• China has fielded its largest regional maritime deployment in decades, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday, as it monitors what it says is a surge of Chinese military activities in the Taiwan Strait and Western Pacific.
  • Taiwan has been on high alert since Monday as it braced for expected military drills after President Lai Ching-te sparked Beijing’s ire by making unofficial stops in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam earlier this month.
  • Taiwan on Monday said multiple formations of Chinese naval and coast guard vessels were moving in regional waters and around the Taiwan Strait. Beijing has not announced military drills or acknowledged the large-scale deployment cited by Taipei.

  • Source: cnn.com

     
    Assad’s fall shows Russian military limited by Ukraine offensive
  • The collapse of Moscow ally Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian government has dealt a major blow to Russia’s image of global strength and laid bare the limits of its military reach as its Ukraine offensive drags on.
  • Moscow helped keep Assad in power when it intervened in the Syrian civil war in 2015, but with its troops and firepower now concentrated on Ukraine, its ability to protect the iron-fisted ruler this time was limited.
  • Rebels swept into the capital Damascus after a lightning offensive that took less than two weeks to topple the regime and send Assad fleeing, with Russian news agencies reporting he had been granted asylum in Moscow.

  • Source: breitbart.com

    • The road to Damascus: Syrian exiles return home to celebrate the fall of Assad

  • On the border of Syria and Lebanon, a group of men are setting foot on their home soil for the first time in more than 10 years. Kneeling on the road, they press their brows to the highway and praise God for their return from exile.
  • “Thank God, the tyrant has fallen,” one man says. “He is the one who made us hate one another.”
  • There are no Syrian soldiers to be seen. Instead, armed rebels are waiting at the border to greet the families finally returning to their homes.
  • The road to Damascus is still littered with signs of the fighting. All along the highway, men are tearing down banners and posters bearing the faces of deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad and his father.

  • Source: france24.com

    Starmer says ‘no decision’ made on removing Hayat Tahrir al Sham terrorist designation in Syria

  •   On a diplomatic visit to Saudi Arabia, Sir Keir Starmer told broadcasters: “No decision is pending at all on this, it is far too early”.

    • Source: itv.com