The US ambassador to Japan did not attend this year's official commemoration of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki Aug. 9 in protest of the city's failure to invite Israel. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel said the event had been "politicized" by Nagasaki's decision to exclude the Jewish state. The embassy said Emanuel would honor the victims of the Nagasaki bombing at a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, and that a lower-ranking US official would attend the Nagasaki event. Five other G7 countries and the EU likewise said in a joint letter beforehand that they would send lower-ranked envoys instead of ambassadors to the ceremony. The letter said the exclusion "would result in placing Israel on the same level as countries such as Russia and Belarus," which were not invited to the ceremony for a third consecutive year. But Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki said his decision was unchanged.

Ukrainian special forces under command of Kyiv's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) carried out an operation against Russian forces in Syria, according to a video released by the agency. First reported by the Kyiv Post July 31, the raid by the "Khimik" elite unit is said to have targeted Kuweires airbase outside Aleppo, which is used by both Russian and Assad regime forces. Drone strikes followed by a ground attack are said to have destroyed a Russian "electronic warfare complex" at the base,  along with other "military objects." The report said the operation was conducted in cooperation with Syrian "insurgents," although it didn't make clear which faction. The strike was reportedly carried out the day after a meeting in the Kremlin between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad on July 24. In May 2023, HUR chief Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov promised to "destroy Russian war criminals anywhere in the world they may be."

Mali announced Aug. 5 that it has cut diplomatic relations with Ukraine, after a Kyiv military official boasted of having aided an insurgent attack in the country's north that left scores of government troops and Russian mercenaries dead a week earlier. Andrii Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency, said on social media that "the rebels received necessary information, and not just information, which enabled a successful military operation against Russian war criminals." While not saying whether Ukrainian military personnel were involved in the fighting or were present in the country, Yusov cryptically added that the GUR "won't discuss the details at the moment, but there will be more to come." Malian official Col. Abdoulaye Maiga said Yusov's comments "admitted Ukraine's involvement in a cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack by armed terrorist groups."

In Episode 237 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg provides some under-reported context for the international crisis that has quickly spiraled since last week's deadly rocket strike on a Golan Heights village, and now threatens to escalate to the unthinkable. Under international law, the Golan is Syrian territory not Israeli. And the kids who were killed in the rocket strike were Druze not Jews. Most of the Druze residents of the Golan have refused Israeli citizenship and remain loyal to Syria. Only one country on Earth recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan—the USA, thanks to Donald Trump. Israel has a complicated history with the Druze, going back well before the occupation of the Golan in 1967. But the origins of the current trajectory toward regional war in a massacre of Druze youth points again to how peoples on the ground are exploited as pawns and propaganda in the cynical Great Power game. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.

Israeli warplanes hit several targets in southern Lebanon early July 28, as diplomats worked frantically to prevent a regional war after a rocket strike that killed 12 youths the previous day in the Golan Heights. Israel is blaming Hezbollah for the rocket, which struck a football field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams.

Meeting in the Chinese capital July 23, senior leaders from Fatah and Hamas as well as 12 other Palestinian factions signed a joint document called the "Beijing Declaration to End the Division & Strengthen Palestinian National Unity." A statement released by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the meeting reads: "The most important consensus from the Beijing talks is to achieve reconciliation and unity among the 14 factions; the core outcome is the affirmation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of all Palestinian people; the biggest highlight is the agreement on establishing an interim government of national reconciliation focusing on the post-conflict reconstruction of Gaza; and the strongest call is for truly establishing an independent State of Palestine in accordance with relevant UN resolutions." 

News of Syria's war often makes it seem like the conflict is in the past. Take the announcement this week that US officials in Los Angeles had recently arrested Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, a Syrian military official who ran Adra prison outside Damascus, infamous for torture, and later served as governor of Deir ez-Zor province, where he oversaw a violent crackdown on protesters after the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad broke out in 2011. Al-Sheikh was arrested for immigration violations, and has not been charged with war crimes.

Chinese and Russian naval forces have begun a joint exercise at a southern Chinese military port, China's Ministry of National Defense announced July 12. The "Maritime Joint-2024" exercise is taking place off Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, on the South China Sea. Its stated objectives include demonstrating the the two nations' ability to address maritime security threats, maintain regional stability, and deepen their strategic partnership.