The stakes in the Syrian conflict continue to escalate. France says it has proof that President Assad’s forces used Sarin gas, a clear violation of the laws of war. The US has sent the Patriot anti-missile system and F-15s to Jordan, countering the extension of anti-aircraft systems by Russia to President Assad. Meanwhile, the intense battle over the city of Qusair places thousands of civilians in serious jeopardy.
The protests in Turkey have been violent, and the violence has been captured in a photograph that the world knows as “the lady in red.” The protesters have adopted the photograph as a symbol of the violence of the state. Business Insider has the background story to the lady in red.
Today is the 24th anniversary of the violent crackdown by Chinese officials on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Discussion of the event is heavily censored in China, something I found out first hand when a BBC report on the event on the TV I was watching in Shanghai two years ago was blacked out. But the Chinese are highly inventive in trying to evade the censors and the discussions of the demonstrations continue, albeit in a truncated form.
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