European Union

Over objections of Dem Hawks, Biden agrees to indirect Talks with Iran in Vienna to return to the 2015 Nuclear Deal

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – AFP reports that an arrangement was reached at Friday’s teleconference in Vienna between the current signatories to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to mediate indirect talks between Iran and the United States next week. State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the US had agreed to participate in the discussions […]

Germany

Green hydrogen could reduce CO2 emissions by up to 25 million tonnes in German Ruhr region

Clean Energy Wire

By Charlotte Nijhuis | – Green hydrogen technology can help reduce emissions from industry, transport and heating in the German Ruhr region up to 72 percent by 2050 compared to 2018, the private industry-sponsored German Economic Institute (IW) shows in a report commissioned by the Ruhr Regional Association (RVR). The IW looked at six different […]

European Union

UN Security Council to meet with Iran without the US in quest to Restore 2015 Nuclear Deal breached by Trump

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The European Union announced yesterday that today, Friday, Iran will meet by video with the current signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal or Joint Collective Plan of Action (JCPOA) with a view toward returning the parties to compliance. The US under Trump withdrew in May, 2018. The Biden administration welcomed […]

censorship

International Statement of Solidarity with Decolonial Academics and Activists in France

contributors

By Paola Bacchetta (Professor, University of California, Berkeley), Azeezah Kanji (Legal Academic and Journalist, Toronto) and David Palumbo-Liu (Professor, Stanford University) | – Earliest Signatories: 1. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, University Professor, Columbia University, USA 2. Gina Dent, Associate Professor, Feminist Studies, History of Consciousness, and Legal Studies. University of California, Santa Cruz 3. Angela Y […]

European Union

European Union backs Int’l Criminal Court Probe of War Crimes in Veiled rebuke of Israel, US

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor) – The European Union has backed the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its decision to open a formal investigation into war crimes committed in occupied Palestine in comments that appear to rebuke Israel and its key ally the US. Both have condemned The Hague for ruling that it has jurisdiction over […]

censorship

Reporters without Borders Files German ‘Crimes against Humanity’ Case against Saudi’s Bin Salman for Khashoggi Murder

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The France-based Reporters without Borders (RSF) has filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor-General of the Federal Court of Justices in Karlsruhe, Germany, against crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman and other Saudi officials for the murder of Washington Post columnist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The filing alleges […]

Batteries

Number of residential solar batteries increases by 50% in Germany

Juan Cole

By Sören Amelang | – The number of battery storage systems linked to a residential solar pv array rose by around 50 percent in Germany in 2020 for the third year in a row. The country’s solar association BSW estimates there were 88,000 new residential installations, taking the total number of solar batteries in Germany […]

Culture

How Spanish Can Help Us Survive Viral Times: A Journey into the Heart of a Language We Need Now More Than Ever

Ariel Dorfman

“Una nación bajo Diós, indivisible, con libertad y justicia para todos.” ( Tomdispatch.com) – When Jennifer López shouted out that last line of the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish during Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony, like so many Spanish-speaking Latinos in the United States I felt a sense of pride, a sense of arrival. It was […]

Germany

German President envisions Electric Cars as zero carbon ‘Smartphone on Wheels’

Clean Energy Wire

By Charlotte Nijhuis | – Clean Energy Wire / Süddeutsche Zeitung ) – To reach Germany’s climate goals the car industry needs to undergo a significant transformation, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier said during a summit titled “Industry and climate action using the example of the automotive industry” that he organised in Berlin. On last Thursday […]