Europe

Iran, seeking Counter to US Sanctions, is Joining Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Warming up to Russia

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran’s foreign minister, attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) conference in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, has signed key membership papers to formalize its entry into the Eurasian security body led by China and Russia. Although Iran is now considered by the US State Department to be in what it calls the “Middle […]

Climate Crisis

All the Victims of the Ukraine War

H. Patricia Hynes

“They will beat their swords into plowshares . . . Nor will they train for war anymore.” Isaiah2:3-4. Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – What’s wrong, so profoundly wrong with war that compelled Isaiah to implore for peace (without debate over just and unjust war) almost 3,000 years ago? War breeds a plague of […]

Pentagon

US Smug about Russia’s Failures in Ukraine, Forgetting the Iraq and Afghanistan Quagmires

Andrew J. Bacevich

(Tomdispatch.com) – In Washington, wide agreement exists that the Russian army’s performance in the Kremlin’s ongoing Ukraine “special military operation” ranks somewhere between lousy and truly abysmal. The question is: Why? The answer in American policy circles, both civilian and military, appears all but self-evident. Vladimir Putin’s Russia has stubbornly insisted on ignoring the principles, […]

Eurasia

Those Iranian Planes Ferrying Drones to Moscow Flew over Georgia: But who gave Permission?

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Nadia Beard | – ( RFE/ RL) – TBILISI — Georgia’s position on the war in Ukraine has again come under domestic scrutiny after three Iran Air Cargo planes allegedly carrying drones to Russia passed through Georgian airspace. Over the last few days, Georgian opposition figures have called for answers from the government, accusing […]

Featured

World’s largest Offshore Wind Farm Operational in UK, offering Lower Energy Prices, as Tories Scoff

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Danish wind energy company Orsted reported recently that its massive 1.3 gigawatt offshore wind farm, Hornsea 2, off the Yorkshire coast, has gone fully operational. It joins its sister project, Hornsea 1, which generates 1.2 gigawatts. A further, even bigger such facility, Hornsea 3, will have a nameplate capacity […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency’s Knock-on Effects: How Europe’s Drought is making Britain’s energy Crisis worse

The Conversation

Simon Waldman, University of Hull | – (The Conversation) – Along the River Elbe, in Germany and the Czech Republic, is a series of rocks that are submerged in all but the lowest water conditions. The locals call them “hunger stones” because they are warnings: if the stone is visible, then famine will follow. Carvings […]

Climate Crisis

Germany’s Economy and Climate Ministry to tender 1.5 Gigs of new Solar, and Unleash Rooftop Solar Potential

Benjamin Wehrmann

By Benjamin Wehrmann | – Tagesspiegel Background ( Clean Energy Wire) Germany’s government plans to rapidly accelerate the expansion of solar power capacity in the country with several legal changes, energy policy newsletter Tagesspiegel Background reports. A proposal by the economy and climate ministry (BMWK) of Green minister Robert Habeck includes so-called “special crisis tenders” […]

Climate Crisis

Will Charles III be the first Eco-King? Vocal Proponent of Green Energy and Battler of Big Carbon takes the Throne

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The new king of England, despite being a booster of green energy and a foe of the climate emergency is not in a position to set government policy on climate issues. Unfortunately, that is the prerogative of new Prime Minister Liz Truss, a Tory close to Big Carbon who just […]

Featured

More Ukraine-Palestine Hypocrisy: US slams Russia for Deporting Residents from Occupied Territory, which Israel does all the Time

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Wednesday, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield castigated Russia for having deported large numbers of Ukrainians from the parts of Ukraine that the Russian military had occupied, referring to these as “filtration operations.” She said, “Of course, I need not remind this Council that the forcible transfer […]