Featured

Newark, Del. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Imagine, you come from your small town to visit the capital. You have a whole plan to visit places, parks, and monuments. You want to have a good time with your friends and relatives. The night before you are together with your friends and family. You laugh, […]

Featured

Arabic Press: Saudi Arabia breaking off Talks with Israel out of Despair that Far Right Gov’t will make any concessions to Palestinians

Juan Cole

Post-script: Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman denied this report 4 days after it appeared and maintained that the negotiations with Israel are continuing, with the two sides getting closer. Either the Israeli source was misinformed or was leaking to put pressure on the Crown Prince; if the latter it appears to have succeeded. Ann Arbor […]

Climate Crisis

Libya’s Climate Disaster Shows we Can’t afford Erratic leaders Like Trump and Haftar any More

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – For the past two weeks the Mediterranean has been reeling from the massive devastation wrought regionally by Hurricane Daniel, the “Medicane” that has visited more damage on this region than any storm in recorded history. In the east thirteen days ago, Daniel struck Greece, flooding the fertile valleys where a […]

Arab World

Expansion of BRICS, the anti-G7, in the Mideast: Is the Oil Gulf no Longer Pax Americana?

Hamdullah Baycar

Exeter (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – BRICS, a group of five developing countries that include China, Russia, and India, has invited another six countries to join the bloc, making the group 11 if all accept the invitation. Among 40 interested states in membership, of which 22 had already officially asked for admission, BRICS leaders […]

BRICS

As US drags out Israel Normalization Deal with Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Drifts toward China

Nick Mehling

Cairo (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – With the announcement of the expansion of the BRICS bloc many were surprised to see traditional US allies like Saudi Arabia and the UAE inducted as new members. Pundits were quick to exclaim the monumental shift, heralding the move as Saudi Arabia charting an independent path and the […]

China

Mideast AI: Saudi, UAE Chip imports from US imperiled by Their Close China Ties

Neil Thompson

London (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Efforts by Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to join the race for artificial intelligence could be hindered by US opposition to China’s growing footprint in the region. US President Joe Biden and his administration appear concerned that rising Chinese influence in […]

Featured

War is not Inevitable, and Social Scientists are Finding Peace Movements more Effective

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, MA (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – I am heartened each time I come across a study affirming that waging war is not an innate part of human nature, that we humans are just as likely to be peaceful as we are to be violent. To quote the revered anthropologist Margaret Mead, “warfare is only […]

Climate Crisis

Biden in Hanoi: Climate Change Exceeding 1.5° C. is more of an Existential Threat than even Nuclear War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – As I pointed out on Sunday, the Big Oil and Big Coal countries in the G20 — Russia, Saudi Arabia, India and China — prevented the New Delhi summit’s joint communique from making any specific commitments to reduce carbon pollution. At his news conference in Hanoi, President Biden was pressed […]

Batteries

How Nevada just became the Saudi Arabia of Lithium, as World’s Largest Deposit is discovered at Thacker Pass

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the scientific journal Science Advances, Thomas R. Benton and his colleagues published a paper last month showing that a volcanic crater, the McDermitt Caldera, stretching across the Nevada and Oregon border may have doubled the world’s accessible lithium deposits. There are an estimated 88 million tons of lithium reserves […]