The fall of Afghanistan's northern city of Kunduz to the Taliban is but their most dramatic advance in recent weeks, with Taliban and ISIS forces rapidly seizing territory.
The White House announced plans to release Guantánamo Bay inmate Shaker Aamer to the United Kingdom, following extensive lobbying by British politicians.
An Interview with Bill Weinberg
by Andy Heintz, Balkan Witness
Bill Weinberg has worked vigorously, through his World War 4 Report website (started after 9-11), to tell the stories of progressive forces in the Middle East— like the Rojava Kurds in northern Syria, the Local Coordination Committees that helped spark the Syrian revolution, the labor unions in the Iraqi oil-fields, and the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq.
Reminiscent of George Orwell’s outraged and morally precise criticisms of leftist supporters of Joseph Stalin, Weinberg has no patience for so-called leftists who champion war criminals as anti-imperialist heroes because they happen to be enemies of the United States. On this subject, and the lack of leftist support for progressives struggling against dictatorships and jihadist groups in foreign countries, Weinberg’s anger scorches the page.
Crimean Tartars, blockading the Ukrainian border in protest of Russia's annexation of their homeland, are said to be collaborating with Ukraine's neo-fascist Right Sector.
An Aleppo-based seed research center, forced by the war to flee to Beirut, has made an emergency request for seed stock from a "doomsday" vault on a remote Arctic island.
British Prime Minister David Cameron is now the first Western leader to take Vladimir Putin's bait in agreeing that Bashar Assad can be part of a Syrian "transition government."
