Planet Watch

Keystone vs Enbridge: race or stratagem?

As work commences on TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, it emerges that  TransCanada’s supposed rival Enbridge is quietly but rapidly expanding its own US pipeline network.

The Caucasus

Eid terror in Ingushetia

A deadly suicide attack on the funeral of a police officer killed the previous day in a firefight with militants may signal a new advance of the Chechen insurgency into the Ingush Republic.

Greater Middle East

Syrian anarchist speaks

The British anarcho-syndicalist website Solidarity Federation runs a statement from a representative of a “group of young Syrian anarchists and anti-authoritarians from Aleppo.”

Europe

Next in Belarus: teddy-bear revolution?

A photographer in Belarus faces seven years in prison for taking photos of teddy-bears that were parachuted into the country by Swedish activists as a stunt.

Afghanistan

Next: nuclear Taliban?

A jihadist attack on Pakistan’s Minhas Air Force Base coincides with a US Congressional report on threats to the “security” of Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal.

Europe

New Franco-Intifada: plus ça change…

The new Socialist president of France, François Hollande, is emulating his reactionary predecessor Sarkozy in his response to a new uprising by immigrant youth.

Planet Watch

Chevron fire: how many more?

From Richmond, Calif., to the Gulf Coast, to the Niger Delta to the Ecuadoran Amazon—how many more disasters until a public seizure of the oil industry is finally at least broached?

Southeast Asia

Geopolitical chess game heats up South China Sea

Beijing's move to set up a military garrison on disputed Yongxing Island—claimed by the Philippines as part of the Paracel chain—is escalating tension in the South China Sea.

Palestine

Tel Aviv censors Arab presence —and dissent

A Tel Aviv councilor’s speech, in which he proposed adding Arabic to the city’s logo, disappeared from a video recording posted on city hall’s official YouTube channel.