On the night of June 30 until the early morning of July 1, 2019, Israel carried out its biggest attack against Syria's air defense since 1982. The attack ultimately killed 16 Syrian civilians near Damascus and injured 12 Syrian military personnel in Homs. This was the extent of the damage revealed at the time but, according to Syrian military sources, the damage was much more severe and served to significantly weaken Syria's air-defense capabilities.

Many questions have gone unanswered about what truly happened during that attack, how it happened, and what implications the attack may have.

According to a Syrian Air Defense officer who writes post-mission reports, and who spoke to MintPress on condition of anonymity owing to security concerns, Israel delivered a brutal blow during the June 30 attacks, resulting in the lowering of Syria's air defense capabilities by roughly 60 percent. It is estimated that Israel fired upwards of 150 cruise missiles at Syria's early-warning air-defense systems, completely destroying at least five of the targeted systems. All of the systems targeted were specifically responsible for dealing with Israeli airstrikes and in total were worth up to $500 million.

Cambodia, unlike its similarly sized and in many cases much larger peers in the international community, is relentless in is criticism of the US' blatant intervention in its domestic political affairs, showing how small countries could stand up to the US if their leaders actually have the will to do so.

Cambodia surprised many across the world when one of its spokesmen said earlier this month that American diplomats should leave the country if they don't like it, specifically remarking that "we don't welcome you" and adding that "We have the same right to speak as President Donald Trump. It's simple. If you don't like it here, leave." Whatever one thinks about Trump's controversial rhetoric against the four congresswomen collectively referred to as "the Squad", Cambodia should be commended for throwing his own words right back at him in response to the incessant criticisms that American diplomats have made about the Southeast Asian state over the past couple of years. The verbal attacks have increased in intensity recently after rumors began to be floated about a supposedly secret deal that it clinched with China to open up a military "base" there, which if true, would be more of a standard overseas logistical facility of the sort that all Great Powers' navies have than anything else.

US National Security Advisor John Bolton has visited a host of ex-Soviet republics, including Moscow's longtime ally, Belarus. Some saw it as a sign of growing US influence on Russia's border. Is it?

Frequent and almost traditional visits of US officials to Kiev would hardly surprise anyone these days. After all, Kiev took an ardently pro-US and anti-Russian position right after the 2014 Maidan events and another visit of another US official would hardly add anything to the geopolitical equation there. Yet, the schedule of the White House advisor this time included trips to Chisinau and Minsk as well.

For the latter it was the first visit of a high-ranking US official in almost two decades to the country deemed one of Moscow's most faithful allies. Some rushed to call it a "turning point" in the geopolitical situation on the Russian borders, which is sure to "ruffle feathers in Moscow." Others assumed that Minsk somehow grew weary of its friendship with its bigger neighbor and is now more than happy to "build warmer relations with the West."

Earlier, a group of Iraqi lawmakers described the recent spate of airstrikes in the country allegedly conducted by Israel as a "declaration of war" by Tel Aviv.

Israel is "absolutely" responsible for the spate of attacks against pro-government Popular Mobilisation Unit (PMU) militia in Iraq, Ahmad al-Assadi, a spokesman for the Fatah Coalition, a major Iraqi parliamentary group, has claimed, citing the findings of government probes.

"Some of the government investigations have reached a conclusion that the perpetrator behind some of the attacks is absolutely, certainly Israel," al-Assadi said, his remarks quoted by AFP.

"The government is preparing sufficient evidence and documents to complain to the Security Council. It won't submit a complaint against an unknown entity," the lawmaker added, declining to comment on the specifics of what the probes have apparently found.

The PMU began accusing Israel of being behind the attacks last week, with members of the organization claiming they had "proof" that Israeli air power had hit "several targets in Iraq, including the al-Saqr and Amerli bases." The group also blamed the US for the attacks, saying Iraq's airspace was controlled by the US Air Force, and that Israel could not conduct attacks in Iraq without the US knowing about it.

My sources tell me President Trump is putting the finishing touches on a White House initiative to declassify documents that have remained hidden from the public for far too long.

This welcome effort to provide more public transparency and accountability almost certainly will focus early on the failings of the now-debunked Russia collusion probe. And I'm sure it will spread quickly toward other high-profile issues, such as the government's UFO files that have been a focus of clamoring for decades.

But my reporting indicates three sets of documents from the Obama years should be declassified immediately, too, because they will fundamentally change the public's understanding of history and identify ways to improve governance.

The first includes the national security assessments that the U.S. intelligence community conducted under President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton concerning the Russia nuclear giant Rosatom's effort to acquire uranium business in the United States.

The comedian-elected-president has been a safer pair of hands than critics warned, but hasn't yet drained Ukraine's swamp, as supporters hoped. And for Volodymyr Zelensky, it will only get harder from now on.

Honeymoon polls

Headline figures show that the 41-year-old political novice, who promised to cut across existing political fault lines and unify the country, is still in the ascendant. After thrashing incumbent Petro Poroshenko in the second round of the presidential election in April, his newly-created party secured the first-ever single-faction majority in parliament in the country's history following a snap election in July.

Zelensky has recorded an approval rating of 70 percent, an all-time high, in a poll published this week to mark one hundred days in office. Zelensky's team has bombarded the electorate with proof of the new leader's bustle as he combats the patronage, backroom deals and shifting loyalties of Ukraine's radioactively charged political scene.

Over 500 personal edicts and orders, more than 300 officials removed, 20 trips across the country, five foreign visits. His party say that they have prepared 465 fresh laws and amendments, and once the president finished his speech during the opening session of the Rada on Thursday, they immediately began to exercise their voting dominance.

The United States has announced a set of sanctions in Lebanon and Oman targeting the financing of the Iran-backed Hizballah militant group, which opposes Israel.

The Treasury Department on August 29 said it was sanctioning the Lebanon-based Jammal Trust Bank "for supporting Hizballah's illicit financial and banking activities."

The action declared Jammal Trust a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT):

"for assisting in, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or financial or other services to or in support of, Hizballah. Jammal Trust has a long-standing relationship with a key Hizballah financial entity and provides financial services to the Martyrs Foundation and companies controlled by Hizballah's Executive Council. Jammal Trust's misconduct undermines the integrity of the Lebanese financial system."

The Treasury statement said the action "reflects our determination to counter Hizballah's terrorist and illicit activities in Lebanon."

Lebanon-based Hizballah was first listed as a SDGT in January 1995 as part of efforts to target "terrorists who threaten to disrupt the Middle East peace process."

As I pointed out in this week's #PropagandaWatch video, the stock market is often portrayed in the financial media as a magical crystal ball that can predict the future and see into the hearts and minds of men. We are routinely told that it shows us the resilience of consumers, for example, or that it can predict the next economic cataclysm or that we can pore over it like an X-ray to reveal the true health of the economy.

And as I also pointed out in that video (and much of my other work over the past several years), this perception of the market is a bunch of hooey. As we all know (or should know by now) this central bank-created phony baloney reality inversion bubble that the markets are "revealing" to us is just that: A bubble. More precisely, it's a bubble that has been 93% filled with hopium and paper promises from the Federal Reserve.

But what if I were to tell you that there was yet another mechanism by which the markets are manipulated? A mechanism wielded by a cabal of four men? One that is admittedly and on the record empowered by the POTUS to prop up the markets whenever they start flagging?

Does that sound like "conspiracy theory?" Well, it's not. Just another humdrum conspiracy fact. This cabal of four is known colloquially as the "Plunge Protection Team" and it's been on the books since 1988

By "on the books" I mean the books of the Federal Register, specifically 53 Fed. Reg. 9281 (Mar. 22, 1988), which carried notice of Executive Order 12631, signed off by President Reagan on March 18, 1988. Issued in the wake of the infamous "Black Monday" stock market scare of 1987, EO 12631 established a "Working Group on Financial Markets" to identify and consider "the major issues raised by the numerous studies on the events in the financial markets surrounding October 19, 1987." Consisting of the treasury secretary, the Fed chair, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the group was empowered to "consult, as appropriate, with representatives of the various exchanges, clearinghouses, self-regulatory bodies, and with major market participants to determine private sector solutions wherever possible" and to report back to the president.

As tensions quickly increase between Israel and Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces have canceled leave for northern combat brigades. Meanwhile, the United Nations has extended the mission for its 10,500-man peacekeeping force on the two nations' border.

Israel's Northern Command chief, Maj. Gen. Amir Baram, made the announcement Thursday, telling the Times of Israel it was done in part to calm the nerves of civilians living near the border with Lebanon, a UN-imposed separator called the Blue Line.

The Blue Line is a de facto border, created by the United Nations in 2000 to determine whether or not Israeli forces had totally withdrawn from Lebanon. However, the Blue Line differs from the internationally recognized 1949 borders, in some places by as much as several hundred meters.

A just-released Justice Department inspector general's report provides new details on a January 2017 plan by then-FBI Director James Comey, top bureau officials, and the nation's intelligence chiefs to spring a scandalous allegation on President-elect Trump, quickly record his reaction, use a prearranged secure videoconference to discuss the information, and fit it all into the FBI's ongoing (but unknown to Trump) "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation.

The allegation came from the Steele dossier, the collection of unverified tales about Trump and Russia compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. The story was that in a Moscow hotel room in 2013, Trump had watched as prostitutes performed a kinky sex act — and Russian intelligence service cameras rolled. This is what the Steele dossier said: