Featured

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Monday that Iran has exceeded 300 grams of Low Enriched Uranium. The 300-gram limit was part of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Iran nuclear deal, negotiated between Tehran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council […]

Featured

Europe, Defying Trump, Implements New Currency Exchange with Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Frances Coppola at Forbes reports that European powers have made operational their Instex exchange mechanism, which will allow European and other companies to do business with Iran while avoiding US Treasury Department sanctions. The move is the biggest split between the US and Europe over an international policy issue since […]

Climate Change

Dear Trump: CO2 is Polluting our Atmosphere and Acidifying our Water: They aren’t “the Cleanest”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In remarks to the press at the G20 meeting in Osaka, Trump was asked about climate change. He replied that taking steps to combat climate change would be too heavy a burden for the US economy. Trump said, “We have the cleanest air we’ve ever had, but I’m not willing […]

Featured

Scotland’s Green Energy makes Enough Electricity 1st Quarter to power 88% of Households

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the first three months of 2019, Scotland produced 17 percent more electricity from renewables than in the same quarter a year earlier. Driven mainly by onshore wind, Scotland’s burgeoning green energy sector keeps breaking records, making enough electricity the first quarter of this year to provide 88% of the […]

Climate Change

Saudi Arabia erases Science, Blocks Progress at Bonn Climate Summit, Pushing Dirty Oil

Juan Cole

If this Makes you Angry, buy an Electric Car

Democratic Socialism

Why Tiffany Caban’s Win for Queens DA is Good News For Progressive Dem Presidential Candidates

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – It is very close, with only an 1,100-vote margin and 3400 absentee ballots to be counted, but it appears to be that Tiffany Caban, the Democratic Socialists of America candidate for the Democratic primary district attorney for Queens, has won. If so, she will be the new district attorney. Democratic […]

Donald Trump

No, Iranian President Rouhani didn’t Call Trump “mentally Retarded”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The New York Times and other Western news outlets reported on a speech of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani that expressed frustration with the US government in general and President Trump in particular, alleging that he called Trump “retarded.” There has been a long history of mistranslation from Persian in US […]

Featured

Are Young Arabs Abandoning Religion?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Arab Barometer in partnership with the BBC has interviewed a weighted sample of 25,000 people in the Arab world. One of the survey’s findings is the rapid decline in self-reported religiousness. About 30% of Tunisians say they are “not religious” in 2019, nearly doubling since 2013. The youth are […]

Featured

Erdogan’s Agony: Has Istanbul just begun saving Turkish Democracy?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Istanbul has clapped back for democracy big time, electing as mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu of the secular Republican Peoples Party. İmamoğlu had already won once, last May, with a margin of 15,000 votes. The increasingly dictatorial president, Tayyip Erdogan, of the center-right pro-Islam Justice and Development Party (AKP), argued that the […]