The Turkish National Defense Ministry said that the US promised to provide a list of weapons it had supplied to the Kurds and would secure their return after "victory" over terrorists.

The US Department of Defense has pledged to Turkey that it will provide a list of weapons it supplied to the Kurds and will secure their return after "victory" over terrorists in Syria, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said in a statement obtained by Sputnik on Thursday.

"In a letter to Turkey's National Defense Minister Fikri Isik, the head of the Pentagon, James Mattis, announced his intention to provide Turkey with a list of arms supplied to the Kurdish YPG [People's Protection Units] formations," the ministry said.

Hosting Sergey Lavrov yesterday the French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accused Syria's Assad of carrying out "mass killings" (without presenting any evidence) and demanded that these hypothetical killings stop. (Note: that stops well short of demanding that "Assad must go".)

Other than that it was all music to Russian ears. Le Drian said France and Russia were "facing the same threat of terrorism", claimed France was "neither looking to isolate Russia from the rest of Europe nor weaken it economically", insisted Macron's administration wants to "work together in a pragmatic and concrete way" with Moscow.

The French FM also pointed out French business has continued investing in Russia in spite of EU sanctions, congratulated himself on the quality of his relationship with Lavrov, and insisted the two could now enter into concrete talks to help resolve the conflict in Syria.

The U.S. military and/or the CIA outsourced parts of their ongoing torture campaign in Yemen to the United Arab Emirates, reports AP. Some "interrogations" are done in the presence of U.S. personal and on U.S. ships:

MUKALLA, Yemen (AP) — Hundreds of men swept up in the hunt for al-Qaida militants have disappeared into a secret network of prisons in southern Yemen where abuse is routine and torture extreme — including the "grill," in which the victim is tied to a spit like a roast and spun in a circle of fire, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Senior American defense officials acknowledged Wednesday that U.S. forces have been involved in interrogations of detainees in Yemen but denied any participation in or knowledge of human rights abuses.
...
At one main detention complex at Riyan airport in the southern city of Mukalla, former inmates described being crammed into shipping containers smeared with feces and blindfolded for weeks on end. They said they were beaten, trussed up on the "grill," and sexually assaulted. According to a member of the Hadramawt Elite, a Yemeni security force set up by the UAE, American forces were at times only yards away.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday called on Western media, specially those in the United States, to turn their attention to the reports about unidentified helicopters allegedly supporting Daesh militants in Afghanistan.

On June 14, Daesh militants managed to capture the majority of the Tora Bora cave complex in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, Zakharova added.

"We have paid our attention to the reports of the transportation by the helicopters having no identification marks of IS Afghan wing's militants as well as arms and ammunition for them, now in the east of Afghanistan," Zakharova said at a regular press briefing adding that a member of the Iraqi parliament's lower house publicly said these vehicles belonged to the United States.

Attorney Dan Kovalik has written an extremely important book that challenges the current media/political focus on "Russia-gate" and warns that dark forces of war are taking us in an ever more dangerous direction. The book, released just a few weeks ago, has received high praise from numerous writers.

In his foreword to the book, best selling author David Talbot says:

"The US war machine has revived the tried and true Red Scare.... This massive anti-Russian propaganda campaign is one of the biggest fake news operations in U.S. history.... Unlike our war-obsessed media, human rights lawyer Dan Kovalik does understand that peace and diplomacy are in the best interests of the American and Russian peoples. His book is an urgently needed counterassault against the propaganda forces that are trying to push us over a precipice that it too terrifying to even contemplate. It's time for all of us to speak truth to power before it's too late."

Talbot's warning is not hyperbole. As I write this review, the US military is pushing ever closer to direct military confrontation with Syria, Iran and Russia in Syria.

There is hardly a day that goes by without a terror attack somewhere in the world, emphasis on western world. There were three successive UK terror attacks within less than three months, one in Manchester two in London, where all the 'terrorists' - who all yelled coincidentally Allahu Akbar (God is Great) while committing their heinous crimes - were killed. None was left alive for testimony. Since then another one was carried out in front of a Mosque in northern London. Yesterday in a Brussels railway station someone exploded a bomb, and people heard him scream Allahu Akbar. Its terror non-stop. We better get used to it.

Terror is reigning in Africa every day, in Central Africa, the Congo, Burundi, Nigeria - you name it. The Islamic State is fighting in the Philippines. They are fighting a proxy war for Washington against the inconvenient President Duterte, who likes to ally with China and Russia. Geographically, economically and politically speaking, a logical choice. It's hardly reported by the presstitute. And if reported, its twisted and turned into a barrage of lies. Terror is the scare of the day; and terror is a branch of the US military - it's a weaponized strategy to conquer the world by fear and as a consequence, by militarization. People ask for it, for protection.

Israel has significantly increased its air superiority in the last decade following Israeli - Lebanese conflict of 2006, its Air Force chief has stated, warning Hezbollah and its allies of dire consequences should another war break out in the future.

"What the air force was able to do quantitatively in the Lebanon war over the course of 34 days we can do today in 48-60 hours," Israel Air Force Commander Major-General Amir Eshel boasted at the 17th annual Herzliya security conference.

"This is potential power unimaginable in its scope, much different to what we have seen in the past and far greater than people estimate," the air force chief said on the second day of the security conference, as quoted by the Times of Israel.

President Donald Trump addressed supporters twice in Iowa, including a campaign-style rally, where he boasted of plans to regrow American agriculture, winning electoral victories and having rich economic advisers. He also blamed Democrats for stalling the GOP health care bill.

Trump's "Make America Great Again" rally at the US Cellular Center was the first time the president has staged a gathering since he made a trip to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in late April.

The mass meeting began with a roar of supporters, booing a protester armed with a whistle and deep breaths. The crowd chanted, "USA! USA!" before Trump resumed.

"We love our police," Trump said to rounding applause.

After recruiting Trump, the KGB and Moscow have clearly also managed to make all House Republicans their puppets, because the Senate bill that passed last week and slapped new sanctions on Russia (but really was meant to block the production on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia and which Germany, Austria and France all said is a provocation by the US and would prompt retaliation) just hit a major stumbling block in the House.

At least that's our interpretation of tomorrow's CNN "hot take."

Shortly after House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas said that House leaders concluded that the legislation, S. 722, violated the origination clause of the Constitution, which requires legislation that raises revenue to originate in the House, and would require amendments, Democrats immediately accused the GOP of delaying tactics and "covering" for the Russian agent in the White House.

Around 600 buildings in the UK have similar "combustible cladding" to Grenfell Tower, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Theresa May has said.

Tests have revealed that at least three tower blocks across the UK are fitting with combustible cladding, with hundreds more checks planned, Sky News reports.

The Department for Communities and Local Government says details of at-risk structures will be revealed after residents are informed.