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Posts From The Saker

(Update): How Online Users responded to YouTube’s termination of Middle East Observer – Facts & Figures

Hello fellow observers, Just five days after YouTube’s termination of our channel, here’s some of the major developments that occurred in response to this decision: a) the number of ‘Patrons’ supporting us financially on our Patreon page grew by an outstanding 70%, opening up much greater opportunities for MEO to not only become more sustainable but to increase its content production too (e.g. one more Patron and we will reach 30

Yellow Vest week in review: March 16 to be the biggest march in months

by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog The fundamental problem with media coverage regarding regarding the Yellow Vests is that it fails to see it as an already-permanent movement, or even a possibly-permanent one: each week must be either the biggest one yet, or the very last one. The Yellow Vests see it similarly, but differently: for them each week is the very last one, too… because they will FINALLY

The Collapse of Western Civilization (as seen by Paul Joseph Watson)

I am posting this video with the following caveat: please try to overlooks/ignore PJW’s phobia (in the sense of hatred and the sense of fear) of Islam.  PJW is absolutely correct when he says that Islam is on the rise, but then he goes on to repeat the Zionist canard about Islam being a threat to the West.  It ain’t.  Zionism is. Besides, the only truly dangerous form of Islam

Nasrallah on the End of US Hegemony: Trump will Leave the Middle East and Abandon his Allies

Interview of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah Secretary General, with Ghassan Ben Jeddou, founder of the pan-Arab and anti-imperialist Al-Mayadeen channel, January 26, 2019. This live interview, much expected in Israel and the Arab world, lasted for more than 3 hours. Translation: unz.com/sayedhasan Donate as little as you can to support this work and subscribe to the Facebook Page and Dailymotion Channel to get around censorship.  

Hezbollah-linked Analyst on reality of Russia’s alliance with Iran/Hezbollah – English Subs

Here’s our first video translation after YouTube terminated our channel: Description: Senior political analyst Anees Naqqash, who has very close ties to Hezbollah and enjoys an authoritative status on various Lebanese, Syrian and Arab media outlets, was asked in a recent interview on Lebanese television: how can Iran & the ‘Resistance Axis’ be strategically allied to Russia while Moscow’s officials repeatedly announce their commitment to Israel’s security? The ‘Resistance Axis’

Marco Polo is back in China – again

by Pepe Escobar (cross-posted with the Asia Times ) by special agreement with the author) All roads seem to lead to Rome as Italy expresses its love for China’s Belt and Road Initiative President Xi Jinping is due to arrive in Italy for an official visit on March 22. The top theme of discussion will be the New Silk Road, or the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). A day earlier,

Balkan Report: Pauvre Serbie, Pauvres Serbes

by Stephen Karganovic for The Saker Blog In World War I, there was a popular refrain in France and the West generally expressing sympathetic support for their gallant Serbian allies, who were standing up to combined enemy armies on the Salonica front: Pauvres Serbes… That refrain still very much resonates but is no longer exclusively confined to the moral sphere, as it largely was a hundred years ago. Today, it

(Urgent): YouTube terminates Middle East Observer after almost 10 years online

After almost 10 years online, over 250 videos, almost 13,000 subscribers, and about 8 million total video views, YouTube has terminated the Middle East Observer (MEO) channel on its platform. Although perhaps MEO became best known for its video translations of regional political actors such as Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, its work was certainly not limited to that. Middle East Observer sought to provide its viewers with reliable English translations on politics,

Trump declares “victory” over ISIS but Washington’s foul plans in Syria are far from over

by Aram Mirzaei for the Saker blog At the eve of the 8 year anniversary of the Syrian war, the battle for one of the last ISIS strongholds in Syria is still raging. The so called “caliphate” is on its last knees as US president Trump declares that “100 percent of ISIS ‘caliphate’ has been taken back. Trump was of course only referring to the US coalitions “efforts” and didn’t

One country, two sessions, multiple tweaks

by Pepe Escobar (cross-posted with the Asia Times by special agreement with the author) Contrary to Western doom and gloom interpretations, China’s two sessions now taking place in Beijing offer a fascinating mix of realpolitik and soft power. Every year, the two sessions involve the National People’s Congress (NPC) – the legislative body – and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) – the political advisory body – laying down the Chinese equivalent of

US treats Luxembourg like a vassal state or how US imperial hubris has gone bonkers…

U.S. Embassy Luxembourg – Statement on Russian PM Medvedev’s Planned Visit to the Grand Duchy The U.S. Embassy in Luxembourg, responding to news of the Russian Prime Minister’s planned visit issued the following statement: “Luxembourg and its government find themselves at a unique time and in a unique place for advancing the right of all countries and peoples to “stay what [they] are”. It is a unique time as Russian

Russia’s Zircon Hypersonic Missile Challenges US Naval Dominance

Donate While the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile has not attracted the same level of media attention as the strategic Avangard re-entry vehicle or even the air-launched Kinzhal aeroballistic missile, it nevertheless represents an important advance in military technology and represents the state-of-the-art of Russian technologies. It promises to maintain and even expand Russia’s conventional deterrence through its high guarantee of effective retaliatory capability even against the most advanced anti-air and

Eric Hobsbawm, the joy of history and all that jazz

by Pepe Escobar (cross-posted with the Asia Times by special agreement with the author) We all lose by not having Eric Hobsbawm absorb the geopolitical dementia of the early 21st century to later refine it in sharp, crisp historical analysis. A new, exhaustive biography, ‘Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History,’ by his former student and Regius Professor of History Emeritus at Cambridge, Richard Evans – out now in the UK and in

France’s Yellow Vests: Proving cops are indeed part of the 1%

by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog The demonstration for “Acte 16”, on March 2nd, was designed as a sight-seeing tour which passed by bastions of rich, traitorous criminals (the OECD, a school of luxury marketing, etc.) and so it concluded at a small roundabout in a ritzy area, Denfert-Rochereau. As protesters amassed and cops loaded up, and with time in between my on-air interviews for PressTV, I headed for

Why Only Fools Trust America’s Mainstream ‘News’ Media After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq

by Eric Zuesse for The Saker Blog Here will be yet another current example to demonstrate that all U.S. mainstream ’news’ media hide from their respective publics that the U.S. Government is lying, when the U.S. Government lies — i.e., that all of the mainstream ’news’ media in America hide the truth, when the Government itself is lying. In other words: the U.S. mainstream ’news’ media are propaganda-organs for the

Kashmir, Korea, Venezuela, Iran: hot, cold, hybrid war

by Pepe Escobar (cross-posted with the Asia Times by special agreement with the author) Turning and turning in a widening gyre, the geopolitics of the young  21st century resembles a psychedelic mandala conceived by Yama, the Lord of Death. Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, fresh from a 70-hour train journey, meets in prosperous, communist Hanoi with fellow Nobel Peace Prize contender Donald Trump under the

Maduro 1: Abrams 0: but this match is far from over…

[This analysis was written for the Unz Review] Maduro wins the first round The standoff between Venezuela and the AngloZionist Empire last week-end has clearly ended in what can only be called a total defeat for Elliott Abrams.  While we will never know what was initially planned by the demented minds of the Neocons, what we do know is that nothing critical happened: no invasion, not even any major false

The Other Ukraine

by arras for The Saker blog Ukraine is a country in the Eastern Europe, which doesn’t require introduction to most readers as it was and still is filling pages of the newspapers and screens of a TVs. Courtesy of ongoing geopolitical conflict between the United States and the Russian Federation there. Some say, this is a conflict between East and West and thus suggesting that it is not just a

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