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(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

Moveable Feast Cafe 2019/03/06 … Open Thread

2019/03/06 12:00:01Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of the issues of the day. The ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’ will have two new open threads each week. The Saker stated moderation policy will apply eg ‘no caps’, no obscenity … etc to all post. The Cafe is now open for

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

Moveable Feast Cafe 2019/03/03 … Open Thread

2019/03/03 00:30:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of the issues of the day. The ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’ will have two new open threads each week. The Saker stated moderation policy will apply eg ‘no caps’, no obscenity … etc to all post. The Cafe is now open for

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

LGBT Goes on the Attack

by Ruslan Ostashko Translated and captioned by Leo.   The next award ceremony of the American Film Academy, commonly referred to as the Oscars, once again showed the power of pressure from sexual minorities. And so it coincided that at the same time with the ceremony, this power was manifested in something else.   “Best Film of the Year” – this is the title of the nomination, for which, according

U.S. Forces Steal Tons Of Gold Captured By ISIS In Syria, Iraq

Syrian War Report – March 1, 2019: U.S. Forces Steal Tons Of Gold Captured By ISIS In Syria, Iraq US forces are reportedly transferring tons of gold from ISIS-held areas in Syria to the US. According to Kurdish Bas News Agency, the US transferred about 50 tons of gold from areas seized from ISIS in Deir Ezzor province. The report says that the gold was withdrawn from Syria through 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

Listen to a Saudi analyst explaining why the KSA and Israel are cozying up to each other

Saudi analyst Abdul Hamid al-Hakeem has defended the appearance of Saudi and Arab leaders alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a recent conference in Warsaw, asserting that Saudi normalisation of ties with Israel was no cause for embarrassment. The two-day US-organised Warsaw conference on “peace and security” in the Middle East was widely seen as another major step by certain Arab and Israeli leaders to achieve a normalisation of

Russian Shipyards: An overview

by Nat South for The Saker Blog Part 1 https://10.16.86.131/being-bullish-about-arctic-shipping-the-northern-sea-route-nsr/ Part 2 http://10.16.86.131/the-new-silk-route-on-rails/ This is the third part of a series of analyses relating to Russia transport, shipping and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The existing and future strategic role of shipbuilding in Russia is not to be under-estimated despite the prevailing dominance of Asian shipyards. Currently, Russia faces a series of obstacles in relation to the overall development

A World (Still) Split Apart

By: Amir NOUR[1] for The Saker Blog “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything” (Attributed to Gilbert Keith Chesterton) The dramatic turn for the worse in the evolution of humanism and in the dizzying advances in science and technology has triggered heated debate among great thinkers and writers of the 20th century[2]. And the

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