Author: Steven Sahiounie

BY MARTIN LUKACS The following is an excerpt from Martin Lukacs’ new book, The Trudeau Formula: Seduction and Betrayal in an Age of Discontent, released this year by Black Rose Books. In late, April 2019, the stunned friends and relatives of Abdullah Salman Al Asreeh held a prayer ceremony for the 24-year old man in Toronto. Without a warning by phone-call, they had learned on the evening news that he had been executed by the Saudi government. He was among 37 men, most belonging to the country’s persecuted Shia minority, killed in one of the biggest executions in recent Saudi history.…

An international relief group has said another five years of fighting in Yemen will cost as much as $29 billion just to sustain the current level of humanitarian aid – more than the entire annual global humanitarian budget. The International Rescue Committee said in a report on Monday that with the current rate of aid, it will take 20 years to return Yemen to pre-conflict levels of child hunger. The IRC says Yemen has the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with 24 million Yemenis, or 80 percent of the population, needing humanitarian aid and 16 million living on the verge of…

Beijing has stopped allowing US Navy vessels to visit Hong Kong and “sanctioned” foreign NGOs after President Donald Trump signed a bill, which targets China over its response to anti-government protests and riots in the city. Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, said on Monday that China will no longer review requests by the American warships to dock in Hong Kong. The nation has already barred several US Navy ships from visiting Hong Kong in recent months. Hua also announced that the country has sanctioned NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), Freedom House and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), for…

Turkish military forces have claimed the lives of at least 11 civilians, including eight children, in an artillery attack that struck near a school in the northwestern Syrian province of Aleppo.The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Monday that the shelling took place in the Kurdish-held town of Tal Rifaat as students were leaving the building and left 21 others injured. Rami Abdel Rahman, the Observatory head, said most of those killed in the attack had been displaced from the Syria’s northwestern region of Afrin, which was captured last year by Turkish troops. The strategic town of…

Russia started deliveries of the air defence systems to Turkey in July, and they are expected to become fully operational by April 2020, according to Ankara. “Turkey has to acquire those Russian S-400 defence systems – the move won’t decrease NATO’s defence capability, but will boost it instead. We’re doing it, however, not for the sake of the NATO, but to bolster our air defence”, member of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration Ismail Safi stated. The arms deal between Moscow and Ankara became a major concern for Washington, which urged Ankara to break the agreement and even sanctioned Turkey over the…

Despite its arguably aged military arsenal, Iran seems to be pretty good at maintaining American partrollers to keep a keen eye on what’s going on in the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, which has of late seen a number of tanker attacks. The Iranian Air Force’s museum-vintage P-3 Orion patrol planes have proved airworthy, as 11 November saw an Iran-owned Lockheed P-3F Orion pass in close proximity to the US Military Sealift Command dry-cargo vessel USNS Alan Shepard and USS Normandy, an accompanying US Navy cruiser, The National Interest reported. Navy photos captured the moment when the four-engine P-3…

By Stephen Lendman Launched cross-border on October 9, east of the Euphrates River, Turkish aggression is all about President Erdogan’s aim to annex northern Syrian territory. So-called “Operation Peace Spring” has nothing to do with peace, nothing to do with protecting Turkey from cross-border attacks, nothing to do with combatting ISIS and likeminded terrorist groups Ankara supports. Clashes continue between Ankara-backed terrorists and Syrian forces, no ceasefire as falsely declared by Turkey on October 22. Turkish forces continue ground and air attacks after the artificially declared ceasefire. According to Kurdish YPG commander Mazloum Abdi, Erdogan wants northern Syria ethnically cleansed of Kurds.…

By Margaret Griffis During November, at least 373 people were killed and 3,136 were wounded. Mass graves gave up 73 bodies as well. October saw 433 deaths and thousands more wounded. Protests continued last month, but the Iraqi government ceased giving official casualty reports in October. In November, at least 203 dead and 3,026 were wounded, according to media reports. According to Dr. Ali Albayati, a member of Iraq’s High Commission for Human Rights, the casualty numbers for the protests are likely 409 dead and 17,745 injured. These figures are from October 1 to about November 30. It is unclear how accurate they are. Many of the wounded avoid seeking medical help…

Sarah Abed, independent journalist and analyst Trade between the European Union (EU) and the Islamic Republic of Iran has dropped roughly 74.92% percent this year from January to September compared to last year during the same timeframe, due to US-imposed sanctions, according to the European statistical office. The top three trading partners in the European bloc were Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Analysts at the European Council on Foreign Relations have described the US’s secondary sanctions as abuse of its global financial dominance. Iran’s commodities exports have fallen 94% and imports have declined 51.15%. Before the sanctions, the EU was Iran’s main trading…

The Israeli premier has been going through some tough times lately, as he is currently facing criminal charges on corruption, including bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, with three corruption cases in total. 5,000 protesters have gathered at Habima Square, Tel Aviv, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resign, The Times of Israel reported on Saturday. The demonstrators were holding signs with slogans “Strong democracy, strong Israel” and “Netanyahu, resign, Israel is more important” written on them. According to the newspaper, the Movement for Quality Government advocacy group was behind Saturday’s rally. Ex-IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan was also captured on…