June, 2021

• 11 June

  Arms Sales: What We Know About Bombs Being Dropped in Our Name

  

  At some point before the summer of 2018, an arms deal from the US to Saudi Arabia was sealed and delivered. A 227kg laser-guided bomb made by Lockheed Martin, one of many thousands, was part of that sale. On August 9th, 2018 one of those Lockheed Martin bombs was dropped …

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• 11 June

  Syria Suffers Yet Another Mysterious Strike

  

  Syrian military officials early Wednesday morning blamed Israel for another nightly airstrike near the capital Damascus, claiming air defense batteries succeeded in intercepting Israel’s “aggression coming from Lebanese airspace.” While Jerusalem did not comment on the reports, Syrian opposition forces said the attacks targeted Iranian militia bases, spread out across …

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• 11 June

  Dangerous Jerusalem Event Moved for Fear of Violence

  

  Israel’s Security Cabinet on Tuesday decided to postpone to next week the highly controversial Flag March scheduled for Thursday. The march, organized by right-wing and religious groups, was planned to pass through volatile Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, including the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, and was determined by …

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• 11 June

  Islamic State cells terrorize civilians in northwest Syria

  

  Islamic State cells in the areas under the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army in the countryside of Aleppo have escalated operations following the killing of a senior IS official and his colleague during a raid on their hideout in the city of al-Bab. Areas are controlled by the Turkish-backed Free Syrian …

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• 11 June

  Egyptian concerns grow amid Ethiopia’s plan to build dozens of dams

  

  Ethiopia announced a plan to build dozens of additional dams at a time when tensions with Egypt and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam are on the rise due to failure to agree on filling and operating the dam. Egypt has recently criticized the statements of Ethiopian Prime Minister …

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• 11 June

  Ethiopia’s plan to build Red Sea military bases fuels tension with Egypt

  

  Amid the stalled negotiations with Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia is expressing its intention to build military bases in the Red Sea. Ethiopia recently made fiery remarks that further fueled tensions with Egypt over the controversial dam Addis Ababa is building on the Blue Nile. On June …

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• 11 June

  Blinken says Iranian compliance on nuclear deal ‘a first step, not a last step’

  

  The US secretary of state told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that there are ‘areas where we can get even stronger commitments from Iran.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the Biden administration’s Iran nuclear deal strategy before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. US President Joe Biden’s …

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• 11 June

  Turkish drone sets off international buzz over ‘killer robots’

  

  The appearance of Turkish artificial intelligence-controlled drones in Libyan skies has rekindled questions on how lethal autonomous weapons will affect regional geopolitics and whether they should be banned. Turkey’s flourishing drone industry is back in the international spotlight following a UN report suggesting that Turkish-made artificial intelligence-based drones might have …

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• 11 June

  For the U.S. and Russia, ‘Stable and Predictable’ Would Be a Good Start

  

  When U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met last month with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Reykjavik, it prompted inevitable comparisons with another high-level encounter in Iceland’s capital: the famous October 1986 summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that set the stage for the thawing of the Cold …

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• 11 June

  America Comes and Goes. Trans-Atlantic Tensions Are Forever

  

  “First thing I’m going to have to do, and I’m not joking,” candidate Joe Biden said last September in a campaign interview about America’s European allies. “If elected I’m going to … get on the phone with the heads of state and say America’s back, you can count on us.” …

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