Tag Archives: Syria

The New York Times reports: A lone gunman shot Russia’s ambassador to Turkey and at least three others Monday evening at an art center in Ankara, the Turkish capital. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the envoy had died in a terrorist attack. The envoy, Andrey G. Karlov, was shot from behind while speaking at an exhibition, according to multiple accounts including …

The New York Times reports: Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party presidential nominee, drew a parallel on Wednesday between the Syrian government’s targeting of noncombatants in that nation’s civil war and the accidental bombing of civilians by United States-backed forces. Attacking Hillary Clinton over what he criticized as her overly interventionist instincts, Mr. Johnson pointed to the hundreds of thousands of …

Ten days ago Donald Trump Jr. gained widespread scorn after he posted a tweet which compared Syrian refugees to a bowl of poisoned Skittles. Two days later it was learned that the British amateur photographer who had posted the original Skittles photo to Flickr is a former refugee himself and that he detests Donald Trump. The photographer told the press …

Raw Story reports: Donald Trump Jr. drew widespread condemnation for comparing Syrian refugees to poisoned candy — but his analogy isn’t a new one, and it’s based on two separate white supremacist memes with roots in Nazi propaganda. Trump — the Republican presidential candidate’s eldest son and a top campaign surrogate — tweeted the image Monday evening in an apparent …

Sky News reports: The US and Russia are announcing a plan aimed at ending the Syrian civil war and leading to political transition in the country. The plan calls for a nationwide cessation of hostilities beginning at sundown on 12 September. US Secretary of State John Kerry said the deal brokered with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov could be a …

The Hill reports: Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson on Thursday shocked the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” by seeming to not know what the Syrian city of Aleppo is. What would you do if you were elected about Aleppo?” MSNBC political commentator Mike Barnicle asked Johnson minutes into an interview with the former New Mexico governor. “And what is Aleppo?” …

Via Raw Story: CNN anchor Kate Bolduan took deep breaths as her voice wavered as she read the recent story about a 5-year-old Syrian boy covered in debris, dirt and blood that went viral Thursday. The boy was in an ambulance after being injured in airstrikes on rebel-held districts in the war-torn country. Bolduan remarked that in many places in …

As reported here several times, LGBT refugees from Syria and other nations continue to face abuse and violence in Europe’s burgeoning refugee centers. Yesterday authorities in Germany did something about it. Via The Local: Germany will on Tuesday open a shelter for homosexual refugees with space for more than 120 people, the association behind the project said. Speaking at a …

The White House has rejected any quota for LGBT Syrian refugees but says their asylum requests will get priority attention due to their status as a persecuted minority. Stand by for Teabagistan to completely lose their shit. Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: White House Press Josh Earnest explained the administration’s position in response to a question from the …

Early this week Canada announced that gay Syrian males will be admitted under their refugee policy, but other “lone males” will not. A gay Syrian who recently won asylum in Canada tells the local press that this policy could endanger the lives of gay Syrian refugees who identify themselves. Metro News reports: “If I was a refugee in a camp …

The Ottawa Citizen reports: Gay men will be among the Syrian refugees the government is willing to bring to Canada under a plan that will otherwise welcome primarily women, children and families. Security concerns over extremists potentially slipping in to Canada mean the Liberal government will likely exclude unaccompanied males from its planned resettlement of thousands of refugees. But the …

Anti-gay Kentucky governor-elect Matt Bevin is VERY ANGRY about the above cartoon published yesterday by the Lexington Herald-Leader. Bevin, who has four adopted children from Africa, has issued a press release which threatens the paper with reprisals once he assumes office. The Louisville Courier-Journal reports: “The Lexington Herald-Leader chose to articulate with great clarity the deplorably racist ideology of ‘cartoonist’ …

Every House Republican and 47 House Democrats this afternoon voted to suspend immigration by Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Politico reports: The vote was a significant loss for the White House — perhaps the biggest setback since most of the House Democratic Caucus voted against Obama on a trade bill in mid-June. Thursday’s vote, coupled with the Iranian nuclear agreement bill …

CNN recaps the Bloomberg poll released last night: The refugee issue has emerged as a key political issue in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris. More than half — 31 — of the nation’s governors, mainly Republicans, oppose letting Syrian refugees into their states and most GOP presidential candidates have called for a pause in allowing them …

President Obama just unleashed a barrage of tweets denouncing those who want to “slam the door in the face of refugees.” The Tea Things are going nuts.

CNN reports: The Russian passenger jet that crashed over Sinai, Egypt, was brought down by a bomb estimated to contain 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of explosives, the head of the Russian Federal Security Service said Tuesday, and the Russian government is offering a $50 million reward for information about those who brought it down. The government had initially resisted the …

The Hill reports: Sen. Ted Cruz has struck back at President Obama’s implication that his rejection of Syrian refugees is “shameful,” telling CNN he will be introducing legislation banning Muslim Syrian refugees from entering the United States. “What Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are proposing is that we bring to this country tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees,” Cruz …

All of Teabagistan is celebrating with “we told you” headlines this morning after French authorities revealed that at least two of the Paris terrorists had gained entry to the country by posing as Syrian refugees. The Daily Mail reports: It is believed two of the bombers were carrying Syrian passports. At least two others are believed to be French while …

The infamous terrorist known as Jihadi John has reportedly been killed in a US-led strike on ISIS in northern Syria. His real name is Mohammed Emwazi, and he took part in the killings of American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto and other …

Take Part reports: It’s been called the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. But while the stories of people fleeing violence and oppression have shocked the world, grasping the scale of the number of migrants seeking asylum on the continent can be difficult. That’s where Lucify, a data visualization company based in Helsinki, hopes to help. The …