At least 45 mortar shells fired at targets located inside the Rostov-on-Don region have been unleashed by Ukraine's army, Russia's border officials said. The barrage destroyed multiple houses and forced an evacuation of civilians.

Investigators say they were examining the site of a previous shelling near the Primiusskiy hamlet right on the southwestern edge of Russia on Wednesday, when a cannonade went off from the other side of the border.

"There is no doubt that those shooting from the Ukrainian side picked their target, and tried to kill Russian security officials," said Investigative Committee representative Vladimir Markin.

"It is only the poor training of Ukrainian gunners, and the timely evacuation of Russian officials under the cover of armored vehicles that thwarted their plan."

Six houses in the village were damaged, and one woman received a concussion as a result of a nearby explosion.

"The barrage is continuing from the other side of the border, and its intensity has not decreased," said Vasily Malaev, the regional border service spokesman.

"The propagandists who actually decide the content of mainstream news have done a bang-up job on Monsanto. They've made it seem that the science for and against GMO crops is a swamp of uncertainty no one can decipher. Therefore, leave it alone. Don't step into it. This omits one stunning circumstance: exactly how GMO crops were permitted into the US food supply in the first place." (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)

Perhaps you remember the Just-Label-It campaign. A number of activist groups petitioned the FDA for a federal regulation that would make labeling GMO food mandatory all across America.

The petition amassed over a million signatures. But the FDA decided only 394 of these were legitimate, because all the others were electronically submitted in one document.

Infuriating? Of course. But that was nothing.

Decree on a partial military draft, which Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko signed on Wednesday, signals an agony of the Kiev regime and its inability to resolve the problems of its own homeland in a civilized manner, Russian experts said Thursday when ITAR-TASS asked them for their reactions latest developments in Ukraine.

Ukrainian media carry evidence of the great pains, which accompanied the endorsement of a third phase of reservists' call-up for joining the so-called 'antiterrorist operation'.

"President Petro Poroshenko was outraged by the fact the voting in parliament took place on the verge of a critically low number of votes," writes the Ukrainian publication Segodnya.ua.

"The whole country is at war and 210 people's deputies believe this war doesn't concern them," it quoted him.

The authorities do not reveal any figures on how many reservists will be called up. "The case in hand may be tens of thousands of men within 45 days," says Nedelya.ua portal, adding that, more than that, the Verkhovna Rada has revised the upper age for the individuals liable for drafting to 60 years from the previous 50.

Government officials in the United States said Thursday that Russia is firing artillery across the border into Ukrainian territory, but refused to provide any evidence when grilled by an Associated Press reporter.

Matthew Lee, a veteran AP journalist known for his frequent showdowns with spokespeople during US State Department briefings, raised questions about the latest claims during Thursday's scheduled press conference.

"We have new evidence that the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine, and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russia to attack Ukrainian military positions," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters during the Thursday afternoon briefing.

When asked by Lee for any evidence, however, Harf said the State Dept. is unwilling at this time to disclose further details because doing so could expose the secret intelligence operations involved in making such claims.

"I would like to know what you're basing this new evidence that the Russians intend to send any heavier equipment," Lee asked.

The details, Harf responded, are "based on some intelligence information."

"I can't get into the sources and methods behind it," Harf insisted to Lee's chagrin. "I can't tell you what the information is based on," she said at one point during the back-and-forth.

When MH370 vanished into thin air on March 8th this year, an international search-and-rescue party scanned two of the world's oceans, pored over satellite images and radar readings, and consulted automated communication relays between parts of the plane and their manufacturers that monitor aircraft system performance in real-time. Despite these multiple layers of hi-tech monitoring systems, there is still no trace of the missing Boeing 777-200ER. Or so we've been told. All 239 passengers and crew are officially reported as missing, presumed dead. Planes have literally disappeared in the past, but none with so many people onboard.

As if that weren't extraordinary enough, here we are 4 months later and a second Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200ER and its passengers and crew have been 'taken out', although this time in a more easily discernible manner. There is as yet no direct connection between the two events, although only the most ardent scientific materialist could claim complete indifference to the fact that they're the same type of aircraft used by the same airline company, as well as the numerological synchronicity of a Boeing-777 with flight number MH17 crashing on 07/17/2014, exactly 17 years to the day since its maiden flight on 07/17/1997.

The first event seemed to be random and caught the world's media completely by surprise. But the second occurred at 'ground zero' of the 'new cold war' we find ourselves in. Shouting the loudest about the crash of MH17 is, as usual, the US government. From the get-go, it 'knew' exactly how it happened, and exactly who to blame for the deaths of 298 innocent people: the "Russian-backed terrorists" in eastern Ukraine had "shot MH17 down with an SA (surface-to-air) series missile shot from a BUK missile-launcher near where the plane came down in terrorist-controlled territory." The 'evidence' to support their claims, however, is non-existent, unless you count "social media" and the US brand of "common sense" as evidence.

Jon Snow has been speaking to youngsters in Gaza City about their lives and how they're coping with living in a war zone. And he also talks to Dr Mads Gilbert - a Norwegian doctor working at al Shifa hospital - who is treating some of the children.

Warning: this report does contain distressing images of injured children.

Maps of attack on Crimea by jointed forces of Ukrainians, Majilis and foreign NATO fleet are being actively propagated on Ukrainian Facebook.

The operation will be named: "Oksamitovy season 2014." - following the idea of authors of this scenario.

The second part of the plan depicts attack on the Russian mainland itself - both from "soon to become again" Ukrainian Crimea on Kuban, and from Donetsk and Lugansk on the neighboring Russian territories.

The second stage of the operation the authors call "Reconquest" and predict it for 2015.

Not even we anticipated this particular "unintended consequence" as a result of the US multi-billion dollar fine on BNP (which France took very much to heart). Moments ago, in a lengthy interview given to French magazine Investir, none other than the governor of the French National Bank Christian Noyer and member of the ECB's governing board, said this stunner at the very end, via Bloomberg

Noyer: BNP Case Will Encourage 'Diversification' From Dollar

Here is the full google translated segment:

Q. Doesn't the role of the dollar as an international currency create systemic risk?

Noyer: Beyond [the BNP] case, increased legal risks from the application of U.S. rules to all dollar transactions around the world will encourage a diversification from the dollar. BNP Paribas was the occasion for many observers to remember that there has been a number of sanctions and that there would certainly be others in the future. A movement to diversify the currencies used in international trade is inevitable. Trade between Europe and China does not need to use the dollar and may be read and fully paid in euros or renminbi. Walking towards a multipolar world is the natural monetary policy, since there are several major economic and monetary powerful ensembles. China has decided to develop the renminbi as a settlement currency. The Bank of France was behind the popular ECB-PBOC swap and we have just concluded a memorandum on the creation of a system of offshore renminbi clearing in Paris. We have very strong cooperation with the PBOC in this field. But these changes take time. We must not forget that it took decades after the United States became the world's largest economy for the dollar to replace the British pound as the first international currency. But the phenomenon of U.S. rules expanding to all USD-denominated transactions around the world can have an accelerating effect.

In other words, the head of the French central bank, and ECB member, Christian Noyer, just issued a direct threat to the world's reserve currency (for now), the US Dollar.

Officials in Berlin were long in denial that their closest allies were spying on Germany. Now, ministries are undertaking measures to improve security and counterintelligence. They're anticipating frosty relations with the US for some time to come.

Last Wednesday, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière paid a visit to his colleague in the Foreign Ministry, Frank-Walter Steinmeier for a strictly confidential conversation about the currently tense relationship with the United States. Specifically, they planned to address the latest spying revelations and accusations. Before the meeting began, both ministers turned in their mobile phones. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has a small side room he uses for this purpose; part of the Foreign Ministry is in the former Nazi Reichsbank and has very thick walls. The room is now used to store smartphones and tablet computers when sensitive discussions take place.

The precaution reflects the significant disquiet and anxiety in Berlin's ministries and in the Chancellery as the summer holidays get underway. Slowly, ministry officials are starting to grapple with the true meaning of "360 degree" counterintelligence. It means defending yourself not just usual suspects like Russia or China. But also against Germany's closest allies, particularly the United States.

A few days ago, Chancellor Merkel reportedly told US President Barack Obama in a telephone conversation that anger over the US spying activities in Berlin's government quarter as well as the recruitment of an informant inside Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) foreign intelligence service has in no way subsided. Because Obama apparently expressed little understanding for the commotion in Germany, Merkel is now taking action.

How an epithet becomes a compliment
Washington, D.C., is a world unto itself: inside the bubble, where politicians and their kept pundits endlessly massage each others' egos (and bank accounts), the world is America's oyster, to be greedily gulped and washed down with a swig of the Imperial City's most popular intoxicant - hubris. Oblivious to the unwholesome spectacle of their ongoing public orgy, the Bourbons of the foreign policy establishment ignore growing hostility emanating from us peasants in flyover country - to their peril.

Let's look at the numbers. While the downing of MH17 has politicians in both parties calling for direct US intervention in Ukraine, a recent poll of voters in battleground states has a pathetic 17 percent agreeing with them - and more than double that opposed. While the poll was taken before this latest ginned up "crisis," most Americans aren't paying the least bit of attention to the war propaganda coming out of Washington - they are tuning it out just as they have steadfastly ignored the neocons' recent call to arms urging us to re-invade Iraq. Bill Kristol's assessment that Americans are just waiting to be "rallied" to the cause underscores the delusional blindness not only of the neocons but of the entire foreign policy establishment, which routinely pushes grandiose projects normal Americans scoff at. The Politico poll puts a mere 19 percent in favor of Commander Kristol's Iraqi expeditionary force.

The tone-deafness of our political class when it comes to foreign policy was underscored by a recent trip to Kentucky by newly-elevated Republican majority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Goldman Sachs). Asked what he thought about Sen. Rand Paul's nascent presidential campaign, McCarthy said he could support Paul if nominated but made a point of distancing himself from the Kentucky Senator's increasingly visible opposition to Washington's foreign policy of global meddling: