The Russian and Mongolian militaries completed the main phase of a joint exercise Aug. 26—marking the first time Mongolia has hosted drills involving a foreign army within its territory. The maneuvers, dubbed Selenga 2024, were centered around the eastern city of Choibalsan, near the border with China. Armaments including drones,… Read moreRussia, Mongolia hold joint military exercise
The pro-government Pact of Unity and Bolivian Workers’ Central (COB), the Andean country’s largest trade union federation, held a “March for Democracy” in La Paz to oppose what they called “destabilization” attempts and demonstrate their support for President Luis Arce. Thousands marched from the outlying working-class city of El Alto to Plaza Mayor de San Francisco in La Paz, where a mass rally was held. But days earlier, cocaleros of the Departmental Association of Coca Producers (ADEPCOCA) marched in La Paz, accusing the government of attempting to undermine the organization’s legal monopoly on sale of coca leaf by establishing a “parallel market” in the city, run by loyalists of the ruling party. ADEPCOCA announced formation of a “Self-defense Committee” to forcibly shut down the “parallel market” in the city’s Villa El Carmen district if the government does not act. (Photo: ADEPCOCA via La Razón)
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) charges in a new report that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are violating US sanctions imposed under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act by supplying oil and gas to the Bashar Assad regime. The report claims the sales come to some six million barrels of oil annually, amounting to profits of $120 million. The report asserts that the oil has enabled “perpetration of atrocious violations” by the regime. The report also warns of toxic pollution caused by primitive oil extraction methods used at the SDF-held oil-fields. (Image: Kurdistan24)
Amid the relentless and escalating wave of massacres and assassinations in Colombia, President Iván Duque is adopting openly euphemistic terminology in an attempt to downplay the crisis. This week he acknowledged that massacres at various points around the country over the past days had left more than 30 dead—but refused to call them “massacres.” Visiting Pasto, capital of Nariño department which has been the scene of several recent attacks, he said: “Many people have said, ‘the massacres are returning, the massacres are returning’; first we have to use the precise name—collective homicides.” (Photo via Contagio Radio)
After years of presumed Israeli air-strikes on Iranian forces in Syria, the IDF finally carried out air-strikes that were publicly acknowledged, hitting a compound near Damascus supposedly shared by the Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force and Hezbollah militants. The strikes follow reports in the Israeli press that there is an “undeclared pact” between Assad and Netanyahu allowing Israel to strike Iranian targets in Syria in exchange for diplomatic assistance in regional “normalization” of the Assad regime. (Photo: Israel Aerospace Industries via Jerusalem Post)
Upon his death, many are reviving the discredited claim that John McCain met with ISIS on his Syria trip in 2013. But some are settling for the less ambitious, and perhaps plausible, claim that he met with jihadists who were implicated in atrocities. Ben Norton tweets: “John McCain was a staunch supporter of the CIA-backed, al-Qaeda-linked Salafi extremist opposition in Syria. In fact the late senator posed in a photo with a rebel who was involved in kidnapping 11 Lebanese Shia civilians.” But Norton is repeating as “fact” what are actually unproven claims—while he still equivocates about “alleged” chemical attacks by the Assad regime. It’s a bitter irony. McCain participated in war crimes in Vietnam. Two generations later, those who gloat at his death are covering up for equivalent war crimes by Assad and his allies. It fell to McCain, who was unapologetic about his Vietnam role, to try to drum up some support for the resistance in Syria. (Photo: John McCain Twitter feed)
Trump's pardon of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio is a clear signal that constitutional and human rights violations are to be rewarded, not punished, under his administration. A federal judge found Arpaio guilty of criminal contempt last month, for violating a court order in a racial profiling case. In his announcement, Trump said that "Arpaio's life and career…exemplify selfless public service."
The Syrian town of Daraya, now being completely evacuated by regime forces, is iconic for the country's revolution. It saw the strongest non-violent resistance to the regime in the early days of the uprising, with efforts to promote cross-sectarian co-existence. Protesters… Read moreDaraya: from roses to evacuation
From Roses to Evacuation
by Leila Al Shami
Four years following its liberation, the predominantly agricultural town of Daraya, strategically located near Syria’s capital, has fallen to the regime. A deal was reached to evacuate the 4,000-8,000 civilians remaining from a pre-uprising population of 300,000. The local fighters who defended their town so courageously will go to Idlib and join the resistance there.
Daraya’s residents know that they may never return to their homes. Photos circulated on social media showed residents gathered at the graves of loved ones to say goodbye. Fears abound of a plan to cleanse opposition strongholds permanently; and in previous evacuation deals, even those carried out under UN auspices, many were detained by the regime, never to be seen again.
Continue ReadingTHE FALL OF DARAYAThe Nation magazine's avid Putin propagandist Stephen F. Cohen repeats the Moscow-line lie that Russia is bombing ISIS in Aleppo—despite the fact that ISIS is not in Aleppo.
"Left" media continue to portray a massive US program of support for the Syrian rebels to destabilize Bashar Assad—in spite of the utter baselessness of this thesis.
Turkey launched a major military intervention in Syria to assist rebel forces fighting ISIS—but threatening the Kurdish forces also fighting ISIS, portrayed as equally "terrorist."
