Syrian forces continue to discover new evidence about the types of weapons, facilities, and tactics used by Islamist militants during their occupation of East Ghouta.

The Syrian military found the Israeli-made weapons in the town of Harasta, about 10 kilometers from central Damascus, according to a Press TV report citing Syrian state television. The town was occupied by Ahrar al-Sham, a collection of hardline Islamist militias. The Syrian military freed the town on Saturday.

The Pentagon has admitted that 14 civilians were killed since last year by the coalition fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Syria and Iraq. This brings the official number of civilians killed to 855.

"Although the Coalition takes extraordinary efforts to strike military targets in a manner that minimizes the risk of civilian casualties, in some incidents casualties are unavoidable," the coalition wrote in its latest monthly civilian casualty report, released on Wednesday.

The coalition said it conducted over 29,000 airstrikes between August 2014 and end of February 2018. During this period, the total number of reports of "possible civilian casualties" was 2,135. However, the coalition deemed that "credible reports" of civilian casualties during this time period was much lower, at just 224.

England has a mental illness, it is called Russophobia and strangely this disease has proven to be contagious among the UK's soon-to-be former EU partners

As a rule, Russians could not care less about Britain, considering it a former imperialist country which committed massacres, destroyed countless countries by drawing lines on maps and shooting natives with machine guns, calling these brazen acts of cowardice tales of military glory; they consider that Britain created half the world's problems today by interfering, invading and then creating artificial imbalances yesterday by elevating the second most powerful people or tribe or group to a position of prominence it would never have held, then keeping it in power through obedience, while it civilized the local population with the Bible and the Bullet.

At best, for most Russians, mention of Britain causes a derisory sniff and its people a sneer of disapproval, considered as they are barbarians, uncultured and unable even to speak or write their own language properly, curled up giggling on the sofa at the mention of farts, which today seems to be a national obsession, traveling around in trains knee-deep in filth, boarding them at railway stations which look as though the residents of every pigsty in the vicinity has been let loose after a triple dose of laxatives and peering through murky windows with such expressions of wisdom as "Sarah shits", and by the smell emanating from the sea of litter on the floor, it appears that Sarah does indeed. And has. They do not bother to learn foreign languages as a rule, mainly because they cannot get through their heads that not everyone likes greasy fish and chips or luke warm beer and because they are too damned arrogant and shit-headed to even try.

Israel has created a sniper task force, authorized to use live fire, ahead of the upcoming mass protests in the Gaza Strip, IDF told local media. Palestinians won't be allowed through the border fence at any cost, it warned.

The rallies are expected to kick off Friday and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it's ready to opt for the worst case.

"We have deployed more than 100 sharpshooters who were called up from all of the military's units, primarily from the special forces," Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot Eisenkot said, as quoted by the Ynet news outlet. "If lives are in jeopardy, there is permission to open fire."

The Israeli soldiers will use "a lot of force" to prevent any possible infiltration from the Gaza Strip, but the force is also to "save lives."

This commentary is inspired by Jeff Salzman's podcast: https://www.dailyevolver.com/2018/03/what-jordan-peterson-and-his-fans-and-foes-can-learn-from-integral-theory-part1/

Jordan Peterson and Ken Wilber are both map-makers, as well as evolutionary scientists who have spoken about religion in a post-modern way. At the same time, both these men have a strong critique of the more pathological aspects of post-modernism, and have talked about the 'shadow' of materialism, feminism, and social justice within the post-modern view. And because of their strong polemic positions - and sometimes over-simplifications - they are both loved and hated.

Peterson has been called a mere 'self-improvement' author, to minimize his actually gravity as a thinker - when he is not being called fascist, that is - despite the fact that he has taught on the dangers of fascism his whole career. Similarly, Ken Wilber is usually dismissed as a 'new age guru', even though he has a strong critique of the new age: the fact that his books sell so-well, causes some academics to consider him to be a lesser thinker, which I don't believe is the case. In any case, both men have contributed massively to the conversation and culture at large, and both have an evolutionary view of science and religion. So how do they differ?

In the past year, I've been defending Peterson for a lot of reasons, not the least being the ridiculous mischaracterisation of his work as 'alt-right'. But now that Peterson has cracked the mainstream - become 'bigger than Jesus' so to speak - he doesn't need to be defended anymore. Therefore, I'd like to articulate a respectful criticism of some of his views. I'm loath to do this, since I think his work is of immeasurable importance - I have praised Peterson ad nausea in my previous essays, and, incidentally, been accused of being a 'fan-boy' as a result. I have probably caused some progressives to get squeamish when I said that Peterson is one of the few public figures out there 'on fire with the holy spirit' - but I stand by that old-fashioned phrase.

This Associated Press story has quite a slant.

Looking into the AP report we find that the "watchdog group" is actually a for-profit company with an anti-Iran agenda and paid by the United Arab Emirates. The UAE, together with Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Britain, is waging war on Yemen and sees Iran as an enemy:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Roadside bombs disguised as rocks in Yemen bear similarities to others used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and by insurgents in Iraq and Bahrain, suggesting at the least an Iranian influence in their manufacture, a watchdog group said on Monday.

The report by Conflict Armament Research comes as the West and United Nations researchers accuse Iran of supplying arms to Yemen's Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who have held the country's capital since September 2014.
...
"What we're hoping this does is make plausible deniability not very plausible," said Tim Michetti, head of regional operations for Conflict Armament Research. "You can't really deny this anymore once the components these things are made with are traced to Iranian distributors."

Michetti's organization, an independent watchdog group that receives funding from the United Arab Emirates, Germany and the European Union to research weaponry recovered in Yemen, said it examined a fake rock bomb in January near Mokha, some 250 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of the capital, Sanaa.

The Russian Defense Ministry has reported on recent developments in the tense situation in Syria's Eastern Ghouta.

"Last night, during a search of militants, 15 suicide belts were found and seized. Eight belts for suicide bombers were confiscated eight days ago by Russian military police and Syrian police. Also, 289 grenades were confiscated from militants leaving [E Ghouta]," the report stated.

According to the ministry of defense's report, 6,400 militants and their families have left the area through the humanitarian corridor from East Ghouta on Tuesday by buses.

Kim Dotcom is alleging WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has had his internet connection within the Ecuadorian embassy in London cut off. He has called on Assange supporters to gather outside the embassy building in solidarity.

Neither WikiLeaks nor Assange has made an official statement regarding the reports. An official confirmed that the embassy had cut off Assange's internet access when speaking to AFP.

Dotcom demanded that authorities "#ReconnectJulian." Former Greek Minister of Finance Ioannis Varoufakis also tweeted Wednesday, calling for people to rally around Assange to force the Ecuadorian uthorities to restore his internet connection.

Saudi Arabian air defenses have been on heightened alert following Sunday night's missile attack from Yemen.

Late on Sunday the Saudi air defenders said they had intercepted seven medium-range ballistic missiles launched at the country from Yemen.

However, a video made by local eyewitnesses and published by the Aviationist shows that two of the US-made Patriot missiles, launched to intercept the incoming missiles, missed their targets.

One of them exploded in mid-air shortly after launch, while the other crashed in a residential area.

Debris from the missiles landed on a home in Riyadh, killing an Egyptian resident and wounding two others.

Google was served at least four sweeping search warrants by Raleigh, North Carolina police last year, requesting anonymized location data on all users within areas surrounding crime scenes. In one case, Raleigh police requested information on all Google accounts within 17 acres of a murder, overlapping residences, and businesses. Google did not confirm or deny whether it handed over the requested data to police.

WRAL reporter Tyler Dukes found four investigations in 2017 where police issued these uniquely extensive warrants: two murder cases, one sexual battery case, and an arson case that destroyed two apartment complexes and displaced 41 people. Police routinely request information from technology companies-Google says it shares data with law enforcement about 81% of the time-but these specific cases are remarkable: Instead of finding a suspect, and then searching that person's data, police are searching enormous amounts of data to pinpoint a potential suspect.