The US Department of Defense is working with Congress on the issue of US military involvement in attacks in Yemen that have resulted in civilian casualties and provides such information when requested, Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich told Sputnik on Thursday.

When asked whether the Pentagon considers opening such an investigation, Rebarich said, "We continue to work with Congress on this issue and provide them information when requested."

Earlier in the week, US Congressman Ted Lieu wrote in a letter to the Defense Department's Acting Inspector General that the Pentagon should open an investigation into the US military's involvement in attacks in Yemen that have led to multiple civilian casualties.

Lieu said in the letter the National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2019 allocates resources for a review of the actions of US armed forces and their partners in Yemen.

A year has passed since highly credentialed intelligence professionals produced the first hard evidence that allegations of mail theft and other crimes attributed to Russia rested on purposeful falsification and subterfuge. The initial reaction to these revelations - a firestorm of frantic denial - augured ill, and the time since has fulfilled one's worst expectations. One year later we live within an institutionalized proscription of proven reality. Our discourse consists of a series of fence posts and taboos. By any detached measure, this lands us in deep, serious trouble. The sprawl of what we call "Russia-gate" now brings our republic and its institutions to a moment of great peril - the gravest since the McCarthy years and possibly since the Civil War. No, I do not consider this hyperbole.

Much has happened since Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity published its report on intrusions into the Democratic Party's mail servers on Consortium News on July 24 last year. Parts of the intelligence apparatus - by no means all or even most of it - have issued official "assessments" of Russian culpability. Media have produced countless multi-part "investigations," "special reports," and what-have-yous that amount to an orgy of faulty syllogisms. Robert Mueller's special investigation has issued two sets of indictments that, on scrutiny, prove as wanting in evidence as the notoriously flimsy intelligence "assessment" of January 6, 2017.

Indictments are not evidence and do not need to contain evidence. That is supposed to come out at trial, which is very unlikely to ever happen. Nevertheless, the corporate media has treated the indictments as convictions.

Numerous sets of sanctions against Russia, individual Russians, and Russian entities have been imposed on the basis of this great conjuring of assumption and presumption. The latest came last week, when the Trump administration announced measures in response to the alleged attempt to murder Sergei and Yulia Skripal, a former double agent and his daughter, in England last March. No evidence proving responsibility in the Skripal case has yet been produced. This amounts to our new standard. It prompted a reader with whom I am in regular contact to ask, "How far will we allow our government to escalate against others without proof of anything?"

This is a very good question.

A Turkish court has rejected an appeal for release from US Pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been held since 2016, Habertturk reports. It comes after Washington placed sanctions on those who played a role in detaining him.

Ankara has accused Brunson of being linked to the Gulen movement, which it says was responsible for the failed coup attempt in 2016. The US government and human rights groups have disputed that claim.

Brunson has now found himself in the middle of a diplomatic spat between the two countries, with US President Donald Trump authorizing new tariffs on steel an aluminium last week to put pressure on Ankara. That move caused the lira to reach a new all-time low, but prompted a response from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who said that his country "is not crumbling." He also accused foreign players of creating "currency plots."

An extravagant military parade planned by President Donald Trump for November in Washington DC has been put on hold until next year. The parade was reportedly set to cost more than $90 million.

"We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019," the Department of Defense said in a statement.

Trump had originally come up with the idea of a parade celebrating America's military might after being wowed by France's Bastille Day parade last year. "I want a parade like the one in France," he reportedly told military aides in February.

Held on Veterans Day, the parade would include troops and equipment from all five branches of the armed services, and would celebrate the history and accomplishments of the US military, from the Revolutionary War up to the present day.

"All Palestine's Children are Ahed Tamimi," Nariman Tamimi said in an interview after the much-publicized mother and daughter were released from an Israeli prison on July 29. Ahed Tamimi's mother said this in response to the tremendous amount of coverage that her daughter's arrest and subsequent release received. Nariman said that, unlike with the arrests of other Palestinian children, Ahed received so much support and attention from the West perhaps because "she looks like their children." She also did not hide the fact that she thought there was an element of racism in the support for Ahed, who has a distinct "European" look - whereas there are so many thousands of stories just like hers, of children who face the occupation each day, and the world takes no interest in their stories.

The Israeli authorities are still feeling the sting from a video (here in its full version) of Ahed and her cousin kicking an Israeli army captain and another soldier, a sergeant major, off of their property. This video, which was posted online and went viral very quickly, shows Ahed clearly slapping the captain. In the debate that took place following the incident and continues to a large degree to take place in the Israeli media, Ahed and her family are described as "instigating," "inciting," and "provoking" while the soldiers were merely doing their job. The military prosecutor, in order to make the case for incitement, showed another, lesser-known video where Ahed speaks of the need for all Palestinians to participate in any form of resistance that suits them.

The ongoing demonization of Russia distracts from far more serious issues facing the United States and undermines American values, including the concept of innocent until proven guilty, congressman Thomas Massie has argued.

In an op-ed for Real Clear Politics, the Republican lawmaker took aim at "out-of-touch" politicians and journalists who "want us to believe that the Cold War never ended" and that "it's a crime to talk with a Russian."

The nation's "$21 trillion national debt, porous borders, and an out-of-control federal government that claims the right to spy on Americans without a warrant" all pose far more serious threats to the United States, the congressman wrote. Pointing to the "disconnect between Beltway talking heads and the American people," Massie said that "normal Americans" see through the "vast Russian conspiracy" being pushed by the Democratic Party.

Washington has violated international law with respect to Russian diplomatic missions in the US, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a protest note filed to DC.

The ministry expressed "protest at the continued violation of international law by the US with regard to" Russian diplomatic missions and consulates in the US, according to a statement on its website.

The complaint concerns Russian diplomatic properties in Washington DC, San Francisco, and Seattle, as well as in the states of Maryland and New York. Moscow said that the "negative consequences" undermine not only US-Russian relations, but also "the principles of the sovereignty of states and international cooperation."

Moscow said that it has a right to take "additional countermeasures" against US diplomatic property on Russian soil if the US "continues violations" against its facilities.

The Russian embassy in the US has accused American authorities of subjecting jailed Russian gun activist and 'agent' Maria Butina to cruel and inhumane treatment, including unwarranted strip searches.

Butina was arrested and detained in Washington DC in July on espionage charges. The 29-year old is accused of acting as an agent of the Russian government without informing the US attorney general. Since her arrest, representatives of the Russian embassy have checked in on Butina, most recently visiting her on Thursday.

In a Facebook post, the embassy says Butina is being subjected to "psychological pressure and humiliation" as she awaits trial.

Butina is being denied walks outdoors, and is strip searched after every visit with lawyers, embassy staff, and acquaintances. Butina is allegedly subjected to night checks every 15 minutes, a practice usually reserved for suicidal prisoners.

President Donald Trump beautifully trolled Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday when he tweeted out a video of the New York Senator using tough language to describe illegal immigration nearly a decade ago.

Trump tweeted out a quote from Schumer in 2009, where he said anyone who enters the U.S. is an "illegal alien" and that "illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who entered the U.S. legally."

Washington has new sanctions ready to go if Turkey persists in refusing to release a jailed American pastor, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

During the Cabinet meeting on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said that Turkey hasn't turned out to be a great friend to the US. Trump also complained about Ankara's ingratitude in light of the fact that he had secured the release of an imprisoned Turkish national from a country he did not name.

"We have more that we're planning to do if they don't release him quickly," Mnuchin said.