International Politics and Economy

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 […]

Colonialism

Colonial Legacy: When Dutch ‘Policing’ Op tried to bring down Indonesian Republic

contributors

By Anne-Ruth Wertheim | (Informed Comment) | – – (This essay irst appeared in Dutch in De Groene Amsterdammer) Inexplicable sounds entered our internment camp Seventy years ago this year the Netherlands began its first so-called ‘policing operation’ – an attempt to bring down the Indonesian republic by force. As is clear from Wim Wertheim […]

Far Right

Germany and the Rise of a ‘Fascist International’

Juan Cole

John Feffer | ( Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – Germany funds foundations for its political parties. If the far right gets one, we’re one step closer to globalizing the alt-right. Germany got its very own electoral shock this week when the far right won 13 percent of the vote in country’s parliamentary elections. […]

Donald Trump

The Trump Presidency: How to Further Enrich the Masters of the Universe (Chomsky)

contributors

By Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – [This interview has been excerpted from Global Discontents: Conversations on the Rising Threats to Democracy, the new book by Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian to be published this December.] David Barsamian: You have spoken about the difference between Trump’s buffoonery, which gets endlessly covered […]