NOTE: Nobody reads this blog. But . . .

Here are links to reports from the Associated Press and the Cradle; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials. (Scroll down for today’s WEST BANK, IRAN and UKRAINE so far, and for GAZA 8-14-26.) — MCM

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TO BE CONTINUED

NOTE: Nobody reads this blog. But . . .

First, links to four reports and an analysis: from Middle East Eye, Middle East Monitor, and the Associated Press; others are accessible by clicking on their names. (Scroll up or down for today’s GAZA, IRAN and UKRAINE so far, and for WEST BANK 8-14-26.) — MCM

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Israeli settlers paralyse Palestinian nurse in West Bank shooting, by Fayha Shalash | Middle East Eye  RAMALLAH, occupied Palestine — Israeli settlers shot and partially paralysed a Palestinian nurse, Muhammad Mutoor, 26, in a town near Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Saturday. He suffered gunshot wounds that severed his spinal cord during a settler attack on Sa’ir, a town northeast of Hebron. READ MORE . . .

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Israel formally allows Jewish prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque in violation of status quo, by Lubna Masarwa | Middle East Eye  JERUSALEM — Israeli authorities have formally allowed Jewish prayer for the first time inside Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, in the latest violation of the site’s decades-old status quo. READ MORE . . .

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FROM AUG. 16  Palestinian families in West Bank’s Qusra besieged by soldiers, settlers for eighth day straight. From the Cradle. Palestinian families in the town of Qusra in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus have remained trapped in their homes for the eighth consecutive day, with UN and Palestinian officials visiting the besieged locals on Sunday. READ MORE . . .

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FROM AUG. 16  Pope renews call to end violence against Palestinians in occupied West Bank. From Middle East Monitor. Pope Leo XIV on Sunday renewed his call for an end to violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and urged the international community to advance efforts toward a two-state solution, Anadolu reports. READ MORE . . .

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FROM AUG. 15  There’s a reason why Israel has done little to rein in settler violence. It’s not just Netanyahu, by Joseph Krauss | AP  The settlers are the tip of the spear for a much larger movement, supported by successive Israeli governments and supercharged under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that is aimed at cementing Israeli rule over the territory and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.   READ MORE . . . Click HERE for same AP report in Spanish, and HERE for others.

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NOTE: Nobody reads this blog. But . . .

For now, links to six reports and three analyses: from the Cradle, Reuters, Middle East Monitor,  the Associated Press, Middle East Eye;, and Informed Comment; others or at least headlines are accessible by clicking on their names or initials. (Scroll up or down for today’s GAZA, WEST BANK and UKRAINE so far, and down for IRAN 8-15-26.) — MCM

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Iran declares 60-day MoU deadline ‘irrelevant’ amid continued U.S. violations. From the Cradle. Iran’s Foreign Ministry released a statement today declaring the Islamabad memorandum of understanding’s 60-day period “not relevant,” as Washington continues to violate the agreement and threaten the Islamic Republic. READ MORE . . .

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Iran threatens to go ‘fully offensive’ if diplomacy with U.S. fails. From Reuters. DUBAI — Iran has decided to shift its policy from defensive to “fully offensive” due to the deadlock in efforts to agree a permanent end to its war with the United States, a senior Iranian official told Reuters today. READ MORE . . . 

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Trump threatens to bomb Oman if it ‘gets in the way’ of U.S.-Iran negotiations. From Middle East Monitor. U.S. President Donald Trump today threatened military action against Oman if it interferes with U.S.-Iran negotiations, while saying Washington is in direct contact with officials from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. READ MORE . . .  Click HERE for report from the Cradle.

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Iran working to finalize Strait of Hormuz agreement with Oman, and other Middle East News. From AP. Iran says it is working to finalize a joint statement with Oman on a plan to manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Fully reopening the waterway has been a key U.S. demand, and President Donald Trump has again threatened Oman if it gets in the way of that goal. Click HERE for report including a map and photos. Click HERE for same AP report in Spanish, and HERE for others.

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The rise of a new Middle East security order and Iran’s strategic dilemna, by Mansoor Qaisar | Middle East Monitor  The signing of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement by Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan on Aug. 7 could mark the moment when three influential Muslim powers concluded that the old security architecture of the Middle East was no longer enough. READ MORE . . .

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FROM AUG. 13  The Mecca pact and the limits of a ‘Muslim NATO,‘ by F.M. Shakil | The Cradle  The oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, nuclear-armed Pakistan, and Turkiye, which commands NATO’s second-largest army, signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement on Aug. 7. READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED

NOTE: Nobody reads this blog. But . . .

Here are links to reports from the Moscow Times and Reuters; others or at least headlines are accessible by clicking on their names. (Scroll up for today’s GAZA, WEST BANK and IRAN so far, and down for UKRAINE 8-15-26.) — MCM

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Ukrainian rocket attack on Belgorad region kills at least 6. From the Moscow Times. Acting Belgorod region Governor Aleksander Shuvaev said this morning that four others were wounded in the attack in the village of Koloskovo, around 24 kilometers (15 miles) from the Ukraine border. READ MORE . . .

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EU plans most far-reaching sanctions against Russia, Kallas says. From Reuters. The European Union plans to significantly expand sanctions against Russia in the coming months over its war in Ukraine, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, told the German newspaper Die Welt. READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED

The only item in this, my only entry today, is a recommendation of the latest The World This Week, Consortium News’s Saturday night podcast. (Scroll down for ALL OF IT 8-15-26 and MEDIA 8-15-26.) — MCM

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FROM AUG. 15  The World This Week: ‘A fraying empire.’ Joe Lauria of Consortium News hosts retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat Ann Wright and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern to explore what might best be encapsulated, simply, as the rot — in the U.S. military, in U.S. politics and governance, in too much of the U.S. media. There should be a transcript. Click HERE for video with subtitles, Lauria ‘s print introduction, and bios of Wright and McGovern.

ADVISORY  Watch: The World This Week: ‘A fraying empire.’ Joe Lauria of Consortium News hosts retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat Ann Wright and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern to explore a U.S. military in crisis in the Middle East and elsewhere. Click HERE around 8 p.m. EDT to livestream and later to watch video, and for print introduction and bios of Wright and McGovern.

And links to report from the Associated Pressp and Reuters; others anre accessible by clicking on their names or initials. (Scroll down for today’s UKRAINE, ALL OF IT and MEDIA, and for IRAN 8-14-26.) — MCM

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Iran claims Qatar holding pilots, vessel is attacked in Normuz, Israeli strikes kill 11 in Lebanon, and other Middle East news. From AP. Here’s a look at the latest developments on today in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found HERE. Click HERE for this AP report, and HERE for same one in Spanish, and HERE for others in Spanish.

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TO BE CONTINUED

ADVISORY  Watch: The World This Week: ‘A fraying empire.’ Joe Lauria of Consortium News hosts retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat Ann Wright and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern to explore a U.S. military in crisis in the Middle East and elsewhere. Click HERE around 8 p.m. EDT to livestream and later to watch video, and for print introduction and bios of Wright and McGovern.

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Links to two reports from Reuters; others are accessible by clicking on its name. (Scroll up or down for today’s IRAN, ALL OF IT and MEDIA, and for UKRAINE 8-14-26.) — MCM

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Summer campaign led to capture of 19 settlements in southeast Ukraine: Defence Ministry. From Reuters. Russian troops have taken control of 19 settlements in southeastern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions over their summer campaign, the Russian Defense Ministry said today. READ MORE . . .

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Ukraine strikes industrial facility in Samara region. From Reuters. Ukraine struck industrial infrastructure in Russia‘s Samara region today, local authorities said. READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED

A link to an emergency exclamation (!!) from Tom Engelhardt Substack via Informed Comment; other published material is accessible by clicking on their names. (Scroll up or down for today’s IRAN, UKRAINE and MEDIA, and for ALL OF IT 8-11-26.) — MCM

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FROM AUG. 13  A planet screaming at us to pay attention, by Tom Engelhardt | Tom Engelhardt Substack  / Informed Comment  There should be screaming headlines about it every day. Yes, every day! Our planet, the only one we live on (despite Elon Musk’s urge to go to Mars), is distinctly going down, down, down (at least as a viable place for us). READ MORE . . .

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Addendum, by Mark Channing Miller | x-ma911truthwalk  This is a triple footnote to the earlier messages in today’s ALL OF IT and MEDIA entries.

1. Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker magazine and Footnotes from a Catastrophe (2006) fame is or was a Berkshire County resident.

2. Ross Gelbspan (1939-2024) of  the Philadelphia Bulletin, Washington Post, Village Voice, Boston Globe and author of The Heat Is On (1998) and Boiling Point (2004) had a lot of success in a distinguished career but was underrecognized. He used “global heating” to describe humans’ existential crisis.

3. Jay Inslee of the state of Washington, onetime U.S. rep and twice elected governor, also had a lot of success but was not taken seriously in the large field of candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, in part because his stated number one priority was the planet’s natural environment and runaway climate change.

A link to one of two links to the same emergency exclamation (!!) from Tom Engelhardt Substack via Informed Comment; other published material is accessible by clicking on their names. Also, some context from x-ma911truthwalk.com. (Scroll up for today’s IRAN, UKRAINE and ALL OF IT, and down for MEDIA 8-12-26.) — MCM

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FROM AUG. 13  A planet screaming at us to pay attention, by Tom Engelhardt | Tom Engelhardt Substack  / Informed Comment   Climate change is at best a secondary, if not a tertiary matter in the all-American news media (including the New York Times). The British Guardian online has a genuine “climate crisis” section where you can normally check daily on the latest news about this overheating planet. READ MORE . . .

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A few words, by Mark Channing Miller | x-ma911truthwalk.com   Lying liars lie. This often happens simply through what they leave out.

One reason I had enough skills to put together this website is that I was lucky enough to work for six months for Tom Stokes, who had started a website for something called the Climate Crisis Coalition. In 2005 he figured someone who had worked for two wire services and some daily newspapers would come in handy.

He was right. Working in a little office for four or five hours a day, in the company of Tom’s dog, putting little headlines over single paragraphs introducing articles we found by ourselves and others from “aggregators” whose services the CCC paid for, and getting a daily collection of it out — was more like bliss than work.

Especially when the New Yorker started running Elizabeth Kolbert’s series that became the book Field Notes from a Catastrophe and shamed the wretched excuse for a news media to start paying more attention to global warming — but not enough attention.

The book was easily as important and needed as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring had been decades before, perhaps more so, and started something going but not enough because, you know, some advertisers might object.

At any rate, an incentive for getting Bruce Henry and me walking across Massachusetts with our “9/11 TRUTH” signs was that lying liars lied about so much of the mass-murder attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. This website began a few weeks before the walk.

And a big incentive for me to do this is that the stupid wars the U.S. government wades this country into — most of which are a direct result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror that the same U.S. government has lied about apart from elements of its own narrative — take needed attention away from the global heating that is now obviously under way.

First, a link to a report from the Cradle; others are accessible by clicking on its name. (Scroll down for today’s LEBANON, SYRIA, WEST BANK, IRAN and UKRAINE so far, and for GAZA 8-13-26.) — MCM

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Palestinians widely reject Hamas disarmament before full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza: report. From the Cradle. A new poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research published on Wednesday found that 72 percent of Palestinians oppose the disarmament of Hamas before Israel completes its withdrawal from the besieged Gaza Strip. READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED