This report has been updated thanks to new revelations from the work of investigative journalist Yasha Levine and his research into the Tor project for his new book Surveillance Valley.
BEIRUT — Just a few weeks ago, it seemed that Israel was on the brink of starting a war with Syria. However, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), known for his neo-conservative tendencies, is now warning that it is Israel’s other northern neighbor, Lebanon, that is in the crosshairs.
BIR-AS-SABA’, NAQAB (Analysis) — The Naqab region is assumed to be an integral part of the apartheid state of Israel. However, like all other parts of historic Palestine, it was taken by force and occupied since 1948, when the Zionist state was established.
For the last seven decades its indigenous people, the Palestinian Bedouin who have historically lived here for thousands of years, have been living without rights and subjected to a vicious campaign of dispossession and racial segregation.
WASHINGTON — If you are even a casual consumer of Western media then you know the current top threat to U.S. security according to corporate journalists is Russian aggression.
GINOWAN CITY, OKINAWA — A spate of recent incidents surrounding U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma has shaken the residents of the densely populated city of Ginowan, Okinawa, thrusting the tense history of relations between Japan, the U.S. military, and the locals in Okinawa Prefecture back into the global spotlight.
WASHINGTON — As U.S. corporate media outlets and lawmakers continue to work themselves and the U.S. public into a lather over alleged “foreign propaganda,” the State Department has launched a new initiative to advance the U.S. government’s own disinformation operations in league with its allies in Silicon Valley.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — If ever there was a pivotal moment for South Africa’s young democracy, it was likely two years after voters of all races went to the polls for the first time, when President Nelson Mandela’s ruling party, the African National Congress, decided to proceed with construction of a mammoth, $8 billion dam project in neighboring Lesotho.
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND (Analysis) — According to the BBC, there are some 40 countries involved in the current NATO mission in Afghanistan, currently known as “Resolute Support.” In other words, approximately one-fifth of the world’s countries have deployed troops to this war-torn nation.
NEW YORK — A UN-brokered ceasefire has once again been established, now for the sixth time, in Syria and, like most of those that preceded it, has now been broken. The current ceasefire sought to end fighting in Eastern Ghouta, an area near the Syrian capital of Damascus that has long been controlled by militant U.S.-Saudi backed rebels seeking to overthrow the Syrian government.
A concerted push is underway in South America that could see one of the world’s largest reserves of fresh water soon fall into the hands of transnational corporations such as Coca-Cola and Nestle. According to reports, talks to privatize the Guarani Aquifer – a vast subterranean water reserve lying beneath Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay – have already reached an advanced stage. The deal would grant a consortium of U.S. and Europe-based conglomerates exclusive rights to the aquifer that would last over 100 years.
