A devastating investigative report was published in the Washington Post on December 9^th. Dubbed the "Afghanistan Papers" in a nod to the Vietnam War's famous "Pentagon Papers," the report relied on thousands of documents to similarly expose how the US government at the presidential level across three administrations, acting in collaboration with the military brass and civilian bureaucracy, deliberately and systematically lied repeatedly to the public and media about the situation in Afghanistan. Officials from the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations have all surged additional troops into Afghanistan while also regularly overstating the "success" that the United States was attaining in stabilizing and democratizing the country. While they were lying, the senior officers and government officials understood clearly that the war was, in fact, unwinnable.

The story should have been featured all across the US as Afghanistan continues to kill Americans and much larger numbers of Afghans while also draining billions of dollars from the United States Treasury, but the mainstream media was largely unresponsive, preferring to cover the impeachment saga. Rather more responsive were the families of Army Chief Warrant Officer Second Class David C. Knadle, 33, of Tarrant, Texas, and Chief Warrant Officer Second Class Kirk T. Fuchigami Jr., 25, of Keaau, Hawaii. Both were killed in a helicopter crash on November 20^th in Afghanistan's Logar province while assisting troops on the ground, according to a Pentagon press release. They were participating in what was characteristically dubbed Operation Freedom's Sentinel. Both men were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas. The Taliban took credit for the downing of the chopper, but the Army is still investigating the cause.

Embroiled in conflicts that have cost millions of lives, the redemption of the Muslim world is possible through unity and leadership, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday

Around 94% of the people killed in conflicts around the world are Muslims, but this can be prevented through cooperation and proper leadership, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at the Kuala Lumpur Summit on Thursday, reiterating his calls to reform the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to better represent and defend the rights of all people.

Speaking at the opening session of the summit, which brings together intellectuals, academics and Muslim leaders to create solutions for problems faced by Muslims, Erdoğan highlighted the importance of solidarity and cooperation among the countries.

Now that the House of Representatives has voted to impeach President Trump, action shifts to the Senate, whose members are charged by the Constitution to determine whether he should be convicted or acquitted. Yet wary Democrats are slow-walking the process in a bid to secure procedural guarantees from Senate Republicans on how the trial will unfold.

The House must first appoint members who will manage its case during the trial. When that happens, the House can notify the Senate of its decision to impeach the president and appoint managers.

According to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House will refrain from appointing managers until Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., agree on the ground rules that will govern the trial. At issue are whether the Senate will call additional witnesses and how long the trial will last.

Schumer wants the Senate to call particular witnesses (namely those who refused to testify during the House's impeachment inquiry). But McConnell doesn't think witnesses are needed and wants the trial wrapped up quickly.

MPs vote to pass the revised withdrawal agreement bill by a comfortable margin, with 358 voting for and 234 against.

The vote paves the way for Boris Johnson's promise that Britain would leave the European Union by 31 January

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says a 'new golden age' for the UK is in reach, but in fact there's much to be alarmed about in the new Queen's Speech, especially the overhaul of security laws.

As Harold Wilson famously remarked, a week is a long time in politics. I wonder how many of those who trooped out in the pouring rain to vote for Boris Johnson only seven days ago might have been experiencing some buyer's remorse on listening to the Queen's Speech, which outlined the re-elected government's new legislative programme.

Yes, of course Brexit was there. Britain will be leaving on January 31, 2020, without any further ifs and buts. But apart from that? It's good that for the first time a government has enshrined in legislation the money it's pledged for the NHS. There's going to be an extra £33.9bn per year by 2023/4. That sounds quite a lot, but in terms of year-on-year increases in expenditure at 3.4% a year, it's actually still much lower than the 6% average annual increases under Labour under Blair and Brown. Basically all Johnson is doing is making good some - but not all - of the damage done to NHS funding under Cameron and May.

The federal prosecutor probing the origins of the Russia-collusion hoax has requested "emails, call logs and other documents" from John Brennan, former President Barack Obama's CIA director turned NBC and MSNBC contributor, the New York Times reported Thursday.

Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, the prosecutor charged with conducting the review into the origins of the Russia collusion probe,

"wants to learn what Mr. Brennan told other officials, including the former FBI director James B. Comey, about his and the C.I.A.'s views of a notorious dossier of assertions about Russia and Trump associates."

The Times noted adding:

"Mr. Durham's pursuit of Mr. Brennan's records is certain to add to accusations that Mr. Trump is using the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies. The president has long attacked Mr. Brennan as part of his narrative about a so-called deep state cabal of Obama administration officials who tried to sabotage his campaign, and Mr. Trump has held out Mr. Durham's investigation as a potential avenue for proving those claims."

After months of tense negotiations and years of legal battles, Moscow and Kiev have made an agreement on extension to the current gas transit agreement, which expires on December 31.

"Russia and Ukraine have signed a protocol on agreements on continuing gas transit as well as on settling reciprocal claims," a spokesperson of the Russian gas giant Gazprom, told journalists without providing any details of the document.

Russia, Ukraine and the European Commission have reached the "final agreement" on all the "principled positions" related to the gas transit and the settlement of reciprocal claims, the Ukrainian president's office said on its Facebook page, adding that the details of the agreement would be revealed on Saturday.

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak also said that the sides managed to find "mutually beneficial" solutions to all the issues and there would be "no more lawsuits and legal arguments." He added that a new agreement is expected to be signed before the year's end.

US President Donald Trump has excoriated Christianity Today magazine for demanding his dismissal, referring to it as "ET" in his rage. Then he bragged about raising the "smocking" age, further triggering his new editors.

Trump warned his supporters that the magazine Christianity Today, which published an editorial calling for him to leave office on religious grounds earlier this week, had degenerated into a "far left magazine" in a tweet on Friday. The periodical "would rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President," he fumed.

Complaining that he'd "done more for the Evangelical community" than any other president, Trump vowed that he "won't be reading ET again!" Except the initials of the magazine, founded by televangelist Billy Graham, father of Trump-supporting evangelist Franklin Graham, are 'CT.'

In 1997, a now-famous episode of the sitcom Seinfeld popularized the parody holiday "Festivus," celebrated on Dec. 23. In part, the holiday became memorable for its annual "Airing of Grievances," in which participants tell others all the ways in which they've been disappointed over the course of the past year.

Sen. Rand Paul saves his Festivus grievances for the federal government, which earns his ire for wasting billions in taxpayer dollars. And in the Kentucky Republican's latest Festivus Report, he exposes over $50 billion the federal government wasted in 2019, concluding that, sadly, "The more things changed in 2019, the more they stayed the same."


The examples of government waste Paul exposed reveal a government so inept a steward of taxpayer money that it beggars belief.

The State Department alone is responsible for alarming levels of waste. According to Paul's report, the agency spent $16 million in taxpayer dollars sending international students from Indonesia, South Africa, India, Brazil, and elsewhere to college for free. That's right: While American students and graduates struggle with high tuition and student loans, Uncle Sam is spending your tax money to send international students to our schools for free.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has decided it will launch a full-fledged probe into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian lands by Israel. In response, Tel Aviv has declared the court's jurisdiction there null and void.

The looming probe was announced by the ICC's chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Friday. A preliminary investigation - opened back in 2015 - has concluded that there is enough data to open a full-scale one.

"I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation into the situation in Palestine," Bensouda said in a statement. "I am satisfied that... war crimes have been, or are being, committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip."