If you want a vision of the future, don't imagine "a boot stamping on a human face — for ever," as Orwell suggested in 1984. Instead, imagine that human face staring mesmerized into the screen of some kind of nifty futuristic device on which every word, sound, and image has been algorithmically approved for consumption by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ("DARPA") and its "innovation ecosystem" of "academic, corporate, and governmental partners."

The screen of this futuristic device will offer a virtually unlimited range of "non-divisive" and "hate-free" content, none of which will falsify or distort the "truth," or in any way deviate from "reality." Western consumers will finally be free to enjoy an assortment of news, opinion, entertainment, and educational content (like this Guardian podcast about a man who gave birth, or MSNBC's latest bombshell about Donald Trump's secret Russian oligarch backers) without having their enjoyment totally ruined by discord-sowing alternative journalists like Aaron Maté or satirists like myself.

"Fake news" will not appear on this screen. All the news will be "authentic." DARPA and its partners will see to that. You won't have to worry about being "influenced" by Russians, Nazis, conspiracy theorists, socialists, populists, extremists, or whomever. Such Persons of Malicious Intent will still be able to post their content (because of "freedom of speech" and all that stuff), but they will do so down in the sewers of the Internet where normal consumers won't have to see it. Anyone who ventures down there looking for it (i.e., such "divisive" and "polarizing" content) will be immediately placed on an official DARPA watchlist for "potential extremists," or "potential white supremacists," or "potential Russians."

Two years ago I wrote an article entitled "America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars." Though I made clear in the piece that I was writing about specific, identifiable Jews who fund and staff the think-tanks and foundations that make up the Israel Lobby, I was immediately fired by the Editor of The American Conservative (TAC) magazine and website, a timid little man who had been trying to get rid of me for some time. He evidently wished to do so because I did not share his "restraint" in my allusions to Jewish power in the United States and was particularly incensed over my suggestion that when Zionist propagandists like Bill Kristol appear on television the network should be required to display a warning label under the picture advising that Kristol was toxic.

As I had been writing for TAC for fifteen years and had been regarded as very popular among the magazine's supporters, my dismissal was noted by many. I therefore followed up with a second article entitled "How I got fired," which, inter alia, noted that Pat Buchanan, the TAC co-founder, had pretty much written the same thing that I did back in 2003 in a famous essay entitled "Whose War?", though he had definitely been more polite than I was.

Pat Buchanan continues to be one of the few publicly visible political analysts currently active who dares to tell it like it is when it comes to Israel's power in America. His article last week "Will Israel's War Become America's War" as always gets to the heart of the problem, i.e. that the completely contrived "special relationship" with Israel could easily lead the United States into another totally unnecessary war or even a series of wars in the Middle East.

While US President Donald Trump boasts about the defeat of Islamic State in Syria, US government-purchased weapons appear in the hands of Islamic State terrorists in Yemen.

Recently I anonymously received explosive documents from the Serbian state-owned arms companies Krusik and Jugoimport SDPR, including e-mails, internal memos, contracts, photos, delivery schedules, and packing lists with lot numbers of weapons and their buyers. Among the leaked documents I also received scanned passports of arms dealers and government officials from the US, Saudi Arabia and UAE. They have been involved in the trafficking of at least 3 million pieces of Serbian weapons (mortar shells and rockets) to Yemen and Syria in the last three years.

Tracking the lot number of these Serbian weapons I was able to identify and trace mortar shells in the hands of Islamic State terrorists in Yemen back to their buyer - the US Government.

These documents expose the biggest lie in US foreign policy - officially fighting terrorism while secretly supporting it.

Sounds of explosions rocked an area in Syria's Latakia province, where Russia's Khmeimim Air Base is located. The base's air defenses fended off a new suicide drone attack on the base, launched by jihadists from nearby Idlib.

The loud blasts were reported by several regional media, including Syrian state TV SANA. The channel's correspondent said they were made by Khmeimim's air defenses shooting down terrorist drones.

Two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) were detected on course for the base on Tuesday evening, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They were "destroyed at a safe distance" by stationary air defense systems. There were no injuries or damage at the base, which "continues to operate as planned" the MOD said.

A new report from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) accused the United States, France and Britain of possibly being complicit in numerous war crimes for their respective roles in aiding the violations of international humanitarian law that have taken place in Yemen within the past five years.

The UNHRC's Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen published a report Tuesday that called for the US, France and Britain to halt the trade of arms and support to a Saudi-led coalition that is known to use starvation of civilians as a war tactic.

According to the 274-page document, the names of over 160 top military and political individuals belonging to Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as the Houthi movement, have been forwarded to the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, though the report did not clarify whether any of these "main actors" are potential suspects of war crimes.

Huawei Technologies Co., China's tech giant, is ready to work together with foreign nations to eliminate security concerns, a company executive said Tuesday, amid lingering anxiety that its products may facilitate spying.

While pledging to take security measures, depending on the situation in each country, Huawei would, if necessary, make its source code available to other nations, Senior Vice President John Suffolk said in an interview with Kyodo News.

He also emphasized that the company has not received any request by the Chinese government to share confidential information, again brushing aside rumors that Huawei has engaged in spying activities.

"We are open to have the conversation about what is the right model" to verify the security of Huawei products, Suffolk said at one of the firm's facilities in Dongguan, adding, "And if the source code is the right model, then we'll work out how best to do that."

He said Huawei has so far provided its source code for countries including Britain, Canada and Germany, but stressed that different nations have different ways of evaluating the safety of Huawei goods.

From former spooks to libertarian-conservative talk show hosts to leftists and liberals various theories have been put forward as to why and how Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to 'destroy Americans' confidence in democracy' and 'sew chaos across American and the world.' In short, Putin ultimately seeks to destroy faith in democracy and sew chaos in the United States and thereby weaken America and its ability to promote democracy abroad. The US will no longer be 'that shining city on a hill', as US late President Ronald Reagan eloquently put it. The same is said about Russia's supposed support for ultra-nationalist groups, even though that 'support' is nothing more than a limited overlap of interests and views. Never mind that Russia has good relations with numerous democracies, including the world's largest, India, as well as with Japan, South Korea, and others. It has bad relations only with NATO countries. A coincidence? You decide.

In order to support the 'chaos theory,' its proponents deploy another theory; one we might call the 'breadcrumb theory.' This theory has been brought to bear in the case to support the view that Putin ordered the murders of Alexander Litvinenko, Novaya gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, even his own mentor and friend Anatolii Sobchak, the poisoning of the Skrypals, the supposed hack of the DNC computers. It has even been brought to bear to in explaining alleged 'collusion' of US President Donald Trump with Russia and the 'Russiagate' meeting between Trump aides and the Russian lawyer Nataliya Veselnitskaya meeting.

For example, a former CIA operative wrote in the New York Times recently: "No conclusive proof has yet emerged that the Kremlin arranged this meeting, and the Russians involved have asserted they were not working for the Putin government. Mr. Kushner himself told Senate investigators that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. But to me, the clearest evidence that this was a Russian influence operation is the trail of bread crumbs the Kremlin seemed to have deliberately left leading from Trump Tower to the Kremlin. This operation was meant to be discovered".

But if the idea is to sew chaos and disillusion by letting everyone know that the Kremlin was behind this or that move, this or that operation, why not just pinpoint Russia's responsibility so other targets and any future transgressors can be quite sure they will not get by with impunity? Why not state that Litvinenko as a former security officer was a 'traitor to the state' and that all traitors of the Russian state are subject to execution? Why not state the same about Mr. Skrypal (we apologize for infecting his daughter)? Similarly, why not state that there were meetings between Kremlin agents and Trump aides and these had on their agenda ways to undermine the campaign of Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton? Reference could be made to the far more extensive US interference in the domestic politics of foreign states, including Russia's own. That's it. Russia defends herself against traitors, so all traitors beware, and we reserve the right to use the very same interference in the domestic politics of states that interfere in Russian politics.

The Taliban has taken credit for killing at least 16 civilians involving a car bombing and gunmen in Kabul on September 2 as the Afghan-based militant group agreed "in principle" to a deal to end the nearly 18-year conflict, the longest war in which the United States has been embroiled.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nusrat Rahimi said the explosion occurred in a large compound of the Afghan capital where foreign organizations and aid agencies are based, and which is outside the heavily fortified Green Zone.

At least 119 were wounded "in last night's attack.... The explosion was caused by a tractor filled with explosives," Rahimi said on September 3.

The attack came as U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad was in Kabul to discuss with Afghan officials the draft peace deal.

In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, Khalilzad said the Taliban had agreed "in principle" that any Afghan territory it controls in the future will not be used as a sanctuary for terrorists to launch attacks against the United States and its allies.

He also said that U.S. and Taliban negotiators had also agreed on the gradual "reduction and withdrawal" of Western forces from Afghanistan.

"That would depend on the situation on the ground," the envoy said.

The world's major powers are in the middle of an artificial intelligence (AI) arms race. Over the next several years, China expects to deploy a fleet of unmanned submarines in contested waters like the South China Sea. Russia has tested its robotic tank on the battlefield in Syria and is reportedly working on developing autonomous nuclear submarines. For its part, the United States is in the process of testing autonomous swarming drones.

This development has major implications — not just for how wars are fought, but also for the future of American foreign policy. As AI grows into an essential part of modern warfare, it will become more difficult for the United States to exit wars and avoid new ones. In short, the use of AI could very well keep our military trapped in forever wars.

It's not difficult to see the appeal of AI in conflict. Robots are far more capable of processing large amounts of data than humans are. At a time when the speed of warfare is increasing, AI systems offer quicker reaction time, allowing militaries to lessen their reliance on human personnel — ultimately limiting bloodshed and lowering costs.

Unfortunately, there's another side of the coin. AI might also inspire unmerited confidence among top military brass. When humans are no longer doing the fighting, it's easy to conclude that the costs of war are smaller. Of course, that isn't true.

Iran is ramping up negotiations as signs gather that it's closer to ending a showdown with Europe over the wobbling 2015 nuclear deal and easing a security crisis in the Persian Gulf.

Iran's top envoy Mohammad Javad Zarif held talks in Moscow with counterpart Sergei Lavrov as the threat of another erosion of Iran's compliance with the accord looms. His deputy Abbas Araghchi went to Paris with a team of economists and central bank officials to discuss a French proposal to help restore Iran's oil exports, the backbone of its economy.