Middle East

TeleSur | – – China currently imports approximately £10 billion worth of meat annually to help feed its 1.4 billion people. China has signed a multimillion-dollar deal to purchase lab-grown meat from Israel. The $300-million agreement has elicited positive feedback from environmental and animal rights groups because the meat — though grown using some animal […]

Israel/ Palestine

Hamas pledges to dissolve Gaza administration, hold elections

Juan Cole

Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Hamas, the de facto ruling party of the Gaza Strip, has pledged to dissolve its administrative committee that runs the besieged coastal enclave and expressed readiness to hold general elections, in a bid for reconciliation with the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA). A statement from Hamas movement […]

Feminism

Given Fundamentalist impact on Syria, Women’s Freedoms in Doubt

contributors

By Manal Ismael | ( Global Voices Online ) | – – In early September 2017, a piece of paper with a potent message targeted against women, held by a group of Hezbollah fighters in Juroud Arsal, Eastern Lebanon, went viral. The message, which celebrates “every woman who is not using her own photo as […]

Buddhism

Can Turkey’s Erdogan ride Rohingya Crisis to global Muslim Leadership?

Juan Cole

By Simon P. Watmough | The Conversation | – – The emerging humanitarian crisis that has been rocking Myanmar – where an estimated 370,000 Rohingya have been forced out of the country – has prompted broad international condemnation. But so far it has translated into little concrete action. United Nations (UN) human rights chief Zeid […]

Israel

Can Yosef Abramowitz make Solar Power Bloom in Fossil Fuels-Addicted Israel?

Juan Cole

i24 News | (Video News Report) | – – from Wikipedia: “Abramowitz was born in 1964. He lived in Israel as a child from 1969–1972, before returning to Boston. While living in Massachusetts, he attended the Solomon Schechter School of Greater Boston, and graduated in 1980 from Hebrew College Prozdor and in 1982 from Brookline […]

Displaced and Refugees

Saudi-led Airstrikes on Yemen Deadly for Children

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – UN Should Create International Inquiry, Return Coalition to ‘List of Shame’ (Beirut) – The Saudi-led coalition carried out five apparently unlawful airstrikes in Yemen since June 2017 that killed 26 children among 39 civilian deaths, Human Rights Watch said today. The attacks, which struck four family homes and a […]

al Qaeda in the Arabian Penisula

London Covered but 83 Iraqis killed in ISIL attack largely ignored by US TV News

contributors

TeleSur | – – Security officials say that the attacks are an attempt by the terrorist group to project strength after losing their strongholds in Iraq. The so-called Islamic State group carried out a terrorist attack on Thursday in Iraq that took the lives of at least 83 people, and wounded at least 93 others, […]

Featured

Russia rebuffs Israeli demand for 40 mi. Buffer with Iran in Syria (Haaretz)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – According to Haaretz Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu asked Vldadimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation, to keep Iranian troops and Hizbullah militiamen in Syria about 40 miles from the Israeli border. The Russian replied that these were matters for the Syrian Arab Army, but that […]

Elections

Can Iran keep its Influence in Baghdad?

Juan Cole

Mustafa Habib | Baghdad | (Niqash.org) | – – Iran wants to reunite the fighting Shiite Muslim political parties in Iraq that once gave it unconditional support. But that job is far from easy. Last week Mahmoud Shahroudi, the head of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council, which advises that country’s theological leader, Ali Khamenei, visited Baghdad. […]