European Union

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Thursday, a racist extremist went to two shisha bars in Hanau, Germany, randomly shooting the people there. Since smoking hookah is a Middle Eastern custom, he clearly thought he could be sure of killing Muslims at these establishments. He killed a pregnant woman and bar staff, leaving at least […]

Featured

Will the new, Left-led Ireland Recognize Palestine and Boycott Israeli Squatters?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – That the Left has swept to power in Ireland may position that country to play an important role in the Israel-Palestine conflict. The European Union member states sometimes rail against their irrelevance on foreign policy. Despite Europe’s enormous population (pop. 445 million vs. 320 million in the U.S.) and a […]

Eastern Europe

Britain got its Brexit, but will it also Get an Economic Depression and Lose Scotland and N. Ireland?

John Feffer

By John Feffer | – Edinburgh, Scotland (Foreign Policy in Focus) – If I were the European Union, I’d be wiping my hands, sighing in relief, and slamming the door after the United Kingdom’s long-delayed departure. Britain had been a noisy, pushy houseguest for 47 years, and it was only growing ruder. It spent the […]

Climate Crisis

Coalxit? Germany, 4th Largest Economy, Officially Approves Phase-Out of Coal

Clean Energy Wire

By Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – The German government has officially approved the end of coal-fired power production in Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet adopted a law detailing plant shutdowns and compensation payments for coal companies, confirming a commission proposal made last year to end coal no later than 2038. The […]

Antisemitism

Auschwitz 75 years on: preserving survivors’ voices and listening to those of their children

The Conversation

By Sara Jones | – In December 2019, four people were shot dead at a kosher market in New Jersey, a horrific knife attack was perpetrated at a rabbi’s home in a New York suburb, and antisemitic graffiti was daubed on a synagogue and several shops in north London. Despite what many might think, antisemitism […]

Donald Trump

The Trump Organized-Crime Style: Bullying Europe, Bullying Iran and Impeached for Bullying Ukraine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I was for my sins watching CNN the other evening and as I remember I saw Chris Cuomo on a panel say that what Trump did in withholding $400 million in congressionally appropriated military aid from Ukraine was not technically a crime. I was astonished, since Cuomo is usually a […]

Donald Trump

The European Union must Stop Mimicking Trump on Iran: DiEM25 should call on Brussels to live up to its own Responsibilities

Arturo Desimone

Amsterdam (Special to Informed Comment) – In the spirit of what the EU calls “de-escalation’’ German government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer recently asserted an official belief that Iranian general Qassem Soleimani masterminded the 2019 Yemeni attacks on Saudi Aramco oil fields in Abqaiq —necessitating US retaliation. Demmer denied the Yemeni origin of the guerrilla response to […]

Climate Crisis

The Anti-Trump: Merkel’s Germany dumps 20% of Its Coal Use, CO2 Falls 7%, Renewables at 40%

Clean Energy Wire

By Julian Wettengel | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – Germany has seen a second year of significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, as coal use fell by more than 20 percent and energy production from renewables increased, preliminary calculations by energy research group AG Energiebilanzen show. While the country’s overall energy use […]

Featured

Fossil Fuels cause Climate Crisis and Wars: Turkey forces Israeli Ship to leave research on Cyprus Undersea Gas

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Daily Sabah is reporting that a couple of weeks ago the Turkish navy made an Israeli research vessel leave the territorial waters off Turkish Cyprus. The island has been divided politically into a Greek-speaking Cyprus and a Turkish province since the 1974 Turkish invasion. Since 2011 there have been […]