Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process/Personal Representative of the Secretary‑General Nickolay Mladenov warned of escalating tensions, foreign interference, and growing risks of miscalculations in Syria, Yemen and Gaza, saying:

"What happens in the Middle East today has immediate implications for the rest of the world. Everyone in the (region) needs to step back from the brink" to prevent further deterioration of deplorable and dangerous conditions.

Addressing the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, he stressed Gaza is "coming apart as we speak," adding another Israeli war on the Strip would be catastrophic for its long-suffering people.

He called blockade-caused humanitarian crisis conditions in Gaza an injustice no one should have to endure.

Whatever the Douma residents, who had first-hand experience of the shooting of the 'water dousing after chemical attack' video, have to say, their words simply don't fit into the narrative allowed in the West, analysts told RT.

Footage of screaming bewildered civilians and children being doused with water, presumably to decontaminate them, was a key part in convincing Western audiences that a chemical attack happened in Douma. Russia brought the people seen in the video to Brussels, where they told anyone interested in listening that the scene was staged. Their testimonies, however, were swiftly branded as "bizarre and underwhelming" and even an "obscene masquerade" staged by Russians.

Former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) lambasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and Republicans for having "decimated" balance in the federal government.

Reid, who served as the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate between 2005-2015, compared Republicans in Congress to the "limpest waffle you've ever seen" and claimed they've done "everything they can" to weaken the checks and balances Congress and the judiciary have over the president, according to an interview conducted by NBC's Heidi Przybyla.


"With the Republicans, I'm not mad, I'm just terribly disappointed in what they've done to the institution," Reid said. "I believe the federal government has been so harmed, the legislative branch has been decimated, judicial decimated, checks and balances sliding out the door."

Though the House Intelligence Committee report exonerated President Donald Trump of 'collusion' with Russia, it still accused Moscow, and RT specifically, of meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

The report released on Friday says the committee "found no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the Russian government," but it accepted the US intelligence community's claims from the January 2017 report that said Russia used 'active measures' to meddle in the elections.

How did that happen? That's classified. Much of Chapter two, suggestively titled 'Russia attacks the United States,'was entirely redacted at the request of the US intelligence community, according to Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas). The few tidbits that the public was allowed to see defined spear phishing and credential harvesting and admitted that "attribution is a bear."

The report then goes full tinfoil hat, claiming that WikiLeaks is a Russian intelligence outlet and accusing RT of serving some dark agenda of the Kremlin. According to the US spy community, RT produces content which appeals to "skeptics of both the mainstream media and the establishment." Points for honesty on that, Langley, that is literally what "Question More" means.

The Justice department has finally produced 49 pages comprising around 300 previously "missing" text messages sent between two anti-Trump FBI employees in charge of investigating him. The messages, sent between FBI special agent Peter Strzok and FBI counsel Lisa Page, who were also having an extramarital affair together, span the period between December 16, 2016 and May 23, 2017.

As the Daily Caller reports, many of the messages are in shorthand and out of context. Congressional investigators will be sifting through them and piecing them together with previously released text messages to see if there is further evidence of political bias from two people acting in roles which required the utmost impartiality.

In a sudden change of heart, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un his "idol" and "a good fellow." Just a year ago, he labeled Kim a "son-of-a-whore maniac."

"He has become my idol, Kim Jong-un. For all of the time, he was pictured to be the bad boy of the community," Duterte stated. Now Kim appears to be a "amiable, jolly good fellow, and very accommodating," the defiant Philippines leader said, calling the North Korean a "hero of everybody."

"I hope he remains to be that way because nobody is really after him. Just a matter of historical divide which was created there."

Last week French President Macron and German Chancellor Merkel visited Trump. In contrast to Macron and Trump's 3 day 'love in', Merkel spent a mere 3 hours with the POTUS, but both European leaders had the same agenda: preventing Trump from starting a 'trade war' with the EU and backing out of the 'Iran deal'. Why does Trump think the 'Iran deal' is "bad" anyway?

Reading between the lines of comments by both Macron and Merkel, it is clear that Trump's protectionist and isolationist bent is deeply concerning to the stewards of the 'Western order' on both sides of the Atlantic. After all, who will 'contain' Russia and Iran and protect Israel and Saudi Arabia? For 70 years the Europeans have merely played the role of NATO cheerleaders for US imperialist wars under the NATO flag. Are they really expected to go it alone now?

In another blow to the Western world order, there were extraordinary scenes in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) of Korea this week as the leaders of the two Koreas met for the first time in 11 years and agreed in principle to formally end the Korean War, with Chairman Kim Jong-un becoming the first North Korean leader to cross the border into the South since the Korean peninsula was partitioned in 1945.

A little over a year ago, the situation in Korea looked far from peaceful as North Korea and the US began a war of words (and a display of missile capability) that apparently portended imminent global nuclear Armageddon. What changed? Or what were people missing? And if it's possible for this conflict to be resolved amicably, could peace break out in other hotspots like the Middle East?

Tune in this week from 12-1:30pm EDT / 6-7:30pm CET this Sunday April 29.


Running Time: 01:48:01

Download: MP3

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) criticized James Comey heavily for his denial that he didn't leak confidential information from his time as the FBI director before he was fired by President Donald Trump.

Here's what Gowdy said

Gowdy was speaking with Tucker Carlson on Fox News about the interview Comey had with Bret Baier earlier Thursday when he added that what Comey calls a leak is what everyone else calls a felony.

"The other thing that I will tell you," Gowdy said, "Tucker, that I learned tonight is Jim Comey has a definition of the word 'leak' that no on else has."

"What he says is a leak is what the rest of us call a felony," he added dramatically.

Dear fans of Mohammed bin Salman,

I know you've been busy wining and dining the crown prince of Saudi Arabia on his recent tour of the United States, but have you got a spare few minutes for me? I wanted to ask you a few questions.

In fact, I had planned to reach out to you much sooner, but I got diverted last week writing an open letter to apologists for another brutal Arab dictator: Bashar al-Assad of Syria. Unlike those apologists, however, who tend to be a motley and mostly fringe collection of bloggers and conspiracists with very little mainstream credibility, you are a diverse group that wields significant power and influence. Your ranks are filled with presidents and prime ministers, senators and CEOs, TV anchors and op-ed columnists - most of whom seem convinced that the blood-stained MBS is a political revolutionary, a social reformer, and a Muslim moderate.


So here are my questions: Have you heard of Yemen? Does it not bother you in the slightest that the de facto ruler of one the richest countries in the Arab world has been bombing and besieging the poorest country in the Arab world for the past three years? Have you no shame? No remorse? Don't any of you regret hosting, entertaining, and joking with a Middle East despot who has shed so much innocent blood?

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed Russia's commitment to further contribute to the normalization of ties between South and North Koreas in a Sunday phone conversation with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in, according to the Kremlin's statement.

"Russia's readiness to further promote the establishment of the practical interaction between South and North Koreas was confirmed, in particular, through the implementation of large-scale trilateral infrastructure and energy projects," the statement read.

The Russian president stressed the importance of all involved parties' continued efforts to support the political solution for the existing issues, taking into account the settlement roadmap suggested by Russia and China.


"The topical issues of the bilateral agenda have been discussed with emphasis on the expansion of mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas. The schedule of contacts on the highest level has been agreed upon," the statement read.