Amsterdam (Special to Informed Comment) – In the spirit of what the EU calls “de-escalation’’ German government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer recently asserted an official belief that Iranian general Qassem Soleimani masterminded the 2019 Yemeni attacks on Saudi Aramco oil fields in Abqaiq —necessitating US retaliation. Demmer denied the Yemeni origin of the guerrilla response to […]
- Africa (248)
- Asia (1,246)
- Australasia (35)
- Authoritarianism (384)
- Canada (7)
- Culture (564)
- Economy (1,051)
- Agriculture (3)
- Banking (67)
- Carbon Footprint (6)
- Corporations (52)
- Cryptocurrency (2)
- Debt (21)
- Degrowth (1)
- Democratic Socialism (20)
- Demographic Decline (1)
- Development (26)
- Downward Mobility (1)
- Employment (118)
- Food Insecurity (21)
- Homelessness (16)
- Industry (5)
- Inequality (425)
- Inflation (5)
- infrastructure (10)
- Insurance (1)
- Investment (92)
- Market Crash (10)
- Middle Class (61)
- Monopolies (8)
- Neoliberalism (203)
- Plutocracy (621)
- Poverty (206)
- Poverty (13)
- Regulation (3)
- Retirement (1)
- Sanctions (4)
- Taxes (37)
- Technology (3)
- Trade (114)
- Weapons sales (7)
- Education (174)
- Energy (1,735)
- Batteries (52)
- Coal (139)
- Electricity Cost (2)
- Fossil Fuels (326)
- Fracking (50)
- Geothermal (7)
- Green ammonia (5)
- Green Energy (416)
- Green Hydrogen (8)
- Heat Pumps (6)
- Hydroelectric (15)
- Mining (1)
- Natural Gas (107)
- Nuclear Energy (158)
- Petroleum (300)
- Power Grid (12)
- Pumped Hydro (6)
- Solar Energy (414)
- Tar Sands (13)
- Wave Energy (9)
- wind energy (340)
- Environment (2,681)
- Climate Change (1,656)
- Acidification of Oceans (54)
- Agriculture (26)
- Biodiversity (12)
- Climate Refugees (3)
- CO2 (127)
- Dehydration (5)
- Denialism (147)
- Desalinization (4)
- Desertification (160)
- Divestment (2)
- Dust Storms (6)
- Environmental Investment (1)
- Extreme Heat (392)
- Extreme Weather (297)
- Flooding (138)
- Food Supply (3)
- Forests (18)
- Green New Deal (41)
- Green Recycling (2)
- Greenwashing (3)
- Mass Extinction (62)
- Methane (20)
- Net Carbon Zerio (8)
- Nitrous Oxide (2)
- Rainforests (19)
- Rivers (11)
- Sea Level (338)
- Soil Carbon Release (14)
- Super Storms (265)
- wildfires (240)
- Wood Buildings (1)
- Climate Crisis (1,321)
- Drought (295)
- Ecology (1)
- Ecology (10)
- Environmentalism (393)
- Green Transportation (252)
- Ice Melt (135)
- Invasive Species (2)
- Islands (1)
- Oceans (103)
- Oil Spills (8)
- Pollution (233)
- Water (95)
- wildlife (21)
- Climate Change (1,656)
- Europe (1,374)
- Featured (4,139)
- Haiti (1)
- Health (699)
- History (356)
- Human Rights (1,595)
- Apartheid (263)
- censorship (305)
- Death Penalty (30)
- Disappeared (3)
- Displaced and Refugees (578)
- Food Insecurity (29)
- Gay rights (29)
- Genocide (59)
- Human Rights Watch (90)
- Indigenous Rights (1)
- Migrants (4)
- privacy (21)
- Rights (89)
- Slavery and Trafficking (16)
- Starvation (4)
- Torture (102)
- Trans Rights (3)
- Transgender Rights (4)
- Unlawful Imprisonment (103)
- Unlwful Killing (80)
- War Crimes (415)
- War Rape (9)
- International Politics and Economy (2,106)
- Arms Sales (73)
- BRICS (3)
- Corruption (265)
- Crime (131)
- Democracy (331)
- Dissent (438)
- Domestic Terrorism (15)
- Drones (113)
- G20 (1)
- Guns (9)
- Hacking (8)
- Immigration (21)
- Immigration (4)
- Islamophobia (383)
- Migrants (2)
- military (125)
- nationalism (117)
- NATO (37)
- Neocolonialism (1)
- Peace (142)
- Policing (2)
- Politics (306)
- Politics&Culture (21)
- Propaganda (13)
- Smuggling (1)
- Juan Cole (270)
- Latin America (102)
- media (484)
- Middle East (9,832)
- Arab World (5,263)
- Iran (1,332)
- Israel (944)
- Israel/ Palestine (3,530)
- Israel/Palestine (9)
- Kurds (293)
- Turkey (597)
- Turkiye (124)
- Patriarchy (10)
- racism (468)
- religion (1,503)
- robots (3)
- Romance (1)
- science (171)
- Secular (West) (9)
- Secularism (30)
- Spirituality (22)
- Statelessness (15)
- Stranded Assets (1)
- Surveillance (280)
- Terrorism (1,096)
- Tolerance (6)
- Uncategorized (8,082)
- United Nations (174)
- Urbanization (4)
- US Foreign Policy (1,350)
- US politics (5,375)
- Anti-War Movement (13)
- Campaign Finance (31)
- Censors (22)
- Central Intelligence Agency (63)
- Charity (1)
- Civil Rights (96)
- Congress (79)
- Conspiracy Theories (23)
- Constitution (401)
- Courts (15)
- crime (12)
- Democratic Party (973)
- Democratic Socialists of America (22)
- Domestic Terrorism (20)
- Drone Warfare (27)
- Espionage (124)
- Ethnicities (389)
- Far Right (392)
- FBI (48)
- Foreign Policy (204)
- Gay Rights (17)
- Guns (97)
- Immigration (240)
- Israel Lobbies (130)
- Marijuana (4)
- Militarization (274)
- National Security State (476)
- Native Americans (40)
- Nuclear arsenal (7)
- penitentiaries (6)
- Pentagon (568)
- Police (43)
- prison reform (9)
- Private Prisons (2)
- Progressive Politics (13)
- Puerto Rico (30)
- Religious Right (15)
- Reproductive Choice (68)
- Republican Party (3,000)
- Supreme Court (133)
- Voter suppression (36)
- Whistleblowers (7)
- Xenophobia (9)
- Veterans (35)
- Voting Rights (16)
- War (613)
- White Supremacists (230)
- wikileaks (8)
- women (561)
- workers (232)
- Writing (5)
- Youth (215)
Europe
Is Russian Imperialism in Syria, with its Vast Human Toll, a Vanity Project for Vladimir Putin?
Radwan Zyada | – (Middle East Monitor) – Russian President Putin made a surprise visit to Damascus [on January 7], during which he met Bashar Al-Assad, not at the Rawda Palace or the People’s Palace, where the latter customarily receives his guests, but rather at the headquarters of the Russian forces in Damascus. This is […]
We Can Do it: In 10 Years, even Tory Britain Dumped Coal and went to 21% Wind
By Grant Wilson, Iain Staffell and Noah Godfrey | – In 2010, Great Britain generated 75% of its electricity from coal and natural gas. But by the end of the decade*, these fossil fuels accounted for just 40%, with coal generation collapsing from the decade’s peak of 41% in 2012 to under 2% in 2019. […]
Is 2020 the Year Britain Breaks up or can Boris Johnson hold the United Kingdom Together?
Michael Kenny and Jack Sheldon discuss how Boris Johnson should approach intergovernmental matters in relation to Scotland and Northern Ireland. ( British Politics and Policy) – Boris Johnson used his [post-election] victory speech to restate his intention to lead a ‘one nation’ government. But, rather notably, he made no direct reference to either Scotland or […]
The Great Turko-Russian World War for the Middle East: From Syria’s Idlib to Libya’s Tripoli
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The campaign to retake parts of Idlib province in northwest Syria by the Russian Aeronspace Forces and the Damascus government of Bashar al-Assad picked back up on Saturday. Two days of cloudy, foggy weather had grounded the Russian Su-24 jet bombers, but yesterday saw clear skies. The Syrian Arab Army […]
The Anti-Trump: Merkel’s Germany dumps 20% of Its Coal Use, CO2 Falls 7%, Renewables at 40%
By Julian Wettengel | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – Germany has seen a second year of significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, as coal use fell by more than 20 percent and energy production from renewables increased, preliminary calculations by energy research group AG Energiebilanzen show. While the country’s overall energy use […]
Fossil Fuels cause Climate Crisis and Wars: Turkey forces Israeli Ship to leave research on Cyprus Undersea Gas
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Daily Sabah is reporting that a couple of weeks ago the Turkish navy made an Israeli research vessel leave the territorial waters off Turkish Cyprus. The island has been divided politically into a Greek-speaking Cyprus and a Turkish province since the 1974 Turkish invasion. Since 2011 there have been […]
The Disunited Kingdom
The General Election in the United Kingdom on Thursday 12 December produced a major earthquake in British politics. Although opinion polls had shown either a narrow majority for the Conservative Party or a hung parliament, and the gap between the Conservative and the Labor parties had narrowed during the last few days of the campaign, […]
Britain Votes Overwhelmingly to Leave Europe Now with Boris Johnson Landslide
By Laura Hood | – Results are still rolling in but it looks as though Prime Minister Boris Johnson has secured a big victory in the British general election. He looks set to have gone from a minority government to a very large parliamentary majority. Projections based on exit polling and early results indicate his […]