Syria Disintegrating: Part 2

[mongers]

A huge Russian convoy of several hundred vehicles, mainly 6x6 trucks, a few AFVs, left Damascus and was seen heading towards the Med coast on Friday

Channel 4 news covered it's journey, interviewing Syrians from beside the main road, a lorry broke down, the rest of the convoy stopped and the wheel/tire was changed, it took the Russians nearly 2 hours to do it!

[Sheilbh]

Interesting comment from Oz Katerji (a British-Lebanese war correspondent who has mainly been in Ukraine for the last few years but is now back in Syria) on the meme-ifying of al-Jolani/al-Sharaa (or the "Che Gueverification" of his image across Arab social media) as something that will possibly be of concern for Arab despots. A populist political Islamist emphasising state-building and "institutions" for the region could be as terrifying for them as a Communist revolution in Latin America was for that region's despots.

Not uncoincidentally El-Sisi commenting (I think for the first time) on Assad's downfall saying "my hands are not stained with blood, nor have I taken anyone's money" - which has strong "already answered by my t-shirt" vibes.

[DGuller]

To be fair, when performed properly, hangings don't result in my blood staining.