Islamic State-trained militants are fighting alongside a state army in a European country, the Times reports - but that detail is buried in an article talking about how Putin is a common enemy of Ukrainians and Chechens.

Framed as an inside look at what's driving Chechens to join Kiev's "anti-terrorist operation" against the breakaway republics in the east of Ukraine, the Times article has a few juicy quotes from one Mansur, a member of a voluntary battalion made up of Chechens.

Author and veteran anti-Putin writer Marc Bennetts echoes the official message of Kiev and its Western allies, calling the eastern Ukrainian rebels "Kremlin-backed" and claiming Moscow is "preparing a full-scale invasion."

He also mentions, once, midway through the text, that some of the Chechen fighters in Ukraine admit having trained with Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria. Kiev, he writes, has no official links to them, but has been criticized for turning a blind eye to their actions.

Missile defense systems have been activated against targets over Damascus, according to Syrian state agency. It added that incoming missiles came from Lebanese airspace, which reportedly was earlier violated by Israeli aircraft.


First videos of interceptor missiles were uploaded late on Tuesday, with media reports across the region suggesting that Israel was behind strikes, which was said to have targeted Iranian weapons caches west of the Syrian capital.


An Israel warplane was spotted flying at low altitude over Lebanon, according to the Lebanese National News Agency. Israel is known to illegally use the airspace of the country, whose border is much nearer to Damascus than its own, to avoid detection and interception.

The French are the best. The men don't get fat. The women don't sleep alone. The kids are well-behaved. They have the best architecture, the best way of living, best bread, best wine, best olive oil, best cooking, some of the best writing, films, painting, poetry, perfume - and women. They also excel in revolutions. Each revolution of theirs is a peach, perfect, round and juicy. They open a new epoch for mankind.

Just thinking of a French revolution makes me feel young, for I remember the previous one, in May 1968, and it was a beauty, the revolution of Forbidden to Forbid. It ushered us into the short-living paradise of permissible. Believe it or not, we could freely flirt with the opposite sex, we could smoke in the pubs and cafés, we could have a drink and drive. We could rent a room for small price, and roam Europe for $5 a day. Workers weren't fired, jobs were aplenty, there were no one-year contracts, parking was free and gasoline cheap. Oh yes, and the cotton was high.

Previously, the world had been hard, cold and rigid - more or less the way it is now, with prohibitions overtaking permissions. Half a century had passed since then, and the world is ripe for a new French revolution - and it came, the GJ rising. And in time for Christmas, making it an excellent gift for us all.

As my regular readers will probably recall, according to my personal, pseudo-Chinese zodiac, 2017 was "The Year of the Headless Liberal Chicken." This year, having given it considerable thought, and having consulted the I Ching, and assorted other oracles, I'm designating 2018 "The Year of Putin-Nazi Paranoia."

Not that 2017 wasn't already paranoid. It was. It was completely paranoid, and otherwise clinically batshit crazy. But 2018 has been batshit crazier. It started out with the Internet companies that control the flow of information that most of us now perceive as "reality" launching an all-out War on Dissent, purportedly to protect the public from "divisive" and "confusing" content, and other forms of Russian "influencing."

Twitter started sending out scary emails warning customers that there was "reason to believe" that they had "followed," "retweeted," or "liked the content of" accounts "connected to a propaganda effort by a Russian government-linked organization." Facebook launched its own Ministry of Truth, manned by "a dedicated counter-terrorism team" of "former intelligence and law-enforcement officials" (also known as The Atlantic Council, NATO's unofficial propaganda wing). Google stepped up its covert deranking of insufficiently Russia-hating and other "non-authoritative" websites.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced his resignation Thursday afternoon, sending President Donald Trump a letter that implicitly criticized the president's military judgment.

In the letter, Mattis suggested Trump was not treating allies with respect and had not been "clear-eyed" about U.S. enemies and competitors.

"My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues," he wrote.

Mattis told the president in the letter that he should have a defense chief who shares his views.

French police are being urged close police stations on Wednesday as part of a protest over pay and conditions - including a demand to be paid the 23 million hours of overtime they are owed - as the government scrambles to quell growing unrest among the country's forces of law and order.

After the yellow vests, it's now the turn of the blue vests (gilets bleus) to show their anger as French police unions are calling on officers to picket France's police stations on Wednesday and only answer emergency calls as they fight for better working conditions and pay.

Talks were held between police unions and the Interior Minister Christophe Castaner on Tuesday but they failed to find a solution to quell the anger.

This anonymous letter landed in my inbox about a minute ago:

Hello,

After more than 20 years, I've finally decided to tell the world what I witnessed in 1991, which I believe was one of the biggest turning points in popular music, and ultimately American society. I have struggled for a long time weighing the pros and cons of making this story public as I was reluctant to implicate the individuals who were present that day. So I've simply decided to leave out names and all the details that may risk my personal well-being and that of those who were, like me, dragged into something they weren't ready for.

Between the late 80's and early 90's, I was what you may call a "decision maker" with one of the more established companies in the music industry. I came from Europe in the early 80's and quickly established myself in the business. The industry was different back then. Since technology and media weren't accessible to people like they are today, the industry had more control over the public and had the means to influence them anyway it wanted. This may explain why, in early 1991, I was invited to attend a closed-door meeting with a small group of music business insiders to discuss rap music's new direction. Little did I know that we would be asked to participate in one of the most unethical and destructive business practices I've ever seen.

The meeting was held at a private residence on the outskirts of Los Angeles. I remember about 25 to 30 people being there, most of them familiar faces. Speaking to those I knew, we joked about the theme of the meeting as many of us did not care for rap music and failed to see the purpose of being invited to a private gathering to discuss its future. Among the attendees was a small group of unfamiliar faces who stayed to themselves and made no attempt to socialize beyond their circle. Based on their behavior and formal appearances, they didn't seem to be in our industry. Our casual chatter was interrupted when we were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement preventing us from publicly discussing the information presented during the meeting. Needless to say, this intrigued and in some cases disturbed many of us. The agreement was only a page long but very clear on the matter and consequences which stated that violating the terms would result in job termination. We asked several people what this meeting was about and the reason for such secrecy but couldn't find anyone who had answers for us. A few people refused to sign and walked out. No one stopped them. I was tempted to follow but curiosity got the best of me. A man who was part of the "unfamiliar" group collected the agreements from us.

A mysterious light with a twisting, smoking tail appeared in the early evening sky over the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday, but local astronomers had a scientific explanation.

It was a meteor, according to the University of California's Lick Observatory near San Jose.

"A bright meteor was visible in the skies over the Bay Area shortly after sunset this evening, leaving a bright trail that was visible for many minutes in the western sky," the observatory wrote on Facebook.

Initial reports of the meteor sighting came in around 5:30 p.m., the Bay Area's FOX 2 reported.

Twitter exploded with photos and comments about the glowing phenomenon.

"@NASA white blaze in sky what is dis? Maybe a plane?" user Jose Armando Solis tweeted.

Jeremy Thomas said the light "flashed bright green for a few seconds as it fell and appeared to split up," previously adding that "something fell out of the sky."

The British ex-spy who authored the infamous dossier alleging collusion between Donald Trump and the Kremlin said one of his goals was to give Hillary Clinton legal basis to challenge the 2016 election results.

Christopher Steele's salacious 17-page report was commissioned by Fusion GPS, a firm connected to Clinton's campaign.

"Based on that advice, parties such as the Democratic National Committee and HFACC Inc. (also known as 'Hillary for America') could consider steps they would be legally entitled to take to challenge the validity of the outcome of that election," Steele wrote in recently unsealed declaration that was published by the Washington Times.

Several hundred people have attended a protest in the centre of Dublin in solidarity with the French yellow vest demonstrations.

The protesters in Dublin wore yellow vests and some had hard hats, while others tied scarves over their faces. The chanting was mainly anti-Government in nature.

Those who gathered outside the Custom House overlooking the River Liffey before marching to Leinster House included pro-Palestinian organisations and socialist republicans.