Pakistan lashed out Monday after President Trump accused its leaders of "lies & deceit" and suggested the United States would withdraw financial assistance to the nuclear-armed nation it once saw as a key ally against terrorism.

U.S. Ambassador David Hale was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to discuss the president's statement, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said. Pakistan lodged a strongly worded protest and asked for clarification about Trump's comments, according to two foreign office officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Pakistan's prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, called a Cabinet meeting for Tuesday and a meeting of the National Security Committee on Wednesday to discuss Trump's New Year's Day tweet.

Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., is now allowed to serve a leadership role in the Russian investigation, a fact that concerns some as he directs it toward the potential impropriety in FBI special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, according to The Washington Post.

Most of the fears lie in dangers of discrediting of the nation's top law enforcement office, according to the report.

Nunes is reasserting himself as the panel's chairman after he has been cleared this month by an ethics investigation that alleged he disclosed classified information provided to him by the White House, which included accusations of Obama administration officials improperly unmasking Trump campaign affiliates.

Through its top official, Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), Saudi Arabia continues a wave of internal arrests, having seized nearly $800 billion in assets and bank accounts. A few days later, MBS attempted to demonstrate his authority by summoning Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to Saudi Arabia, where he was forced to resign on Saudi state TV.

Trump tweeted support for Bin Salman's accusations against Iran and Hezbollah, and the future Saudi king even obtained Israel's secret support. Iran, meanwhile, denies any involvement in Lebanon's domestic affairs or involvement with the ballistic missile launched by Houthi rebels towards Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport a few days ago. Meanwhile, Trump, Putin and Xi met recently and seem to have decided the fate of the region in an exercise of realism and pragmatism.

The totality of the evidence undermines the Times' collusion narrative.

"Trump Adviser's Visit to Moscow Got the F.B.I.'s Attention." That was the page-one headline the New York Times ran on April 20, 2017, above its breathless report that "a catalyst for the F.B.I. investigation into connections between Russia and President Trump's campaign" was a June 2016 visit to Moscow by Carter Page.

It was due to the Moscow trip by Page, dubbed a "foreign policy adviser" to the campaign, that "the F.B.I. obtained a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court" in September - i.e., during the stretch run of the presidential campaign.

President Trump is a new phenomenon on the American political scene. Not a professional politician begging for funds but a rich man who spent his own money and raised money on his own name: he arrived in office unencumbered with obligations. Free from a history in politics, he owes nothing to anyone. Add in his personality, grandiosity and late-night tweets and the punditocracy is in a state of angry incomprehension. Even more offensive to their notions of propriety is that this "dangerously incompetent", unqualified, mentally ill man beat the "most qualified presidential candidate in history". No wonder so many of them believe that only cunning Putin could have made it happen - even if they don't know how. But the punditocracy is as befuddled about him today as it was last year and the year before. (Scott Adams, who got it right, reminds us just how clueless they were.) The very fact that Trump won despite the opposition of practically every established constituency in the United States shows that there is more to him than readers of the NYT and WaPo or watchers of CNN and MSNBC (can) understand.

What follows is an attempt to divine Trump's foreign policy. It proceeds from the assumption that he does know what he's doing (as he did when he decided to run in the first place) and that he does have a destination in mind. It proceeds with the understanding that his foreign policy intentions have been greatly retarded by the (completely false) allegations of Russia connections and Russian interference. There was no Russian state interference in the election (the likelihood is that Moscow would have preferred known Clinton) and, as I have written here, the story doesn't even make sense. I expect when the Department of Justice Inspector General completes his report that the Russiagate farrago will be revealed as a conspiracy inside the US security organs. We do not have a date yet, but mid-January is suggested. Readers who want to follow the story are recommended to these websites: Dystopiausa, CTH and Zerohedge.

Why does anybody even listen to Al Gore anymore? Almost nobody in the world has been so wrong, so consistently, yet still been seen as some sort of guru by so many followers.

Case in point: Nine years ago this month, the former vice president made the bold prediction that the north polar ice cap would be completely ice-free in five years.

Yes, back in 2008, the failed presidential candidate told a German audience that "the entire North Polarized cap will disappear in 5 years," according to Gateway Pundit.

A senior Iranian military commander says US President Donald Trump's support for rioters in Iran shows Washington's scheme to hatch a new act of sedition against the Islamic Republic.

Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri added on Monday that the support of the highest-ranking US official along with some arrogant countries and media outlets for rioters revealed that Washington had been planning to incite new sedition in Iran.

However, all such attempts resulted in nothing but the humiliation of the Islamic Revolution's enemies, he said.

While Russia strives to move Syria on from a stage of war and bloody anarchy to one of peace, stability and reconstruction - by inviting all parties to next month's Sochi conference to agree a roadmap including a new constitution and presidential and parliamentary elections - the US and Israel are drawing up plans to detonate the region and plunge it into new wars on the pretext of confronting the Iranian threat.

Israel's Channel 10 has revealed that a secret agreement was reached on 12 December, following talks between Israeli national security advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat and his US counterpart H R McMaster, for the two sides to take action and devise scenarios against Iran on several fronts. This reportedly entails measures aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities, rolling back its presence in Syria, and confronting its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. The White House later confirmed the existence of the agreement after news it of it was leaked to media.


Two major developments are expected to unfold in the region in the new year. First, the collapse of the Islamic State (IS) and its loss of most of its territory in Syria, and secondly, the defeat of the American project in Syria. This was based on using armed opposition groups to topple the regime of President Bashar al-Asad, and was thwarted by the Syrian Arab army's steadfastness, the intervention of Russia, and the support of allies like Iran and Hezbollah, putting Syria on the threshold of a new phase of national reconciliation and renewal.

You thought 2017 was going to end without a bang - other than the fireworks?

Think again.

After The New York Times on Saturday published a story headlined "Republican Attacks on Mueller and F.B.I. Open New Rift in G.O.P.," WikiLeaks couldn't stand it anymore. In a late-night post on Twitter, WikiLeaks revealed that a Times reporter used to feed State Department email updates of the stories the paper would be publishing DAYS before the stories appeared.

At the time, Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State.

Iran's ambassador to the UK has blasted US President Donald Trump for using his Twitter page to post insult after insult against the Iranian nation, urging him to concentrate on his own people's woes rather than interfering in other countries' affairs.

In a post on his official Twitter account on Monday, Hamid Baeidinejad reacted to Trump's multiple tweets over the past few days in support of the violence which has followed scattered protests against economic issues in some Iranian cities.

Trump had tweeted earlier in the day that Iranian people "are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!"

Hours later, Baeidinejad said that after insulting Iranians by calling them "terrorists," the US President has now described them as "hungry."