International Politics and Economy

by Suzanne Marvin with Gail Ukockis | (Informed Comment) | – – Some disasters are sudden and abrupt, such as the hurricanes that struck Puerto Rico and other islands. Other disasters, though, are slow-moving and easy to ignore. The opioid epidemic, combined with systemic poverty, is like a long-lasting flood that keeps on inundating the […]

Arab Spring

Women as a force for Democracy in Repressive Egypt

contributors

Anwar Mhajne and Crystal M Whetstone | The Conversation | – – Democracies in sub-Saharan and North Africa have regressed in recent years. Ethnic and religious minorities, political opposition, women and the LGBT community still struggle for equal rights and the right not to experience violence. Activists throughout Africa, many of them women, are working […]

Corruption

Scrutiny as $300 mn Puerto Rico bid goes to Trump-linked Firm w/ 2 Employees

contributors

By Julia Conley, staff writer. | ( Commondreams.org) | – – Tiny company financed by a major donor to the Trump campaign and the Republican Party awarded no-bid contract to rebuild energy grid. Puerto Rico’s electricity utility, PREPA, offered a $300 million contract to a small private firm to repair its power grid. Whitefish Energy […]

Crime

No, Trump, British Crime isn’t going up because of Muslims

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Hate crimes are up 30% in the UK over the previous year, rising from 62,518 reported offenses in 2015-16 (the year ends in March). The following year, 2016-17, that number rose to 80,393. Brexit and Islamophobic reactions against extremist terrorism are thought to explain the increase. […]

Arab World

How Trump’s Foreign Policy Mood Swings made US a Rogue State

contributors

By John Feffer | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – From his feud with Bob Corker to his plans to renege on the Iran deal, Trump’s mood swings mean a dangerous new era of foreign policy. Every few years — sometimes four, sometimes eight — America’s political mood swings from one pole to another. […]

Displaced and Refugees

More civilian Airstrike Deaths under Trump than in 8 years of Obama

contributors

By Steven Feldstein | (The Conversation) | – – When President Donald Trump took office in January, it was unclear whether the bombast from his campaign would translate into an aggressive new strategy against terrorism. At campaign rallies he pledged to “bomb the hell” out of the Islamic State. He openly mused about killing the […]

Iraq

Alarmed Kurdistan forces Mobilized at Kirkuk as Iraqi troops said to Mass on Border

contributors

TeleSur | – – According to Kurdish TV station, Rudaw, an additional 6,000 Peshmerga forces have been mobilized in Kirkuk to defend from a possible Iraqi threat. Kurdish TV channel Rudaw has reported that tens of thousands of Kurdish fighters have been deployed in the Kurdistan region of Iraq’s capital of Kirkuk to defend the […]

Democracy

Could Kurdish Secession bid derail Iraq’s Democracy?

contributors

Mustafa Habib | (Baghdad) | (Niqash.org) | – – In Baghdad, the Kurdish referendum has dominated all other official proceedings. Lack of progress on electoral laws means federal elections could be postponed – again. The controversial Iraqi Kurdish referendum on independence has also had a divisive impact on politics in Baghdad. For one thing it […]

Iraq

Iraq: How Saddam Hussein’s Ghost haunts Kurdish Referendum

contributors

Mustafa Habib | (Baghdad) | (Niqash.org) | – – Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein tried to exterminate the Kurds in Iraq. Now Iraqis angry about the Kurdish desire to secede are bringing back bad memories online. Saddam Hussein is making a comeback in Iraq – well, at least on Iraqi social media he is. Despite […]