A new cartoon published by the New Yorker depicting voter suppression in the US has drawn comparisons with an old Soviet propaganda poster about electoral fraud and disenfranchisement in 1950s America.

The New Yorker cartoon published on Monday showing a whole series of obstacles in the way of American voters; a barbed wire fence, rings of fire, a crocodile - and finally, President Donald Trump arranging traffic cones in front of a ballot box at the end of the obstacle course.

The UK will crash out of the EU with a no deal Brexit, the Chief Whip of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - the Tories' Westminster ally - has warned.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson tweeted, Tuesday, that a UK-EU deal was unlikely, criticising the Irish government and warning them that a no-deal Brexit would mean "serious consequences" for their economy.

Saudi Arabia may be maintaining a blockade of Yemen and facing repeated accusations of indiscriminate bombing of civilian sites, but US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says starvation in the country is Iran's fault.

Yemen has been in turmoil for years and the Saudi-led coalition was involved over three years ago. The alliance sent its troops and warplanes to put an ousted president back into power, after he fled under pressure from the Houthi rebels, a group that the Saudi sees as a proxy force of its archenemy Iran.

As part of its campaign, the Saudi-led troops imposed a blockade of the country, stifling the supply of food, fuel, medicine and other essentials. Activists claimed its warplanes have also bombed civilian infrastructure like water treatment facilities, hospitals and markets.

The result is what some observers openly call a man-made humanitarian disaster, with millions of Yemenis estimated by the UN to be on the brink of starvation, and dozens dying each day from malnutrition and preventable disease.

In its ongoing battle against the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign Israel is pushing for European political parties to declare the movement "fundamentally anti-Semitic". The latest drive saw Israel's Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Ze'ev Elkin, attending a conference in Brussels backed by the Israeli government which proposed a text for prospective MEPs and political parties to sign up to before European elections in May next year.

The text, the Guardian reported, urges European parties to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) "working definition of anti-Semitism" and exclude from government any politicians or parties that breach it.

Most controversially, one of the red lines - based on a resolution adopted by Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union in Germany in 2016 - calls on "all political parties to pass a binding resolution rejecting BDS activities as fundamentally anti-Semitic".

French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for a "real European army" to better defend the continent against Russia. He also said Europe, which mainly depends on the US for security, won't rely solely on its overseas ally.

In a lengthy interview to Europe 1 radio, the French president once again revived his ambitious plans for a combined EU military force. "We won't protect Europeans if we don't decide to have a real European army. Russia... is near our borders and has shown it could be threatening."

Macron wants the EU military to be independent from its key partner on the other side of the Atlantic. "We must have a Europe that can defend itself on its own without relying only on the United States," he said, echoing earlier statements.

"Military operations cannot resolve Israeli security concerns but will only help increase regional tensions," Lavrov said in an interview with Spain's El Pais newspaper.

The minister added that Israel endangered the life of Russian troops in Syria's Palmyra in 2017 by failing to stick to its own commitments.

"Unfortunately, Israel has not always met its obligations, primarily those related to the warnings by the Russian military against military operations in Syria. In some cases, this endangered the life and health of our soldiers in Syria, for example when Israeli planes bombed targets near Palmyra in March 2017," he stressed.

Lavrov also said that Moscow regrets that the Western countries rejected the idea of Russian President Vladimir Putin to create an international counter-terrorism coalition under the auspices of the United Nations.

"The idea to establish a broad anti-terrorism coalition under the auspices of the United Nations was raised by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the UN General Assembly back in September 2015. Unfortunately, it was not supported by our Western partners. This is unfortunate because terrorism threatens all members of the international community."

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has claimed more than £1m in public funds since leaving office in 2007, as part of a previous confidential arrangement, it has been revealed.

A freedom of information tribunal last month, as first reported by The Sunday Times, revealed that Tony Blair has received £1,077,888 ($1.4m) over the last 10 years. The release of the information also showed former PMs John Major, Gordon Brown and David Cameron all claiming the allowance.

All past prime ministers since Major, who established the arrangement in 1991, have been entitled to claim the public duty cost allowance (PDCA) of up to £115,000 a year, to cover costs of ongoing public arrangements when they step down from office.

A special UN advisor on extreme poverty and human rights is touring the UK to assess the impact of austerity on people living in some of the most deprived areas of the country.

UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston's primary goal is to identify examples of social inequalities and systematic neglect, which according to the United Nations, is then used to develop "constructive dialogue with governments, international organizations, civil society and other relevant actors."

Since 1998, the UN special rapporteur has travelled to examine extreme poverty in places like Ghana, Yemen, Benin, Sudan, the US, Portugal and Saudi Arabia. The UK will now join these ranks thanks to concerns over its austerity measures.

In a statement ahead of Alston's tour, the UN said submissions from charities, academics, and public institutions were "by far" the most they've ever received before a country visit.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman laid the foundation stone for seven strategic projects, including a nuclear research reactor, the Saudi SPA news agency reported on Monday.

The crown prince also laid the foundation stone for the aircraft manufacturing plant, the publication said.

Riyadh seeks to create its own nuclear power plant with two reactors, which will produce from 2 to 3.2 gigawatts of electricity to satisfy the country's demand for electric power.

Saudi Arabia, just like any other newcomer in the nuclear industry, sees research reactors as the first step towards the "big" nuclear power industry. Research reactors, in particular, are needed to carry out nuclear medicine projects, to produce of radioisotopes for industry, as well as to train qualified personnel.

In February, Russia's Rosatom has submitted an application to participate in a tender for the construction of two NPP units in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh was initially expected to announce results of the tender for the construction of nuclear power plants before 2019.

However, later reports indicated that the contractor might be chosen as late as in 2020.

"For soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, coming home is more lethal than being in combat." ― Brené Brown, research professor at the University of Houston

Not all heroes wear the uniform of war.

In the United States, however, we take particular pride in recognizing as heroes those who have served in the military.

Yet while we honor our veterans with holidays, parades, discounts at retail stores and restaurants, and endless political rhetoric about their sacrifice and bravery, we do a pitiful job of respecting their freedoms and caring for their needs once out of uniform.

Despite the fact that the U.S. boasts more than 20 million veterans who have served in World War II through the present day, the plight of veterans today is America's badge of shame, with large numbers of veterans impoverished, unemployed, traumatized mentally and physically, struggling with depression, suicide, and marital stress, homeless, subjected to sub-par treatment at clinics and hospitals, and left to molder while their paperwork piles up within Veterans Administration offices.

Still, the government's efforts to wage war on veterans, especially those who speak out against government wrongdoing, is downright appalling.

Consider: we raise our young people on a steady diet of militarism and war, sell them on the idea that defending freedom abroad by serving in the military is their patriotic duty, then when they return home, bruised and battle-scarred and committed to defending their freedoms at home, we often treat them like criminals merely for having served in the military.

The government even has a name for its war on America's veterans: Operation Vigilant Eagle.

As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, this Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program tracks military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and characterizes them as extremists and potential domestic terrorist threats because they may be "disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war."

Coupled with the DHS' dual reports on Rightwing and Leftwing "Extremism," which broadly define extremists as individuals, military veterans and groups "that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely," these tactics bode ill for anyone seen as opposing the government.

Yet the government is not merely targeting individuals who are voicing their discontent so much as it is taking aim at individuals trained in military warfare.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the DHS has gone extremely quiet about Operation Vigilant Eagle.

Where there's smoke, there's bound to be fire.