United Kingdom

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party, pushed the button last week that brought down the country’s tallest structure, the chimney of the massive coal plant at Fife. The plant was decommissioned in 2016, as Scotland replaced coal with renewables for electricity generation, but the demolition was […]

Displaced and Refugees

Channel deaths of Middle Easterners: the UK has clear legal responsibilities towards people crossing in small boats

The Conversation

By Mariagiulia Giuffré | – At least 27 people have drowned in the English Channel attempting to cross in a small boat. There were three children, seven women, one of whom was pregnant, and 17 men. Although a joint search and rescue operation was seemingly launched in the narrow maritime area between the UK and […]

Australia

Taking the World to the Brink: The Australia-UK-US Nuclear Sub Alliance against China

Tomdispatch

By David Vine | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – Before it’s too late, we need to ask ourselves a crucial question: Do we really — I mean truly — want a new Cold War with China? Because that’s just where the Biden administration is clearly taking us. If you need proof, check out last month’s announcement […]

Climate Crisis

Britain, once victim of Coal-driven “Great Smog,” vows 100% Green Electricity by 2035

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday announced a goal of getting all electricity from renewables by 2035. The announcement was flawed in various ways, but it was historic. The world’s first coal-fired electric plant opened in London in 1882. It was the Edison Electric Light Station, at 57 Holborn […]

Afghanistan

The Taliban Religious Ideology is Blow-back from 200 Years of British Rule of India

The Conversation

By Sohel Rana and Sumit Ganguly | – Following the Taliban’s rapid taking of power in what it describes as a reestablished “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” fears of a certain kind of Islamist ideology being brought back have led a large number of Afghans to flee, or fear for their lives. The Taliban were known […]

Afghanistan

The Neocons Strike Back: Blair’s Carping at Biden’s Afghanistan Withdrawal is Spite that He Couldn’t Recolonize the Muslim World

Middle East Monitor

By Nasim Ahmed | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The architects of the “war on terror” have hit back following the humiliating US withdrawal from Afghanistan. From the political leaders who sanctioned never-ending wars to the intellectual high priests in journalism, academia and think tanks who cooked it up, exponents of Western imperialism […]

Afghanistan

Don’t use girls as justification for bombing Afghanistan, again

Open Democracy

Dear British feminists, Western military intervention is never a good thing

European Union

European Islamophobia on both Left and Right is a Major Human Rights Concern

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor) – Europe’s identity crisis is not confined to the ceaseless squabbles by Europeans over the EU, Brexit, or football. It goes much deeper, reaching sensitive and dangerous territory, including that of culture and religion. Moreover, once again, Muslims stand at the heart of the continent’s identity debate. Anti-Muslim sentiments are rarely […]

European Union

UN Security Council to meet with Iran without the US in quest to Restore 2015 Nuclear Deal breached by Trump

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The European Union announced yesterday that today, Friday, Iran will meet by video with the current signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal or Joint Collective Plan of Action (JCPOA) with a view toward returning the parties to compliance. The US under Trump withdrew in May, 2018. The Biden administration welcomed […]