Party

How Mainstream is Bernie Sanders?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Sen. Bernie Sanders, the presidential candidate for the Democratic nomination, has trouble being taken seriously by the corporate media, what with him being a democratic socialist and all. If you go to Google News and put in his name, you get headlines about him being nothing more […]

Colonialism

Kaplan: An Impish Desire for Imperial Déjà Vu

Juan Cole

Daniel Martin Varisco | (MENA Tidningen) | – A recent online commentary by Robert Kaplan for Foreign Policy displays the provocative title: “It’s time to bring imperialism back to the Middle East”. The punch line surfaces in the final paragraph: “Imperialism bestowed order, however retrograde it may have been”. Retrograde? How about brutal? Let’s see: […]

Cold War

After the Cold War, did We all Get the worst of both Capitalist & Communist Worlds?

contributors

By John Feffer | (Tomdispatch.com) | – Imagine an alternative universe in which the two major Cold War superpowers evolved into the United Soviet Socialist States. The conjoined entity, linked perhaps by a new Bering Straits land bridge, combines the optimal features of capitalism and collectivism. From Siberia to Sioux City, we’d all be living […]

censorship

TPP and Fast Track Harm Web Creativity and Users’ Rights: Tech Companies to Congress

contributors

By Maira Sutton | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – In a In a joint letter to Congress released this week, more than 250 technology companies and user rights organizations say that the extreme level of secrecy surrounding trade negotiations have led to provisions in agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that threaten digital innovation, free […]

Barack Obama

Was that a White House- Gulf Arab Summit or an Arms Bazaar?

contributors

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry chats with Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia on Mar. 5, 2015, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before the two and their counterparts attended a meeting of the regional Gulf Cooperation Council. Credit: U.S. State Department/public domain UNITED NATIONS, May […]