European Union

Sousse, Tunisia (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Since June 27, every news channel has been covering the recent protests in Paris. On the surface, these disturbances are the result of a police shooting of an unarmed 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk who was attempting to flee the police at a traffic stop. However, many news outlets […]

military

Turkey’s Erdogan abruptly lifts veto on Sweden in NATO: What it means for the Alliance and Ukraine War

The Conversation

Simon J Smith, Staffordshire University and Jordan Becker, United States Military Academy West Point | – In a surprise move, Turkey has ended its veto on Sweden joining Nato, thereby removing all the barriers to its membership of the military alliance. Hungary quickly followed suit and, as a result of the two countries’ support, a […]

Climate Crisis

Germany: Sales of Battery Powered EVS up 31% Year over Year in First Half of 2023

Clean Energy Wire

By Carolina Kyllmann | – Clean Energy Wire / Zeit Online ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Car registrations in Germany have risen by 13 percent in the first half of 2023 – compared to the same period last year – with the number of newly registered electric vehicles increasing most significantly, according to data […]

Algeria

France’s Double Uprising: Will the Earth be Habitable; Will France be Habitable for People of Color?

Waging Nonviolence

By Nicolas Haeringer | – ( Waging Nonviolence) – On June 27, Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old French boy of North African descent was murdered by a white police officer in a Parisian suburb. Since then, anger has erupted almost everywhere in the country, especially in poor neighborhoods. Young people are taking to the streets to […]

Featured

Muslims are understandably Protesting Qur’an Burning in Sweden, but the Qur’an itself urges them to do so Peacefully

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Swedish police permitted the burning of the Muslim scripture, the Qur’an (Koran) in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, on the grounds that previous attempts to stop such acts have been overruled by the courts on freedom of speech grounds. Hate acts targeting minorities are not actually free […]

Climate Crisis

Renewables covered more than Half of German Electricity Consumption in the first half of 2023

Julian Wettengel

( Clean Energy Wire) – Wind, solar and other renewable energy sources covered 52 percent of German electricity consumption in the first six months of 2023, up from 49 percent in the first half of last year, preliminary data by the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Wuerttemberg (ZSW) and energy industry association BDEW […]

Colonialism

Fascist Italy’s forgotten Concentration Camps in Libya

Middle East Monitor

Mustafa Fetouri MFetouri ( Middle East Monitor ) – On 30 August 2008, Italy and Libya signed their Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership, ending their awkward past of feuding and diplomatic tensions over Italy’s colonisation of Libya from 1911 to 1943. Libya was seeking compensation, recognition of suffering of its people and, above […]

Displaced and Refugees

Put People’s Rights first in Syria Sanctions

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – The United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union should urgently renew the earthquake-related humanitarian exemptions they introduced to their Syria sanctions’ regimes in February 2023 to more effectively facilitate aid to the Syrian people, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch issued a question-and-answer document examining […]

Climate Crisis

Europe’s largest Heat Pump to heat Cologne Homes using Rhine River Water

Clean Energy Wire

By Sören Amelang | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Cologne energy supplier RheinEnergie is planning Europe’s largest heat pump that will use energy contained in Rhine river water to heat homes in the city centre. “RheinEnergie has awarded the general planning contract for a large-scale heat pump in a capacity class that does […]