This Week in War: 3rd Week, April 2018

A girl hurls stones during clashes with Israeli troops at a protest where Palestinians demand the right to return to their homeland, at the Israel-Gaza border, east of Gaza City, April 13, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

3rd week, April 2018.

This Week in War:  A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week.  

It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts, and long-form journalism.

• Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III, renames Swaziland as eSwatini, citing colonial past.

• Chemical weapons experts press for access to Syria attack site in Douma.

• Russia rejects UN resolution for independent Douma investigation, claiming that determining responsibility for chemical attack is futile since West already assigned blame.

• Russia hosted the teenage children of Bashar al-Assad at a lavishly-rebuilt Black Sea summer camp in Crimea last year has given a rare glimpse into the personal lives of the Syrian president’s family and his close relationship to Moscow.

• Chemical weapons inspectors' security team fired on and an explosive detonated in Douma, Syria.

• The Austrian doctor after whom the Asperger syndrome is named was an active participant in the Nazi regime. Hans Asperger, the pioneer of pediatrics, assisted in Third Reich’s ‘euthanasia’ program.

• North Korea seeks 'complete denuclearization’. 

• Israeli snipers murdered 4 Palestinians including a 15-year-old boy on Friday from across the border fence. Israel’s IDF has wounded more than 150 others as well.

• North and South Korea have set up a telephone hotline between their two leaders - the first time such a direct line of communication has been set up.

• US senators demanded answers from the administration of President Donald Trump on its continued support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

• Iran warned the United States on Thursday of “unpleasant” consequences if Washington pulls out of a multinational nuclear deal.

• Nicaraguans take to the streets in protest over social security changes.

• In socially conservative Gaza, women have been leading the Great Return March movement, uniting all Palestinians.

• Iraq launches 'deadly strikes' against ISIL inside Syria.

• In the US, Durham, North Carolina’s city council unanimously voted to ban police training with Israeli military synonymous with the occupation of Palestine. They are the first US city to do so.

• US Marine, Micheal Chesny, outed as a Neo-nazi.

• 57-year-old bureaucrat replaced Raul Castro as the president of Cuba on Thursday, launching a new political era.

• Refugees in Greece are now subject to different legal rulings, depending on the time of their arrival. Previous refugees are furious at the freedom for new arrivals.

• 9/11 suspect arrested by Kurds in Syria.

• Nearly 1,000 neo-Nazis and other far-right sympathizers are expected to fill the German town of Ostritz this weekend. Anti-fascists are also preparing to rally against them.

• Belgian firms sent 168 tonnes of isopropanol, which can be used to make sarin, to Syria. They are now being prosecuted over Syria chemical exports.

• A female morality police officer in Iran is shown slapping woman and wrestling her to floor because her hijab was loose.

• Rebels near Damascus surrendered to Syrian government, but the army’s bombardment continued pending a full surrender deal.

• Legal discrimination is alive and well’: Canada's indigenous women are still fighting for equality.

• US court sentenced “Jungle Jabbah” a Liberian warlord living in East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania to 30 years in prison. Jabbateh either personally committed or ordered acts such as rapes, ritual cannibalism, mutilation, murder and the use of child soldiers. 

• Democratic Party sues Russia, Trump campaign and Wikileaks, claiming conspiracy to help Trump win election. 

• Prince Charles reportedly to lead Commonwealth.