Europe

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Update: Daesh (IS, ISIS, ISIL) has said they were behind the attack. Paris was hit by at least two well-trained and -equipped terrorist cells in a coordinated attack on 6 or 7 soft targets on Friday night. The attack that took the most lives, over 120 […]

European Union

EU approves labeling of Israeli Squatter products

contributors

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The European Union on Wednesday adopted measures to label products from Israeli settlements, considered illegal under international law, in a move welcomed by the Palestinian leadership. The EU Commission, the executive branch of the EU, said the body had adopted an interpretative notice on the “indication […]

BDS Occupied Territories

Why EU Labeling of Israeli Squatter Goods could Affect Israeli Economy

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The European Union will probably issue a ruling today that goods produced in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank by Israeli squatters must be so labeled. Such labeling is already carried out in some European countries, but this ruling would extend the practice to all 28 EU […]

European Union

Splintering World: Looking Back on the Great Collapse from 2050

contributors

By John Feffer | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – Let me start with a confession. I’m old-fashioned and I have an old-fashioned profession. I’m a geo-paleontologist. That means I dig around in archives to exhume the extinct: all the empires and federations and territorial unions that have passed into history. I practically created the profession of […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Putin’s Dilemma: How To Respond If A Bomb Caused Sinai Air Crash

contributors

By Steve Gutterman | ( RFE/RL ) | – – Mounting evidence that an onboard bomb brought down the Russian jet that crashed on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing 224 people, poses a tough new dilemma for President Vladimir Putin: how to respond. If the theory of a terrorist attack is borne out, it will look […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Russian Branch of Syria’s al-Qaeda appeals for Funding from Russian Muslims

contributors

By Joanna Paraszczuk | ( RFE/RL “Do you think you’re safe from the fires of hell? Give yourself a chance — help mujahedin on the path of God!” Thus reads a new fund-raising advertisement published on the VKontakte social network this week by the Russian-speaking battalion of Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front. “Do you […]

Barack Obama

Obama makes fun of GOP Candidates: “That’s Crazy!”

contributors

Barack Obama | (Associated Press Video) | – – “Obama roasts Republican presidential candidates while speaking at a Democractic National Committee fundraiser in New York City Monday night. (Nov. 3)” AP: “Obama: GOP Candidates Occupy ‘Different Reality’”

Featured

Al-Zawahiri Calls for al-Qaeda- ISIL Axis against Russia & US

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – al-Hayat [Life] reports that on Sunday, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, called for unity between al-Qaeda and Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) in the face of American, Russian and Shiite forces in Syria. Al-Zawahiri, a mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the US, succeeded Usama Bin Laden when […]

Egypt

Who are the ISIL Fighters in Egypt’s Sinai, claiming to down Plane?

contributors

By Joanna Paraszczuk | ( RFE/RL ) | – – A [so-called] Islamic State [group] (IS) affiliate in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has claimed that it downed a Russian charter plane that crashed in a mountainous area of the Sinai Peninsula on October 31. Russia’s transport minister has denied the claims. The Airbus A321 — carrying […]