Europe

Neil Thompson | (Informed Comment) | – – After several years in which refugees and migration have featured heavily in the Western media narrative, a disturbing correlation between human trafficking and conflict zones is well established. But new studies indicate that conflicts do not just cause human trafficking as refugees seek to flee warzones; wars […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syria: Russians alarmed, Washington Befuddled, by White House threats

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The unusual statement from the “White House” on Monday saying that there were indications that the Syrian regime was preparing to use poison gas has provoked much head-scratching both inside the Trump administration and around the world. Why would the “White House” say this? Is it […]

Donald Trump

Is Putin’s Russia the critical threat Americans believe it to be?

contributors

Ronald Suny | (The Conversation) | – – U.S. intelligence agencies – 17 of them – agree that evidence shows the Russian government hacked the Democratic National Committee and waged a campaign to influence voters in 2016. Although no evidence of collusion between U.S. citizens and Russia has been proven yet, President Donald Trump and […]

Bashar al-Assad

Trump’s Escalations of War in Syria—Sleepwalking into a Global Confrontation

contributors

By Reese Erlich | (The Progressive) | – – Syrian President Bashar al Assad claims to have won the war and that he is merely mopping up remaining rebel groups. With its escalation of the undeclared war in Syria, the Trump Administration risks a direct military confrontation with Russia. On June 20, the United States […]

Donald Trump

Green France: Macron bans Fracking and welcomes US renewables Scientists fleeing Trump

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The French government wants to steal increasingly unemployed US green energy scientists, who are being systematically defunded by the Trump administration. After Trump pulled out of the Paris accords, Macron addressed US professionals: “To all scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision […]

Iraq

1/2 of World’s Civilian War Deaths were in Syria, Iraq & Yemen during past Half-Decade

contributors

By IPS World Desk | (Inter Press Service) | – – ROME/GENEVA (IPS) – Between 2010 and 2015, nearly half of all civilian war deaths worldwide occurred in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, a major independent, neutral organisation ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of war and armed violence informs. According to a new report […]

Bashar al-Assad

Russo-US dog fights over Syria?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Yara Bayoumi at Reuters reports on the complicated minuet being danced by Russia, the Syrian Air Force, and the United States. The Syrian Air Force was bombing positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US euphemism for the leftist Kurds of the YPG. The US Air […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Aerospace Campaign in Syria: Did Putin kill ISIL’s so-called ‘caliph’?

contributors

TeleSur | – – The statement came a day after Russia said it killed several senior leaders, 30 field commanders and up to 300 of their personal guards in an airstrike last month. Russian Aerospace Forces based in Syria have made significant gains in the first half of June, eliminating two Islamic State group field […]

Donald Trump

Putin offers Comey Asylum, likens him to Snowden

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – BBC Monitoring translates the remarks of Russian President Vladimir Putin broadcast on Rosiyya 1 TV on Thursday. He responded to the remarks last week of former FBI director James Comey in his testimony before the senate, deploring Comey’s assertion, without offering any proof, of Russian interference […]