Middle East

Istanbul (AFP) – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said Turkey would boycott US electronic goods in retaliation for punitive sanctions by Washington against Ankara over the detention of an American pastor. “We will boycott US electronic goods,” Erdogan said in a televised speech, raising the stakes in a spat that has seen the Turkish […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Women can Finally Drive, But are their Voices Being Heard?

The Conversation

By Nermin Allam | – Earlier this summer, Saudi Arabia lifted the decades-long ban on women’s driving. The move is part of a series of reforms that the country has been implementing. In April the kingdom loosened male guardianship laws – under which women need the permission of a male guardian to work, travel or […]

Featured

Defying Trump, Iraq’s PM walks Back Pledge to Boycott Iran, says will avoid Dollar Trade

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iraqi caretaker prime minister Haidar al-Abadi on Monday walked back his pledge last week that Iraq would participate in the US sanctions regime imposed on Iran. Al-Abadi now will only say that Iraq will not trade with Iran in dollars. I suppose that the two could instead use Euros or […]

Foreign Policy

Is the US-Turkish Military Alliance Doomed?

AFP

by Thomas WATKINS | – Washington (AFP) – The crisis in US-Turkish relations, which already has put Turkey’s economy under massive strain, also risks souring military ties between the two NATO allies, unleashing unknown geopolitical consequences. US President Donald Trump last week announced new tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum, causing the country’s currency to […]

Green Transportation

Elon Musk says in Talks with Saudis on Taking Tesla Private

AFP

By Rob Lever | – Washington (AFP) – Tesla chief executive Elon Musk disclosed Monday that he was in talks with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and other investors to take the electric automaker private. The revelation came after Musk claimed in an August 7 Twitter post that financing for a deal to take Tesla […]

Iran

Iran’s Khamenei Pledges No War with US, but Rejects Talks under Sanctions Shadow

Eric Randolph

Tehran (AFP) – Iran’s supreme leader said Monday there would be neither war nor negotiations with the United States, and that the country’s problems were the result of government mismanagement more than renewed sanctions. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments add to the pressure on President Hassan Rouhani following a collapse in the currency and widespread protests […]

Featured

Multi-Cultural Crowd Rallies in Tel Aviv against Likud Apartheid Law

Juan Cole

“The most excluded and oppressed group in Israel, and the one most seriously harmed by the nation-state law, proudly made its voice heard in the city square”

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s Arrest of Women’s Rights Activists puts it on Wrong Side of History

Zainah Anwar

From Indonesia to Saudi Arabia, Muslim women’s movements for equality are increasingly interconnected – and unstoppable

Israel/ Palestine

Palestinian-Israelis and Jewish-Israelis Stage Huge Protest against Apartheid Law

AFP

By Majeda El-Batsh Tel Aviv (AFP) – Tens of thousands of Arab Israelis and their supporters chanted against “apartheid” and for “equality” on Saturday in central Tel Aviv at a rally protesting a law that declares Israel the nation state of the Jewish people. Israeli Jews also joined the demonstration, the second since last Saturday, […]