War

Colum Lynch has more details on how the Saudis pressured the U.N. into removing its Yemen war coalition from the blacklist of violators of children’s rights:

Saudi Arabia threatened this week to break relations with the United Nations and cut hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance to its humanitarian relief and counterterrorism programs to strong-arm the U.N. into removing Riyadh and its allies from a blacklist of groups that are accused of harming children in armed conflict.

While NATO stages military exercises on its eastern flank, Russia has grown concerned and built up its forces along Ukraine’s border. There is growing concern over a military confrontation between the two former Cold War rivals, Russia and the NATO alliance. The Kremlin sees its western flank along former Soviet Union Republics as the new front-line and is reportedly deploying troops and building an army base in a border town near Ukraine.

Submitted by Russ Read of The Daily Caller

Islamic State militants have not only stolen a majority of the military Humvees provided to the Iraq Security Forces (ISF) by the U.S., they are now re-purposing them into car bombs.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi confirmed that 2,300 are in ISIS hands, more than 2/3 of all Humvees provided to Iraq by the U.S. Most were stolen after the terrorist group captured the Iraqi city of Mosul in June 2014.

The military provocations between NATO and Russia reached a new post-cold war high yesterday when Poland became the host to the largest joint NATO war game in eastern Europe since the end of the cold war. The purpose of the massive drill, according to the Guardian, is for NATO "partner countries to mount a display of strength as a response to concerns about Russia’s assertiveness and actions." The 10-day military exercise dubbed Anaconda-2016, involves 31,000 troops and thousands of vehicles from 24 countries.

A one-year-old bear lost its life after making its way into a Finnish army base disrupting a brigade training exercise with more than 3,000 troops. Local media reported that some of the troops took  cover in their trucks. RT reports: Kainuu brigade, one of the largest and most capable units in the Finnish army which trains around 4,000 conscripts annually, was on high alert this weekend after a the young bear made his way into the military camp, according to Finland’s Iltalehti tabloid newspaper.