Europe

AJ+ “While the West threatens further crippling sanctions on Moscow for invading and supporting Ukrainian rebels, Russia controls the nozzle that supplies Europe and Ukraine with natural gas. And they’ve already cut off Ukraine as winter looms. Russia also depends on gas sales for its governments revenue, so sanctions could cut both ways. AJ+ animates […]

European Union

Obama & Cameron find little Enthusiasm at NATO for new Iraq War

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The NATO summit in Wales was supposed to be all about getting out of Afghanistan. Instead, two new issues dominated it– the Ukraine and ISIL in Iraq and Syria. British prime minister David Cameron joined Barack Obama in castigating NATO members for paying ransoms to ISIL and for not stepping up to […]

Chechnya

Chechens Now Fighting On Both Sides In Ukraine

contributors

By Liz Fuller via RFE/ RL Eighteen years after the signing of the Khasavyurt Accord that ended the 1994-96 Chechen war, a veteran Chechen field commander has issued a timely reminder that there are still three sides to the ongoing struggle for the hearts and minds of the Chechen people. In a statement dated August […]

Israel Lobby

Pro-Israel Attacker puts British MP George Galloway in Hospital

contributors

UK Respect Party Member of Parliament George Galloway was assaulted by a pro-Israel fanatic on Friday evening, leaving him with a broken jaw, broken ribs, and other injuries. The attacker shouted about the Holocaust. Galloway had to spend the night in the hospital. The MP, who called for a boycott of Israeli goods during the […]

Eastern Europe

Ukraine: What is the word for What is Happening There?

contributors

By Daisy Sindelar via RFE/RL Oleksandr Chernov, a doctor and journalist from eastern Ukraine, spent 10 days as a captive of pro-Russian separatists based in Slovyansk. During that time he was blindfolded, brutally beaten, and interrogated by separatist leader Igor Strelkov. He watched a hardened militant break down in tears after accidentally shooting a stray […]

Climate Change

US Public Worried about ISIL, Putin– But Climate Change is Real Challenge

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole In a new Pew/ USA Today poll, the American public shows itself alarmed by the rise of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in northern Iraq and Syria as a threat to US security, finding it more threatening even than Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who has risen on the villain […]

Apartheid

British Cabinet Member Resigns over UK Gov’t Gaza Stance, wanted to go to ICC

contributors

Channel 4 News “Sayeeda Warsi, the minister who quit over Gaza, says she had to stand down because of the UK’s “indefensible” position. Watch her first TV interview since her exit” She said that a conservative member of parliament was on the phone with her “weeping” at the images coming out of Gaza. (Why are […]

BDS Occupied Territories

Boycott of Israel Spreads in European Civil Society over Gaza War, Could Cost $5 bn/ yr

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The ill-considered and remarkably brutal Gaza war likely will give further impetus to the Boycott, Sanction and Divestment movement by Western civil society to pressure Israel on its illegal actions toward the Palestinians. A thoroughgoing such European set of sanctions could cost Israel as much as $5 bn a year and more. […]

Climate Change

Can Norway’s Dams serve as a Huge Battery storing Europe’s Green Energy?

contributors

DW: “Norway derives almost 100 percent of its energy from hydropower. For Germany’s planned transition to renewable energy, a close partnership is crucially important, because Norwegian pumped storage power stations could balance out variations in renewable energy sources. But do Norwegians actually want to their country to become Europe’s storage battery?” DW: ” Norway: Energy […]