Politics

American author Daniel Lazare blames American action and inaction for the capture of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra last year, which was liberated recently by the Syrian Arab Army. Washington and its allies in the Middle East funneled arms to terror groups such as Daesh and al-Qaeda and later sat back and watched as Palmyra fell into the hands of their favorite Islamists. Western leaders and allies blamed president Assad for their shortcomings, repeating the mantra “Assad must go” while Palmyra was being beheaded and pulverized by terrorists.

A Russian passport found among documents recovered from ISIS jihadis in Syria has led a reporter from Russia Today (RT) to a city in central Russia. Journalist Maria Finoshina uncovers the story of a man who gave away a good life and took his family to their apparent deaths in Syria’s jihadi badlands. Kurdish YPG fighters recently liberated the city of Hasakah in north eastern Syria from Islamic Stste/ISIS.

Daniel DePetris takes on Trump’s flip-flopping on torture:

The question has been consistent throughout the campaign, but his answers have been all over the map.

At first, when it announced the terms of its "oil freeze" agreement with Russia one month ago, Saudi Arabia seemed willing to grant Iran a temporary exemption from the supply freeze, at least until it recovers its pre-embargo production levels. That however changed on Friday when the country's Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, shocked Saudi Arabia's Arab allies in the Persian Gulf, telling Bloomberg his country would only join the freeze curbe Iran - and all other OPEC member nations - also joined.