Contracts between the Pentagon and pro sports teams intended to boost military recruiting and honor service members lack adequate oversight and cost the government more than $10 million over the past four years, according to a new report from Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake.

In the hopes of ending what they view as "paid patriotism" that benefits wealthy sports leagues at the expense of taxpayers, the two Arizona Republicans' investigation has prompted the National Football League to examine all of its contracts with the Department of Defense. And though the NFL has a newly instituted ban on such deals and the Pentagon is discontinuing the practice of paying for patriotic displays at games and events, the senators say there is far more work to do.

The senators charge that the Defense Department's response to their investigation fell short of fixing the problem, and they suggest the department is at the very least unaware of the sprawling number of deals there are with various multi-billion dollar sports leagues. The senators found 122 contracts worth $10.4 million spent over four years, but the department only included 62 percent of those marketing and advertising contracts with the five major sports leagues in correspondence delivered to the GOP investigators.

The Nusra Front, al-Qaeda affiliate in northern Syria, has recruited fighters the United States previously designated as moderate opposition, US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson said on Wednesday.

The United States designated the Nusra Front as a terrorist organization. The group has been fighting against Syrian government forces in northern Syria.

"The Nusra Front, which is an al-Qaeda affiliate, has absorbed the various moderate groups...have absorbed a number of what we would previously call the moderate opposition," Patterson told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Are you confused by the Middle East? Here are some things you should know. (But you'll probably still be confused.)

The US, France, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, and the Gulf monarchies have all in the recent past supported al Qaeda and/or the Islamic State (ISIS) with arms, money, and/or manpower. The first example of this was in 1979 when the United States began covert operations in Afghanistan, six months before the Russians arrived, promoting Islamic fundamentalism across the southern tier of the Soviet Union against "godless communism". All the al-Qaeda/Taliban shit then followed.

In addition to Afghanistan, the United States has provided support to Islamic militants in Bosnia, Kosovo, Libya, the Caucasus, and Syria. The United States overthrew the secular governments of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya and is trying to do the same with Syria, thus giving great impetus to the rise of ISIS. Said Barack Obama in March of this year: "ISIS is a direct outgrowth of al-Qaeda in Iraq that grew out of our invasion. Which is an example of unintended consequences. Which is why we should generally aim before we shoot."

More than a million refugees from these wars of Washington are currently over-running Europe and North Africa. God Bless American exceptionalism.

The Iraqi, Syrian and Turkish Kurds have all fought against ISIS, but Turkey - close US ally and member of NATO - has fought against each of them.

Russia, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanese factions have each supported the Syrian government in various ways in Damascus's struggle against ISIS and other terrorist groups, including the (much celebrated but seldom seen) "moderate" ones. For this all four countries have been sharply criticized by Washington.

The United States has bombed ISIS in Syria, but has used the same occasions to damage Syria's infrastructure and oil-producing capacity. Russia has bombed ISIS in Syria, but has used the same occasions to attack Syria's other enemies.

The mainstream media almost never mentions the proposed Qatar natural-gas pipelines - whose path to Europe Syria has stood in the way of for years - as a reason for much of the hostility toward Syria. The pipelines could dethrone Russia as Europe's dominant source of energy.

In Libya, during the beginning of the 2011 civil war, anti-Gaddafi rebels, many of whom were al-Qaeda affiliated militias, were protected by NATO in "no-fly zones".

US policy in Syriain the years leading up to the 2011 uprising against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, which began the whole current mess, was designed to promote sectarianism, which in turn led to civil war with the goal of regime change. US Secretary of State John Kerry declared on October 22 that in resolving Syria's civil war the country "should not be broken up, that it must remain secular, and that Syrians should choose their future leader." (All of which actually describes Syria under Assad.) Then Kerry said: "One thing stands in the way of being able to rapidly move to implement that, and it's a person called Assad, Bashar Assad."

Afghanistan has recently seen a resurgence in violence after the Taliban captured large areas of land in the north. The United States, Germany and Britain volunteered to stay in the country past the initial pullout date.

Speaking at a press conference in Spain, Secretary General Stoltenberg said that he welcomed the will of NATO allies and partners to continue their presence, but stressed that "We will not go into a new combat operation."

"We ended the combat operation at the end of last year, but what we have decided is to continue the Resolute Support Mission... and the question is how we do that, with what kind of troops and for how long," he went on to say.

German NATO General Hans-Lothar Domröse said that NATO should again launch a military operation in Afghanistan and conduct airstrikes against radical Taliban Islamists in the country, DWN wrote. Currently, NATO units can only advise the Afghans on issues regarding reconstruction and training for Afghan forces.

But Domröse insists that NATO should also provide military support for its 'Afghan brothers'.

EU members disagree among each other when it comes to the presidency of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, an anonymous diplomatic source from Greece told RIA Novosti.

The new members of the EU from Eastern Europe, as well as France and Britain are against the al-Assad government in Syria; meanwhile the majority of EU members believe his participation is vital for finding a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis, the Greek source informed.

"Al-Assad is the legitimate president of Syria. How can you look for political solutions without him?" — the source told RIA Novosti.

Al-Assad is a key political actor when negotiating with the Syrian government. Who else is the EU supposed to negotiate with, the Greek source asked.

One could call it a sign of progress that the members of the EU agreed that al-Assad could stay in power for a few years during a transitional period until various Syrian factions try to come up with another government.

The British government says that it believes the Russian passenger jet that crashed over Egypt's Sinai on Saturday might have been brought down by an "explosive device."

All flights from Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort to the UK have been delayed as a precautionary measure, the joint statement from the Prime Minister's Office, the Department for Transport and Foreign & Commonwealth Office said.

This will allow time for a team of UK aviation experts to assess the security situation in the resort from where the Russian-operated Airbus 321 departed Saturday.

"While the investigation is still ongoing we cannot say categorically why the Russian jet crashed. But as more information has come to light we have become concerned that the plane may well have been brought down by an explosive device," the statement read.

The security assessment is expected to be completed by Wednesday night.

The president of the Maldives has declared a state of emergency, citing a threat to citizens' safety and national security.


Abdulla Yameen's decree, which came into effect at midday local time (0700 GMT), suspends all basic rights and gives the security forces sweeping powers to arrest suspects before a major anti-government rally planned later this week.

The main opposition Maldivian Democratic party (MDP), whose leader Mohamed Nasheed is in jail following his conviction earlier this year under anti-terror laws, has organized the protest.

A senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture filed a whistleblower complaint on Wednesday accusing the federal agency of suppressing research findings that could call into question the use of a popular pesticide class that is a revenue powerhouse for the agrichemical industry.

Jonathan Lundgren, a senior research entomologist with the USDA's Agriculture Research Service who has spent 11 years with the agency based in Brookings, S.D., said that retaliation and harassment from inside USDA started in April 2014, following media interviews he gave in March of that year regarding some of his research conclusions.

In a significant trilateral summit over the weekend, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It's a welcome development for Asian fraternity. But for Washington's regional hegemonic ambitions, based on divide-and-rule, it must be seen as a retrograde event.

Notably, on the agenda in Seoul was the continuation of "dialogue for regional cooperation in the spheres of economic and social development." That China, South Korea and Japan have engaged in such dialogue has to be seen as a significant step toward normalization of relations given the long history of enmity and disputes between the three regional powerhouses.

It's noticeable that just a few days before the renewal of the trilateral summit, US destroyer USS Lassen sailed into the 12 nautical miles of China-controlled islands in the South China Sea. The timing of the two events is intimately related. The question is: Did the US send its guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen into a hotly disputed region precisely for the purpose of stirring up troubled waters between China and its neighbors?

It seems more than a coincidence that Washington dispatched its warship only days before China joins South Korea and Japan - both US allies - in this landmark regional summit.