French military intelligence estimates that about 100 foreigners continue to enter Syria from Turkey each week to join Islamic State, French daily Le Figaro reported on Wednesday.

France's foreign minister said on Sunday that questions needed to be asked on whether Turkey was a viable partner in the fight against Islamic State in Syria and would raise the issue in a coalition meeting in Washington this week

"According to the Direction for Military Intelligence (DRM) in Paris, each week, about 100 foreigners continue to cross Turkey into Syria to join Islamic State," Le Figaro reported, citing sources.

Another false flag in Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany. A young man attacks four passengers in a train and later a passerby in the street. The scenes repeat themselves now in rapid cadence. Paris, Brussels, Nice, Bangladesh... Same patterns, same motives - and same group of terrorists claiming credit. The lies and propaganda are becoming more flagrant, and, We, the People, just swallow it. No questions asked. For how long? Until it is too late - when we are all militarized and can't make a move without being watched - or killed for disobedience?

How much longer!

Tell me friends, world compatriots - how much longer are we just looking on and accepting what authorities want us to believe for the purposes of serving the elite that directs and pays them? A corporate and financial elite that needs a militarized society to drive the final nail into the coffin of democracy? Of sovereignty? Of individual freedom?

How much longer?

As reported by the Swiss and various German media, on 18 July, in a train near Wuerzburg, Bavaria, allegedly a young, 17-year old Afghan citizen, who arrived a year ago in Germany as a refugee, attacked a traveling Hong Kong family and a passerby with an axe and knife, injuring all five people of whom at least two seriously. His alleged motive was revenge on infidels - those who do not believe in the Quran. The msm say that during the attack, according to witnesses - who are these witnesses? - he yelled repeatedly "Allahu akbar" ("God is Great").

The failed Turkish coup. The Nice attack. The RNC and DNC. There is no shortage of headline-grabbing news stories to keep you occupied during this summer of rage.

But while your attention is elsewhere, huge moves are afoot in the Asia-Pacific. Specifically, those moves are afoot in the South China Sea, where the Permanent Court of Arbitration handed down a long-awaited ruling last week in favor of the Philippines in their long-running dispute over territorial waters with China. The court, operating under the arbitration provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, ruled that China does not have "historical rights" to the waters in question and that their reclamation activity in the area has already caused irreparable environmental damage and should stop immediately. China promptly rejected the ruling exactly as they said they would.

This might sound like dry, legalistic stuff, but it's not. This dispute is a window into the simmering tensions that are ready to boil over in the region if and when the US makes its long-awaited, much-ballyhooed "Asia-Pacific pivot" (i.e. when Clinton is inaugurated by the voting machines this November).

Perception is something we often take for granted. That's very much the case in the world's perception of the actions of the Peoples' Republic of China regarding its claims to a number of offshore uninhabited rocks in the South China Sea and beyond. For the most of the collective Western mind, the perception is that Beijing has become hysterical, obsessive—in short, a bit mad—over its asserted claims of territory under various precepts of international law. The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at The Hague has now ruled against any and all claims of China to various islands or even rocks inside what is known as the "Nine Dash Line" between China's coast and The Philippines.

Washington has piously stepped up, demanding China "respect international law." At the same time the Pentagon has started international naval war maneuvers in the region, "RIMPAC 2016," provocatively involving the Navy of the Federal Republic of Germany for the first time since World War II, and largely excluding China. This is getting ugly and not at all what it appears in the general perception to be.

On July 12 a specially-selected five judge arbitration panel issued a determination on conflicting claims between China and The Philippines to portions of uninhabited islands, largely barren rocks, in the South China Sea. China declined to participate in the arbitration process or to acknowledge it as having jurisdiction. The specific decision in this case regards conflicting claims between China and the Philippines in what China calls the Nine-Dash Line. It involves the Spratly and the Paracel Islands in a larger domain where Beijing's territorial claims to the islands partly overlap those of the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.

Commercial power was cut to Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, and the airspace above it closed within hours of Friday's attempted military takeover in the NATO country, sparking concerns whether the US nuclear weapons stockpiled there are secure from theft or misuse.

Incirlik Airbase in southeast Turkey, houses NATO's largest nuclear weapons storage facility. It is believed to hold about fifty B-61 hydrogen bombs — more than twenty-five per cent of the nuclear weapons in the NATO stockpile. The nuclear yield of the B-61 can be adjusted to suit a particular mission, from 0.3 kilotons to as many as a hundred and seventy kilotons.

It has been reported that Israel has recently, officially, committed to supporting the NATO backed Saudi Coalition war of aggression against Yemen. Importantly, Israel is imposing the condition that it has use of the Taiz air-base in the Red Sea. It is also being reported that Israel has another casualty in this asymmetric war of aggression, a warfare very familiar for Israel after three wars of disproportionate force against the tiny besieged Gaza enclave.

"According to reports, the Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, general Gadi Eizenkot said on the meeting between Jordan's ambassador and his Saudi confrere, Khalid bin Faisal bin Turki, that was held in Amman, the capital of Jordan. The general added that the situation in Yemen was discussed at this meeting. Saudi ambassador said that the war of attrition in Yemen has changed the strategy of the kingdom that is ready to use the experience of Israel now.

Israeli ambassador answered that Tel Aviv is ready for military cooperation with Saudi Arabia in Yemen. But he also noted this cooperation depends on the provision to Israel of the air base Taiz on the Red Sea." ~ SouthFront

Airstrikes by the United States and France inside Syria have killed as many as 140 civilians in a northwestern city and on its outskirts over the past two days, the Syrian government says.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said French warplanes targeted the village of Tukhan al-Kubra in the northern suburb of the city of Manbij in the Aleppo Province, killing 120 civilians.

Scores of other civilians remain unaccounted for following the attack, it added. According to the ministry, the fatalities came a day after a US airstrike killed 20 civilians in Manbij.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the UN, calling for a Security Council resolution to condemn the deaths, the state-run SANA news agency reported.

Komsomolskaya Pravda Exclusive

Translated from Russian by Kristina Kharlova

While some insist that the attempt to topple Recep Tayyip Erdogan's - ambitious and bloody, was staged, others (primarily in Turkey) believe that the leader of their state almost lost his life due to rapprochement with Russia. An expert on the Middle East, head of Lev Gumilev Center, Pavel Zarifullin told "Komsomolskaya Pravda " what secret intel he received from Turkey from a local high-ranking and well-informed friends. Their information says one thing - the coup was prepared with the help of our overseas "partners".

The Goal Is To Control

- Pavel, who are these people - who gave you information from inside Turkey? In light of recent crackdown how do you keep in touch with them?

- It is the elite of Turkish society, with whom I have been associated due to work for many years. Some of my colleagues were jailed by Erdogan back in 2007, but that's another story. Now I communicate with one of the famous Turkish professors, a consultant to local intelligence services. His name, of course, I will not disclose. He, like thousands of others, is walking on the edge - there is the same crackdown as in 1937 under Stalin. We correspond in a private chat room with coded messages. He is a supporter of Turkey's accession to the Eurasian Union, not the EU. And there are many influential people with similar views. Government, academia and those in security services have no doubt that the coup was prepared by Americans. Like all the previous ones in this country, since 1960. The military has always interfered in political process and acted in coordination with Americans.

- What did he tell you?

Britain's next generation of Global Combat Ships are going anywhere but global, amid budgeting problems and indefinite delays, even as the UK hints the US must hurry and deliver on a significant fighter jet deal.

MPs were told on Wednesday that the critical Type-26 Frigates pioneered by former Prime Minister David Cameron are going nowhere for the foreseeable future.

"I can't give you a time or a date," the military's civilian lead on defense procurement, Tony Douglas, told the Commons Defence Committee.

Newly appointed defense minister Harriett Baldwin MP said: "It could be next year. We do not know yet."

The negotiated settlement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of the Philippines over the Sino-Filipino territorial dispute(s) over ownership of the Spratly Islands (known as Nansha Islands in China) appears possible with the change of government in Manila. The term of the cabinet of Filipino President Benigno Aquino III and Filipino Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert del Rosario, who both rejected bilateral talks with Beijing, ended on June 30, 2016. They have been respectively replaced by Rodrigo Duterte in the Malacañan Palace and Perfecto Yasay Jr. in the Department of Foreign Affairs. The new Filipino government in Manila has made several overtures about holding bilateral talks with Beijing and Foreign Secretary Yasay has announced that a special envoy will be appointed for negotiations with China.

Relations between the Philippines and China became strained under the Aquino III Administration. It rehabilitated the territorial dispute with China and eagerly began welcoming the revitalization of the US military presence in Southeast Asia. In 2011, a political decision was made under Benigno Aquino to refer to the South China Sea as the West Philippine Sea as a means of emphasizing the claim of the Philippines. The Aquino III Administration would even mandate the renaming of the South China Sea into law by an administrative order in 2012. Aggregating relations further, the Aquino III Administration initiated legal action over the territorial dispute against China through the Dutch-based Permanent Court of Arbitration on October 29, 2015.

On July 5, 2016 - just one week before the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration on July 12, 2016 - President Duterte offered to hold talks with China. While he will surely use the Permanent Court of Arbitration as leverage in Sino-Filipino bilateral talks, Duterte appears to be keen on a settlement with China. These offers are part of a buildup from the 2016 election period in the Philippines.