southfront--2020-08-23--Protests Against Turkish-Backed Militants Broke Out In Syria’s Ras Al-Ain (Videos)

The Turkish-occupied town of Ras al-Ain and its countryside in northern al-Hasakah had been witnessing a series of protests , the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on August 22 .
Tribal leaders and prominent figures are reportedly participating in the protests against Turkish-backed militants , who have been wreaking havoc in the town since occupying in October of last year .
The locals are supporting Ras al-Ain ’ s local council , which suspended its work to protest against the new management of the town ’ s border cursing with Turkey .
Turkish authorities appointed Ahmad Bulat , brother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hamza Division , as the manager of the border crossing a few day ago .
The appointment was seen as an insult to the locals , since Bulat is just a militant from northern Aleppo .
Heavy clashes broke out in Ras al-Ain on August 20 between local fighters supporting the local council and tribesmen allied to the Hamza Division .
Turkey is trying to state its dominance over Ras al-Ain by installing loyal militants in key posts , while ignoring the town ’ s locals .
The situation will likely escalate further @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Ras al-Ain ’ s local council which wants a local civilian to be appointed as the manager of the border crossing .
The protesters are also demanding the removal of the Hamza Division from their town .
MORE ON THIS TOPIC : • New Wave Of Russian Airstrikes Hit ISIS Terrorists In Central Syria

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The Turkish-occupied town of Ras al-Ain and its countryside in northern al-Hasakah had been witnessing a series of protests, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on August 22.
Tribal leaders and prominent figures are reportedly participating in the protests against Turkish-backed militants, who have been wreaking havoc in the town since occupying in October of last year.
The locals are supporting Ras al-Ain’s local council, which suspended its work to protest against the new management of the town’s border cursing with Turkey.
Turkish authorities appointed Ahmad Bulat, brother of Saif Abu Baker leader of the Hamza Division, as the manager of the border crossing a few day ago. The appointment was seen as an insult to the locals, since Bulat is just a militant from northern Aleppo.
Heavy clashes broke out in Ras al-Ain on August 20 between local fighters supporting the local council and tribesmen allied to the Hamza Division.
Turkey is trying to state its dominance over Ras al-Ain by installing loyal militants in key posts, while ignoring the town’s locals.
The situation will likely escalate further if Turkey refuse to fulfill the demands of Ras al-Ain’s local council which wants a local civilian to be appointed as the manager of the border crossing. The protesters are also demanding the removal of the Hamza Division from their town.
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southfront--2020-08-23--U.S.-led Coalition Eliminates ISIS Cell Near Baghdad In Pinpoint Airstrikes (Video)

A pinpoint airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition eliminated on August 21 an ISIS cell in the district of Tarmiyah north of the Iraqi capital , Baghdad .
“ The International Coalition for Operation Inherent Resolve conducted an airstrike to support our Iraq partners in Tarmiyah , 21 August .
The coalition provides aviation , intelligence and logistical support to the Iraqi military in the fight to Defeat Daesh [ ISIS ] , ” the coalition said in a statement on August 22 .
Maj. Gen. Yehia Rasool , a spokesman for the Iraqi Commander-in-Chief , said in an official statement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ upon an official request from the Iraqi military joint command .
Iraqi security forces maintain a tight grip on Baghdad and its outskirt .
Nevertheless , ISIS cells are still very active in the region .
Last month , ISIS terrorists killed Brig .
Gen. Ali Hamid Ghaidan al-Khazraji commander of the military ’ s 59th Brigade in a well-planned ambush in Tarmiyah .
The incident has apparently pushed Iraqi government forces to take drastic measures to secure the capital with direct support from the U.S.-led coalition .
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A pinpoint airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition eliminated on August 21 an ISIS cell in the district of Tarmiyah north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
“The International Coalition for Operation Inherent Resolve conducted an airstrike to support our Iraq partners in Tarmiyah, 21 August. The coalition provides aviation, intelligence and logistical support to the Iraqi military in the fight to Defeat Daesh [ISIS],” the coalition said in a statement on August 22.
Maj. Gen. Yehia Rasool, a spokesman for the Iraqi Commander-in-Chief, said in an official statement that the coalition carried out the airstrike upon an official request from the Iraqi military joint command.
بناء على معلومات استخبارية وبأمر من قيادة العمليات المشتركة، نفذ طيران التحالف الدولي @CJTFOIR ضربة جوية على مجموعة إرهابية في أحد بساتين الطارمية شمال #بغداد وتم قتل جميع الارهابيين. pic.twitter.com/6HGx67bFUx — يحيى رسول | Yehia Rasool (@IraqiSpoxMOD) August 22, 2020
Iraqi security forces maintain a tight grip on Baghdad and its outskirt. Nevertheless, ISIS cells are still very active in the region.
Last month, ISIS terrorists killed Brig. Gen. Ali Hamid Ghaidan al-Khazraji commander of the military’s 59th Brigade in a well-planned ambush in Tarmiyah.
The incident has apparently pushed Iraqi government forces to take drastic measures to secure the capital with direct support from the U.S.-led coalition.
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southfront--2020-08-23--Turkey Welcomed Ceasefire In Libya, Recruiting More Syrian Militants – Report

Turkey was still recruiting Syrian militants despite the ceasefire declared in Libya , the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights ( SOHR ) reported on August 22 .
The monitoring group said a new batch of Syrian militants , who were recruited from Aleppo and Idlib , had arrived in military training camps in Turkey .
“ Until the moment , we don ’ t know the destination of these mercenaries after the [ military ] course , or if the Turkish government would continue to push them into Libya , especially after the Libyan-Libyan agreement , ” the SOHR ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Turkey has deployed 17,420 Syrian militants , including 350 minors , in Libya to support the Government of National Accord ( GNA ) .
A day earlier , the GNA announced a nationwide ceasefire .
The step was apparently the result of an agreement with the House of Representatives , which is supporting the Libyan National Army .
Turkey welcomed the ceasefire agreement .
Presidential spokesman , İbrahim Kalın , said Ankara is sure that a political settlement can be reached in Libya , stressing that a military solution is not preferred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the newly-recruited Syrian militants may not be heading to Libya .
According to a number of recent reports , Yemen or Azerbaijan may be the next destination for Turkish-backed Syrian militants .
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Turkey was still recruiting Syrian militants despite the ceasefire declared in Libya, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on August 22.
The monitoring group said a new batch of Syrian militants, who were recruited from Aleppo and Idlib, had arrived in military training camps in Turkey.
“Until the moment, we don’t know the destination of these mercenaries after the [military] course, or if the Turkish government would continue to push them into Libya, especially after the Libyan-Libyan agreement,” the SOHR’s report reads.
Since last year, Turkey has deployed 17,420 Syrian militants, including 350 minors, in Libya to support the Government of National Accord (GNA).
A day earlier, the GNA announced a nationwide ceasefire. The step was apparently the result of an agreement with the House of Representatives, which is supporting the Libyan National Army.
Turkey welcomed the ceasefire agreement. Presidential spokesman, İbrahim Kalın, said Ankara is sure that a political settlement can be reached in Libya, stressing that a military solution is not preferred.
Ankara’s position indicates that the newly-recruited Syrian militants may not be heading to Libya. According to a number of recent reports, Yemen or Azerbaijan may be the next destination for Turkish-backed Syrian militants.
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southfront--2020-08-23--Military Situation In Afghanistan On August 23, 2020 (Map Update)

Click to see the full-size image A brief overview of the recent developments in Afghanistan : • At least 2 @ @ @ @ @ motorcycle bomb explosion in the Bagh-e-Bala parc in Kabul city ; • An Afghan National @ @ @ @ @ were shot dead by unknown gunmen in the Kart-e-Naw area in Kabul city ; • @ @ @ @ @ killed in a roadside mine blast in the Ghazni province .
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A brief overview of the recent developments in Afghanistan:
At least 2 civilians were injured in a motorcycle bomb explosion in the Bagh-e-Bala parc in Kabul city;
An Afghan National Army colonel and his driver were shot dead by unknown gunmen in the Kart-e-Naw area in Kabul city;
Afghan security forces arrested Mullah Akhtar, a key Taliban commander in Shakar Dara, in Kabul province;
At least seven civilians were killed in a roadside mine blast in the Ghazni province.
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southfront--2020-08-23--The New Status Of Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia

The fifteen hundred year history of the Hagia Sophia has recently seen the beginning of a new era .
In the distant past the conversion of it from an Orthodox cathedral into a mosque also coincided with the beginning of a new era .
There are different views on what chronologically marks the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Age , but the most convincing and more or less commonly agreed upon is the year 1453 when Constantinople fell , having been conquered by the Ottoman Turks .
The capital of the Orthodox Empire became @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Conqueror .
He turned the Cathedral of the Constantinople Patriarchate into a mosque .
In 1934 , at to the command of the founder of the Turkish Republic Kemal Ataturk , the Hagia Sophia became a museum , and now by the decree of the president of Turkey Erdogan , it ’ s status was changed once more—it has turned into a mosque again .
This change was received with bitterness by the Orthodox world , Christians of different confessions , and the cultural community .
For Russian Orthodox people the Hagia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Apostles Grand Prince of Rus ’ Vladimir ’ s envoys visited it and reported , “ We do not know whether we were in heaven or on Earth because there is no such sight or beauty on Earth , and we are not capable of describing it ; we only know that God dwells with people there.
” Their story about what they saw and what they experienced while being in this church served as a trigger for the prince to decide on his own baptism and the baptism of his people .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to adequately and soberly assess the nature and the scale of the suffered loss .
The unsurpassed creation of the great architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus was not destroyed by the presidential decree .
Sophia ’ s mosaics were saved , amongst them are the masterpieces representing the highest achievements of Christian art .
On the other hand , even when the Hagia Sophia had the status of a museum , there was still no place in it for public prayer or for the Orthodox divine services , and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stop Christian pilgrims from praying heartfelt or mental prayer in this shrine .
In all fairness one should remember that the Ottoman Turks were not the first ones who dared to encroach on this shrine .
In the eighth century , the church survived the onslaught of the iconoclasts , who hammered the mosaics off its walls .
At the beginning of the thirteenth century , crusaders robbed the cathedral .
In of their wild ignorance they imagined that the mosaics were made of gold and so they cut them out with their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ later , when the church became a mosque , the long-suffering mosaic panels that covered the walls of the temple were scraped off or plastered over .
The preserved mosaics behind the plaster were discovered during restoration work carried out in the museum period of the temple .
Despite the suffered losses , the Hagia Sophia to this day remains the greatest creation made by man—it still bears the reflection of the heavenly world , visible signs of touching Divine perfection .
The Russian artist Mikhail Nesterov visited the Hagia Sophia Temple when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ greatly impressed by what he saw .
He wrote : “ The Hagia Sophia does not seem grandiose from the sea but is enormous up close .
A cluster of later added Muslim extensions distort its original form .
However , as soon as you enter the temple everything changes … almost at the very entrance … you can see almost the entire vault of the dome , which is so resembles the vault of heaven .
Its boundlessness is the boundlessness of the sky , something that of course can not be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Basilica , which is so heavy and oppressive… The vastness of the dome of the Hagia Sofia , its seeming limitlessness , simply amazes.
” The bitterness felt by Christians about the Turkish president ’ s decree is natural , but the reaction of the Orthodox world at the Hagia Sophia ’ s change of status can not be the one expressed in a statement issued on this occasion by the leadership of the World Council of Churches .
The statement describes this act by Erdogan as “ a blow to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unfortunate expression was chosen and what they really meant was that despite belonging to different religious communities , there is a solidarity of people in defending some common values .
The “ unification of religions ” is a harmful utopia that only people who are far from religious faith want to achieve .
But what will become of the Hagia Sophia when the implementation of the Erdogan ’ s decree will take shape ?
The Turkish side made assurances that access to the Hagia Sophia will remain open and free as it has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sceptics say that this is just the beginning… But a realistic view on the situation does not give grounds ( at least in the near future ) for such fears , as having become a mosque , the temple will not be closed off from visits by “ infidels ” .
The main concern today is about the preservation of Sophia ’ s mosaics .
The traditional intolerance of Islam , as well as of Judaism , towards the sacred images in prior years went much further—as far as forbidding all figurative art @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expressed in an inexhaustible ingenuity of creating ornamental decorations .
Modern Turkey has gone a long way from its former idiosyncrasy concerning images—for images are present in its cities and villages at every step—and perhaps there isn ’ t a city that hasn ’ t been decorated with a statue of Kemal Ataturk .
But in a mosque , just as in the old days , no sacred or other figurative images are allowed .
With the conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque , of course , decisions will be made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will look like is not yet clear .
However , official assurances were made that the regime of protection of monuments as anticipated by UNESCO for the World Heritage sites ( the Hagia Sophia being recognized as one in 1985 ) will be strictly observed in the future .
This regime excludes not only the destruction of the building itself , but also any damage to the protected masterpieces of global importance .
In this respect , it would be a good outcome if the changes would be limited to the covering up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Muslim prayer .
As of today , there are no signs of the monstrous prospect of the destruction of the Sophia ’ s mosaics ; the moderate Islamism that influences modern Turkey today stands far away from the vandals of Isis , Al Qaeda or the Taliban .
There is a wise proverb—don ’ t go waving your fists after the fight .
But analyzing the causes of defeat for the sake of learning lessons for the future is always useful and appropriate .
There are at least two factors that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unfortunate for us Christians .
One of them lies far from the Christian and cultural community efforts trying to prevent what has taken place .
The roots of this factor can be found inside the very Turkish society itself , or it would be more accurate to say that it is driven by how gradually , step by step , the reaction of society has changed towards the prolongation of the process of integration of Turkey into the Western European community—its integration into the EU , to be precise .
Something similar could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Protestant , but now post-Christian Western world and its relationship with other countries and the people of those countries who have sought or are still seeking to enter this “ privileged ” part of the world .
Illusory hopes give way to disappointment .
The twists and turns of this novel are well known to us Russians , as we have experienced portions of it in our own not so distant history .
An illustration of this process is the trivial image of being lured by a carrot that can not be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not having a shortage of critically thinking people , is convinced of its superiority over other civilisations and of its irresistible attractiveness to the rest of the world .
But in reality , there is a limit to this attraction .
This temptation is not to everyone ’ s taste .
Had Turkey finally become a post-Muslim society , like the post-Christian West , it would have been accepted into the EU ; but this did not take place and so Turkey was not accepted .
As a result , the position of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because it received the support of Turkish people , who became disillusioned with the idea of fraternization with the West .
President ’ s Erdogan decree is a symbolic gesture addressed to the West , because in the Muslim world the West is often mistakenly associated with Christianity ; but in reality , the cradle of Christianity is not located in the West , but in the East—in Palestine .
The Hagia Sophia was under the rule of crusaders , that is , the “ West ” for just a little over a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decision to convert the Hagia Sophia Temple into a mosque at this moment in time is a crisis of relations within the Orthodox world .
The Phanar put itself in opposition to the Russian Orthodox Church by committing an act of jurisdictional aggression .
One of the consequences of the split we are witnessing today is the changing status of the Hagia Sophia .
Had there been real solidarity in the Orthodox world , Ankara would have found it harder to brave such a step .
In fact , until recently , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the patriarchs and the episcopate of various countries autonomous Orthodox Churches , could have made appeals on behalf of three hundred million Orthodox Christians .
As a result of his actions it became impossible to preserve the canonical communication between him and the Russian Orthodox Church .
So who does he represent now ?
Turkey has at most a few thousand people belonging to the Patriarchate of Constantinople , and the voice of the Ecumenical Patriarch whose see is in Constantinople , was not heard by the state authorities of the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the other truly authoritative voices of people who spoke out from abroad for the preservation of the previous status of the Hagia Sophia were ignored in Ankara under the pretext of national sovereignty .
Supporting the schism comes at a high price , and it may get higher over time .
Phanar ’ s frailty can provoke further , perhaps more tangible moves .
Should that take place , it remains to be seen whether the Constantinople Patriarchate will be protected by the powers in whose geopolitical games it participates on the territory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Patriarchate has plenty of its own problems .

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Via orthochristian.com,
The fifteen hundred year history of the Hagia Sophia has recently seen the beginning of a new era. In the distant past the conversion of it from an Orthodox cathedral into a mosque also coincided with the beginning of a new era. There are different views on what chronologically marks the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Age, but the most convincing and more or less commonly agreed upon is the year 1453 when Constantinople fell, having been conquered by the Ottoman Turks. The capital of the Orthodox Empire became the residency of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. He turned the Cathedral of the Constantinople Patriarchate into a mosque. In 1934, at to the command of the founder of the Turkish Republic Kemal Ataturk, the Hagia Sophia became a museum, and now by the decree of the president of Turkey Erdogan, it’s status was changed once more—it has turned into a mosque again.
This change was received with bitterness by the Orthodox world, Christians of different confessions, and the cultural community. For Russian Orthodox people the Hagia Sophia is especially dear because the equal-to-the Apostles Grand Prince of Rus’ Vladimir’s envoys visited it and reported, “We do not know whether we were in heaven or on Earth because there is no such sight or beauty on Earth, and we are not capable of describing it; we only know that God dwells with people there.” Their story about what they saw and what they experienced while being in this church served as a trigger for the prince to decide on his own baptism and the baptism of his people.
In the current situation it is necessary to adequately and soberly assess the nature and the scale of the suffered loss. The unsurpassed creation of the great architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus was not destroyed by the presidential decree. Sophia’s mosaics were saved, amongst them are the masterpieces representing the highest achievements of Christian art. On the other hand, even when the Hagia Sophia had the status of a museum, there was still no place in it for public prayer or for the Orthodox divine services, and the preceding status of a mosque did not stop Christian pilgrims from praying heartfelt or mental prayer in this shrine.
In all fairness one should remember that the Ottoman Turks were not the first ones who dared to encroach on this shrine. In the eighth century, the church survived the onslaught of the iconoclasts, who hammered the mosaics off its walls. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, crusaders robbed the cathedral. In of their wild ignorance they imagined that the mosaics were made of gold and so they cut them out with their axes. And finally, two centuries later, when the church became a mosque, the long-suffering mosaic panels that covered the walls of the temple were scraped off or plastered over. The preserved mosaics behind the plaster were discovered during restoration work carried out in the museum period of the temple.
Despite the suffered losses, the Hagia Sophia to this day remains the greatest creation made by man—it still bears the reflection of the heavenly world, visible signs of touching Divine perfection. The Russian artist Mikhail Nesterov visited the Hagia Sophia Temple when it was a mosque, and was greatly impressed by what he saw. He wrote:
“The Hagia Sophia does not seem grandiose from the sea but is enormous up close. A cluster of later added Muslim extensions distort its original form. However, as soon as you enter the temple everything changes … almost at the very entrance … you can see almost the entire vault of the dome, which is so resembles the vault of heaven. Its boundlessness is the boundlessness of the sky, something that of course cannot be said about the Roman St. Peter’s Basilica, which is so heavy and oppressive… The vastness of the dome of the Hagia Sofia, its seeming limitlessness, simply amazes.”
The bitterness felt by Christians about the Turkish president’s decree is natural, but the reaction of the Orthodox world at the Hagia Sophia’s change of status cannot be the one expressed in a statement issued on this occasion by the leadership of the World Council of Churches. The statement describes this act by Erdogan as “a blow to the unification of religions”. Perhaps an unfortunate expression was chosen and what they really meant was that despite belonging to different religious communities, there is a solidarity of people in defending some common values. The “unification of religions” is a harmful utopia that only people who are far from religious faith want to achieve.
But what will become of the Hagia Sophia when the implementation of the Erdogan’s decree will take shape? The Turkish side made assurances that access to the Hagia Sophia will remain open and free as it has been before. The pessimists and the sceptics say that this is just the beginning… But a realistic view on the situation does not give grounds (at least in the near future) for such fears, as having become a mosque, the temple will not be closed off from visits by “infidels”.
The main concern today is about the preservation of Sophia’s mosaics. The traditional intolerance of Islam, as well as of Judaism, towards the sacred images in prior years went much further—as far as forbidding all figurative art so that artistic talent could only be expressed in an inexhaustible ingenuity of creating ornamental decorations. Modern Turkey has gone a long way from its former idiosyncrasy concerning images—for images are present in its cities and villages at every step—and perhaps there isn’t a city that hasn’t been decorated with a statue of Kemal Ataturk. But in a mosque, just as in the old days, no sacred or other figurative images are allowed. With the conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, of course, decisions will be made in this regard. What these decisions will look like is not yet clear. However, official assurances were made that the regime of protection of monuments as anticipated by UNESCO for the World Heritage sites (the Hagia Sophia being recognized as one in 1985) will be strictly observed in the future. This regime excludes not only the destruction of the building itself, but also any damage to the protected masterpieces of global importance. In this respect, it would be a good outcome if the changes would be limited to the covering up of the mosaic panels for the duration of the Muslim prayer. As of today, there are no signs of the monstrous prospect of the destruction of the Sophia’s mosaics; the moderate Islamism that influences modern Turkey today stands far away from the vandals of Isis, Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
There is a wise proverb—don’t go waving your fists after the fight. But analyzing the causes of defeat for the sake of learning lessons for the future is always useful and appropriate. There are at least two factors that influenced the decision-making on this change so unfortunate for us Christians.
One of them lies far from the Christian and cultural community efforts trying to prevent what has taken place. The roots of this factor can be found inside the very Turkish society itself, or it would be more accurate to say that it is driven by how gradually, step by step, the reaction of society has changed towards the prolongation of the process of integration of Turkey into the Western European community—its integration into the EU, to be precise. Something similar could be observed in yesterday’s Catholic and Protestant, but now post-Christian Western world and its relationship with other countries and the people of those countries who have sought or are still seeking to enter this “privileged” part of the world. Illusory hopes give way to disappointment. The twists and turns of this novel are well known to us Russians, as we have experienced portions of it in our own not so distant history. An illustration of this process is the trivial image of being lured by a carrot that cannot be reached. The collective West, despite not having a shortage of critically thinking people, is convinced of its superiority over other civilisations and of its irresistible attractiveness to the rest of the world. But in reality, there is a limit to this attraction. This temptation is not to everyone’s taste. Had Turkey finally become a post-Muslim society, like the post-Christian West, it would have been accepted into the EU; but this did not take place and so Turkey was not accepted. As a result, the position of the principled opponents of Westernization was strengthened because it received the support of Turkish people, who became disillusioned with the idea of fraternization with the West. President’s Erdogan decree is a symbolic gesture addressed to the West, because in the Muslim world the West is often mistakenly associated with Christianity; but in reality, the cradle of Christianity is not located in the West, but in the East—in Palestine. The Hagia Sophia was under the rule of crusaders, that is, the “West” for just a little over a century.
Another factor which prompted the decision to convert the Hagia Sophia Temple into a mosque at this moment in time is a crisis of relations within the Orthodox world. The Phanar put itself in opposition to the Russian Orthodox Church by committing an act of jurisdictional aggression. One of the consequences of the split we are witnessing today is the changing status of the Hagia Sophia. Had there been real solidarity in the Orthodox world, Ankara would have found it harder to brave such a step. In fact, until recently, the Patriarch of Constantinople, with the consent of the patriarchs and the episcopate of various countries autonomous Orthodox Churches, could have made appeals on behalf of three hundred million Orthodox Christians. As a result of his actions it became impossible to preserve the canonical communication between him and the Russian Orthodox Church. So who does he represent now? Turkey has at most a few thousand people belonging to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the voice of the Ecumenical Patriarch whose see is in Constantinople, was not heard by the state authorities of the country that falls under his jurisdiction.
But the other truly authoritative voices of people who spoke out from abroad for the preservation of the previous status of the Hagia Sophia were ignored in Ankara under the pretext of national sovereignty. Supporting the schism comes at a high price, and it may get higher over time. Phanar’s frailty can provoke further, perhaps more tangible moves. Should that take place, it remains to be seen whether the Constantinople Patriarchate will be protected by the powers in whose geopolitical games it participates on the territory of Ukraine. But today, the Patriarchate has plenty of its own problems.
Archpriest Vladislav Tsypin
Translation by Anastasis Starukhina
Pravoslavie.ru


southfront--2020-08-23--Military Situation In Palestine On August 23, 2020 (Map Update)

Click to see the full-size image A brief overview of the recent developments in Palestine : • Two IDF Merkava @ @ @ @ @ , near Mays Al Jabal , before retreating under smoke cover ; • Hezbollah announced @ @ @ @ @ down an Israeli drone in the Aita al-Shaab area .
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A brief overview of the recent developments in Palestine:
Two IDF Merkava tanks patrolled the technical fence, near Mays Al Jabal, before retreating under smoke cover;
Hezbollah announced that its forces had shot down an Israeli drone in the Aita al-Shaab area.
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southfront--2020-08-23--Military Situation In Iraq On August 23, 2020 (Map Update)

Click to see the full-size image A brief overview of the recent developments in Iraq : • PM Al-Kadhimi arrived @ @ @ @ @ Ministers of Interior and Defense and the Head of the Counter-Terrorism Service to investigate recent @ @ @ @ @ ; • According to OIRSpox , the Kurdistan Region ’ s Counter-Terrorism Directorate arrested an @ @ @ @ @ • Turkish warplanes targeted the alleged PKK positons in the village of Kune Kotir , @ @ @ @ @ • A series of protests erupted in the northern Kurdistan region in objection to the @ @ @ @ @ salaries ; • Convoy transporting logistical supply for the U.S.-led coalition was targeted by an @ @ @ @ @ • US-led coalition troops withdraw from 8 sites at Taji base and hand it to @ @ @ @ @ THE TOPIC :

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A brief overview of the recent developments in Iraq:
PM Al-Kadhimi arrived in Basra accompanied by the Ministers of Interior and Defense and the Head of the Counter-Terrorism Service to investigate recent incidents in the Basra city;
According to OIRSpox, the Kurdistan Region’s Counter-Terrorism Directorate arrested an ISIS suspect in Erbil;
Turkish warplanes targeted the alleged PKK positons in the village of Kune Kotir, in the Bradost area;
A series of protests erupted in the northern Kurdistan region in objection to the bad economic situation and unpaid salaries;
Convoy transporting logistical supply for the U.S.-led coalition was targeted by an IED in Ghazaliyah area;
US-led coalition troops withdraw from 8 sites at Taji base and hand it to Iraqi army.
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southfront--2020-08-23--IED Attack Targeted Convoy Of U.S. Forces Withdrawing From Camp Taji Near Baghdad

On August 23 , an attack with an improvised explosive device targeted a convoy of U.S. forces that was withdrawing from Camp Taji near the Iraqi capital , Baghdad .
An unnamed Iraqi security source told the UAE-based al-Ain TV that the attack occurred on a highway close to the camp , north of Baghdad ’ s city center .
According to the sources , a fire erupted after the explosion .
Sabereen News , a Telegram channel close to Shiite armed groups , released a photo showing some smoke rising from the attack scene .
No losses have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coalition and the Iraqi Government are yet to release a statement on the incident .
Earlier today , the U.S.-led coalition handed over Camp Taji to Iraqi government forces in an official ceremony attended by the media .
The camp used to host more than 2,000 troops of the coalition .
The attack near Camp Taji is likely a continuation of the recent attacks which targeted supply convoys of the U.S.-led coalition .
Shiite armed groups affiliated with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are allegedly behind these attacks .
Several groups , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to expel U.S. forces from Iraq after the assassination of Iranian Quds Force Commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis , Deputy-Commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units , earlier this year .
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On August 23, an attack with an improvised explosive device targeted a convoy of U.S. forces that was withdrawing from Camp Taji near the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
An unnamed Iraqi security source told the UAE-based al-Ain TV that the attack occurred on a highway close to the camp, north of Baghdad’s city center. According to the sources, a fire erupted after the explosion.
Sabereen News, a Telegram channel close to Shiite armed groups, released a photo showing some smoke rising from the attack scene.
No losses have been reported, thus far. The U.S.-led coalition and the Iraqi Government are yet to release a statement on the incident.
Earlier today, the U.S.-led coalition handed over Camp Taji to Iraqi government forces in an official ceremony attended by the media. The camp used to host more than 2,000 troops of the coalition.
The attack near Camp Taji is likely a continuation of the recent attacks which targeted supply convoys of the U.S.-led coalition. Shiite armed groups affiliated with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are allegedly behind these attacks.
Several groups, including Kata’ib Hezbollah, vowed to expel U.S. forces from Iraq after the assassination of Iranian Quds Force Commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Deputy-Commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units, earlier this year.
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southfront--2020-08-23--Syrian Forces Are Hunting Down ISIS Terrorists In Desert

The military situation in Syria continued deteriorating in the recent days .
On August 21 , the Syrian Army and its allies increased their anti-ISIS raids in the Palmyra-Deir Ezzor-Al-Mayadin triangle .
According to pro-government sources , these efforts are being actively supported by recently deployed reinforcements from the Iranian-backed Liwa Fatemiyoun armed group .
On August 20 , ISIS claimed responsibility for the recent attack on Russian troops in the province of Deir Ezzor .
The attack , which took place on August 18 , killed Maj. Gen. Vyacheslav Gladkih and injured two other Russian service members .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Amaq , ISIS claimed that a number of improvised explosive devices ( IEDs ) , which had been planted by its terrorists east of the town of al-Sukhnah in eastern Homs , struck a Russian patrol that was combing the region .
Earlier , the Russian military said that the incident took place near the al-Taim oil field , which is indeed located to the east of al-Sukhnah , in the western Deir Ezzor countryside .
These details play into the hand of the ISIS propaganda .
According to Syrian government sources @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take shelter in the Homs-Deir Ezzor countryside .
These terrorists pose a notable security threat to pro-government forces , but they claim that the full elimination of the ISIS cells in the desert is not possible as long as the US occupies the al-Tanf area .
Kata ’ ib Hezbollah , the Iraqi pro-Iranian group , is reinforcing its military positions in the southern countryside of Syria ’ s Deir Ezzor , according to pro-government sources .
Kata ’ ib Hezbollah fighters are currently building fortifications around their positions in the outskirt of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is also tense on the contact line between the army and militants in southern Idlib .
According to pro-militant sources , at least 2 opposition fighters were killed in Syrian Army strikes in al-Bara and other areas in the al-Zawiya mount .
The string of assassinations of former rebel commanders continues in southern Syria .
An attack with an improvised explosive device killed Issa Al-Janati , a former rebel commander in al-Quneitra .
The IED attack took place near the commander ’ s house in the town of al-Zubaidah in the al-Quneitra countryside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his wounds , while his wife was slightly injured .
Al-Janati , who is known by his nom de guerre “ Abu Wassim , ” used to be a senior commander in the Free Syrian Army .
In 2018 , he joined the reconciliation process .
Nevertheless , he refused to enlist in the Syrian Arab Army or any pro-government faction .
This was the first assassination of a former rebel commander in al-Quneitra .
Such assassinations take place in Daraa province on a regular basis .
Local sources link them with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are not happy to see how their former proxies are changing their public position .

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The military situation in Syria continued deteriorating in the recent days.
On August 21, the Syrian Army and its allies increased their anti-ISIS raids in the Palmyra-Deir Ezzor-Al-Mayadin triangle. According to pro-government sources, these efforts are being actively supported by recently deployed reinforcements from the Iranian-backed Liwa Fatemiyoun armed group.
On August 20, ISIS claimed responsibility for the recent attack on Russian troops in the province of Deir Ezzor. The attack, which took place on August 18, killed Maj. Gen. Vyacheslav Gladkih and injured two other Russian service members. In a statement released by its news agency, Amaq, ISIS claimed that a number of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which had been planted by its terrorists east of the town of al-Sukhnah in eastern Homs, struck a Russian patrol that was combing the region.
Earlier, the Russian military said that the incident took place near the al-Taim oil field, which is indeed located to the east of al-Sukhnah, in the western Deir Ezzor countryside. These details play into the hand of the ISIS propaganda. According to Syrian government sources, a few hundreds of ISIS members take shelter in the Homs-Deir Ezzor countryside. These terrorists pose a notable security threat to pro-government forces, but they claim that the full elimination of the ISIS cells in the desert is not possible as long as the US occupies the al-Tanf area.
Kata’ib Hezbollah, the Iraqi pro-Iranian group, is reinforcing its military positions in the southern countryside of Syria’s Deir Ezzor, according to pro-government sources. Kata’ib Hezbollah fighters are currently building fortifications around their positions in the outskirt of the city of al-Mayadin.
The situation is also tense on the contact line between the army and militants in southern Idlib. According to pro-militant sources, at least 2 opposition fighters were killed in Syrian Army strikes in al-Bara and other areas in the al-Zawiya mount.
The string of assassinations of former rebel commanders continues in southern Syria. An attack with an improvised explosive device killed Issa Al-Janati, a former rebel commander in al-Quneitra. The IED attack took place near the commander’s house in the town of al-Zubaidah in the al-Quneitra countryside on August 17. Al-Janati died of his wounds, while his wife was slightly injured. Al-Janati, who is known by his nom de guerre “Abu Wassim,” used to be a senior commander in the Free Syrian Army. In 2018, he joined the reconciliation process. Nevertheless, he refused to enlist in the Syrian Arab Army or any pro-government faction.
This was the first assassination of a former rebel commander in al-Quneitra. Such assassinations take place in Daraa province on a regular basis. Local sources link them with the increased activity of Israeli special services that are not happy to see how their former proxies are changing their public position.
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southfront--2020-08-23--Alleged Taliban Hit List, Including Names Of Prominent Afghan Politicians, Leaked

An alleged hit list put by the Taliban , with the names of prominent Afghan politicians and public figures , was reportedly leaked online .
The list surfaced on Afghan social media earlier this week .
On August 21 , Rahmatullah Nabil , a former director of the National Directorate of Security ( NDS ) shared a photo of the list , which included his name .
A statement attached to the list reveals that the included names were suggested by the Taliban ’ s cultural commission .
The group ’ s leadership approved their elimination .
Aside of Rahmatullah @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : • Former Minister of Information and Culture Abdul Karim Khurram ; Suhail Shaheen , a spokesman for the Taliban based in Qatar , denied that the hit list was put by the group , accusing the Afghan government of fabricating the list .
The government is yet to comment on the matter .
Earlier this year , the Taliban reached a historical deal with the U.S. Washington committed to gradually withdraw from the war-torn country as a part of the deal .
The deal is currently facing serious challenges due to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Afghan government .
The alleged hit list will , without a doubt , further complicate the trust issues between the two sides .
MORE ON THIS TOPIC : • At Least 3 Dead And 16 Wounded After More Than A Dozen Rockets Strike Kabul

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An alleged hit list put by the Taliban, with the names of prominent Afghan politicians and public figures, was reportedly leaked online.
The list surfaced on Afghan social media earlier this week. On August 21, Rahmatullah Nabil, a former director of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) shared a photo of the list, which included his name.
موږ د کورنیو او بهرنیو اجیرو ډلو په دي احمقانه لوبې ښه پوهیږو! pic.twitter.com/oz8e1Q248O — Rahmatullah Nabil (@RahmatullahN) August 21, 2020
A statement attached to the list reveals that the included names were suggested by the Taliban’s cultural commission. The group’s leadership approved their elimination.
Aside of Rahmatullah, the list included the following names:
Former Minister of Finance Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal;
Former Minister of Information and Culture Abdul Karim Khurram;
Former parliament member Mohammad Amin Weqad;
Hamayun Hamayun;
Former Vice President of Afghanistan Ahmad Zia Masood;
Media in Afghanistan, Nai, Director Mujeeb Kheltwatgar;
University professor Faiz Mohammad Zaland;
Political observers and analysts Nazar Mohammad Motmayen, Waliullah Shaheen and Khalil Safi;
Pajhwok Afghan News Director Danish Karokhail;
Asif Ashna;
Doctor Fayaz Safi;
Former Taliban official Sayed Akbar Agha.
Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban based in Qatar, denied that the hit list was put by the group, accusing the Afghan government of fabricating the list. The government is yet to comment on the matter.
Earlier this year, the Taliban reached a historical deal with the U.S. Washington committed to gradually withdraw from the war-torn country as a part of the deal.
The deal is currently facing serious challenges due to the lack of trust between the Taliban and the Afghan government. The alleged hit list will, without a doubt, further complicate the trust issues between the two sides.
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southfront--2020-08-23--Iranian-Backed Afghan Group Is Redeploying Its Fighters In Syria’s Deir Ezzor – Report

Liwa Fatemiyoun , an Iranian-backed Afghan group operating in Syria , was redeploying its fighters in the eastern governorate of Deir Ezzor , the Deir Ezzor 24 blog reported on August 23 .
According to the pro-opposition blog , Liwa Fatemiyoun deployed its forces in the vicinity of Deir Ezzor city .
At the same time , the group evacuated few of its posts in the area , while maintaining all of its key positions .
Deir Ezzor 24 , which has a network of sources throughout Deir Ezzor , said the motive behind this redeployment are still unclear .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Syria .
The Afghan group is funded , trained , and equipped by the IRGC .
The group is active in Aleppo , Homs and Deir Ezzor .
Earlier this month , Liwa Fatemiyoun fighters carried out a combing operation in the southern countryside of Deir Ezzor .
The operation targeted ISIS cells .
The Afghan group may be preparing to launch a new combing operation in Deir Ezzor , or even to participate in a highly anticipated military operation by the Syrian Arab Army against ISIS remnants in the nearby Homs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ • Third Wave Of Russian Airstrikes Hit ISIS Terrorists In Homs , Raqqa & Deir Ezzor In Central Syria

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Liwa Fatemiyoun, an Iranian-backed Afghan group operating in Syria, was redeploying its fighters in the eastern governorate of Deir Ezzor, the Deir Ezzor 24 blog reported on August 23.
According to the pro-opposition blog, Liwa Fatemiyoun deployed its forces in the vicinity of Deir Ezzor city. At the same time, the group evacuated few of its posts in the area, while maintaining all of its key positions.
“The militia withdrew from a number of posts on al-Nahr Street upon orders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC),” Deir Ezzor 24 reporter said, adding: “the village of al-Malha, south of Deir Ezzor, also witnessed a complete withdrawal of Fatemiyoun militias.”
Deir Ezzor 24, which has a network of sources throughout Deir Ezzor, said the motive behind this redeployment are still unclear.
Liwa Fatemiyoun has 10,000 to 20,000 fighters in Syria. The Afghan group is funded, trained, and equipped by the IRGC. The group is active in Aleppo, Homs and Deir Ezzor.
Earlier this month, Liwa Fatemiyoun fighters carried out a combing operation in the southern countryside of Deir Ezzor. The operation targeted ISIS cells.
The Afghan group may be preparing to launch a new combing operation in Deir Ezzor, or even to participate in a highly anticipated military operation by the Syrian Arab Army against ISIS remnants in the nearby Homs desert.
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southfront--2020-08-23--Hezbollah Shot Down Israeli Drone Over Southern Lebanon (Photos)

Hezbollah announced late on August 22 that it had shot down an Israeli drone that had crossed the separation line into Southern Lebanon .
In a statement , Hezbollah said the drone , a DJI Mavic Pro quadcopter , was shot by one of its fighters after crossing the separation line from the Israeli side to an area located south of the Lebanese town of Ayta al-Shab .
The Israeli Defense Forces ( IDF ) acknowledged that one of their drones was lost near the separation line with Lebanon , saying that there is no fear of information leakage .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ commercially available for less than $ 900 , has been in service with the IDF since it was first released in 2016 .
The drone is equipped with a camera and can stay in the air for 27 minutes .
According to the Times of Israel , Mavic Pro drones are in service with the IDF ’ s Paratroopers Brigade , Golani Brigade , Nahal Brigade , Kfir Brigade and Givati Brigade .
The drones are only used in non-secret missions .
The IDF has been anticipating an attack by Hezbollah since July @ @ @ @ @ @ @ airstrikes on the Syrian capital , Damascus , killed a fighter of the Lebanese group .
Hezbollah has reportedly taken the decision to response the incident .
The downing of the Israeli drone was not , for sure , the long-awaited response .
MORE ON THIS TOPIC : • Reactions To The Verdict Of The ‘ Special Tribunal For Lebanon ’

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Hezbollah announced late on August 22 that it had shot down an Israeli drone that had crossed the separation line into Southern Lebanon.
In a statement, Hezbollah said the drone, a DJI Mavic Pro quadcopter, was shot by one of its fighters after crossing the separation line from the Israeli side to an area located south of the Lebanese town of Ayta al-Shab.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged that one of their drones was lost near the separation line with Lebanon, saying that there is no fear of information leakage.
The DJI Mavic Pro, which is commercially available for less than $900, has been in service with the IDF since it was first released in 2016. The drone is equipped with a camera and can stay in the air for 27 minutes.
According to the Times of Israel, Mavic Pro drones are in service with the IDF’s Paratroopers Brigade, Golani Brigade, Nahal Brigade, Kfir Brigade and Givati Brigade. The drones are only used in non-secret missions.
The IDF has been anticipating an attack by Hezbollah since July 20, when a series of Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian capital, Damascus, killed a fighter of the Lebanese group.
Hezbollah has reportedly taken the decision to response the incident. The downing of the Israeli drone was not, for sure, the long-awaited response.
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southfront--2020-08-23--Saudi-led Coalition Intercepted Suicide Drones, Missile Launched By Yemen’s Houthis

On August 22 , the Saudi-led coalition foiled two attempts by the Houthis to target the southern region of Saudi Arabia with advanced weapons .
In the afternoon , the Saudi-led coalition intercepted a “ bomb-laden drone ” and a “ ballistic missile , ” which were launched by the Houthis from Yemen .
The coalition said in a statement that the missile was heading towards civilian areas in the kingdom ’ s southern province of Jizan .
Later on the same day , the coalition intercepted a second suicide drone , that was also on its way to attack @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Saudi-led coalition uses MIM-104 Patriot PAC3 systems to intercept missiles and rockets launched by the Houthis .
Drones , however , are usually shot down by warplanes of the Royal Saudi Air Force with AIM-120 AMRAAM or with other air-to-air missiles .
The Houthis have not commented on the Saudi-led coalition ’ s claims , thus far .
The group usually announce any attack within a few days .
The Saudi-led coalition foiled several drone and missile attacks by the Houthis over the last few months .
However , the Yemeni group @ @ @ @ @ @ @ capabilities .
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On August 22, the Saudi-led coalition foiled two attempts by the Houthis to target the southern region of Saudi Arabia with advanced weapons.
In the afternoon, the Saudi-led coalition intercepted a “bomb-laden drone” and a “ballistic missile,” which were launched by the Houthis from Yemen. The coalition said in a statement that the missile was heading towards civilian areas in the kingdom’s southern province of Jizan.
Later on the same day, the coalition intercepted a second suicide drone, that was also on its way to attack a target in southern Saudi Arabia.
“The terrorist Houthi militia used civilians and civilian objects to shield the launch site of the ballistic missile,” Col. Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the coalition, said in an official statement.
The Saudi-led coalition uses MIM-104 Patriot PAC3 systems to intercept missiles and rockets launched by the Houthis. Drones, however, are usually shot down by warplanes of the Royal Saudi Air Force with AIM-120 AMRAAM or with other air-to-air missiles.
The Houthis have not commented on the Saudi-led coalition’s claims, thus far. The group usually announce any attack within a few days.
The Saudi-led coalition foiled several drone and missile attacks by the Houthis over the last few months. However, the Yemeni group is still working to develop its offensive capabilities.
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southfront--2020-08-23--Euro-Atlanticists Prepare For War With Russia

Preparations for a new open conflict in eastern Europe are in full swing .
The active phase of the crisis in Belarus has been developing since the presidential election on August 9 .
The Belarusian opposition seeking to overthrow the political regime of President Alexander Lukashenko continues attempts to destabilize the country with support from Western states .
The opposition ’ s formal leader , Svetlana Tikhanovskaya , whom is hiding in Lithuania , has been making loud statements demanding the resignation of Lukashenko and asking for support from the ‘ international community ’ .
At the same time , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and media class remaining in Belarus continue staging mass protests and blocking the work of large plants across the country with a direct help from the abroad .
The protest campaign against the government on the streets and in the media is openly coordinated by a special center in Poland .
The current Belarusian leadership demonstrates that it is especially concerned by the recent increase of the NATO military activity near the country ’ s border , including movement of troops , military equipment and flights of military aircraft .
By the decision @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Forces have been put on a high alert .
The threat from the West and the increase of chances of the military confrontation on the western Belarusian border regularly appeared in the recent statements of the president .
Just a few weeks ago , the very same government was speculating about ‘ Russian attempts ’ to destabilize Belarus .
The real situation apparently developed in a bit different direction .
The Defense Ministry earlier announced that Belarus will hold tactical drills in the Grodno region , near the border with Poland and Lithuania @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fact is that these developments come amid the newly-initiated anti-Russian hysteria in the Western mainstream media and local outlets covering protests in Belarus .
According to them , Moscow is seeking to meddle in the ‘ democratic process ’ inside the country in order to rescue the ‘ dictator ’ Lukashenko .
The foreign-controlled ‘ opposition ’ is also crying foul about the Kremlin ’ s destructive actions .
In reality , Moscow keeps a very restrained position towards the situation in Belarus and has undertaken no direct actions regarding the situation there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ approach of Western diplomats and media regarding Russia is not even a secret .
Amid these developments , Russia was also rocked by a political scandal , this time related to the Russian neo-liberal/pro-Western opposition .
On August 20 , the lead of the Russian ‘ non-system ’ opposition ( the hardcore pro-Western , neo-liberal part of the opposition ) , Alexei Navalny , was urgently hospitalized in Omsk , Russia .
On August 22 , Navalny was moved to Germany , to the “ Charite ” hospital .
Mainstream media outlets and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Navalny may have been poisoned by the Kremlin , if not personally Vladimir Putin .
They have been also calling for anti-government protests over the situation .
At the same time , the Russian hospital where Navalny received the urgent aid and his life was saved reported that the case is not related to the poisoning and a result of an unreported disease .
Navalny ’ s relatives were informed on this situation .
Regardless of the real situation with Navalny , the mainstream media and the neo-liberal opposition are set to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incident with the leader of the pro-Western opposition in Russia amid the political crisis in Belarus may be just an accident .
However , this looks highly unlikely .
Since the 1993 developments in Russia , the further destructive developments in Serbia and the coup in Ukraine in 2014 , the concept of “ sacred sacrifice ” has been one of the most popular tools of Euro-Atlantic forces destabilizing independent states in Europe .
In fact , the creation of some sacred sacrifice or sacred sacrifices has become a common trigger for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ start of the coup in a targeted country .
No surprise , the ongoing censorship campaign against independent media organizations and activists has intensified amid attempts to destabilize the situation in Eastern Europe .
Euro-Atlantic structures are persistently censoring and destroying all independent sources of information .
Western technological corporations have been blocking channels , accounts and resources that may undermine the plans of the globalist/neo-liberal establishment .
It is strange to see , but it looks that SouthFront is being considered by them as one of the main threats .
On Friday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ SouthFront ’ s Google AdSense account and stole funds collected there for the past 1.5 months .
There are also reports about the increased censorship campaign against Russian-language media organizations .
Having this in mind , Russian-speaking members of SouthFront sent emails/complaints about our situation to Russian authorities , including the Foreign Ministry and the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications , Information Technology and Mass Media .
SouthFront requests for the juridical assistance were ignored or threated in a hostile way .
It seems that the US Department of State forgot to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ pillar ” of “ Russia ’ s disinformation and propaganda ” .
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Preparations for a new open conflict in eastern Europe are in full swing.
The active phase of the crisis in Belarus has been developing since the presidential election on August 9. The Belarusian opposition seeking to overthrow the political regime of President Alexander Lukashenko continues attempts to destabilize the country with support from Western states. The opposition’s formal leader, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, whom is hiding in Lithuania, has been making loud statements demanding the resignation of Lukashenko and asking for support from the ‘international community’. At the same time, the active pro-Western group of the political and media class remaining in Belarus continue staging mass protests and blocking the work of large plants across the country with a direct help from the abroad. The protest campaign against the government on the streets and in the media is openly coordinated by a special center in Poland.
The current Belarusian leadership demonstrates that it is especially concerned by the recent increase of the NATO military activity near the country’s border, including movement of troops, military equipment and flights of military aircraft. By the decision of President Lukashenko, the Belarusian Armed Forces have been put on a high alert. The threat from the West and the increase of chances of the military confrontation on the western Belarusian border regularly appeared in the recent statements of the president. Just a few weeks ago, the very same government was speculating about ‘Russian attempts’ to destabilize Belarus. The real situation apparently developed in a bit different direction.
The Defense Ministry earlier announced that Belarus will hold tactical drills in the Grodno region, near the border with Poland and Lithuania, on 28-31 August.
#Belarus. #Minsk, happening right now. These are dozens of thousands already. And more and more people are coming. They are chanting: "Lukashenko, go away!" "Tribunal," "Lukashenko to a paddy wagon!" People are singing and clapping pic.twitter.com/cARtRvcBlM — Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) August 23, 2020
The interesting fact is that these developments come amid the newly-initiated anti-Russian hysteria in the Western mainstream media and local outlets covering protests in Belarus. According to them, Moscow is seeking to meddle in the ‘democratic process’ inside the country in order to rescue the ‘dictator’ Lukashenko. The foreign-controlled ‘opposition’ is also crying foul about the Kremlin’s destructive actions. In reality, Moscow keeps a very restrained position towards the situation in Belarus and has undertaken no direct actions regarding the situation there so far. Nonetheless, the double-faced approach of Western diplomats and media regarding Russia is not even a secret.
Amid these developments, Russia was also rocked by a political scandal, this time related to the Russian neo-liberal/pro-Western opposition. On August 20, the lead of the Russian ‘non-system’ opposition (the hardcore pro-Western, neo-liberal part of the opposition), Alexei Navalny, was urgently hospitalized in Omsk, Russia. On August 22, Navalny was moved to Germany, to the “Charite” hospital.
Mainstream media outlets and the Russian neo-liberal opposition are fiercely speculating that Navalny may have been poisoned by the Kremlin, if not personally Vladimir Putin. They have been also calling for anti-government protests over the situation. At the same time, the Russian hospital where Navalny received the urgent aid and his life was saved reported that the case is not related to the poisoning and a result of an unreported disease. Navalny’s relatives were informed on this situation. Regardless of the real situation with Navalny, the mainstream media and the neo-liberal opposition are set to continue blaming the Russian government.
The incident with the leader of the pro-Western opposition in Russia amid the political crisis in Belarus may be just an accident. However, this looks highly unlikely. Since the 1993 developments in Russia, the further destructive developments in Serbia and the coup in Ukraine in 2014, the concept of “sacred sacrifice” has been one of the most popular tools of Euro-Atlantic forces destabilizing independent states in Europe. In fact, the creation of some sacred sacrifice or sacred sacrifices has become a common trigger for the launch of regime change attempts and the start of the coup in a targeted country.
No surprise, the ongoing censorship campaign against independent media organizations and activists has intensified amid attempts to destabilize the situation in Eastern Europe. Euro-Atlantic structures are persistently censoring and destroying all independent sources of information. Western technological corporations have been blocking channels, accounts and resources that may undermine the plans of the globalist/neo-liberal establishment. It is strange to see, but it looks that SouthFront is being considered by them as one of the main threats. On Friday, August 21, Google even terminated SouthFront’s Google AdSense account and stole funds collected there for the past 1.5 months. There are also reports about the increased censorship campaign against Russian-language media organizations. Having this in mind, Russian-speaking members of SouthFront sent emails/complaints about our situation to Russian authorities, including the Foreign Ministry and the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media. SouthFront requests for the juridical assistance were ignored or threated in a hostile way. It seems that the US Department of State forgot to inform the Kremlin that SouthFront is the “pillar” of “Russia’s disinformation and propaganda”.
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southfront--2020-08-23--Third Wave Of Russian Airstrikes Hit ISIS Terrorists In Homs, Raqqa & Deir Ezzor In Central Syria

For the third day in a row , warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out a series of airstrikes @ @ @ @ @ Syria .
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights ( SOHR ) , @ @ @ @ @ airstrikes targeted ISIS positions in following areas : In the last two days , similar @ @ @ @ @ the Homs desert , that lays between eastern Homs and western Deir Ezzor as well @ @ @ @ @ northern desert .
The terrorist group ’ s losses are yet to be revealed .
@ @ @ @ @ ISIS in central Syria are likely a response to a recent attack by the terrorist @ @ @ @ @ of a Russian major-general .
A recent report by the SOHR revealed that the Syrian @ @ @ @ @ launch a large-scale military operation against ISIS remnants in the Homs desert .
Russian forces @ @ @ @ @ will supposedly start soon .
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For the third day in a row, warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out a series of airstrikes on ISIS terrorists in central Syria.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), on August 23, Russian airstrikes targeted ISIS positions in following areas:
The eastern Homs countryside;
The southern and western Raqqa countryside;
The western Deir Ezzor countryside.
In the last two days, similar airstrikes targeted ISIS terrorists in the Homs desert, that lays between eastern Homs and western Deir Ezzor as well as in al-Suwayd’s northern desert. The terrorist group’s losses are yet to be revealed.
The recent Russian airstrikes on ISIS in central Syria are likely a response to a recent attack by the terrorist group that claimed the life of a Russian major-general.
A recent report by the SOHR revealed that the Syrian Arab Army was preparing to launch a large-scale military operation against ISIS remnants in the Homs desert. Russian forces will back the operation that will supposedly start soon.
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southfront--2020-08-24--Towards a US-China War? The Creation of a Global Totalitarian System, A “One World Government”?

If we step back from the details of daily headlines around the world and try to make sense of larger patterns , the dominant dynamic defining world geopolitics in the past three years or more is the appearance of a genuine irregular conflict between the two most formidable powers on the planet—The Peoples ’ Republic of China and the United States of America .
Increasingly it ’ s beginning to look as if some very dark global networks are orchestrating what looks to be an updated rerun of their 1939-1945 World War .
The powers that be periodically use war @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behalf of the Powers That Be ( PTB ) , World War II was orchestrated by the circles of the City of London and of Wall Street to maneuver two great obstacles—Russia and Germany—to wage a war to the death against each other , in order that those Anglo-Saxon PTB could reorganize the world geopolitical chess board to their advantage .
It largely succeeded , but for the small detail that after 1945 , Wall Street and the Rockefeller brothers were determined that England play the junior partner to Washington .
London and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ global domination known as the Cold War .
That Anglo-American global condominium ended , by design , in 1989 with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union by 1991 .
Around this time , with the onset of the Bill Clinton presidency in 1992 , the next phase– financial and industrial globalization– was inaugurated .
With that , began the hollowing out of the industrial base of not only the United States , but also of Germany and the EU .
The cheap labor outsourcing enabled by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ destroyed one industry after the next in the industrial West after the 1990s .
It was a necessary step on the path to what G.H.W .
Bush in 1990 called the New World Order .
The next step would be destruction of national sovereignty everywhere .
Here the USA was the major obstacle .
“ A little help from our friends… ” For the PTB , who owe no allegiance to nations , only to their power which is across borders , the birth of the World Trade Organization and their bringing China @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was intended as the key next step .
At that point the PTB facilitated in China the greatest industrial growth by any nation in history , possibly excepting Germany from 1871-1914 and USA after 1866 .
WTO membership allowed Western multinationals from Apple to Nike to KFC to Ford and VW to pour billions into China to make their products at dirt-cheap wage levels for re-export to the West .
One of the great mysteries of that China growth is the fact that China was allowed to become the “ workshop of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lower-skill industries such as textiles or toys , later in pharmaceuticals and most recently in electronics assembly and production .
The mystery clears up when we look at the idea that the PTB and their financial houses , using China , want to weaken strong industrial powers , especially the United States , to push their global agenda .
Brzezinski often wrote that the nation state was to be eliminated , as did his patron , David Rockefeller .
By allowing China to become a rival to Washington in economy and increasingly in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ destroy the superpower hegemony of the US .
By the onset of the Presidency of Xi Jinping in 2012 , China was an economic colossus second in weight only to the United States .
Clearly this could never have happened–not under the eye of the same Anglo-American old families who launched the Opium Wars after 1840 to bring China to heel and open their economy to Western financial looting–unless the Anglo-Americans had wanted it .
The same British-owned bank involved in the China opium trade , Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank ( HSBC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thomas Sutherland in 1865 in the then-British colony of Hong Kong , today is the largest non-Chinese bank in Hong Kong .
HSBC has become so well-connected to China in recent years that it has since 2011 had as Board member and Deputy HSBC Chairman , Laura Cha .
Cha was formerly Vice Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission , being the first person outside mainland China to join the Beijing Central Government of the People ’ s Republic of China at vice-ministerial rank .
In other words the largest bank in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a member of the Chinese Communist Party and a China government official .
China needed access to Western money and HSBC and other select banks such as JP MorganChase , Barclays , Goldman Sachs were clearly more than happy to assist .
All told until 2012 when Xi took charge of the CCP in Beijing , China seemed to be willing to be a globalist “ team player , ” though with “ Chinese characteristics.
” However , in 2015 after little more than two years in office , Xi Jinping endorsed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in China : 2025 .
China 2025 replaced an earlier Western globalist document that had been formulated with the World Bank and the USA , the China 2030 report under Robert Zoellick .
That shift to a China strategy for global tech domination might well have triggered a decision by the globalist PTB that China could no longer be relied on to play by the rules of the globalists , but rather that the CCP under Xi were determined to make China the global leader in advanced industrial , AI and bio-technologies .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ not the idea of the New World Order gang .
combined with Xi ’ s strong advocacy of the Belt Road Initiative for global infrastructure linking China by land and sea to all Eurasia and beyond , likely suggested to the globalists that the only solution to the prospect of their losing their power to a China global hegemon would ultimately be war , a war that would destroy both nationalist powers , USA AND China .
This is my conclusion and there is much to suggest this is now taking place .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ be far different from the military contest of World War II .
The USA and most of the Western industrial economies have “ conveniently ” imposed the worst economic depression since the 1930 ’ s as a bizarre response to an alleged virus originating in Wuhan and spreading to the world .
Despite the fact that the death toll , even with vastly inflated statistics , is at the level of a severe annual influenza , the insistence of politicians and the corrupt WHO to impose draconian lockdown and economic disruption has crippled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and most of the EU .
The eruption of well-organized riots and vandalism under the banner of racial protests across the USA has brought America ’ s cities to a state in many cases of war zones resembling the cities of the 2013 Matt Damon and Jodie Foster film , Elysium .
In this context , anti-Washington rhetoric from Beijing has taken on a sharp tone in their use of so-called “ Wolf Diplomacy.
” Now after Washington closed the China Consulate in Houston and China the US Consulate in Chengdu , both @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tech companies are being banned in the US , military displays of force from the US in the South China Sea and waters near Taiwan are increasing tensions and rhetoric on both sides .
The White House accuses the WHO of being an agent of Beijing , while China accuses the US of deliberately creating a deadly virus and bringing it to Wuhan .
Chinese state media supports the explosion of violent protests across America under the banner of Black Lives Matter .
Step-wise events are escalating dramatically .
Many of the US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cities have ties to Beijing such as the Maoist-origin Revolutionary Communist Party , USA of Bob Avakian .
Under these conditions , what kind of escalation is likely ?
In 1999 two colonels in the China PLA , Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui , published a book with the PLA Press titled Qiao Liang was promoted to Major General in the PLA Air Force and became deputy secretary-general of the Council for National Security Policy Studies .
The two updated their work in 2016 .
It gives a window on high-level China military @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the aftermath of the 1991 US Operation Desert Storm war against Iraq , the Chinese authors point out what they see as US over-dependence on brute military force and conventional military doctrine .
They claim , “ Observing , considering , and resolving problems from the point of view of technology is typical American thinking .
Its advantages and disadvantages are both very apparent , just like the characters of Americans.
” They add , “ military threats are already often no longer the major factors affecting national security…these traditional factors are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , contending for markets , controlling capital , trade sanctions , and other economic factors , to the extent that they are even becoming secondary to these factors .
They comprise a new pattern which threatens the political , economic and military security of a nation or nations… The two authors define the new form of warfare as , “ encompassing the political , economic , diplomatic , cultural , and psychological spheres , in addition to the land , sea , air , space , and electronics spheres.
” They suggest China @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial institutions , terrorism , using the media , and conducting urban warfare among the methods proposed .
Recent revelations that Chinese entities pay millions in ad revenues to the and other mainstream USA media to voice China-positive views is one example .
Similarly , maneuvering a Chinese national to head the US ’ largest public pension fund , CalPERS , which poured billions into risky China stocks , or persuading the New York Stock Exchange to list dozens of China companies without requiring adherence to US accounting transparency increase US financial vulnerability @ @ @ @ @ @ @ form that a war between China and the US could take .
It can be termed asymmetrical warfare or unrestricted war , where nothing that disrupts the enemy is off limits .
Qiao has that , “ the first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules , with nothing forbidden.
” There are no Geneva Conventions .
The two Beijing authors add this irregular warfare could include assaults on the political security , economic security , cultural security , and information security of the nation .
The dependence of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everything from basic antibiotics to militarily-vital rare earth minerals is but one domain of vulnerability .
On its side , China is vulnerable to trade sanctions , financial disruption , bioterror attacks and oil embargoes to name a few .
Some have suggested the recent locust plague and African Swine Fever devastation to China ’ s core food supplies , was not merely an act of nature .
If not , then we are likely deep into an undeclared form of US-China unrestricted warfare .
Could it be that the recent extreme floods @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the giant Three Gorges Dam and have flooded Wuhan and other major China cities and devastated millions of acres of key cropland was not entirely seasonal ?
A full unrestricted war of China and the USA would be more than a tragedy .
It could be the end of civilization as we know it .
Is this what characters such as Bill Gates and his superiors are trying to bring about ?
Do they plan to introduce their draconian dystopian “ Reset ” on the ashes of such a conflict ?
F. William @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics , exclusively for the online magazine “ New Eastern Outlook ” where this article was originally published .
He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization .

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Written by F. William Engdahl; Originally appeared at Global Research
If we step back from the details of daily headlines around the world and try to make sense of larger patterns, the dominant dynamic defining world geopolitics in the past three years or more is the appearance of a genuine irregular conflict between the two most formidable powers on the planet—The Peoples’ Republic of China and the United States of America. Increasingly it’s beginning to look as if some very dark global networks are orchestrating what looks to be an updated rerun of their 1939-1945 World War. The powers that be periodically use war to gain major policy shifts.
On behalf of the Powers That Be (PTB), World War II was orchestrated by the circles of the City of London and of Wall Street to maneuver two great obstacles—Russia and Germany—to wage a war to the death against each other, in order that those Anglo-Saxon PTB could reorganize the world geopolitical chess board to their advantage. It largely succeeded, but for the small detail that after 1945, Wall Street and the Rockefeller brothers were determined that England play the junior partner to Washington. London and Washington then entered the period of their global domination known as the Cold War.
That Anglo-American global condominium ended, by design, in 1989 with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union by 1991.
Around this time, with the onset of the Bill Clinton presidency in 1992, the next phase– financial and industrial globalization– was inaugurated. With that, began the hollowing out of the industrial base of not only the United States, but also of Germany and the EU. The cheap labor outsourcing enabled by the new WTO drove wages down and destroyed one industry after the next in the industrial West after the 1990s. It was a necessary step on the path to what G.H.W. Bush in 1990 called the New World Order. The next step would be destruction of national sovereignty everywhere. Here the USA was the major obstacle.
“A little help from our friends…”
For the PTB, who owe no allegiance to nations, only to their power which is across borders, the birth of the World Trade Organization and their bringing China in as a full member in 2001 was intended as the key next step. At that point the PTB facilitated in China the greatest industrial growth by any nation in history, possibly excepting Germany from 1871-1914 and USA after 1866. WTO membership allowed Western multinationals from Apple to Nike to KFC to Ford and VW to pour billions into China to make their products at dirt-cheap wage levels for re-export to the West.
One of the great mysteries of that China growth is the fact that China was allowed to become the “workshop of the world” after 2001, first in lower-skill industries such as textiles or toys, later in pharmaceuticals and most recently in electronics assembly and production. The mystery clears up when we look at the idea that the PTB and their financial houses, using China, want to weaken strong industrial powers, especially the United States, to push their global agenda. Brzezinski often wrote that the nation state was to be eliminated, as did his patron, David Rockefeller. By allowing China to become a rival to Washington in economy and increasingly in technology, they created the means to destroy the superpower hegemony of the US.
By the onset of the Presidency of Xi Jinping in 2012, China was an economic colossus second in weight only to the United States. Clearly this could never have happened–not under the eye of the same Anglo-American old families who launched the Opium Wars after 1840 to bring China to heel and open their economy to Western financial looting–unless the Anglo-Americans had wanted it.
The same British-owned bank involved in the China opium trade, Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC), founded by a Scotsman, Thomas Sutherland in 1865 in the then-British colony of Hong Kong, today is the largest non-Chinese bank in Hong Kong. HSBC has become so well-connected to China in recent years that it has since 2011 had as Board member and Deputy HSBC Chairman, Laura Cha. Cha was formerly Vice Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, being the first person outside mainland China to join the Beijing Central Government of the People’s Republic of China at vice-ministerial rank. In other words the largest bank in the UK has a board member who was a member of the Chinese Communist Party and a China government official. China needed access to Western money and HSBC and other select banks such as JP MorganChase, Barclays, Goldman Sachs were clearly more than happy to assist.
“Socialism with Xi Jinping Characteristics…”
All told until 2012 when Xi took charge of the CCP in Beijing, China seemed to be willing to be a globalist “team player,” though with “Chinese characteristics.” However, in 2015 after little more than two years in office, Xi Jinping endorsed a comprehensive national industrial strategy, Made in China: 2025. China 2025 replaced an earlier Western globalist document that had been formulated with the World Bank and the USA, the China 2030 report under Robert Zoellick. That shift to a China strategy for global tech domination might well have triggered a decision by the globalist PTB that China could no longer be relied on to play by the rules of the globalists, but rather that the CCP under Xi were determined to make China the global leader in advanced industrial, AI and bio-technologies. A resurgent China nationalist global hegemony was not the idea of the New World Order gang.
China:2025 combined with Xi’s strong advocacy of the Belt Road Initiative for global infrastructure linking China by land and sea to all Eurasia and beyond, likely suggested to the globalists that the only solution to the prospect of their losing their power to a China global hegemon would ultimately be war, a war that would destroy both nationalist powers, USA AND China. This is my conclusion and there is much to suggest this is now taking place.
Tit for Tat
If so, it will most likely be far different from the military contest of World War II. The USA and most of the Western industrial economies have “conveniently” imposed the worst economic depression since the 1930’s as a bizarre response to an alleged virus originating in Wuhan and spreading to the world. Despite the fact that the death toll, even with vastly inflated statistics, is at the level of a severe annual influenza, the insistence of politicians and the corrupt WHO to impose draconian lockdown and economic disruption has crippled the remaining industrial base in the US and most of the EU.
The eruption of well-organized riots and vandalism under the banner of racial protests across the USA has brought America’s cities to a state in many cases of war zones resembling the cities of the 2013 Matt Damon and Jodie Foster film, Elysium. In this context, anti-Washington rhetoric from Beijing has taken on a sharp tone in their use of so-called “Wolf Diplomacy.”
Now after Washington closed the China Consulate in Houston and China the US Consulate in Chengdu, both sides have stepped up rhetoric. High tech companies are being banned in the US, military displays of force from the US in the South China Sea and waters near Taiwan are increasing tensions and rhetoric on both sides. The White House accuses the WHO of being an agent of Beijing, while China accuses the US of deliberately creating a deadly virus and bringing it to Wuhan. Chinese state media supports the explosion of violent protests across America under the banner of Black Lives Matter. Step-wise events are escalating dramatically. Many of the US self-styled Marxists leading the protests across US cities have ties to Beijing such as the Maoist-origin Revolutionary Communist Party, USA of Bob Avakian.
“Unrestricted Warfare”
Under these conditions, what kind of escalation is likely? In 1999 two colonels in the China PLA, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, published a book with the PLA Press titled Unrestricted Warfare. Qiao Liang was promoted to Major General in the PLA Air Force and became deputy secretary-general of the Council for National Security Policy Studies. The two updated their work in 2016. It gives a window on high-level China military strategy.
Reviewing published US military doctrine in the aftermath of the 1991 US Operation Desert Storm war against Iraq, the Chinese authors point out what they see as US over-dependence on brute military force and conventional military doctrine. They claim, “Observing, considering, and resolving problems from the point of view of technology is typical American thinking. Its advantages and disadvantages are both very apparent, just like the characters of Americans.” They add, “military threats are already often no longer the major factors affecting national security…these traditional factors are increasingly becoming more intertwined with grabbing resources, contending for markets, controlling capital, trade sanctions, and other economic factors, to the extent that they are even becoming secondary to these factors. They comprise a new pattern which threatens the political, economic and military security of a nation or nations… The two authors define the new form of warfare as, “encompassing the political, economic, diplomatic, cultural, and psychological spheres, in addition to the land, sea, air, space, and electronics spheres.”
They suggest China could use hacking into websites, targeting financial institutions, terrorism, using the media, and conducting urban warfare among the methods proposed. Recent revelations that Chinese entities pay millions in ad revenues to the New York Times and other mainstream USA media to voice China-positive views is one example. Similarly, maneuvering a Chinese national to head the US’ largest public pension fund, CalPERS, which poured billions into risky China stocks, or persuading the New York Stock Exchange to list dozens of China companies without requiring adherence to US accounting transparency increase US financial vulnerability are others.
This all suggests the form that a war between China and the US could take. It can be termed asymmetrical warfare or unrestricted war, where nothing that disrupts the enemy is off limits. Qiao has that, “the first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules, with nothing forbidden.” There are no Geneva Conventions.
The two Beijing authors add this irregular warfare could include assaults on the political security, economic security, cultural security, and information security of the nation. The dependence of the US economy on China supply chains for everything from basic antibiotics to militarily-vital rare earth minerals is but one domain of vulnerability.
On its side, China is vulnerable to trade sanctions, financial disruption, bioterror attacks and oil embargoes to name a few. Some have suggested the recent locust plague and African Swine Fever devastation to China’s core food supplies, was not merely an act of nature. If not, then we are likely deep into an undeclared form of US-China unrestricted warfare. Could it be that the recent extreme floods along the China Yangtze River that threaten the giant Three Gorges Dam and have flooded Wuhan and other major China cities and devastated millions of acres of key cropland was not entirely seasonal?
A full unrestricted war of China and the USA would be more than a tragedy. It could be the end of civilization as we know it. Is this what characters such as Bill Gates and his superiors are trying to bring about? Do they plan to introduce their draconian dystopian “Reset” on the ashes of such a conflict?
F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook” where this article was originally published. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.
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southfront--2020-08-24--Military Situation In Syria On August 24, 2020 (Map Update)

Click to see the full-size image A brief overview of the recent developments in Syria : • Unidentified aircraft conducted @ @ @ @ @ positions in the Maadan area , in Raqqah province ; • Turkish-backed militants allegedly repelled @ @ @ @ @ Fatirah area , in southern Idlib ; • Massive explosion hit the Arab Gas Pipeline @ @ @ @ @ , causing a full electricity blackout in several cities and towns ; • IED attack @ @ @ @ @ the city of Al-Shaddadi , in southern Hasakah governorate .
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A brief overview of the recent developments in Syria:
Unidentified aircraft conducted several air strikes on ISIS positions in the Maadan area, in Raqqah province;
Turkish-backed militants allegedly repelled the SAA attacks on the Fatirah area, in southern Idlib;
Massive explosion hit the Arab Gas Pipeline in the east of Damascus, causing a full electricity blackout in several cities and towns;
IED attack targeted the SDF vehicle near the city of Al-Shaddadi, in southern Hasakah governorate.
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