Airstrike destroys Syrian hospital amid fears of 'catastrophic' turn in fighting, Washington Post, April 28 2016

An onslaught of airstrikes in rebel-held areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo has killed scores and destroyed a hospital supported by international aid groups, activists and humanitarian workers said Thursday, prompting the United Nations to warn of a "catastrophic deterioration" that could intensify an already dire humanitarian crisis.
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Airstrikes Wednesday night collapsed a hospital supported by ...
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[...] it was the hospital raid late Wednesday that was likely to have the most devastating humanitarian impact, U.N. and other aid officials said.

Al-Quds hospital in Aleppo's al-Sukkari neighborhood had an emergency room, an intensive-care unit and eight doctors and 28 nurses on staff, Doctors Without Borders said. It was "well known locally," the organization said on its Twitter account Thursday.

At least 14 patients and medical staffers — including three doctors — were killed when the hospital was hit by a "direct" strike, the aid group said. One of the doctors was Mohammed Waseem Maaz, Aleppo's last pediatrician, activists said. Another was a dentist.

Chlorine attack deepens fears among besieged Aleppo residents, Washington Post, September 8 2016

The Syrian government dropped a bomb containing chlorine on a besieged neighborhood in the city of Aleppo on Tuesday, heightening fears among people who are cut off from the outside world and unable to escape, according to residents and hospitals in the area.
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A statement from the al-Quds hospital, which received 46 of the patients, said that all were suffering from breathing difficulties and that "a strong smell of chlorine emanated from their clothes."

China has spent months, organizing the G20 Summit in Hangzhou. They had their own ideas and it was a sort of coming out for Chinese, showing to the international community that they are a real global power politically and economically.

Even before the start of the Summit, President Xi Jinping was trying to discuss the trend of backlash against globalization and against economic integration. Chinese have a complete different view on how economic relations in the world should be practiced. For the previous period of globalization, they have profited in many things: foreign investments, exporting all over the world. China developed so much and so fast, that now it can also be a part of rulers that will govern the global economy. This is what they wanted to explain to other nations, especially to the Western countries.

Israel has begun the construction of a giant concrete wall that will completely encircle the Gaza Strip, which is already grappling with a devastating siege imposed by the Tel Aviv regime.

According to a Wednesday report on the Ynet news website, the wall "will reach several stories underground, and will also be several stories above ground."

It will stretch along the 96-kilometer (60 mile) border around the blockaded Palestinian enclave, and is estimated to cost about two billion Israeli shekels (USD 531 million).

Israelis claim that the project is meant to thwart alleged threats posed by the underground tunnels set up by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas governing Gaza.

Gulfnews, October 6, 2015 - Al Houthis flee last bastion in Marib

Al Houthi militiamen who had been occupying large parts of Yemen fled their last bastion in Marib en masse on Tuesday, according to news reports, ...
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Arabic language news outlets reported that coalition forces and the Yemeni Popular Resistance successfully retook the Al Zor area in the city of Sirwah, the last Al Houthi stronghold in Marib province.

Gulfnews, September 5, 2016 - Yemeni forces move to push Al Houthis out of Marib

Yemeni forces waged a fresh offensive on Monday aimed at driving Al Houthis out of their last bastion in the Marib province. Government officials and army commanders speaking to Gulf News say the assault was backed by heavy air support from the Saudi-led Arab coalition, ...
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"The national army and resistance forces attacked Al Houthi militants and Saleh's forces in Serwah, their last stronghold in western Marib," an official close to the governor of Marib told Gulf News on the condition of anonymity. The town has been under Al Houthi control since their takeover of many parts of the country in 2015.

The death of whatever was left of American democracy in underway, as Hillary uses Russia to steal US elections.

Call it "Plan B"...It's all being laid out, right at our feet . On Google and Facebook, during US late night shows, through CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post and New York Times.

It will be the final death of whatever was left of American democracy.

The test run was accomplished with few casualties during the Democratic primaries, where Hillary Clinton and the DNC assured victory by rigging the entire voting process.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz lost her job as DNC Chair, but found a better job with the Clinton Campaign, and then won her Democratic primary Congressional District in Florida with little difficulty.

Bernie Sanders, who had the election stolen right from under his feet, fell quickly in line with his masters, and pathetically kissed Hillary's ring in an embarrassing display of beta manhood.

Now we are all being prepared for the ultimate con. The Ocean's Eleven of heists. The Presidency of the United States of America. The preparation is well underway.

Syria's civil war continues to claim the lives of innocent civilians, but the deaths aren't only happening in areas seized by Islamic State. Rebel-shelled eastern Aleppo is also clocking up high numbers of fatalities, a chief autopsy doctor told RT.

The Aleppo office of Dr. Zaher Hajjo is filled with bodies of those who didn't make it - many of whom are civilian women, children, and men whose lives were lost to the country's bloody conflict, now in its fifth year.

RT's Lizzie Phelan traveled to Aleppo to speak to Hajjo, and saw bodies arrive firsthand.

During the last six months there have been discussions over whether Trump can beat Clinton and how much Russia would benefit. I think Trump can win but will not necessarily do so, and things could become even worse.

Trump could win because he would defend US interests, not Russia's. As formulated by the ruling elite, America's interests are absolutely antagonistic to those of Russia.

Moscow can coexist peacefully with Washington. But for Washington, peaceful coexistence is nonsense. Its principle is: "if you don't kill them, they will kill you".

What to Expect After the US Elections

On this, the American elite is united. The split, expressed in the fight between Clinton and Trump, - the first major one for the presidency since Kennedy - is not about loving or hating Russia but about the best way to destroy Russia.

Clinton represents a political group that believes the US can push Russia around.

Trump represents the isolationists who claim that those who want to punish Russia know the USA is no longer the world leader. They favor taking a step back, ramping up means and only then attacking.

As a matter of fact, Trump's strategy toward Russia is the same one Putin used toward the US. Having discovered that America's resources are limited and that Russia could win the resource race without a head-on collision, Trump's allies suggest shifting to a resource-saving strategy.

But any deviation has its limits, beyond which it becomes a disaster. There is a line that the USA will not cross, even if Trump and the isolationists win. America will scale down the global confrontation, focusing on dealing with domestic problems in years to come.

The "thin red line" that the USA will not cross until it goes for world hegemony - is a "cordon sanitaire" between Russia and Europe, cutting Eurasia in half, hindering its trade, economic and geopolitical integrity.

Here's a mental exercise for you. First think of any issue of grave importance for the Washington establishment. Then ask yourself if US mainstream media was state-run would its coverage of it be any different from what it is now?

Think about it, on the domestic front the big hitters continue to say that the economy is doing fine and the post-2008 recovery was great even as real people flock to protest candidates Trump and Sanders in record numbers.

On the foreign policy side the media is more or less sweeping the Saudi war in Yemen under the rug by offering only very occassional and subdued critique -- which happens to mimick the reservations White House holds about this greatest humanitarian disaster of the present in private.

On Syria the mainstream offers constant barrage of propaganda for expansion of the regime change adventure (using conspiracy theories passed down by government officials) albeit the American people are apprehensive about the project and famously helped muffle it in the summer of 2013 when it looked like open US-Syrian war was imminent.

This really is the crux of it. On so many subjects the American public will be at least heavily divided but the 'mainstream media' will not fail to all line up on just one side of the issue -- the one which happens to be propagated by the Washington elites.

(Famous examples would be the 2003 Iraq war, the 2008 bailouts and the 2013 Snowden Affair -- all heavily divided the common people but the press could only be found on one side of the issue.)

Bulgaria will initiate trilateral meetings with the European Commission and Russia on plans for the Balkan natural gas hub, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov told an investor roundtable intended to drum up support for the project on September 5. Bulgaria wants to store gas from Russia and the Caspian region at the planned hub at the Black Sea port of Varna, which could cost up to €1.5bn to build.

Bulgaria has been looking at options to boost energy security ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin cancelled plans for the South Stream gas pipeline project in December 2014, in favour of a potential Turkish Stream pipeline. South Stream was designed to deliver gas to Europe under the Black Sea, bypassing Ukraine entirely. The move was a heavy blow to Bulgaria, which currently imports almost all of its natural gas from Russia through Ukraine.

Bulgaria has already received EU support for the gas hub proposal, according to Borissov. However, Russia does not seem to share Borissov's vision or enthusiasm.


Georgi Gegov, executive director of state-owned natural gas transmission and storage operator Bulgartransgaz, said that the investment in the natural gas hub would be between €1.4bn and €1.5bn, 24 chasa daily reported. The planned annual capacities are 45bn cubic metres and 37bn cubic metres respectively, the executive noted.

Newly published documents from the beginning of the Iraq invasion reveal how the NSA used the "war on terror" to develop its global intelligence capabilities and strengthen the surveillance network exposed by Edward Snowden.

The information was revealed in a series of documents dating back to 2003-2004, referred to as WARgrams. This was essentially a series of newsletter-style communiqués distributed to a vast number of NSA employees by the agency's former director, Michael Hayden. These short messages, which number close to 70, contain colorful (when not redacted) descriptions of the NSA's plans to insert itself into the Iraq war effort. The revelation was made by VICE's Motherboard, which obtained the documents through an FOI request from back in 2008.

The documents were published online on Tuesday.