European Union

By Julian Wettengel | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The German government has agreed to remove key hurdles to the rollout of renewable energies that had begun to slow the country’s landmark energy transition. The deal between chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance and its coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), settles disputes […]

Climate Crisis

Coronavirus Effect: In One Year, Share of Coal in German Public Power Supply Cratered to 16% from 30%

Clean Energy Wire

By Freja Eriksen | — ( Clean Energy Wire) – Coal’s share in Germany’s net public power production fell to around 16 percent in April 2020, shows data by Fraunhofer ISE’s Energy Charts. The institute’s Energy Charts project does not include data on the amount of power the generating facilities consume themselves to operate, or […]

European Union

Western Powers must Stop Rolling out the Red Carpet for Modi and Hindu Nationalism amid Pandemic: DiEM25

Arturo Desimone

The Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) expresses concern for the role of Kashmir in a dispute between two nuclear powers. We call on all participants to pledge to a process of nuclear disarmament of the subcontinent and of the long running India-Pakistan conflict, in which Kashmir represents one of the more inflammatory points. As […]

Books

Washington Irving, “Legend of the Arabian Astrologer”

contributors

Washington Irving, Tales from the Alhambra (New York: Lea and Carey, 1832). Legend of the Arabian Astrologer. IN OLD times, many hundred years ago, there was a Moorish king named Aben Habuz, who reigned over the kingdom of Granada. He was a retired conqueror, that is to say, one who having in his more youthful […]

Climate Crisis

Even German Conservatives, Corporations make Green New Deal, Climate “Top Priority” after Pandemic

Julian Wettengel

By Julian Wettengel | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Top politicians from Germany and more than 60 large companies have warned that the climate crisis must continue to be a top priority, even as the world economies grapple with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Ahead of this week’s digital Petersberg Climate Dialogue, […]

Climate Crisis

Germany marks first ever Quarter with more than 50 pct Renewable Electricity

Clean Energy Wire

By Rachel Waldholz | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – Germany produced more than half of its electricity with renewable power in the first three months of 2020, the first full quarter in which renewables covered the majority of the country’s electricity needs. The numbers were driven by record wind and high solar production in […]

Donald Trump

Iran Covid-19 Deaths Rival US as Trump Blockade blocks Medical Supplies; and Europe Defies Washington

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The European Union has activated the Instex trading mechanism for the purpose of sending medicine and medical supplies to Iran to fight the coronavirus outbreak. Instex operates in Euros rather than dollars and avoids US banks, so that the US Treasury Department cannot claim jurisdiction over it. The Instex bank […]

Epidemics

Italy Coronavirus Deaths Pass 10,000: How Austerity and Anti-Immigrant Politics Created Europe’s Worst Crisis

Conn M. Hallinan

( Foreign Policy in Focus) As the viral blitzkrieg rolls across one European border after another, it seems to have a particular enmity for Italy. The country’s death toll has passed China’s, and scenes from its hospitals look like something out of Dante’s imagination. Why? Italy has the fourth largest economy in the European Union, […]

Archaeology

In Ancient Greek Thought, Plagues Follow on Bad Leadership

Juan Cole

By Joel Christensen | – In the fifth century B.C., the playwright Sophocles begins “Oedipus Tyrannos” with the title character struggling to identify the cause of a plague striking his city, Thebes. (Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.) As someone who writes about early Greek poetry, I spend a lot of time thinking about […]