Events in Syria have recently clearly taken a turn for the worse and there is an increasing amount of evidence that the Russian task force in Syria is being targeted by a systematic campaign of "harassing attacks".

First, there was the (relatively successful) drone and mortar attack on the Russian Aerospace base in Khmeimin. Then there was the shooting down of a Russian SU-25 over the city of Maasran in the Idlib province. Now we hear of Russian casualties in the US raid on a Syrian column (along with widely exaggerated claims of "hundreds" of killed Russians). In the first case, Russian officials did openly voice their strong suspicion that the attack was if not planned and executed by the US, then at least coordinated with the US forces in the vicinity. In the case of the downing of the SU-25, no overt accusations have been made, but many experts have stated that the altitude at which the SU-25 was hit strongly suggests a rather modern MANPAD of a type not typically seen in Syria (the not so subtle hint being here that these were US Stingers sent to the Kurds by the US). As for the latest attack on the Syrian column, what is under discussion is not who did it but rather what kind of Russian personnel was involved, Russian military or private contractors (the latter is a much more likely explanation since the Syrian column had no air-cover whatsoever). Taken separately, none of these incidents mean very much but taken together they might be indicative of a new US strategy in Syria: to punish the Russians as much as possible short of an overt US attack on Russian forces. To me this hypothesis seems plausible for the following reasons:

First, the US and Israel are still reeling in humiliation and impotent rage over their defeat in Syria: Assad is still in power, Daesh is more or less defeated, the Russians were successful not only their military operations against Daesh but also in their campaign to bring as many "good terrorists" to the negotiating table as possible. With the completion of a successful conference on Syria in Russia and the general agreement of all parties to begin working on a new constitution, there was a real danger of peace breaking out, something the AngloZionist are absolutely determined to oppose (check out this apparently hacked document which, if genuine, clearly states the US policy not to allow the Russian to get anything done).

Second, both Trump and Netanyahu have promised to bring in lots of "victories" to prove how manly and strong they are (as compared to the sissies which preceded them). Starting an overt war against Russian would definitely be a "proof of manhood", but a much too dangerous one. Killing Russians "on the margins", so to speak, either with plausible deniability or, alternatively, killing Russians private contractors is much safer and thus far more tempting option.

The Syrian government reportedly rejected a request by the Kurdish self-government in Afrin to deploy troops to the area against an ongoing Turkish military operation, after the Kurds refused to lay down their weapons.

The proposed deal between Syrian authorities and Kurdish militias, who asked Damascus for military support against the Turkish invasion, derailed after Kurdish forces refused to comply with a precondition set by Damascus, an RT Arabic correspondent in Syria reported, citing a military source.

After the People's Protection Units (YPG) refused a request to hand over arms to the Syrian state, the negotiations were cut short before any deal could be reached, the source said.

Lebanese Al-Masdar News also stated that "according to reports from Aleppo," the deal, which could potentially become a tipping point in the conflict, was called off because the Kurds refused to part with weapons they use to fend off the Turkish offensive.

New twists in the Mike Flynn case.

In a stunning revelation, former FBI Director James Comey reportedly told lawmakers last March that FBI agents did not think former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn lied to them.

This new twist raises many more questions about Flynn's role in Mueller's Russiagate witch-hunt.

The top US regulator of the financial markets has blocked the sale of the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX) to a Chinese-led investor group due to concerns over the would-be buyers' ability to supervise the bourse after the deal.

"The review process has also raised questions about whether the proposed ownership structure will allow the commission to exercise sufficient oversight of the exchange," the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Thursday.

The decision by the SEC has put an end to a two-year battle for an approval of the sale and emphasizes once again zero tolerance by Donald Trump' s administration toward Chinese buyers. During the election campaign the 45th US president pointed to the CHX deal as an example of how American jobs and wealth were leaving the country.

As elections near in some Latin American nations, Washington has been busy preaching its mantra about Moscow's alleged attempts to meddle in others' internal affairs, says a Russian Foreign Ministry department chief.

The US is trying to spread its staunch belief about Russia's intervention in the 2016 presidential vote to sway the election in favor of Donald Trump, warning its southern neighbors to watch out, says Aleksandr Shchetinin, head of the ministry's Latin American Department. "Indeed, we see these bogus stories, spreading as if by command in those countries, set to hold elections this year - Mexico, Brazil and Colombia," Shchetinin told TASS. "This idea has been actively imposed on Latin Americans."

"There is no need to say it's a complete disinformation," he noted. The US doesn't even bother to cover it, with mostly 'representatives of the US administration saying it.'

The US and some Western media eagerly claimed that Iranians who took to the streets in December 2017 were 'fed up' with their 'oppressive' government - but a new poll suggests that their theory may be half-baked.

In a recent survey conducted by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland and IranPoll, only 0.3 percent of Iranians selected "lack of civil liberties" as the most important problem or challenge currently facing Iran. "Injustice" was also at the bottom of the list of grievances, at just 1.4 percent.

Respondents overwhelmingly selected unemployment (40.1 percent) as the largest problem facing the country, followed by inflation and high costs of living (12.5 percent), youth unemployment (9.4 percent), low incomes (6.9 percent) and financial corruption/embezzlement (6 percent).

Billionaire investor George Soros says social media companies, particularly Facebook and Google, are becoming "obstacles to innovation" as they have become too powerful and should be broken up.

While often playing an "innovative and liberating role," the companies are deceiving users "by manipulating their attention" and "deliberately engineering addiction" to their services, Soros wrote on opinion website Project Syndicate.

According to him, the two firms profit from making users stay on their websites for long periods of time. Due to the size of the companies, content providers have to "accept whatever terms they are offered," but that is only helping Facebook and Google become more profitable.

'I've been watching the Clintons work for 30 years. That's all the evidence I need,' my dad told me months ago about the Russia story. The evidence is increasingly proving him right.

"It's all a hoax." That's what my 62-year-old father, a Cruz-Rubio supporter, has been telling me since the very first time the media uttered, "Trump may have colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election."

I wasn't so sure he was right. After news broke indicating Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort had met with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016 to get "dirt" on the Clinton camp, the situation for Trump looked worse than ever.

"It's a hoax," my father reassured me. "Maybe Trump Jr. did meet with the Russian lawyer, but there was no collusion. This is a plan put into place by the Clintons. You'll see."

"How can you possibly know that?" I responded. "You have absolutely no reason to believe it's a hoax."

"I've been watching the Clintons work for 30 years. That's all the evidence I need," he answered.

In a sane world, being a neoconservative would carry the same social stigma as being a child molester or a serial killer. It would be something that you are aggressively shunned and rejected for and kept far away from society so that you can't do any harm, not something that wins you acclaim and MSNBC panels spots and appointment as UN ambassador.

I am not being hyperbolic here. Neoconservatism is not some political ideology which can be placed on a left-to-right spectrum based on one's ideas about fiscal policy and social issues, it is the civilian-slaughtering American supremacist agenda to butcher, bomb, sanction, starve, bully and manipulate the world population in order to ensure the hegemony of the US-centralized power establishment. I am not condemning an opposing set of political opinions here, I am condemning the mass murder of innocent men, women and children.

Neoconservatism is what fuels support for the war machine which has scattered hundreds of military bases all over the planet, which armed terrorist factions in Syria killing half a million people, which created a failed state in Libya, killed a million Iraqis, facilitated the mass slaughter in Yemen, and escalated the new cold war with Russia which threatens to kill everything on earth, all just in the last few years.

So forgive me if I indulge in a bitter scoff when Nikki fucking Haley tweets about how heartbroken she is about the recent mass shooting in Florida.

Steve Bannon, who served as President Donald Trump's chief strategist, was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller over multiple days this week, NBC News has learned from two sources familiar with the proceedings.

Bannon spent a total of some 20 hours in conversations with the team led by Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia as well as other issues that have arisen around the probe.

Bannon left his job as a senior White House adviser in August and returned to a leadership role at Breitbart, the right-wing news site based out of Washington. But he fell out of favor with the site's financial backers, the Mercer family, after criticizing the president and his family in "Fire and Fury," a book about the Trump administration published earlier this year by author Michael Wolff.