As Russia fights to protect land sown with wheat, barley and other crops from record high temperatures, seventeen regions have declared emergencies because of the severe heat and drought. Summer heat may destroy crops in Russia With temperatures likely to remain as high as 36° Celsius (96.8° degrees Fahrenheit) for days to come, Russia’s Agricultural […]
In talking about the limitless potential for renewables last week, I mentioned the letter from three key ministers from France, Germany and the UK calling for more GHG reductions in Europe than are now in law. I also mentioned the backlash from some business interests. An article in the FT today describes a letter from […]
Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad to start a two-day visit aimed at improving U.S./Pakistan relations and to solidify Pakistan’s support of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. A major part of Secretary Clinton’s strategy is a $500 million package in economic and development aid, particularly for hospitals, hydroelectric plants, and clean drinking water […]
Indonesia is brining a case against the United States over the ban on clove cigarettes. The Americans claim the ban is meant to improve the health of young people. The Indonesians claim it is discriminatory as the ban specifically does not cover menthol cigarettes. This might have something to do with the strong tobacco lobby […]
Last month the WTO ruled against Airbus, stating that they had illegally received loans from European governments, giving them an unfair advantage over Boeing. This decision was obviously celebrated by the Americans. As with most legal cases however, this is not the end. The Europeans will appeal the case and say they will not stop […]
Bipartisan legislation that would protect journalists from libel suits filed abroad, authored by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), passed the U.S. Senate last week. S. 3518 the Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act or SPEECH Act, would prohibit a domestic court from recognizing or enforcing a foreign […]
At Informed Comment yesterday, Tom Engelhardt ripped counterinsurgency (COIN) a new one. He writes that we should “start talking about the madness of making counterinsurgency the American way of war.” The Counterinsurgency Field Manual is a blueprint for civilian-killing and failure, he argues, and he concludes: …[L]et me offer my one-line rewrite of their 472 […]
Stephen Schneider was one of the most influential climate scientists in the world. His career covered four decades. He did both the very heavy lifting of research and served to help the public understand the complexities of the subject and the stark reality that the science has been telling us for decades. He has been […]
What’s been striking is not so much the content of what he’s said but the fact he can say it at all The semi-retired Cuban leader got some attention and aroused a good deal of surprise in recent weeks with intemperate remarks about Iran and Korea, suggesting that the United States was pushing the crises […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about a New York Times article from last November about land acquisition in Africa. At the time the article was published, I was nearing the end of a six-month stay in Ethiopia, where I was working for a Johns Hopkins affiliated NGO providing technical assistance to HIV/AIDS programs in the […]
Lest my last post left the misimpression that I consider the issue of South Korean nuclear fuel reprocessing to be unimportant, let me emphasize this: I don’t consider it unimportant, merely unpromising as a path for furthering the cause of arms control and disarmament. To elaborate, as I see it, the case against South Korean […]
11 Years ago, on July 20, 1999, a persecution against a meditation practice called Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa) officially started in Mainland China. The persecution of Falun Gong was the brainchild of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, who saw Falun Gong’s enormous popularity among 100 million Chinese and simply wanted to crush it. I […]
Last week Daniel Hannan of the Telegraph argued that since, per the Lisbon Treaty, the EU can now sign treaties, it is now a state (h/t Opinio Juris). Hannan cites Article I of the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States: The state as a person of international law should possess the […]
By Cordelia Rizzo Tired of the erosion of the social fabric caused by the proliferation of organized crime heists and other social misfortunes in Mexico? Televisa, one of the country’s largest TV consortiums, thinks it has an American Idol-style answer for you! It is indeed quite a contest. Last June, it introduced Iniciativa México, a […]
“Transnational crime” suggests new answers to an old question: what is the relationship between organized crime and terrorist funding?