By Wesam Bahrani
The US hesitancy to retaliate as its illegal military bases in Iraq and Syria reel under attacks is firstly embarrassing for Washington and secondly a precursor to the full withdrawal of American forces from Iraq in the not-so-distant future.
After more than 60 attacks on American military bases in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks, causing widespread destruction, the Pentagon finally responded last week.
Officials in Washington said the US military occupation deployed an AC-130 gunship, for the first time, to repel an attack on the Ain al-Asad military base, located in western Iraq's Anbar province.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for its latest operation that targeted the US forces stationed at the base.
The attack was believed to be deadly, which forced the US Central Command to order a swift military response for the first time.
US officials were cited by American news outlets as saying that the attack caused injuries and damage to the infrastructure.
Contrary to Western media claims, informed military sources say the injured American soldiers have not reported back to duty.....more
China has suspended several 2025 export controls on strategic materials — including rare earths, superhard materials, and lithium batteries – for a year. Is this a concession to the US, or a move in a far more complex game?
"The first aim of China’s export controls was to consolidate its leverage in negotiations. The second was to establish a long-term framework for managing such controls," says Yana Leksyutina, deputy director at the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).
Сhina could activate this mechanism at any moment, and now everyone knows it’s a lever it holds, she explains to Sputnik.
Balancing the Mineral Market
"The moratorium on export bans to the US essentially resets the rare earth market to where it was previously," Jeff J. Brown, author of 'The China Trilogy' and founder of Seek Truth From Facts Foundation, tells Sputnik.
In the meantime, there will be a global rush by the US and its NATO allies to acquire as many rare earth ...
The Israeli regime has reportedly signed contracts worth millions of dollars in recent months to sway American public opinion as part of attempts to launder the occupying entity’s genocidal war crimes against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Friday that the multimillion-dollar campaign aimed to reshape US public opinion, both online and offline, through coordinated influence operations combining digital marketing, AI, geotagging, and religious messaging.
The contracts, signed between the Israeli regime and firms linked to US President Donald Trump, reveal a “hasbara [propaganda] campaign” and schemes to target millions of US churchgoers, deploy bots, hire influencers, and try to make ChatGPT more pro-Israel.
The largest contract, worth $6 million, was signed with Clock Tower X, owned by Trump’s former digital campaign chief Brad Parscale, to produce and distribute roughly 100 core pieces of pro-Israel content per month and thousands......
