Headlines:

• Zionist Entity to Normalise Relations with Sudan
• Dissatisfaction with Democracy ‘At Record High’
• Battle for Last Syrian Stronghold

Zionist Entity to Normalise Relations with Sudan

The Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in secret with the chairman of Sudan’s ruling council as the two leaders agreed to start the process of normalising ties. Netanyahu met with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan at the residence of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Entebbe, a meeting that was only made public when the prime minister tweeted about it. “We agreed to begin cooperation that will lead to the normalisation of relations between the two countries,” Netanyahu tweeted in Hebrew. “History!” Burhan was not seen by reporters who were there to cover Netanyahu’s meeting with Museveni, and his trip has not been reported by Sudanese media.

Dissatisfaction with Democracy ‘At Record High’

Dissatisfaction with democracy within developed countries is at its highest level in almost 25 years, according to University of Cambridge researchers. Academics have analysed what they say is the biggest global dataset on attitudes towards democracy, based on four million people in 3,500 surveys. The UK and the United States had particularly high levels of discontent. “Across the globe, democracy is in a state of malaise,” report author Roberto Foa said. The study, from the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Future of Democracy, has tracked views on democracy since 1995 – with the figures for 2019 showing the proportion dissatisfied rising from 48% to 58%, the highest recorded level. This was an era of the collapse of Communist power in Eastern and Central Europe and the apparent ascendancy of Western democracy – with “global sentiment” appearing to be supportive of the rise in democracy. But over the past decade, this appears to have shifted steadily in a more negative reactions with rising dissatisfaction. The study suggests this could reflect political and social reverberations of the “economic shock” of the financial crash of 2008 and disquiet from the refugee crisis of 2015 and “foreign policy failures”.

Battle for Last Syrian Stronghold

The battle for the last remaining rebel strong-hold, Idlib, is underway. Exactly nine years from when the uprising began, and intentional conspiracy has ensured the people’s wishes of removing the al-Assad regime. For the first time Turkish and Syrian forces traded heavy fire after eight Turks, including five soldiers, were killed in northern Syria, triggering retaliatory attacks that Ankara claimed had killed dozens of President Assad’s troops. A Syrian war monitor said 13 Syrian troops were also killed, with Syrian activists claiming nine civilians had been killed by airstrikes in the country’s northern rebel-held region. The Turkish soldiers and three contractors were killed when artillery hit the Turunbah observation post near the town of Saraqib, on the front line between rebel and Syrian regime forces in Idlib province. The Turkish army occupies 12 such positions set up under a de-escalation deal negotiated between President Putin and President Erdogan in September 2018. When the people of Syria needed Turkey’s help the Turkish armed forces were sent to fight in areas other than Aleppo and where the Syrian military was conducted massacres, only now that Turkish forces have been killed has Turkey responded. It seems Nationalism rather than Islam is really Erdogan’s guide.