Cambodia's prime minister, Hun Manet, nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize on Aug. 7, citing his "crucial role" in restoring peace after bloody border fighting with Thailand. The gushy statement praised Trump's "extraordinary statesmanship" and "innovative diplomacy." (NYT)

Cambodia now becomes the third country to nominate the bellicose Trump for the Peace Prize after Israel and Pakistan. Islamabad's nomination followed Trump's supposed involvement in the ceasefire deal with India that ended several days of mutual missile strikes in May. The problem is that India denies that the US or any other foreign power had a hand in its decision to accept a truce. (Hindustan Times)

Two landmark rulings on the urgent responsibility of states to address the climate crisis are issued—by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in a proceeding brought by Chile and Colombia, and by the World Court in a proceeding brought by the threatened Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu. Meanwhile in the USA, the Trump regime withdraws from the Paris Agreement, removes greenhouse gases from EPA oversight, drops subsidies for solar energy—and even destroys NASA's climate-monitoring satellites! This as receding Arctic ice sheets and sea ice begin to destabilize the climate-regulating Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), melting glaciers unleash deluges from the Swiss Alps to the Himalayas of Nepal, wildfires rage from Canada to California to the Mediterranean, and ocean acidification crosses a "planetary boundary" that portends global biosphere collapse. In Episode 290 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes an unflinching look at the long odds for humanity's future—even if we manage to avoid nuclear war. 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Aug. 6 called for the immediate and unconditional release of a former Macau lawmaker following his arrest on "national security" charges. The arrest marked the first time Macau, a Special Administrative Region of China, has invoked its sweeping Law on Safeguarding National Security.

A coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has announced formation of a parallel government in Sudan, further cementing the country's territorial split between army-held and RSF-held regions. Paramilitary leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ("Hemedti") will head a 15-person council with Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, head of the SPLM-N rebel group, as deputy. The African Union urged member states to not recognize the new administration. The RSF-led government wants to rival the Port Sudan-based army-led transitional government, which installed a prime minister in May, former UN official Kamil Idris.

At least 17 people were killed in an armed attack on a bar in El Empalme, a small town north of Ecuador's port city of Guayaquil July 28—three days before US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Neom visited the country and signed a deal to fight organized crime and illegal migration. The deal includes training for Ecuadoran security forces in the US and collaboration on border security.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told his ministers this week that he will seek cabinet approval for a plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip. According to reports in the Israeli media, several ministers said Netanyahu used the term "occupation of the Strip" in private conversations describing his plan. One anonymous official was quoted as saying: "The die is cast—we are going for a full occupation of the Gaza Strip." Referring to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who is said to oppose such plans, the official added: "If the chief of staff doesn’t agree, he should resign." (ToI)

Amnesty International on July 28 called on Syria to investigate abductions of Alawite women and girls, and bring perpetrators to justice.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International's secretary general, said that the Syrian authorities must "act swiftly and transparently in locating missing women and girls, bringing perpetrators to justice, and providing affected families with timely, gender-sensitive and credible information and support."

The DC-based Syrian Emergency Task Force condemned the unlawful detention, torture and abuse of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, which it says has resulted in at least 40 deaths. Since 2014, Hezbollah and complicit Lebanese forces have arrested hundreds of Syrian refugees—particularly supporters of the Syrian Revolution—and sentenced them in unfair military trials, despite repatriation efforts by Syria's new government.