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UN Security Council set to vote on motion calling for Syria ceasefire
Source: NewsTalk
The UN Security Council is expected to vote on a new plan for a Syria ceasefire today.
The resolution, which has been drafted by Sweden and Kuwait, would allow for a 30-day break in the fighting to deliver humanitarian aid.
It remains unclear whether Russia - a key ally to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - will use its veto to block the deal.
...
More than 300 civilians - including dozens of children - are reported to have been killed since Sunday, with many others injured.
Read more: http://www.newstalk.com/UN-Security-Council-set-to-vote-on-motion-calling-for-Syria-ceasefire
U.N. pleads for truce to avert 'massacre' as strikes hit Syria's Ghouta for fifth day
At least 368 people have been killed, including 150 children, in the rural eastern Ghouta district on the outskirts of Damascus since Sunday night, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
More than 1,850 people have been wounded in the assault by Syria’s military and its allies. Planes have struck residential areas and, according to medical charities, hit more than a dozen hospitals making it near impossible to treat the wounded.
“There is a need for avoiding (a) massacre, because we will be judged by history,” U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said. He called on the U.N. Security Council to declare a ceasefire.
President Bashar al-Assad’s main ally Russia, which wields a veto on the Security Council, said it could support a 30-day truce, but not one that included the Islamist militants it says the eastern Ghouta operation is meant to target.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria/u-n-pleads-for-truce-to-avert-massacre-as-strikes-hit-syrias-ghouta-for-fifth-day-idUKKCN1G6102
At least 368 people have been killed, including 150 children, in the rural eastern Ghouta district on the outskirts of Damascus since Sunday night, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
More than 1,850 people have been wounded in the assault by Syria’s military and its allies. Planes have struck residential areas and, according to medical charities, hit more than a dozen hospitals making it near impossible to treat the wounded.
“There is a need for avoiding (a) massacre, because we will be judged by history,” U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said. He called on the U.N. Security Council to declare a ceasefire.
President Bashar al-Assad’s main ally Russia, which wields a veto on the Security Council, said it could support a 30-day truce, but not one that included the Islamist militants it says the eastern Ghouta operation is meant to target.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria/u-n-pleads-for-truce-to-avert-massacre-as-strikes-hit-syrias-ghouta-for-fifth-day-idUKKCN1G6102
And meanwhile, the Russian propaganda is vile - from Sputnik International:
E Ghouta Siege: 'Awful Situation Imposed by NATO and Allies' – Journalist
The 'journalist', Vanessa Beeley, has turned up before, trying to paint the White Helmets as evil:
The Russian strategy has been very successful at shaping the online conversation about the White Helmets. By gaming the social media algorithms with a flood of content, boosted by bots, sock puppet accounts and a network of agitators, propagandists are able to create a “manufactured consensus” that gives legitimacy to fringe views. Even Russia’s official channels, such as its UK embassy Twitter accounts, post memes discrediting the organisation.
...
Separately, both Graphika and Menczer’s Hoaxy tool identify Beeley, the British blogger, as among the most influential disseminators of content about the White Helmets.
Their findings also correlate with work done by Kate Starbird from the University of Washington in Seattle, who asserts that Beeley and the alternative news site 21st Century Wire have dominated the Twitter conversation about White Helmets over the last few months, along with Sputnik and RT.com.
...
Beeley frequently criticises the White Helmets in her role as editor of the website 21st Century Wire, set up by Patrick Henningsen, who is also a former editor at Infowars.com.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-helmets-conspiracy-theories
...
Separately, both Graphika and Menczer’s Hoaxy tool identify Beeley, the British blogger, as among the most influential disseminators of content about the White Helmets.
Their findings also correlate with work done by Kate Starbird from the University of Washington in Seattle, who asserts that Beeley and the alternative news site 21st Century Wire have dominated the Twitter conversation about White Helmets over the last few months, along with Sputnik and RT.com.
...
Beeley frequently criticises the White Helmets in her role as editor of the website 21st Century Wire, set up by Patrick Henningsen, who is also a former editor at Infowars.com.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/syria-white-helmets-conspiracy-theories
If some of that looks familiar, notice the website clarityofsignal.com in The Guardian's diagram. On Discussionist, the user Clarity of Signal boasted of posting such pro-Russian lies here - as 'go west young man' (both accounts are now banned). These are the cases where the Russian trolls really have been at work on DU. And notice the link to the InfoWars operation above.
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