Africa

France's armed forces chief resigned on Wednesday, culminating a dramatic dispute with president Emmanuel Macron over defense budget cuts, in what Reuters called "an early test of the newly elected president's mettle and the tough presidential style he is cultivating." Last week, General Pierre de Villiers publicly complained about Macron’s proposed €850 million cuts to the military's budget, telling a parliament committee he would not "let myself be fucked like that," adding that "I may be stupid, but I know when I am being had."

Authored by Giulio Meotti via The Gatestone Institute,

Authored by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,

Two weeks after Italy reacted with anger to Austria's deployment of troops and armored vehicles to the border between the two nations, while reactivating border controls at the Brenner Pass over concerns that Italy will be unable to handle the roughly 85,000 migrants and refugees who have entered the country so far in 2017, the Italian government has threatened to retaliate in way that assures an imminent migrant crisis as well as an escalation of tensions between the two EU nations.

Authored by Pepe Escobar via Asia Times,

China and Syria have already begun discussing post-war infrastructure investment; with a 'Matchmaking Fair for Syria Reconstruction' held in Beijing

Amid the proverbial doom and gloom pervading all things Syria, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune sometimes yield, well, good fortune.