Having learned their lessons from 2017, Force India’s Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon will be allowed to race each other when the season kicks off in Melbourne in March. The Silverstone-based outfit was forced to put both men under strict orders in the latter part of last year following a series of on-track encounters which…
Read moreThe Long History of Israel Gaming the 'Iranian Threat'
Western news media has feasted on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s talk and the reactions to it as a rare political spectacle rich in personalities in conflict. But the real story of Netanyahu’s speech is that he is continuing a long tradition in Israeli politics of demonising Iran to advance domestic and foreign policy interests. The history…
Read moreTeams resume testing in Barcelona on Day 4
Pre-season testing as resumed at the Circuit de Catalunya today following yesterday’s weather-impacted botched schedule. Teams found snow and sub-zero temperatures and when they arrived on site yesterday, with the track closed in the first three hours of the scheduled session as the medical helicopter remained grounded. Eventually the track went green, but the cold…
Read moreHaas expands on Steiner’s US driver comments
Gene Haas elaborated on team principal Guenther Steiner’s recent negative comments about signing an American driver to the US outfit. Steiner sparked a storm last month when he suggested that no American driver was currently ready to race in Formula 1. The comments did not go down well in the US, mainly within the IndyCar…
Read moreF1 sabbatical rekindled Button’s love for racing
Jenson Button says a year spent on the sidelines was exactly what he needed to revive his flame for racing. The 2009 world champion decided to call it a day on his time in Formula 1 at the end of 2016, after another unsuccessful season with McLaren-Honda. Button subbed for Indy-bound Fernando Alonso at Monaco…
Read moreHamilton voted 2017 top driver by F1 team bosses
Team principals have acclaimed Lewis Hamilton as the sport’s greatest driver for the fourth year in succession. A traditional year-end poll of all ten team bosses conducted by Motorsport.com put the Mercedes driver well ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver, who turned 20 this year, was runner-up for the second season in…
Read moreNetanyahu Threatens War In Speech to Congress
This was a speech threatening war. Realizing he has insufficient clout to stop the negotiations, Netanyahu demanded a back-up position: If not “no” deal, then we can have a better deal. His vision of a “better” deal, however, is grounded in Iranian surrender. And since that is not going to happen, demanding it means abandoning…
Read moreBody Count Report Reveals At Least 1.3 Million Lives Lost to US-Led War on Terror
How do you calculate the human costs of the U.S.-led War on Terror? On the 12th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, groups of physicians attempted to arrive at a partial answer to this question by counting the dead. In their joint report— Body Count: Casualty Figures after 10 Years of the ‘War on Terror—Physicians…
Read morePlaying With Fire on the Lebanese Border
Since the end of the last war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, the prospect of renewed hostilities between the two countries has been viewed as almost inevitable by most observers. As heinous and destructive as that conflict was, it ultimately resolved none of the underlying issues between the respective parties and seemed only to…
Read moreGaza, One Year On: The Body Is Tired, But Our Spirit is Strong
Often, I wake up thinking, this can’t be true – did we really survive it? How did we make it through the 51 days of bombs and missiles dropped by Israel on Gaza last year? Then I think if only these thoughts were nightmares and not the reality of long hot summer days spent in…
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