Europe

By Colleen Wood and Alexis Lerner | – ( Waging Nonviolence ) – It is exceedingly difficult to organize peaceful protests in Russia. Since the Kremlin’s “Special Operation” began on Feb. 24, police have detained nearly 15,000 people across the country in connection with peaceful demonstrations. On March 4, the Kremlin expanded the scope of […]

Human Rights

What are War Crimes? Ukraine Atrocities and the Likelihood of Prosecuting Putin

The Conversation

By Amy Lieberman, The Conversation, interviewing Abel Escribà-Folch, Alexander Hinton, Joseph Wright and Shelley Inglis | – Russian troops retreated from Kyiv and the nearby town of Bucha in early April 2022, and new horrors of their occupation were revealed. Ukrainian forces found the bodies of at least 410 civilians – among them people who […]

Russia

Ukraine: are reports of Russian troops mutinying and deserting true? It’s happened before

The Conversation

By Natasha Lindstaedt, University of Essex | – Reports have emerged in recent days that Russian troops in Ukraine, stalled in their advance and suffering numerous military setbacks, have sabotaged their own equipment, refused to fight and carry out orders, and even, in one report, run over their own commander. Nato estimates that as many […]

China

No to WW III: Why Russia Fumbled in Ukraine, China Lost Its Way, and America Should Exercise Restraint

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com) – In Western military circles, it’s common to refer to the “balance of forces” — the lineup of tanks, planes, ships, missiles, and battle formations on the opposing sides of any conflict. If one has twice as many combat assets as its opponent and the leadership abilities on each side are approximately equal, […]

Climate Crisis

Electric Cars let German Consumers Save Huge on Gasoline, Cut Russian Oil – Greenpeace

Clean Energy Wire

By Edgar Meza | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – Electric vehicles can save up to 300 euros [$331] a month compared to cars with diesel and petrol engines, according to a cost analysis report by Greenpeace. Despite temporary tax cuts on fuel prices, new combustion engines are cost traps when considering high long-term fuel […]

Petroleum

How Not to Cope with Vladimir Putin by Drilling and Pumping

Tomdispatch

By Stan Cox | – ( Tomdispatch.com)- While the Ukrainian people bear the lethal brunt of Russia’s invasion, shockwaves from that war threaten to worsen other crises across the planet. The emergency that loomed largest before Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began — the heating of Earth’s climate — is now looming larger still. The […]

Arab World

Climate Crisis: Middle East is Heating up Twice as Fast as Global Average

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Christoph Duenwald et al. at the International Monetary Fund have a new report out that finds that temperatures in the Middle East and Central Asia have already risen by 2.7 degrees F. (1.5C) over the past century, at a rate twice as fast as that of the rest of the […]

Far Right

Yes, Putin and Russia are fascist – a political scientist shows how they meet the textbook definition

The Conversation

By Alexander Motyl, Rutgers University – Newark | – When Vladimir Putin unleashed an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the Ukrainian media, public and policymakers almost unanimously began calling the Russian president and the state he leads “rashyst.” The term is a hybrid of a derogatory moniker for Russia – “rasha” – […]

Bashar al-Assad

What does Russia’s history of urban warfare in Aleppo and Grozny mean for Ukraine?

Global Voices

By Roman Shemakov | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – As the Russian invasion of Ukraine drags on, the conflict has increasingly focused on urban hubs. The cities of Mariupol near the Black Sea and Kharkiv near the Belarusian and Russian border have been fully surrounded by Russian forces, facing hourly bombing campaigns for weeks. The […]