While on the campaign trail, President Joe Biden spoke with some "Syrian American activists" who favor increased sanctions on the country as well as regime change in Damascus, during a private fundraiser in Maryland last month. According to neoconservative columnist Josh Rogin – one of Bill Kristol’s protégés - Biden told these regime change advocates that, among other things, Assad must go. Rogin says these activists “took advantage of their audience with Biden… to implore him to do more to oppose” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Alla Tello, a Syrian American from Massachusetts, said she...

GOP Pushes Back on White House Effort to Renew Intel Agencies’ Spying Tool
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, particularly in the GOP, are pushing back against the renewal of a law authorizing a tool used by US spy agencies, in the post 9/11 era, to conduct warrantless surveillance on foreign targets and Americans with whom they may be interacting.

Mike Pence, Other Prominent Hawks Back Regime Change in Iran at MEK Rally
Former Vice President Mike Pence participated in a rally outside Paris led by the exiled Iranian terrorist cult, the Marxist-Islamist Mujahideen-e-Khalq headed by Maryam Rajavi, and their political front the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), over the weekend.

Kiev in Talks with Warsaw to Purchase Naval Strike Missile Systems
Ukraine is negotiating with Warsaw to obtain the Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile (NSM) system which would give Kiev the ability to hit targets on land or at sea from distances of more than 124 miles. This possible deal comes as the US and its allies are working to boost the longer-range capabilities of the Ukrainian armed forces. Earlier in the war, Washington provided Kiev with the somewhat similar Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers, but the NSM systems typically have a much greater range. Although depending on the variants used, the Harpoons can have a range of 80-150 nautical miles....
Switzerland Vetoes Plan to Export Nearly 100 Tanks to Kiev, Citing Long-Held Neutral Status
In a move which will surely garner censures from Bern’s European allies, Switzerland has vetoed a plan to send roughly 100 mothballed German-made Leopard 1 battle tanks to Kiev, citing its neutrality laws. This decision comes as Ukraine’s long awaited counteroffensive has netted substantial losses in armored vehicles. Swiss arms maker Ruag AG requested a license earlier this year to sell the 96 non-operational tanks, stored in Italy, to Germany’s Rheinmetall. The tanks would then have been refurbished and sent to Ukraine, with Berlin’s backing. Seven years ago, the tanks were procured from...
US Intel Community Hypes North Korean Nuke Threat, Concedes Pyongyang Will Not Use Weapons For Offensive Purposes
A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) written in January which discusses Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons policy for the remainder of this decade was declassified by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines earlier this month. The document looks at a variety of potential scenarios and concludes that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) will continue to use its “nuclear weapons status” not for offensive military purposes but as a way of coercively accomplishing some political objectives. Declassified on June 15th, the NIE is titled “North Korea: Scenarios for Leveraging Nuclear...
North Korea Launches 2 Ballistic Missiles in Response to Massive US-South Korean War Drills
North Korea launched two ballistic missiles towards its eastern waters, in a “grave provocation” on Thursday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The short-range missile launches followed the fifth and final round of Washington and Seoul’s largest-ever combined live-fire joint military exercises.
Frenzied Russophobia Causes Popular Author to Cancel Upcoming Novel
Elizabeth Gilbert, the best-selling American author, announced last week that she would soon be publishing a novel set in Russia. In light of a Russo-phobic public relations campaign unleashed against her, the Eat, Pray, Love author has since rescinded those plans. In a "massive outpouring of reactions," Ukrainian readers expressed "anger, sorrow, disappointment and pain," over the book’s setting, Gilbert said. This led the author to make a self-described "course correction," shelving the novel indefinitely. Originally slated for a February 2024 release, Gilbert’s The Snow Forest is set in...