This Week in War: 1st Week, July 2018

An Internally displaced girl from Deraa province carries a stuffed toy and holds the hand of child near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in Quneitra, Syria. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Faqir

1st week, July 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.  

• Trump has been repeatedly suggesting a Venezuela invasion.

• Geopolitics: Does Israel have a stake in keeping Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in power? 

• Mexico has elected their most left-wing President in decades.

• The US Army are quietly discharging immigrant recruits.

• Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has urged his armed forces to be on guard following reports that US President Donald Trump raised the possibility of invading Venezuela.

• Some of the contractors financially benefitting from housing the migrant children have particularly strong ties to the Trump administration.

• 2 British citizens have been poisoned with the same Russian nerve agent used on a former double agent and his daughter.

• India’s Slumdog Press : The child-run newspaper reporting on the ongoing injustices endured by India's 2 million street children.

• Physicians say the Rohingya scars 'highly consistent' with Myanmar atrocity reports.

• New York's Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has used her sudden fame as a platform to endorse and promote fellow insurgents across the country in their primary challenges against Democratic incumbents. 

• The Last Nomads of Morocco : A sedentary lifestyle in return for an education?

• The Mother Teresa charity accused of selling babies in India.

• Therese Okoumou climbed the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in a Fourth of July protest against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

• Iran threatens to block the Strait of Hormuz over US oil sanctions.

• Syrian War - Update: Warplanes pound southern Syria; rebels to resume peace talks.

• Top ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's son 'killed in Syria’.

• Saudi Kingdom Purge - Update: 8 months later, Princes and top officials remain jailed in maximum-security prisons.

• USA’s EPA Chief, Scott Pruitt, has been forced to resigned amid mounting ethic scandals.

• Japan executes doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara who was responsible for 1995 sarin gas attack.

• A Michigan judge rules kids don't have a fundamental right to literacy.

• Evidence may be ‘shoddy’ in Kim Jong-un half-brother murder trial.

• Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, hires attorney and former President Bill Clinton’s public relations veteran.

• Top officials involved in ‘non-stop cycle of torture’ in Ethiopia’s most notorious prison.

• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo heads to North Korea.

• The Cheat Sheet : A round up of humanitarian trends and developments from around the globe.

• Niger president says US troops should not be fighting in Niger.