Europe

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Even as the possibility of a visit to Riyadh by President Joe Biden after his upcoming trip to Israel is being rumored, Saudi Arabia is signalling that it cannot be brought on board with the NATO effort to sanction Russia. Last week the Saudi Minister of Energy, Abdul Aziz bin […]

Climate Crisis

Is the Climate Emergency being Turbocharged by the Ukraine War?

Michael T. Klare

By Michael Klare | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – The war in Ukraine has already caused massive death and destruction, with more undoubtedly to come as the fighting intensifies in the country’s east and south. Many thousands of soldiers and civilians have already been killed or wounded, some 13 million Ukrainians have been forced from […]

Afghanistan

Central Asian Stans Fear Afghan Militancy while their Russian Ally is Bogged down in Ukraine

Global Voices

By Zhar Zardykhan | – Read this post in Malagasy ( GlobalVoices.org) – On May 8, 2022, the Taliban-led government of Afghanistan reported that they are investigating Islamic State (IS) rockets attack on Tajikistan from Afghanistan’s Takhar Province, as IS admitted firing eight rockets on May 7 towards “unspecified military targets in Tajikistan.” In reaction, […]

Climate Crisis

Majority of Germans favor higher top Tax Rate to finance Climate Protection – Poll

Clean Energy Wire

By Edgar Meza | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – Some 66 percent of German households are in favour of raising the top tax rate to finance climate action, according to a survey conducted by the ifo Institute in cooperation with the forsa opinion research institute. Researchers asked households about their preferences with regard to […]

Climate Crisis

Portugal Opens Floating Solar Array on Europe’s Largest Artificial Lake as Floatovoltaics Expand Globally

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Europe’s high methane gas prices caused in part by the Russian war on Ukraine are hurting consumers even in countries like Portugal, which don’t import gas from Russia. Shortages are putting the price up for everyone. Portugal has made enormous strides toward greening its electricity grid in recent years. Wind […]

Belgium

Dumping Russian Gas: 4 European countries seek 65 GW Offshore Wind by 2030, as EU Pledges $314 bn. for Green Energy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Anyone who follows the climate emergency and extreme weather events would think the serial catastrophes of the past couple years would be enough to put the governments into crisis mode in moving swiftly to green energy. It turns out that for Europe, at least, it took the Russian invasion of […]

Bush

George W. Bush denounces “the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq — I mean, Ukraine”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Michael Williams at the Dallas Morning News reports on George W. Bush’s speech at his presidential center at Southern Methodist University, during which the former president made what MSNBC’s Mehdi Hassan called “one of the biggest Freudian slips of all time.” Bush denounced the rigged elections that produced the dictatorship […]

Afghanistan

Our Compassion for Ukrainian Victims of War was not on Offer to Iraqis or Afghans when We Invaded

Tomdispatch

By Nan Levinson | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – I’ve been watching this country at war for many years now and, after 9/11, began spending time with American veterans who came to disdain and actively oppose the very conflicts they were sent to fight. The paths they followed to get there and the courage it […]

African-Americans

Tucker Carlson’s “Great Replacement” Theory Comes From an Anti-US Nazi French Thinker who considered all Americans Negroes

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A hate-filled 18-year-old murdered 10 and wounded 3 African-Americans in Buffalo on Saturday, having penned a rambling screed about replacement theory. The most common version of this whiny idea, imported from the more hysterical fringes of the French Right wing, holds that Jewish capitalists are importing cheap immigrant labor to […]