Just one week ago, the rebels who controlled the last few neighborhoods of Aleppo that remain in opposition hands found themselves surrounded and running out of time. The Syrian government and its allies had surrounded what was once Syria's largest city and the country's financial capital. Many feared a humanitarian disaster would unfold, and the regime's recapture of Aleppo would be a devastating blow to anti-Assad forces who do not have full control of a single major city in all of Syria.

Today, the situation is very different.

On August 6, rebel forces broke through the walls of perhaps the most important military base in all of northern Syria. As I explained for The Interpreter on August 1, the Ramouseh artillery base and academy has served as the foundation of the Assad regime's control of Aleppo city -- and with it all of Aleppo Province -- since the city was first attacked by rebel groups in 2012:

The Ramouseh artillery base and academy was the key to maintaining some control in Aleppo for the Assad regime between the summer of 2012 and today. The artillery units there were crucial to [intimidating protesting students], and later in the regime's efforts to flatten the Hamadaniyah and Salah el Din districts just north of the base. The artillery turned regime strongholds into death traps, transforming the battle for Aleppo into a game of inches waged by snipers, artillery, and aircraft. Since regime forces were often outnumbered over the course of those years, this leveled the playing field.

The victory may relieve the humanitarian situation in Aleppo (though this remains to be seen). Furthermore, if the base falls and the regime does not quickly recapture it, Assad could be in danger of losing all of Aleppo. This battle is a testament to how weak the Assad military has become. Even with direct support from the Russian Air Force, tanks, and troops, as well as militants from Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran, Assad may have just snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

On the last day of the Democratic Convention, Hillary Clinton dressed in white in a remarked similarity to Melania Trump when she spoke at the Republican Convention. In response to Donald Trump's motto: Make America Great Again Hillary Clinton declared, "America is great because America is good!" to ecstatic cheers from Democratic Convention delegates, who after four days of speeches, were still ready to swallow more bull.

"Brain-washed" was a popular American expression in the seventies and eighties, that mainly referred to the Soviet people who believed Communist propaganda, and it urgently needs to make a come-back. The number of lies the American people have swallowed since Vladimir Putin started wiping up the mess Washington's man in Moscow, Boris Yeltsin, made before bowing out clutching his vodka bottle, is staggering.

The word 'propaganda' just doesn't cut it when we're talking about this amount of outright lies. 'Fact-checking' has become part of the mainstream media, but it's more often used to split hairs than to challenge false narratives, for example disputing Hillary's claim that ninety percent of all wealth goes to the one percent when it's now 'only' 52%.

No fact checker will stand up and say that Russia did not invade Eastern Ukraine, where eighty-five percent of the inhabitants are ethnic Russians who will never forget that in the 'Great Patriotic War' against Hitler, 27,000,000 of their com-patriots died. Or that two weeks before Ukraine's duly elected president, Viktor Yanukovich, fled to save his life from truncheon-wielding Neo-Nazi militias in the Maidan, Hillary Clinton's Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, Victoria Nuland, was recorded in a phone conversation with the American Ambassador to Ukraine, Jeffry Pyatt, discussing who would make the best next Prime Minister of that country. Nuland insisted it should be 'Yats' (Arsenyi Yantsenyuk) who was duly installed, resigning two years later as the fallacy of a popular uprising in Ukraine demanding more 'democracy' continues to be the thread to which an unending succession of lies are attached.

Japan is concerned that the radar, reportedly like those used on patrol vessels and not on drilling rigs, could be a sign of China's intentions to use its gas platforms in the East China Sea as military objects, the Japanese media report as cited by Reuters.

A Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday that a protest note, urging Beijing to explain the radar's purpose was filed two days earlier. The discovery of the installation was made in late June.

On Saturday, Tokyo delivered another protest to Beijing after China's Coast Guard vessels escorted roughly 230 fishing boats which sailed close to the islands, with the move described by Japan as a violation of its sovereignty.

Major Michael Rotich filmed offering to warn athletes about drug tests in exchange for one-off fee of £10,000 - but the team manager insists he was himself investigating the undercover reporters. The Rio Olympics have been plunged into yet another doping scandal, after the head of the Kenyan track and field team was caught in an undercover sting offering to tip off athletes over the timing of drugs tests.

Major Michael Rotich was due to lead out his team at the opening ceremony on Friday, but failed to turn up after he was presented with the allegations. He has now returned to Kenya pending an investigation.

In a joint investigation, the German broadcaster ARD and The Sunday Times said Rotich told undercover reporters he could give athletes 12-hour advance warning of when they would be tested by anti-doping teams, in exchange for a bribe of £10,000.

Responding to the allegations, Mr Rotich did not deny what he was filmed saying. Instead, the team manager said he had himself gone along with the meeting to expose the fictitious doping under discussion and "protect" his athletes.

The allegations would be scandal enough for a Games already hit by revelations about widespread and state-sponsored doping across Russian athletics. Kenya has more medal contenders in the middle- and long-distance running events in Rio than any other nation. But there could also be broader international implications. The East African country is a favourite as a training destination for teams around the world and, according to The Sunday Times, Rotich was filmed boasting about Kenya as a safe place for athletes to take banned performance-enhancing drugs without being caught.

More evidence of deep divisions between the IOC and WADA over the Russian doping scandal have emerged in two articles in The Australian. One article, which is behind a paywall, derives from off-the-record conversations with IOC officials. The other article, which is open access, gives Professor McLaren's side of the story. It alludes to the article behind the paywall and reproduces some of its material.


For an open source account of what is in the article behind the paywall, one is obliged to turn to RT. It claims that the article says

"....that there are members within the International Olympic Committee (IOC) who believe the release of the McLaren report on the eve of the Olympics was designed to set off the "nuclear option" of issuing a blanket ban on Russia competing at the games."

Today we witnessed an assassination attempt on the head of the Lugansk People's Republic. Igor Plotnitsky. Plotnitsky was wounded but his life is not in danger. He has even managed to issue a statement in which he accuses the Ukrainian government and the US special forces standing behind it for the attempt on his life. The Speaker of the National Council of the Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, went even further in his commentary. In his opinion, the attempt on the leader of the LPR means that Kiev has "opted for escalation."

The latter statement can only be agreed with. In addition to the intelligence of the people's republics, the Ukrainian side itself has confirmed this version. Ukrainian media have repeatedly reported the formation of specialized units prepared to assassinate the leaders of the people's republics of Donbass. The existence of these units has been confirmed by some of the leaders of Ukrainian security structures. Back on April 19th, 2016, the then head of the SBU, Vasiliy Gritsak, offered journalists his prediction as to the fate of the Donbass republics' leaders, stating that Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky would "finally be taken out." Lugansk region governor Georgy Tuka demanded that official Kiev carry out a special operation in Donbass whose aim would be the physical elimination of the people's republics heads. These "predictions" and calls did not remain empty slogans.

On April 30th, the Ministry of State Security of the DPR relayed the following message: Ukrainian President Poroshenko has ordered the liquidation of the heads of the DPR and LPR. Moreover, the report mentioned the use of an explosive device. On April 27th, an unsuccessful attempt was made on the life of DPR head Alexander Zakharchenko.

Israeli media claimed that Moscow had confirmed the drone which had entered Israeli airspace from Syria in July was Russian. In July, the Israeli army said that it had tried to shoot down a drone which had flown over the Golan Heights and returned to Syria with two missiles.

The Haaretz newspaper said, citing a high-ranking Israeli source, that in contacts with Israel Russia had admitted that the drone belonged to the Russian forces stationed in Syria. Reportedly, the Russian side said the drone had crossed into the Israeli airspace as a result of human error.

The publication said that the incident was the gravest since the deployment of Russian military in Syria in 2015 following the request from Syrian President Bashar Assad. It was the first time when Israel opened fire against a Russian aircraft operating in Syria, the newspaper added.

The incident was reportedly settled through contacts between the two countries' militaries.

"With the absence of values - society begins to decay." - Vladimir Putin

That which is "freedom" to a liberal, is offensive to a more conservative state of mind. They are two irreconcilable world views. I don't believe there is a right or wrong, but there are as many opinions on this subject as there are people in the world. However, it is true that many Russians hold Western values in contempt, and resist being subjugated to them. Deserved or not, the West is often perceived as a faithless and individualistic society with an exceptional love of money.

Thai voters approved a junta-backed constitution in a referendum on Sunday, preliminary results showed, an outcome that paves the way for an election next year but will also require future elected governments to rule on the military's terms.

Voters handed the junta led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha a convincing win in its first major popularity test at the ballot box since it seized power in a 2014 coup.

With 94 percent of the vote counted, early results from the Election Commission showed 61.4 percent of Thais had voted for the charter, while 37.9 percent rejected it. Full results are due on Wednesday.

The junta says the constitution is designed to heal more than a decade of divisive politics in Thailand that has dented economic growth and left scores dead in civil unrest.

However, demographic situation could be improved with the implementation of state policy

Experts predict a demographic crisis in Ukraine in 2016 due to the war in Donbas, according to a UNIAN correspondent.

Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Research of Extremism Oleh Zarubinsky and his deputy Bohdan Petrenko explained that Ukraine saw a decline in the birth rate in 2013-2015, and although the major consequences of the demographic crisis generally reveal themselves two years after the beginning of any crisis, the steepest decline in the birth rate is projected as early as in 2016.