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Good morning. What’s on your mind?

International Politics

Overall

– Russia told the UN Security Council that countries should not buy oil from terrorist organizations operating in Syria

– Chris Hedges: “Pity the Children“; On the child victims in war

– After 9/11, little has changed in the tactics by the governmental elite when operating overseas

– President Obama will send 200 more troops to Iraq to assist stabilizing the region

– Despite warnings by the European Unions to Israeli companies about not operating in the occupied territories, Israeli companies still ignore their request

Middle East

– The Kurds in Iraq called for assistance by the UN in order to have a referendum for independence

– After the bodies of three missing teenagers were found dead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas “will pay“; Israel’s justice policy: Shoot first, ask questions later!

– A spokesperson for Hamas said Hamas was not responsible for the deaths and warned Israel the “gates of hell” would be unleashed if an attack on the Gaza Strip happened

– Also, Netanyahu stated, as a result of Islamic extremism in the Middle East, Israel’s presence in the West Bank was justified; Alternatively, it is “the thing Westerns made up about terrorism is what justifies our brutality in the West Bank!”

– The Islamic State in Iraq and Levant raised its flag in a town in Syria just across the border with Turkey

Africa 

– In what is Obama’s celebration of a country’s transition into democracy, there was a low turnout among Libyans in the most recent election

Asia and Oceania

– Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asserts he wants to change the country’s constitution to move away from pacifism

Europe

– In Greece, cleaning workers went on strike against austerity and faced brutal police repression

– Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko states the ceasefire with the rebels in the east is over and the army will retake the east