War in Syria: Hezbollah's secret soldiers
9/12/2018, 1:44:28 PMMIDDLE EAST MATTERS : Since it began seven years ago, Syria's civil conflict has drawn in multiple foreign powers. Among them, Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah... ✔ The residents of Basra are calling for an end to corruption and lack of basic services ✔ And Paris Design Week showcases the work of Lebanese talents ✔ We're joined in the studio by Carla Baz to talk about her creations, which promote the country's artisans and craftspeople
US says Saudi Arabia, UAE protecting civilians in Yemen war
9/12/2018, 2:16:49 PMWASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday he has told Congress that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are doing enough to protect civilians in Yemen ✔ He said American influence on the Arab air campaign had made a difference in reducing instances of errant bombing and the targeting of civilians ✔ The coalition expressed regret and pledged to hold accountable those found to be responsible for the airstrike, which killed at least 51 people, including 40 children
Opinion | The Arab coalition is making progress against extremists in Yemen
9/12/2018, 3:13:53 PMWhile the UAE is a leader in the fight against extremism, others are enabling and prolonging it. ✔ Last month, it was confirmed that al-Qaeda master bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri was killed by an airstrike in Yemen ✔ While the UAE is a leader in the fight against extremism and aggression, others are enabling and prolonging it ✔ It is difficult and deadly work, but the UAE, the United States and the international community are safer because of it
UN: Syria faces 'unprecedented' levels of internal displacement
9/12/2018, 3:22:14 PMOne million Syrians have been displaced over the past six months since the government's recapture of territory. ✔ President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to retake the province, backed by his Russian and Iranian allies ✔ once one begins to indiscriminately bomb civilian populations and hospitals, Jean-Yves Le Drian told lawmakers ✔ The Listening Post How the media covered the Syria strikes
Beyond Orwellian: Myth of UK's 'non-intervention' in Syria
9/12/2018, 1:34:50 PMA new House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Report calls on the UK government to launch an inquiry into its 'non-intervention' in Syria. This is gaslighting on a massive scale, because there's been intervention aplenty. ✔ What do you understand by the term 'non-intervention' ✔ Throughout 2013, the UK was doing all it could to escalate the conflict by pushing other EU countries to agree to arming the Syrian 'rebels' ✔ Perhaps in response to a non-independently verified chemical weapons attack in Idlib, later this month
Trump administration endorses Gulf nations’ efforts to protect civilians in Yemen
9/12/2018, 2:38:16 PMIn formally backing actions by Saudi Arabia and UAE, which critics accuse of killing civilians, administration signaled strong support for top Middle East allies. ✔ Opposition to their conduct, and U.S. support for the coalition, has grown in recent weeks amid a series of airstrikes killing dozens of Yemeni children ✔ Aid officials have continued to sound the alarm meanwhile about the war’s impact on Yemen's most vulnerable ✔ John Hudson and Karen DeYoung contributed to this report
Turkish intelligence seizes bombing suspect inside Syria
9/12/2018, 2:45:31 PMTurkish intelligence has seized a man in Syria suspected of coordinating a 2013 bombing that killed 53 people in southern Turkey, a Turkish security official said on Wednesday. ✔ REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo The state-run news agency Anadolu said that during his questioning, Yusuf Nazik confessed to having received orders from Syrian intelligence to plan an attack in Turkey and having arranged the transport of explosives into Turkey ✔ There was no reaction to the arrest in Syrian state media ✔ Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul praised the operation by the intelligence agency ✔ Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
Indiscriminate bombing of Syria's Idlib could be war crime, says...
9/12/2018, 2:58:19 PMFrance's foreign minister said on Wednesday that the indiscriminate bombing of Syria's Idlib region by Russian, Syrian and Iranian forces could amount to war crimes. ✔ In 2016, the government of former president Francois Hollande said it was working to find a way for the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor to launch an investigation into war crimes that it believed had been committed by Syrian and Russian forces in eastern Aleppo
Saudi, UAE trying to avoid civilian harm in Yemen: Pompeo
9/12/2018, 12:55:30 PMU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday he had certified to Congress that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are working to avoid harming civilians in Yemen, clearing the way for continued U.S. help to Saudi Arabia. ✔ U.S. lawmakers concerned about the ensuring humanitarian crisis included a measure in the spending bill that required Pompeo to certify by Wednesday whether Saudis and UAE are taking meaningful measures to reduce civilian casualties and allow humanitarian aide ✔ Without the certification, the law would prohibit the United States from refueling ally Saudi Arabia’s planes ✔ Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
Spain to go ahead with sale of bombs to Saudi: El Periodico
9/12/2018, 3:42:25 PMSpain will go ahead with the sale of 400 laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia, a contract it had decided to halt last week because of the Saudis' role in the war in Yemen, El Periodico newspaper said on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources. ✔ Amnesty International and other human rights groups have denounced Western arms sales to Saudi Arabia and its allies, fighting a war in Yemen which the United Nations says has killed more than 10,000 people and left 8.4 million on the brink of famine ✔ Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
Analysis | Russia is seeking peace with Japan. (Wait, they’re still at war?)
9/12/2018, 12:18:14 PMAs it is often the case with Moscow, there's some disputed land involved. ✔ Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a plenary session at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Sept ✔ During the war, the Soviet Union and Japan were not involved in direct fighting until the very end
Opinion | With all the world’s crises, this is John Bolton’s top concern?
9/12/2018, 1:20:17 PMThe national security adviser’s attack on the International Criminal Court is the continuation of a long-time animus. ✔ Mr. Bolton, nevertheless, has made it a priority to combat the possibility that the ICC could, someday, target a U.S. citizen ✔ Read more: Josh Rogin: Trump is failing to counter China’s diplomatic assault on Taiwan Jennifer Rubin: John Bolton and GOP senators are enabling Trump’s attacks on dissent The Post’s View: John Bolton’s extremism could lead the country to catastrophe
U.N. documents further Syrian government use of banned chemical...
9/12/2018, 3:42:24 PMU.N. investigators said on Wednesday that they had documented three further uses of banned chlorine weapons by Syrian government forces that constituted war crimes, and urged major powers to help avert a "massacre" in the final battle for Idlib. ✔ The use of chlorine in Douma on April 7, for which Western powers have blamed Syria, came as the government and its allies were in a final push to drive rebels out of the eastern Ghouta region ✔ MUCH STRONGER RESPONSE John Bolton, U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, said on Monday that the United States, Britain and France had agreed that another use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government would result in a much stronger response than previous such incidents ✔ Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
Horrifying true story behind Black Earth Rising - the Rwandan genocide
9/12/2018, 3:17:16 PMThe BBC Two fictional drama series is contextually grounded in tragic history ✔ The rich and emotional new drama series Black Earth Rising stars BAFTA-winner Michaela Coel ✔ By 1997, the RPF's forces removed the ruling government of Mobutu Sese Seko, installing President Laurent Kabila ✔ Danny Sapani plays a hero turned villain in Black Earth Rising
‘Something big is coming’: French aid worker in Aleppo says Syrians bracing for US attack (VIDEO)
9/12/2018, 2:44:28 PMA major US military escalation in Syria would be “based on lies” and will have “terrible” consequences for Syrians, a French aid worker in Aleppo told RT, adding that Washington seems determined to prolong the war at any cost. ✔ In Aleppo, people are trying to rebuild their lives, and they need to believe that [the war] is over ✔ READ MORE: Bolton promises ‘much stronger’ response if chemical weapons used in Syria The French aid worker also pushed back on the claim that moderate rebels had controlled East Aleppo before it was liberated by the Syrian Army in 2016
Rogue Nations, US, UK, France and Germany in Talks to Attack Warn-Torn, Heroic Syria Without Cause
9/12/2018, 2:46:43 PM“That has to be, in the history of propaganda in the 20th and 21st centuries, one of the most outrageous claims that I can think of,” John Bolton stated in response to Moscow's charge that anti-Assad insurgents in Idlib are preparing a chemical false flag in order to hasten a US attack on Damascus, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. ✔ Meanwhile the United Nations has warned of an impending humanitarian disaster, and a UN Security Council meeting chaired by the US is set to be held on Tuesday morning, according to the WSJ ✔ German tornado jets could take part in combat missions alongside their US, UK and French counterparts, according to the article
John Bolton's ICC attack is just a brick in Trump's Fortress America policy | Michael H Fuchs
9/12/2018, 1:08:35 PMBolton’s speech sent yet another message that under Trump, the US will do whatever it pleases when it comes to foreign affairs ✔ However, the ICC is an attempt to build a better world by creating a mechanism to deter atrocities and hold to account leaders that commit heinous crimes ✔ Because America is exceptional, it is even more important that the US follow international law, work to improve and enforce it, and act like a truly exceptional global leader
How Better for America to Mark 9/11 Than by Protecting al-Qaeda in Syria From Putin?
9/12/2018, 2:06:42 PMI think it is really symptomatic that on this 11 September 2018 we read this: ✔ I think it is really symptomatic that on this 11 September 2018 we read this: MOSCOW, September 11 ✔ Same goes for Western media who long ago turned into propaganda machine and they always supported Jihad ✔ US Congress is nothing more than organization, which, under the slogans about democracy, is busy 24/7 in spreading the responsibility for dangerous and damaging decision as thin as possible
White Helmets making films of 'chemical attacks' with children in Idlib – Russian military
9/12/2018, 2:57:57 PMThe White Helmets have shot at least nine videos intended to serve as proof in accusations that the Syrian government conducted a chemical weapon attack using chlorine against civilians in Idlib, the Russian military claims. ✔ The remaining videos are to be used for propaganda on social media networks due to the poor quality, the military claims ✔ On-the-scene preparations of places for explosions of toxic substances is carried out by members of Hurras al-Din terrorist group (or the Guardians of Religion Organization, which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda), the statement claims
Fighting resumes in Yemen's Hodeidah as peace talks stall
9/12/2018, 1:37:53 PMHeavy fighting resumed on the outskirts of Yemen's main port city of Hodeidah, days after U.N.-sponsored talks between the warring parties collapsed, military sources said on Wednesday. ✔ The Houthi NO SHOW at the Geneva peace process is further proof that the liberation of Hodeida is what is needed to bring them to their senses & constructively engage in the political process, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said in Twitter post
Wednesday Morning Briefing
9/12/2018, 12:38:06 PMFor all the news you need to start your day, subscribe to the News Now newsletter. The best of Reuters news delivered right into your inbox absolutely free. ✔ Eleven Republican and Democratic U.S. senators urged President Trump’s administration to use all tools at your disposal, including imposing more economic sanctions, to ensure the immediate, unconditional release of two Reuters journalists imprisoned in Myanmar
Germany will not ‘look away’ if Assad uses chemical weapons
9/12/2018, 1:50:45 PMundefined ✔ Andrea Nahles, the party’s leader, said on Monday: The SPD will not support any German participation in the war in Syria, neither in government nor in parliament ✔ Germany is one of the safest countries in the world, and Germany is one of the most prosperous countries in the world, she said
Exclusive: Turkey boosts arms to Syrian rebels as Idlib attack...
9/12/2018, 12:55:51 PMTurkey has stepped up arms supplies to Syrian rebels to help them stave off an expected offensive by the Syrian army and its Russian and Iran-backed allies in the northwest near the Turkish frontier, rebel sources told Reuters. ✔ Russian and Syrian warplanes have stepped up air strikes on southern Idlib and adjacent areas of Hama province in an apparent prelude to a ground offensive ✔ The Syrian army is building up troops near frontlines ✔ Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
Monkeypox warning: Where you’re most at risk of virus after two cases confirmed in England
9/12/2018, 12:29:35 PMMONKEYPOX virus has been diagnosed in two people in England this week, Public Health England confirmed. It’s the first time the infection has been spotted in the UK. But where are you most likely to develop symptoms of the deadly infection in the world? ✔ During the last five decades the majority of human infections have been reported from DRC where it is a reportable disease and now more than a thousand cases are reported annually, said the WHO ✔ But, it may take up to three weeks for the complete disappearance of the crusts, the WHO warned
Calais’ notorious 'Jungle' migrant camp is now a lush nature reserve after Britain-bound migrants were ordered to leave the crime-ravaged tent city
9/12/2018, 3:49:33 PMINCREDIBLE photos capture how a vast patch of land where the notorious Calais “Jungle” migrant camp once stood has been transformed into a beautiful nature reserve. More than 10,000 exi… ✔ Thousands of migrants, including many young kids, desperately headed for the UK but those families have since sought refuge in other areas in northern France ✔ But the population grew and grew during the peak of the European migrant crisis in 2015 ✔ Three coaches arrived at Croydon, South London but were shielded by a 15ft wall ✔ Some migrants were sent to Alpine holiday resorts, Sun Online found
Evil Al-Qaeda calls for more attacks in US on 9/11 anniversary
9/12/2018, 12:26:13 PMAl-Qaeda marked the 17th anniversary of 9/11 by calling for fresh terror attacks in the US, naming the country a “religious enemy of Islam”. Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri held up President D… ✔ The Washington-based SITE group, which monitors media material by militants across the world, released an English transcript of the speech ✔ He listed 14 directives to fight the United States, including an appeal for Muslim unity and jihadists to close ranks ✔ This included setting up new affiliates in Indonesia and the Philippines – as well as Africa and Yemen
In Jordan, Refugee Children Face a New Threat
9/12/2018, 2:44:00 PMEducational services in the Middle Eastern nation face cuts as international aid decreases. ✔ The EU, Germany, the U.K., the U.S. and others have all decreased funding, and this will have an impact on many kids, some of them especially vulnerable to begin with ✔ Jordanian educators are feeling the effects of those geopolitical forces on the ground ✔ These kids have seen some really terrible things, Asil Jabr, who's been teaching at the school for about a year, said
The Chagos Islands: Colonialism on trial at the ICJ
9/12/2018, 1:01:18 PMChagossians are still fighting for justice and redress against colonisation and imperial subjugation. ✔ On the basis of this, Mauritius argues that the decolonisation process of 1968 was not complete, thus in violation of the right to self-determination ✔ The UK argued that the Court should decline to respond to the request for an advisory opinion because it is a matter of bilateral dispute settlement and that the Chagos Islands were not detached under duress ✔ @ OumarKBa Kelly-Jo Bluen Kelly-Jo Bluen is a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics
Belongings of missing WikiLeaks associate found in the sea off Norway
9/12/2018, 3:11:55 PMArjen Kamphuis, 47, has been missing since August 20, when he left his hotel in the northern Norwegian town of Bodoe, where he had been on holiday. ✔ Now, police said they were examining three theories: a voluntary disappearance including a possible suicide, an accident, or a crime ✔ Assange, a founder of WikiLeaks, has been holed up at Ecuador's embassy in London since 2012 when he was granted political asylum as he feared extradition to the United States to face trial over WikiLeaks' publication of secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010
Analysis | The Finance 202: This new crop of Democratic candidates is targeting Wall Street
9/12/2018, 12:25:27 PMKatie Porter won't take donations from financiers at major firms. ✔ ‘We feel we need some recognition and to share in the profits of the company,’ said Michael Young, president of the union local for U.S. Steel’s Midwest Plant in Portage, Ind ✔ slams Myanmar for crackdown on journalists, freedom of press: Putin and Xi treat themselves to pancakes, vodka and caviar:
Analysis | The Cybersecurity 202: Lawmakers slam State Department for failing to meet basic cybersecurity standards
9/12/2018, 12:01:24 PM"Two-factor authentication is cybersecurity 101,” said Sen. Ron Wyden. ✔ Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) ✔ But experts said more needs to be done to loop in all parties when it comes to cyber ✔ slams Myanmar for crackdown on journalists, freedom of press: Hurricane hunter aircraft flies into eye of Hurricane Florence:
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