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Syrian army aided by Russia, regains control over most of Eastern Ghouta


RFE/RL
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 19:06 UTC
Rebel fighters are evacuated from the city of Harasta
© Omar Sandik (Reuters)
Rebel fighters are evacuated from the city of Harasta in the eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta on March 22
Syrian rebel fighters have evacuated one enclave in eastern Ghouta and reached a Russian-brokered deal to leave another, enabling Syrian government forces to regain control over most of the embattled Damascus suburb, observers say.

The developments on March 23 brought Syrian President Bashar al-Assad close to his biggest victory since driving armed rebels out of Aleppo in December 2016, though his opposition still has a few remaining strongholds in northwestern and southwestern Syria.

A devastating Russia-backed government assault since February 18 on eastern Ghouta has killed more than 1,600 civilians but has brought 90 percent of the Damascus suburb back under government control, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Retaking eastern Ghouta, a sprawling semirural area that had escaped government control since 2012, became a priority this year for Assad after a string of gains by the Syrian Army elsewhere around the country.

Comment: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Gerasimov said Saturday that all terrorist groups in Syria had been receiving weapons, money as well as combat tasks from abroad.
"Let's take Syria, for example. Before Russia stepped in the war on the side of the Syrian government, the country had been waging an undeclared war for its right for existence," Gerasimov said.

"We can't say when exactly these internal disturbances overgrew into a war," the official added.
Civilians of Ein Tarma in East Ghouta have been filmed welcoming and embracing the Syrian Army after the town was cleared of all terrorist forces.
This comes as a deal was made to evacuate the terrorist forces operating in the town to Syria's northwest and jihadist-held province of Idlib.

In the video below, footage of children and civilians embracing the Syrian Army can be seen.



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Stormtrooper

Turkey has established full control over Syria's Afrin district according to General Staff office


Sputnik
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 18:07 UTC
Turkey afrin troops
© Associated Press / DHA-Depo
Turkish troops take control of Bursayah hill, which separates the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin from the Turkey-controlled town of Azaz, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018
The Turkish Armed Forces have established full control over Syrian northern district of Afrin, the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces said Saturday.

"All villages have been cleared from terrorists. Afrin is under full control [of Turkish Armed Forces]," the General Staff said, as quoted by the NTV broadcaster.

On January 20, Ankara, jointly with the opposition Free Syrian Army forces, launched Operation Olive Branch in Afrin in order to "clear" Turkey's Syrian border from the terrorist threat.

'Turkey's Syrian border from the terrorist threat. Turkey considers the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Kurdish political party in northern Syria, and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia to be linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara.

Ankara's Olive Branch Operation in Afrin has been strongly condemned by Damascus, calling Turkey's move "a violation of the country's sovereignty." In response, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that preservation of the territorial integrity of Syria is the common goal of Ankara and Damascus and that Turkish troops are not going to attack government forces in Syria.
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Russian Flag

Gilbert Doctorow: What I saw as an official observer of the Russian presidential election

Gilbert Doctorow
Russia Insider
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 16:54 UTC
gilbert doctorow
© RT
In this piece, I will share impressions from my mission as an international observer to the Russian presidential election. The event was of historic importance given Russia's rising standing in the world under the leadership of its front-runner candidate in the election, Vladimir Putin, and it has been covered widely in world media.

What will set this account apart from the rest is firstly the focus on one location, the Crimea, which I visited as monitor within a varied delegation of 43. The Crimea, for its part, had unusually high importance to the Russians and to the world at large, because the election there was rightly viewed as a second referendum on the reunification of Crimea with Russia in 2014, and that reunification or annexation, depending on your point of view, underlies much of the acrimonious confrontation today between Russia and the US-led "international community."

A little remarked fact underscores my argument for the key importance of the Crimean vote: the precise date selected to hold the presidential election across the Russian Federation, 18 March. That is the anniversary of the formal unification, the culmination of the Crimean Spring of 2014, which followed by several days the original referendum approving unification. It will be recalled that the validity of that first referendum has been denied by Russia's Western detractors, who insist the result was forced by the presence of Russian troops in the streets and an atmosphere of intimidation coming from pro- and anti-Russian demonstrations. The vote in 2018 has taken place in a totally calm situation, which removes all possibility of reservations about validity unless violations at polling stations could be identified. At a minimum, the task of a monitoring group such as mine should have been to watch that issue very closely. How that functioned in practice, what I/we actually saw and did will make up the first part of this essay.
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USA

The great unspooling of America is upon us

James Howard Kunstler
Russia Insider
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 00:01 UTC
capitalism soda machine
With spring, things come unstuck; an unspooling has begun. The turnaround at the FBI and Department of Justice has been so swift that even The New York Times has shut up about collusion with Russia - at the same time omitting to report what appears to have been a wholly politicized FBI upper echelon intruding on the 2016 election campaign, and then laboring stealthily to un-do the election result.

The ominous silence enveloping the DOJ the week after Andrew McCabe's firing - and before the release of the FBI Inspector General's report - suggests to me that a grand jury is about to convene and indictments are in process, not necessarily from Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's office. The evidence already publicly-aired about FBI machinations and interventions on behalf of Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump looks bad from any angle, and the wonder was that it took so long for anyone at the agency to answer for it.

Comment: "A nation with a sucking chest wound, whirling around the drain en route to political pandemonium." Seems like a pretty apt description of America the great.

See also:

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Heart - Black

UK in crisis: Children in poverty surges by 100,000 in a year - totalling a staggering 4.1 million

May Bulman
Independent
Thu, 22 Mar 2018 11:15 UTC
Government figures show 4.1 million children are now living in relative poverty
© Getty
Government figures show 4.1 million children are now living in relative poverty
The number of children in poverty across the UK has surged by 100,000 in a year, new figures show, prompting calls for ministers to urgently review cuts to child welfare.

Government statistics published on Thursday show 4.1 million children are now living in relative poverty after household costs, compared with four million the previous year, accounting for more than 30 per cent of children in the country.

Compared to the overall population, children remained the most likely to be in relative poverty, at almost one in three compared with 21 per cent of working age adults and 16 per cent of pensioners.

Comment: The 'downturn' has been ongoing for for over a decade now, and the future is looking ever more bleak for the UK - however this could help explain its devious behaviour elsewhere on the political scene:

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Bomb

Alexandria, Egypt car bomb explosion aimed at security director kills two people


RT
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 16:33 UTC
alexandria car bombing
© Global Look Press
A car bomb has rocked the coastal Egyptian city of Alexandria, reportedly killing two people and injuring at least four others. The attack comes just two days before Egypt's presidential election.

The blast is said to have occurred near the Tolip Hotel in the city's neighbourhood of Stanley. Multiple Egyptian sources, citing eyewitnesses, report that the bomb targeted the convoy of the security director of Alexandria, Major General Mustafa Nimr.

The driver of the escort car and a policeman were reportedly killed when the device exploded under a parked vehicle next to the Roman Camp road in the city. Four military personnel are said to be in a serious condition in hospital.
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Bad Guys

In occupied Palestine, slapping a soldier is worse than killing a Palestinian in cold blood

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 16:27 UTC
Ahed Tamimi
© Ammar Awad / Reuters
Palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi
On Monday in Israel there were two parallel events:

1) The Israeli military appeals court denied Ahed Tamimi, 17, the request of an open trial on charges stemming from her slapping an Israeli soldier occupying her home last December 15, claiming a closed trial was "in her best interest".

2) The Israeli military parole board further shortened Elor Azarya's prison sentence for shooting an incapacitated Palestinian suspect in the head at point blank-range, killing him in 2016, to 9 months, after the army chief of staff had reduced the original 18 month sentence to 14 months.

These two stories are a mirror of each other.

In Tamimi's case, many Israelis want a price to be exacted from her for slapping an Israeli occupation soldier. Some suggested that she should be punished "in the dark, without witnesses or cameras" ('centrist' Israeli journalist Ben Caspit), or that she should "end her days in prison" (Education Minister Naftali Bennett). The decision to close the doors on her trial initially came last month at the first hearing. The military judge opined that it is in Ahed's best interest as a juvenile to have a closed case, and the appeals judge doubled down on that view - despite the fact the military prosecution itself did not object to its being open.

"The court decided what is best for the court, and not what is good for Ahed," Ahed's defense attorney Gaby Lasky told reporters last month, and it is still doing so.
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Red Flag

Leaked audio reveals the hidden hands behind the so-called student-led 'March For Our Lives' gun control rally

Laura Loomer
Dangerous
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 16:10 UTC
female speaker
A meeting between Parkland students and anti-gun activists mobilizing for the highly anticipated March For Our Lives event in Washington, D.C. this weekend was captured on hidden audio Tuesday evening in Broward County, Florida and provided exclusively to DANGEROUS.

The meeting, which was described as a non-partisan briefing for students, parents, and staff members from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who are attending the #MarchForOurLives, was quickly exposed as being hijacked by Democratic Party top brass and fraught with extreme anti-conservative bias, misappropriation of school resources, and heavy-handed coaching for students when dealing with the media.

Held at the Marriott Hotel in Coral Springs, FL, the meeting was organized by Debby Miller, who teaches at Beachside Montessori Village, a Broward County Public School. Miller introduced herself as a representative for the Giffords Foundation, which has decided to fund and sponsor over 200 students, staff, and parents from Parkland, Florida to attend the march in Washington. Miller stated at the beginning of the meeting that the meeting space was donated by the Marriott Hotel.

The Giffords Foundation, a 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) non-profit founded by Gabby Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, describes its mission as, "We research, write and propose policies that make Americans safer and mobilize voters and lawmakers in support of safer gun laws."

Comment: See also: 'March For Our Lives': Thousands expected to attend worldwide gun control demonstrations

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Camcorder

Was Paddock an arms dealer? CCTV of Vegas shooter bringing 21 bags into hotel finally released

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 22 Mar 2018 15:58 UTC
paddock elevator suitcases
It's been close to six months since Stephen Paddock allegedly rented a room inside the Mandalay Bay Casino Resort in Las Vegas and then opened fire on on thousands of innocent people, killing 58 or them and injuring hundreds of others. Since that tragic day, victims, media, activists, and citizens have been calling for the release of surveillance footage that shows Paddock inside the hotel and, until now, these demands have fallen on deaf ears.

In spite of the dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests by local media and lawsuits demanding the release the surveillance footage, somehow the New York Times was able to obtain the exclusive footage allegedly showing Paddock inside the hotel.

In the chilling video, we see Paddock alone and blending in, never looking suspicious and even raising his hands in delight when he won $1,000 while gambling and eating sushi.

However, behind the scenes, Paddock was filling his room with dozens of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Comment: See also: Keep in mind that this footage technically doesn't show him bringing GUNS into the Mandalay Bay, only bags.

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Pocket Knife

Another female genital mutilation case in the UK fails, zero convictions in 33 years

Liam Deacon
Breitbart
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 00:01 UTC
female genital mutilation tool
© YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty
The latest attempt to secure the UK's first prosecution for female genital mutilation (FGM) has failed, with a West African father cleared of using the practice to "punish" his young daughter.

The prosecution was only the second brought under FGM legislation since it was introduced 33 years ago, in 1985. Not a single person has been found guilty of the crime in Britain, despite thousands of cases logged annually, and hundreds of successful prosecutions in France.

The man, 50, was alleged during a nine-day trial to have twice recruited someone to cut the girl with a razor blade at their home in south London between 2010 and 2013. The identity of the cutter had been forgotten, but the prosecution said the father had overseen and "egg[ed] on" the abuse.

Comment: Female genital mutilation is a sick practice that goes well beyond cultural acceptance. The UK's reluctance to charge and prosecute for this crime is criminal in and of itself. See also:

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