What have the tensions between the US and North Korea, Iran and Russia in common? Answer: It is that they are components to a wider financial war.

Russia and Iran (together with China) happen to be the three key players shaping a huge (almost half the global population) alternative currency zone. The North Korean issue is important as it potentially may precipitate the US - depending on events - towards a more aggressive policy toward China (whether out of anger at Chinese hesitations over Korea, or as part and parcel of the US Administration's desire to clip China's trading wings).

The US has embarked on a project to restore America's economic primacy through suppressing its main trade competitors (through quasi-protectionism), and in the military context to ensure America's continued political dominance. The US 'America First' National Security Strategy made it plain: China and Russia are America's 'revisionist' adversaries, and the US must and intends to win in this competition. The sub-text is that potential main rivals must be reminded of their 'place' in the global order. This part is clear and quite explicit, but what is left unsaid is that America is staking all on the dollar's global, reserve currency status being maintained, for without it, President Trump's aims are unlikely to be delivered. The dollar status is crucial - precisely because of what has occurred in the wake of the Great Financial crisis - the explosion of further debt.

But here is a paradox: how is it that a Presidential Candidate who promised less military belligerence, less foreign intervention, and no western cultural-identity imposition, has, in the space of one year, become, as President, a hawk in respect to Korea and Iran. What changed in his thinking?

The establishment Russia narrative is soul-wiltingly dull. Oh hey a shocking shocking bombshell revelation about something Russia did, everyone freaks out, then people actually look into the nature of the allegation and it turns out it's nothing. Lather, rinse, repeat. An interminable addition of zeros, day after day after day after day. Boring.

One of the very few interesting specks of light on this scene has been Aaron Maté and his unusual knack for convincing promulgators of the establishment Russia narrative to debate him, shining a big spotlight on just how weak the argument is. In December he famously debated Collusion author Luke Harding in a beatdown that was the verbal equivalent of watching a prime Mike Tyson fight Bruno Mars, and he recently had a more low-key but equally revealing interview with John Feffer of Lobelog and Foreign Policy in Focus.

Like Harding, Feffer based his debate on the assumption of a "pattern" of allegations about the Russian government and its supposed support for the 2016 Trump campaign, which taken individually are all poorly substantiated and easily debunked, but taken together create the illusion of a solid argument in a debate tactic known as a Gish gallop fallacy. Named for a Young Earth creationist who made abundant use of the tactic, a Gish gallop is designed to overwhelm the opposing side with a deluge of weak points that are difficult to dispute in their entirety in a real-time dialogue.

It's barely been 12 hours since Rep. Adam Schiff and his Democratic comrades on the House Intelligence Committee released - with Trump's blessing - a redacted version of their counter to the original "FISA Memo" drafted by Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes - and already its ramifications are being weaponized by the administration.

The memo landed late on Saturday by failing to conclusively dispel the lingering cloud of doubt surrounding the genesis of the Russia investigation and the political biases that might've helped set it in motion, as both sides dug in.

President Trump is relentless in his dream of boosting his country's "spirit" with a grand military parade in Washington DC. He said US generals, and he personally, would love to showcase American might, if the budget allows.

"I'd like to have a parade, a lot of the generals would like to have a parade to celebrate what we're doing," Donald Trump told Fox Business Network. "I think it's great for the country being a cheerleader and the spirit. It's very important."

Despite objections to such a parade by some American politicians (and the city of Washington DC) as an unnecessary waste of government funds, Trump has been calling to have a parade on the streets of the US capital for months, after witnessing American troops march alongside the French soldiers during the Bastille Day military parade in Paris last July.

A daily humanitarian pause will be established in East Ghouta, Syria, starting from February 27, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. That will give civilians an opportunity to flee the fighting areas.

"As ordered by the Russian president, a daily humanitarian pause from 09:00 to 14:00 (local time) is being introduced starting February 27 to avoid civilian casualties in East Ghouta," the ministry said in a statement. It also said that a special humanitarian corridor would be established for the civilians to leave the area. Coordinates for the corridor have already been prepared, the ministry added.

In its annual report Amnesty International has accused the US and other world leaders of abandoning human rights and setting a dangerous precedent for other governments to follow. Moreover, the report notes that the regression of human rights was due to the policies of US President Donald Trump, especially his stance on migration.

Sputnik discussed this with George Szamuely, Senior Fellow at the Global Policy Institute of London Metropolitan University.

Sputnik: What are your thoughts on this Amnesty report? The report highlights many of the issues that are happening in various countries, but offered no solution to them, why?

George Szamuely: The human rights brigade, the two main organizations that are the leaders of the human rights brigade, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, they're in the business of demonizing certain states and dressing this up in all this fancy human rights language, all the talk about war crimes, tribunals and bringing people to justice and so on, but essentially, it's always a very one-sided view, it's always the certain official enemies that are condemned, presented in a way which [supports the notion that] the international community must bring these people to justice. Let's take a look at something like Syria, in the case of Amnesty International, to be fair, it's more balanced in its approach to Syria than Human Rights Watch. It lists the crimes of ISIS [Daesh] and Jabhat al-Nusra, and it lists the crimes of the Syrian government, which is different from Human Rights Watch, which only lists the crimes of the Syrian government. Nonetheless, the very fact of presenting it in some kind of a balanced way, this [reflects] the most obvious point, which is that the most fundamental human right of all is the right to live in peace and security, so there could be no symmetry between what ISIS does and what the government in Damascus does, because the government in Damascus is the sovereign, legal government of Syria and it's in the business of protecting the rights and life, and liberty of the citizens of Syria. So to present it as some kind of symmetry that Jabhat al-Nusra did this, the Syrian government did that and it's all so terrible and they're wringing their hands, there's no symmetry.

Militants in East Ghouta, who continue to hold civilians hostage and to shell Damascus in breach of a humanitarian pause, may stage a provocative chemical attack, the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria has warned.

The leaders of militant units controlling the East Ghouta suburb of Damascus might be "preparing a provocation that will involve the use of chemical weapons," Maj. Gen. Yury Yevtushenko said in a briefing on Sunday, citing intelligence obtained by the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria.

Just hours after the warning, reports emerged that several people in East Ghouta suffered symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine gas, conveniently supported by images from the White Helmets group, known for its unique ability to appear at the right place just in time to film civilian suffering, which is later pinned on the Syrian government forces. For their virtuoso work, the controversial UK-backed NGO, also known as the Syria Civil Defense, were even awarded a Hollywood Oscar, despite being plagued by allegations of having ties with terrorists.

The allegations of Damascus' involvement in yet another chemical attack on civilians coincide with the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution to impose a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, which does not apply to members of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), al-Nusra or any other terrorist organization. Following prolonged and heated debates at the UN, in which Russia insisted that the resolution's text be altered so that Damascus is not painted as the sole party to blame for the violence, the resolution was unanimously adopted on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia is in talks with American nuclear firms to enter the nuclear power business and erect as many as 16 nuclear reactors to purportedly only generate electricity over 25 years, a report said.

According to the report carried by the New York Times on Sunday, the Saudis insist the reactors would be used only to generate energy for domestic purposes, so they can rely on their huge reserves of oil to generate income from overseas.

However, there are still growing signs that the Saudis want the option of building nuclear weapons to turn into a nuclear power in the region and push ahead with their destructive policies and terror plots.

Obama administration efforts to negotiate an agreement on transferring civil nuclear technology faltered over the Saudis' refusal to make a legally binding commitment to forgo uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing, which could be used to produce fuel for nuclear weapons.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dismissed as "bogus stories" the recent reports of an alleged chemical attack in the militant-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Syrian capital city of Damascus, stressing that government forces have attacked foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists there.

"There are already bogus stories in the media that yesterday chlorine was used in Eastern Ghouta, citing an anonymous individual living in the United States," Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow on Monday.

His remarks came two days after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on a 30-day ceasefire in Syria. The document, however, did not specify when the truce would go into effect.


Lavrov added that militant groups affiliated with the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Takfiri terrorist group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, were operating inside Eastern Ghouta.

Bernie Sanders, who was attacked for the alleged support his campaign received from "Kremlin trolls," is now accused of supporting a false story about how his campaign worked with that of Hillary Clinton against those trolls.

The Mueller investigation's indictment of 13 Russians, who are accused of using false identities and failing to register as foreign agents while running a clickbait operation in the US, mentions that part of their efforts were aimed at drumming up support for Sanders. Consequently, the Vermont senator found himself on the defensive, as the US media questioned how much his campaign for the Democrat nomination benefited from the alleged "Russian trolls" and whether he was aware of that help.

Last week, Sanders released a lengthy statement condemning alleged Kremlin meddling in the US election and expressing support for his rival Hillary Clinton, who "had to run against not only Donald Trump, but also the Russian government."