Lebanon, Syria, Gaza: The Forever Occupation

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated on Wednesday his country will keep its troops in occupied areas of Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza indefinitely. 

“Our policy for defending the borders of the State of Israel... is clear”, Katz said, as quoted by the Jerusalem Post. “The IDF will not withdraw and will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza for an unlimited period of time”. 

Katz also renewed an earlier warning to Iran, saying it would be struck with “full force” if it retaliated over Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon. 

The warning echoed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent pledge that Israel’s pursuit of “total victory” over Iran and its allied groups “never ends”. 

Tehran has made an end to Israeli military operations in Lebanon one of its key conditions in the ongoing peace talks with the US. 

If you must know, in recent months, the IDF have pushed deeper into southern Lebanon, establishing what Israeli officials describe as a security buffer zone. According to media reports, by June, Israeli forces controlled roughly 2,000 square kilometers of Lebanese territory – nearly one-fifth of the country.

Let me repeat here that Iran's decision to sign the MOU and pursue (indirect) "negotiations" is WRONG! 😡😡😡

Broken Ceasefire

The gullible Iranians got duped again!

On Wednesday, Israel pummeled Lebanon with pounding, pervasive and persistent airstrikes, just hours after a fragile two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran took effect. [Note: Israel is a party to the current ceasefire]. 

The attacks resulted in massive carnage and heavy casualties, putting the regional truce at immediate risk. At least 303 people were killed and over 1,150 others were wounded in a single day.

Heinous headlines of horrendous horror. People were bombed while attending a funeral, shopping at the pharmacy, strolling around their neighbourhood, hanging out in their home, sitting in traffic. These are acts of mass terrorism. An Israeli tableau of wrathful wickedness.

Israel demonstrates a pernicious preference for armed aggression, prioritizing military subjugation over a ceasefire. 

The truth is, Israel is a rabid dog that must be put down. The world should know that there won't be peace as long as Israel exists!

Malaysians Pearly Tan–Thinaah Muralitharan lived dangerously before securing their spot in the last 8 of the Badminton Asia Championships yesterday.

The world No. 2 duo were pushed all the way by Taiwan's world No. 12 Hsu Yin Hui–Lin Jhih Yun before sealing a narrow 21-19, 19-21, 24-22 win in the last 16 clash. 

The victory saw them reach the BAC quarter-finals for the first time and also maintain their unbeaten head-to-head record at 3-0 against the Taiwanese pair.

Raging Mideast War is Escalating

Today is Day 13 of the US-Israel war on Iran! It has already outlasted the 12-day war initiated by Israel – as is this war, by the way – on June 13, 2025, with the US joining nine days later. 

In fact, US President Donald Trump affirmed on Monday the war against Iran will end “very soon” but not this week!

“We’ve wiped every single force in Iran out, very completely”, the Orange Man trumpeted the destruction of more than 50 Iranian naval ships, and decimation of its air force and anti-aircraft defenses. 

He also said that the war would be over when Iran no longer had the capacity to use weapons against the US, Israel and other allies for a long time, according to CNBC on March 09, 2026. 

In fact, Trump had blithely described the war on Iran as a “short-term excursion”, maintaining that the US is ahead of schedule and already achieved “tremendous success”, as per Al Jazeera on March 10.

But this time around, the conflict has engulfed neighboring Arab countries, entering an escalatory phase as Tehran unleashed its 37th wave of missile and drone attacks across the region. 

Oil, gas and fuel storage facilities in Israel’s Haifa were repeatedly targeted while Gulf states scrambled to intercept drones and missiles heading toward energy hubs. Sirens echoed from Bahrain and Kuwait to Dubai, UAE, as defenses raced to stop incoming threats. 

At the same time, Washington and Tel Aviv intensified airstrikes inside Iran, hitting key sites across the country. 

Already, oil production in Iraq has dropped by 70%, from 4.3 million bpd before the conflict to 1.3 million bpd. Saudi Arabia has lowered output by 2 million to 2.5 million bpd, while the UAE has cut 500,000–800,000 bpd, and Kuwait has cut 500,000 bpd.

On top of that, drone attacks have hammered key infrastructure, including the Ras Tanura refinery in Saudi Arabia and the Ras Laffan gas facility in Qatar, the latter responsible for 20% of global LNG supply. Already, QatarEnergy declared force majeure on LNG shipments yesterday.

Moreover, Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a global energy chokepoint, handling about a quarter of the world's seaborne oil and significant liquefied natural gas (LNG) and fertilizer.

Predictably, Trump threatened “death, fire and fury” if Iran keeps obstructing the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. Tehran hit back, vowing it won’t allow “one liter of oil” to leave the Middle East until US and Israeli attacks cease. A top Iranian official even warned Trump to be careful not to be “eliminated” himself. 

With oil and gas facilities now at the center of the battlefield, the conflict is rapidly turning into a wider energy war.

And more. Yesterday, Iran identified new targets, i.e., offices and infrastructure run by top US companies with Israeli links whose technology has been used for military applications. Al Jazeera confirms this, saying the companies include Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia and Oracle, and those companies offering cloud-based services that are located in multiple Israeli cities, as well as in some Gulf countries. 

And banks too. Yesterday, state-owned Bank Sepah in Tehran which were reportedly responsible for processing salary payments for Iran's military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, got hit by enemy missile(s). This presents Iran with the option to target economic centers and banks belonging to the US and Israel within the region. It's damn serious because Iran's military command (Khatam al-Anbiya) are warning civilians to stay at least one kilometer away from these establishments in the region.

The raging war is escalating, that's for sure. Yet, just hours ago, Trump is telling Axios in a 5-minute interview that there's "practically nothing left" to target in Iran! 🤣🤣🤣

As of March 11, the death toll has reached over 1,300 in Iran and at least 11 in Israel, with additional casualties reported among US troops in the region. 

Bombs, Missiles and Drones Cause Widespread Death and Destruction

Israel may have pulled the trigger first – but I blame US President Donald Trump! He, himself suggested on Tuesday that he may have “forced Israel’s hand” into a war with Iranian "lunatics" (The Times of Israel, March 03, 2026). 

It sure has been a very busy week so far for all parties involved. Yesterday, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth touted as evidence of America's global reach in its war on Iran when he confirmed a US fast attack submarine had sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean – the Pentagon released footage of the strike. FYI, the IRIS Dena, had participated in a naval exercise in India just weeks ago. And according to Sri Lankan authorities, 32 sailors have been rescued, 61 are still missing and 87 bodies have so far been found. 

Iran's navy are already almost decimated, if you believe the Americans. Trump declared Monday that the US sank 10 Iranian battleships. But, on the same day, CENTCOM had stated that in two days, the Iranian regime had 11 ships in the Gulf of Oman and now they have none left. 

Whether 10 or 11, that hadn't stopped Trump from gloating: “They’re at the bottom of the sea”. 

Oil tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has plunged by 90 percent since the outbreak of the Middle East war, energy market intelligence firm Kpler said on X. Iranian forces, meanwhile, claimed "complete control" of the strait, a vital route for world oil and gas supplies, after Trump said Tuesday the US Navy were ready to escort oil tankers through the channel. 

The British are joining in. Their F-35s shot down Iranian drones over Jordan, marking the first time that one of the Royal Air Force's stealth fighter jets had destroyed a target in combat, the UK defense ministry shouted out on Tuesday.

The Israel Defense Forces said they dropped more than 4,000 bombs on Iranian targets in just four days and on Tuesday, even hit “Minzadehei”, a secret underground site on the outskirts of Tehran where Iran transferred much of its nuclear program after the 12-day war with Israel in June. 

The commander of CENTCOM – the forward headquarters of United States Central Command in Qatar – Admiral Brad Cooper claimed the US has struck more than 2,000 targets with more than 2,000 munitions and severely degraded Iran's air defences.

It's not all one-sided though. Three US fighter jets were downed over Kuwait. The Americans explained on Monday that the F-15s were "mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defences" and all six crew ejected safely. If you ask me, I don't believe this excuse of a "friendly fire incident".

A day earlier, Iran pounded a base housing US troops in Kuwait on Sunday, killing three service members. Since then, the death toll has risen to six, CENTCOM confirmed on Monday, an uptick that was forecasted by Trump and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine. 

Still, Iran maintained that more than 650 US military personnel were killed and wounded in the first two days of Operation True Promise 4, while its military say they fired over 700 drones and hundreds of ballistic missiles in 48 hours exceeding the total firepower of the June 2025 war. 

Also, on Monday, Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery at Ras Tanura halted operations after a drone strike in the area. Iran accused Israel of carrying out the attack, describing it as a “false flag” operation.

And on the same day too, a Shahed-type unmanned aerial vehicle struck a runway at a UK military base in Akrotiri, Cyprus. Consequently, Greece is sending two frigates and a pair of F-16 fighter jets to Aphrodite's Isle.

Amazon Web Services reported Monday that two data centers in the United Arab Emirates were “directly struck” and another facility in Bahrain was also damaged after a drone landed nearby. 

On Tuesday, two ballistic missiles were aimed at Qatar's Al Udeid Air Base. Air defenses intercepted one, while the second struck the base southwest of Doha without causing casualties. Al Udeid is the backbone of US military airpower in the Middle East, housing the Combined Air Operations Center that direct American and coalition missions across the region. The strike marks a direct hit on one of Washington’s most critical strategic assets there. 

There's been so many claims made by all sides; it's been difficult to establish the veracity of every claim. What is certain is the trail of death and destruction left behind! 

And then there's this widely-circulated story which according to Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea, Trump through Italy had sought an immediate ceasefire upon seeing that the Iranian government did not collapse after the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with senior figures in the country’s leadership – but Iran rejected it outright.

They should fear Khamenei as a martyr, more than Khamenei alive!

This ambitious American-Israeli project targeting Iran envisioned a massive bombing campaign to last only 4-5 days and expecting Iran to surrender thereafter. 

Today is Day 6! 

IRAN HAS NOT SURRENDERED! 😂😂😂😂😂😂

And on Tuesday, parents in Minab, Iran held a mass funeral for the 165 students – most of them girls aged between 7 and 12 – as well as staff killed in the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh all girls' school by the evil Israel-US axis. 

The IRNA news agency had cited a local prosecutor as saying that 96 people had been wounded in Saturday’s strike. 

Ali Farhadi, spokesperson for Iran’s Education Ministry, said Sunday that three attacks struck the school, which he said had 264 students. 

Some social media accounts linked to Israel claimed the site was “part of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base”. However, an analysis by Al Jazeera’s digital investigations unit of satellite imagery compiled over more than a decade, as well as recent video clips, published news reports and statements from official Iranian sources, tells a very different story. 

The findings reveal that the school had been clearly separate from an adjacent military site for at least 10 years. The investigation also shows that the strike pattern raises fundamental questions about the accuracy of intelligence information on which the bombing was based.

The Minab massacre is a war crime.

Iran's official IRNA news agency said Wednesday Israel and US had killed 1,045 military personnel and civilians since the start of the war. Elsewhere, Al Jazeera reported at least 11 dead in Israel as well as six US soldiers and eight civilians killed in the Gulf states. And the death toll from Israeli military action in Lebanon has risen to 72, with 437 injured since this front of the war ignited on Monday.

From Department of Defense to Department of War

It is no surprise that the Trump administration are cultivating and promoting a "warrior ethos" within the Pentagon. The US is, after all, a warmongering nation. 

If you don't already know, the country has been involved in conflicts for most of its history, though not necessarily a "non-stop" war in the conventional sense; however, the period since the Vietnam War (1955–1975) has seen continuous US military engagements. Examples include the First Gulf War (1990–1991), the Somali Civil War (1992–present), the Kosovo War (1998-1999), the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), and the Iraq War (2003–2011). Not to mention that the US is still presently waging a proxy war in Ukraine.

In this year itself, the US even joined Israel to go against Iran. In an operation called "Midnight Hammer", on June 22, the US deployed B-2 stealth bombers with the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), also known as a "bunker buster", to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. In fact, 125 aircraft were involved, including refueling and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft. 

Israel's strikes on Iran came against the backdrop of its ongoing war in Gaza and a broader escalation of its military actions across the region, including Israeli military activity in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and the occupied West Bank. And the US is complicit because it is a primary supplier of weaponry to the Zionist regime, much as it does for the [Z]elensky regime in Kiev.   

And so, on Friday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, reverting to the agency’s former namesake which came into being way back in 1789. 

I certainly agree with him because the name change is more “appropriate”, given the US propensity to wage war, whether overtly or covertly. 

The said order authorizes the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense and subordinate officials to use secondary titles such as “Secretary of War”, “Department of War”, and “Deputy Secretary of War” in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch, according to a White House fact sheet. 

The order also instructs Pete Hegseth (now the "secretary of war") to propose both legislative and executive actions to make the name permanently US Department of War.

World No. 8 Sivasangari Subramaniam's bid to defend her London Squash Classic crown came to an end in the semi-finals after falling to Egypt's Amina Orfi. 

The Malaysian battled for 68 minutes before going down 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 11-5 yesterday. It was the 26-year-old's fourth defeat in five meetings with 18-year-old Amina, a three-time world junior champion.

One Year On, Israel is Still Bombing and Killing in Gaza

For a full year – since October 07, 2023 – horrific scenes have come out of Gaza as Israel’s war on civilians in the besieged enclave continues. 

 

In one year, Israel has killed at least 41,870 people in Gaza, though the actual figure is presumed much higher. Thousands more are buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings or unaccounted for, and still thousands of others are likely to die from continuing bombing and conditions created by Israel’s war.

 

The images are unbearable. But they must be seen and shared. The world needs to know what the people of Gaza are enduring, and political leaders must bring this war to an end.

 

 

 

In fact, Israel has killed more women and children in Gaza over the past year than in any other conflict in the past two decades, Oxfam found last week.

 

"I have never in my humanitarian career seen this level of suffering, desperation and deprivation”, said Gemma Connell, OCHA (UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) team leader in Gaza.

 

Doctors Without Borders report: “Hospitals are flooded with patients, amputations and surgeries are being carried out without proper anaesthesia, and morgues are flooded with dead bodies”.

 

Entire families are being killed in aerial bombardments, and children are paying the heaviest price. UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) spokesperson James Elder calls it “a war on children”. He explained: “Most crises impact children terribly, they have a casualty rate of children around 20 percent. But in Gaza, that rate is 40 percent".

 

“This is twice as lethal to children as conflicts we’ve seen in the last 20 years”, he added.

 

To account for the number of injured and maimed children who have no known surviving family member, doctors in Gaza have been compelled to coin a new and heartbreaking acronym: WCNSF – wounded child, no surviving family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite being called out on its atrocities, Israel has widened its war, attacking Lebanon and bombing Syria and Yemen.

Zara Pulls Ad Over Gaza Reference Claims

Fashion brand Zara on Tuesday said it was removing an advertising campaign from its website and social media channels after angry criticism online claimed that it resembled images of destruction in Gaza. 

 

The move follows days of boycott calls across Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok over the promotion called ‘The Jacket’, which featured a model holding a mannequin seemingly wrapped in white plastic, fragments of plasterboard, a roughly painted crooked wooden box, rubble and statues, as well as other mannequins with missing limbs. 

 

“Unfortunately, some customers felt offended by these images, which have now been removed, and saw in them something far from what was intended when they were created”, Zara said in a statement posted on its Instagram account. 

 

The Inditex-owned fashion brand added that the ad campaign, which was conceived in July and photographed in September, presents a series of images of “unfinished sculptures in a sculptor’s studio and was created with the sole purpose of showcasing craft-made garments in an artistic context”.

 

UK’s Advertising Standards Authority said they had received over 100 complaints that the imagery referenced the current conflict in Gaza and was therefore offensive. 

 

In early November, UK clothing chain M&S apologized for an Instagram video showing green, white, and red paper hats burning in a fire. The company explained that the video was part of a campaign recorded in August to “playfully show that some people don’t enjoy wearing paper Christmas hats”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, some social media users argued the hats reflected the colors of the Palestinian flag. And they accused M&S of "promoting the burning of the Palestinian flag". 

 

In the end, the firm deleted the picture and apologised for any "unintentional hurt".

 

It should be noted that the colors of the festive hats are also the same as the flags of Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Oman, Lebanon, Madagascar and Burundi and are ones traditionally associated every Christmas.

Osama bin Laden's Letter to America Goes Viral on TikTok

TikTok removed the hashtag #lettertoamerica from their search function after videos about Osama bin Laden’s 2002 “Letter to America” went viral on the platform and were re-uploaded to the social media platform X. 

Some social media users suggested that the Al Qaeda founder’s document gives an alternative perspective about the US’ involvement in conflicts in the Middle East. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Throughout the week, TikTok users had been sharing the link to The Guardian’s transcript of Osama's letter, which was written about a year after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and which killed nearly 3,000 people in the US. The Guardian took the letter down from their website Wednesday. 

In the letter, Osama addressed the American people and sought to answer the following questions: “Why are we fighting and opposing you?” and “What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?” 

The letter condemns US support for Israel and accuses Americans of aiding the oppression of Palestinian people as well as denouncing US interventions in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Lebanon.

People online have used Osama's words as a springboard for discussion about American foreign policy in the Middle East. Many have said it caused them to re-evaluate their beliefs around the US wars of intervention. Still, while people were critical of US involvement in global conflicts, many clarified that they were not praising or defending Osama's orchestration of the 9/11 attacks.

It has been claimed that references to Osama bin Laden on X jumped more than 4,300%, from Tuesday to Thursday, from just over 5,000 to more than 230,000. References to “Letter to America” jumped more than 1,800%, from just over 4,800 to 100,000, with 719 million impressions across the platform. On YouTube, searches for Osama also jumped 400% from Tuesday to Thursday, according to Google Trends. Instagram’s autosuggest function in search assisted users in finding “Letter to America”, listing it as a “popular search”.

I saw this Facebook post by Morgan on "Understanding China" three days ago.

"China should give her more tender love. 

She's been behaving like an insecure bitch". 😂😂😂

Methinks, China should just leave her alone and pretty much let her sulk. Really, she's not worth it! Besides, a bitch is a bitch is a bitch!

[V]ladimir [Z]elensky is Yesterday's Man

The West's enthusiasm for Ukraine is slipping fast. And inevitably, Ukrainian President [V]ladimir [Z]elensky is becoming yesterday's man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the Hamas attacks on Israel and the barrelling and brutal response from the Israelis, the US and its NATO allies were almost exclusively focused on Ukraine while keeping their eyes on-and-off on China. Now, as the Western media spin into overdrive with their gaze firmly locked onto the Middle East, Kiev’s woes are set only to increase as attention shifts away from Kiev and towards Israel, Palestine, Iran and maybe Lebanon and even Syria. 

 

It’s worth noting that prior to the Hamas assaults, the trajectory of support for Ukraine already showed signs of waning. Mere months ago, the idea that previously stalwart allies like Poland would be openly questioning the wisdom of their no-strings-attached support for the war-torn state – likening it to a “drowning man” – would have been unthinkable. Couple this with widespread European war weariness, Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive, and collapsing public support for the war in the West, and it was already facing an uphill battle to maintain support from its “partners”, its people, and most importantly American political elites. The last thing [Z]elensky needed was a globally significant escalation in the Middle East to draw precious resources further away from the proxy war he is fighting against Russia on behalf of Washington.

 

Definitely, it does not bode well for [Z]elensky!

US Provokes China on Taiwan

China has been really patient and unbelievably tolerant with the US even as the latter continues to provoke the former on the matter of Taiwan. 

The US appears to be abandoning its long-held policy known as "strategic ambiguity", where Washington helps prop up the rebel province's defences but does not explicitly promise to come to its assistance. The policy is designed to deter a supposed Chinese invasion and also discourage Taiwan from formally declaring independence, something Beijing regards as a red line. 

And the Joe Biden administration, through both word and deed, persist to demonstrate that Taipei should have no worries about Washington's commitment to the island.

I must say that I am not surprised with Biden’s declarations of commitment to Taiwan. He must show bravado. Likewise, he’ll want to follow the US presidential tradition of immersing himself in foreign military adventures as a way to feed their ravenous military-industrial complex and to deflect from domestic issues plaguing the country. 

In fact, all recent US presidents have either started a new war or been involved in escalating or starting a new military operation on foreign soil. Since 1945, the United States has had an aggressive foreign policy, with its military getting engaged all around the world. 

In case you doubt me, here’s a list of their most prominent military interventions overseas: 

• John F Kennedy’s botched Bay of Pigs invasion on the south coast of Cuba in April 1961. 
• Lyndon Johnson launched a three-year campaign of sustained bombing of targets in North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Operation Rolling Thunder in March 1965. The same month, US Marines landed on beaches near Da Nang, South Vietnam as the first American combat troops to enter Vietnam. 
• Richard Nixon escalated the war into Laos and Cambodia – and for your info, he stalled the Vietnam peace talks – he had needed the war to continue, since he was running on a platform that opposed(!) the war – before finally settling for a peace agreement in January 1973 that was within grasp back in 1968. 
• Ronald Reagan deployed US Marines to Beirut during the Lebanese civil war, the invasion of Grenada in October 1983 and the bombing of Tripoli in Libya. 
• Under George HW Bush, the US invaded Panama codenamed Operation Just Cause – from mid-December 1989 to late January 1990 – in an attempt to overthrow Manuel Noriega. 
• During Bill Clinton’s presidency, under “Operation Uphold Democracy”, US troops were dispatched to Haiti in September 1994 to unseat a military junta. 
• George W Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom, an offensive in Afghanistan in October 2001 and he initiated the war on Iraq with the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003. 
• With Barack Obama, the United States and its lackeys conducted months-long air strikes in Libya, Iraq and Syria, besides increasing the deployment of US troops to Afghanistan – although he would ultimately drop the troop level to about 8,400 by the end of his term. 
• Donald Trump may be pre-occupied with his own domestic missteps but he still managed to escalate military ops in Syria and he presided over the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani via a drone strike. 

Joe Biden too wants to be “one of the boys” and I betcha, he’s no different. He’s itching for a war and China is in his sights.

Nosing into Hong Kong's Politics

Just this month of October alone, the world is witnessing tumultuous protests in many troubled cities. Baghdad, Quito, Conarky, Paris, Barcelona, Beirut and Santiago.

If the Americans are genuinely concerned about human rights, then their country should intervene in Iraq, Ecuador, Guinea, France, Spain, Lebanon and Chile.

But only Hong Kong receives special attention and treatment from the USA.

On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives approved legislation to show support for Hong Kong protesters – that could pave the way for diplomatic action and economic sanctions against the Hong Kong government and thus, moving it a significant step closer to becoming law.

The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 would end the Chinese city's special trading status with the US unless the State Department certify annually that the authorities are respecting human rights and the rule of law.

A second measure, the Protect Hong Kong Act, would bar commercial exports of military and crowd-control items such as teargas.

The third is a non-binding resolution recognizing Hong Kong's relationship to the US, condemning Beijing's "interference" in its affairs, and supporting the right of the city's residents to protest.

The bill would strengthen the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, which the US government use to assess whether political developments in Hong Kong justify Washington changing its treatment of the city as a separate trading entity from the Chinese mainland.

It awaits a vote in the Senate, where it currently enjoys the bipartisan co-sponsorship of 25 senators, and is expected to pass.

A Hong Konger waves an American flag at a protest rally in Hong Kong on October 14, 2019 as demonstrators called on US lawmakers to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019. Image credit: AFP 

I’m thinking that Hong Kong is singled out because of China. 

The US is doing everything possible to hold China back, to paint China in a bad light, to demonise China. 

The US is a big bully. Methinks, China must not capitulate, rather it must fight back to defend the country's honor.

Fish Tanks

AFP pix 

AFP pix

Fish tanks! That’s right – Lebanon dumped ten armoured vehicles into the Mediterranean on Saturday. 

Conservationists offloaded the disused army tanks (and other vehicles) 3km (1.8 miles) off the coast of Sidon in the hope of creating a new haven for marine life. 

The idea is for algae, coral and bacteria to flourish with the aim of attracting egg-laying fish. 

This push to build an artificial reef is in response to damage caused by over-fishing and rising temperatures. 

"This will be a paradise for divers and a place where we can develop underwater life", Kamel Kozbar, of Friends of the Coast of Sidon, the group spearheading the project, told news agency AFP. 

He hoped seaweed will soon cover the tanks, a gift from the army, realizing their vision of an "underwater park". 

Scientists have been using vehicles, especially vans and buses to boost sea life in the region since 2012, when Dr Michel Chalhoub from Beirut, Lebanon secured funding to restore beauty to the coast of Tripoli in Libya. 

But this was not just an environmental project – the army tanks had been purposefully positioned to have their tank guns pointed towards their southern neighbour, Israel. 

According to Kozbar, it was done "out of solidarity for the Palestinian people". 

Yay-y-y!!! Low Wee Wern (right) emerged as the Tasmanian Open 2018 Champion on Sunday – when she beat Australia’s Rachael Grinham 11-6, 11-7, 12-10 in 33 minutes. 

Well-fought, well-deserved, well done – congratulations!