On the other hand, putting a possible goal of disclosure aside, there is also a very real reason why the Pentagon would want the idea of UFOs injected back into the public's consciousness and even to add validity to it. Doing so is in itself a very old chapter in Uncle Sam's information warfare playbook.[...]

As I have said over and over again, the sky, and the things we are accustomed to seeing inhabiting it, is going to look increasingly different in the very near term. Hypersonics, drone swarms, directed energy weapons, and a full-on emerging arms race in space are just some of the very real activities and technologies that will dominate the near future of American weapons development. The products of all of these initiatives, once manifested, could appear positively alien to curious bystanders.

The military will be able to explain some of this, but some of it they won't. So, reinvigorating the presence of UFOs in the American psyche by adding heaps of validity to the topic on an official level and possibly also on a less than official level (To The Stars Academy for instance) can help keep secret programs that grace the skies just that, secret. And who knows, that list of programs and technologies could include the very Tic Tac and other bizarrely shaped craft that can defy imagination with their aerial feats that have been spotted and even recorded in recent years. In fact, if the U.S. military has such a capability, the UFO cover story would be imperative to keeping the nature of its existence under wraps.

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The heightened tensions may result in tariffs on all bilateral imports instead of groups of products. Given the possibility of tariffs increasing to 25 percent, output in the world may decline by 0.5 percent, while US and Chinese output may drop 0.5 percent and 0.8 percent, according to the analysts. Financial markets, already sensitive to the US-China trade war, are expected to be dragged down as a nightmare scenario includes a 10 percent equity market crash, that would eventually hit consumption and investment, in addition to increased tariffs. This would lead to 0.6 percent decline in global GDP, while China and the US would lose 0.9 percent and 0.7 percent respectively.

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The Swedish authorities made it impossible for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange to cooperate with the rape investigation without the risk of being extradited to Washington, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer told RT.

There were discrepancies in the probe against Assange in Sweden such as the investigation being dropped in 2010 and re-opened almost immediately, Melzer told RT's Afshin Rattansi on his show, Going Underground.

This case was closed by the prosecutor saying that there was no evidence that any crime has been committed at all ... Then a few days later, a different prosecutor takes up this case again and issues an arrest warrant [on Assange].

Two women accused Julian Assange of rape, which he denies. The investigation was dropped for the second time in 2017 - only to be launched once again last month after the journalist was forcibly evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Melzer believes Sweden pursued the probe "in a way that didn't allow Julian Assange to defend himself" without risking being extradited to the US where he may face up to 175 years in prison over charges of violating the Espionage Act.

Watch the full interview here:

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