Author: Bill Weinberg

Greater Middle East
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Egypt, Tunisia, Wisconsin

An appeals court in Turkey upheld the convictions of 14 employees of Cumhuriyet, a Turkish news outlet that has been critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an. The defendants—including journalists, a cartoonist, executives and accountants—were sentenced in April to prison terms between four and eight years on charges of "acting on behalf of a terrorist group without being members." The Third Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice reviewed and upheld each of these sentences. In Turkey, sentences less than five years cannot be overturned once they are upheld by an appellate court, meaning that eight of the defendants must now serve out their terms. The remaining defendants with longer sentences plan to appeal to Turkey's Supreme Court. (Photo: WikiMedia via Jurist)

North America
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A 16-state coalition filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, requesting the court to issue a judicial determination that Trump's national emergency declaration over the southern border wall is unconstitutional. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the lawsuit, stating: "Unlawful southern border entries are at their lowest point in 20 years, immigrants are less likely than native-born citizens to commit crimes, and illegal drugs are more likely to come through official ports of entry. There is no credible evidence to suggest that a border wall would decrease crime rates." (Photo via Jurist)

New York City

DEA decoys deceive Taliban wannabes

DEA operatives pretending to be from the Taliban entrap gullible hotheads—and the New York Times plays along, portraying an actual Taliiban role in the case (which there isn’t).

Greater Middle East

Egypt: paranoids see neocon conspiracy (again)

The fact that Egyptian protesters drew inspiration from Serbia’s Otpor and international nonviolence guru Gene Sharp is fueling further conspiranoid speculation about an astroturf revolution.

East Asia

Russo-Japanese arms race over Kuril Islands

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's trip last year to the disputed Kuril Islands has sparked both a regional military build-up and a diplomatic war of words with Japan.

Watching the Shadows

More “non-existent” anti-Semitism in the news

Which is more maddening: that an Australian court imprisoned a “Palestine solidarity activist” for spewing Jew-hatred at a rally, or that his spewing was tolerated by the “activists”?

Greater Middle East

WikiLeaks Egypt: paranoids see neocon conspiracy

Do WikiLeaks revelations on Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak vindicate fears that neocon conspiracies are behind the current wave of unrest? No, but that hasn’t kept William Engdahl from mouthing off.