The troll removed Bannon from the National Security Council.

That will hamper him from pushing the US into an unthinking war.

Erik Prince's new company is a sort of Blackwater for China.

Assad seems to have dropped sarin on a rebel-held Syrian town.

I would not put it past him to do that, but I have to wonder why he would do it. It makes little difference to the military situation, but spurs international condemnation of him. What does he think he has to gain?

I agree that it is important to punish a state that uses chemical weapons so as to discourage other states from adopting the practice. But what practical method is there to punish Assad? Only a big escalation of the war could do that, and that in itself would be a crime. And what force in Syria could deserve support in fighting Assad? The Arab rebels are Islamists, even when they are not al-Qa'ida or PISSI.

The only entity that deserves support is Rojava, but Syrian Arabs would not tolerate being part of a mainly Kurdish statelet. In the absence of an Arab force to ally with, there is no realistic way to punish Assad. There might perhaps be someone in his part of Syria to propose as his replacement, but that proposal would not be practically possible.

In the long term, perhaps Rojava could inspire a similar secular democratic movement among Syrian Arabs. But that would take years.

For the UK, leaving the EU implies sucking up to every tyrant with money, even Salafi Arabia.

UK's "Need" for trade deals will be an excuse to ignore human rights in other countries, as well as workers rights both there and in the UK itself.

The US plans to demand that travelers give access to their email accounts, meaning basically all their private communications.

This would apply even to people that don't need a visa.

It would be anxiety-provoking to plan a trip to the US and face the danger of being denied entry and losing what you've already spent on the tickets. Don't expose yourself to this — stay away from the US.

I fear that if the US does this, other countries will follow. The US introduced the nasty practice of demanding fingerprints from visitors, and already several other countries have adopted the practice, meaning that I will never go there again.