Moore said in a Wednesday web video that late-counted ballots could change the results of the election.

Two days after losing Alabama's special Senate election, Republican nominee Roy Moore has yet to concede the race - and a small cheering section in conservative media is hoping that he never will.

Moore, who suggested on election night that the race would go to a recount, said in a Wednesday web video that late-counted ballots could change the results of the election.

"We have not received the final count to include military and provisional ballots," Moore said. "This has been a very close race, and we are awaiting certification by the secretary of state."

Following the revelation that 'Russia-linked accounts' (an extremely broad category) spent a massive £0.75 on Facebook advertisements related to the Brexit referendum in the UK, I was amused to read in the Globe and Mail this morning that 'Privacy officials in Britain and British Columbia are investigating how a Canadian technology company may have helped sway last year's Brexit vote.' There I was thinking that 'Putin dunnit', and it turns out it was Canada! Who'd have thought it?

All the recent hype about Russian hacking, Russian 'information warfare', Russian internet trolls, and the like makes it sound as if the Russians pretty much dominate the internet. At the very least, if the vast number of Russia-related stories are to be believed, Russians are certainly using the internet to exercise outsized influence on world politics. Supposedly, by manipulating online news, sending out adverts on Twitter and Facebook, and generally trolling web users, they have managed, it is said, to get Donald Trump elected; swing British voters in favour of Brexit; persuade the Dutch to support a referendum aimed at blocking Ukrainian entry into the EU; sow chaos and enhance racial tensions in American society; and influence elections in Germany and France, among other things. The internet, apparently, has been thoroughly 'weaponized' by Russia to enormous effect.

What then are we to make of a declaration yesterday by the British Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, that Russia could 'catastrophically' damage the British economy by severing underwater communiations cables and so cutting Britain off from the internet? According to the BBC, Peach 'said Nato had prioritised the protection of the cables "in response to the threat posed by the modernisation of the Russian navy, both nuclear and conventional submarines and ships".' The BBC then quotes Conservative MP Rishi Sunak as saying that an attack on the underwater cables would pose an 'existential threat to our security.'

Iran is joining the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). By early next year, February by this account, Iran will join the five founding members of the Union and open the door for Turkey to do so later in 2018. Between this and the end of the war in Syria, it's not hard to declare the Brzezinski Doctrine of U.S.-led Central Asian chaos as gasping its last breaths.

Iran finally joining the EAEU is a response to a number of factors, the most important of which is the continued belligerence by the U.S. Expanded economic sanctions on Iran and the EAEU's leader Russia has created the need for greater coordination of economic and foreign policy objectives between them.

And it is creating the new realities in the region that will reshape the world for the next hundred years.

The Nuclear Gambit

In the dying days of the Obama administration it looked like the goal was to placate Iran to stop its pivot towards Russia and China. I believe that was the driving force behind Obama's negotiating the controversial nuclear deal.

In effect, Obama tried to trade unfreezing Iran's hundreds of billions in assets held in Western banks for Iran to ignore our atomization of Syria and the creation of a complete mess there.

Julian Assange has exposed an apparent attempt by the US intelligence apparatus to undermine funding to WikiLeaks, using institutions he established for the express purpose of protecting potential donors from the authorities.

In a Twitter thread, posted Sunday, Assange alleges "politically induced financial censorship" that violates not only US donors' First Amendment rights but also their right to freedom of association. "US donors are the majority of our donor base," Assange wrote, as he nears the conclusion of what will be his eighth year of exile in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

The Trump White House has set a record, as US troops deploy around the world in an ever-widening net of American outreach at the end of a gun barrel.

According to new data, US Special Operations troops, including Navy Seals and Army Green Berets, were deployed in 149 nations in 2017, a 150 percent jump from the administration of George W. Bush, and a modern record for shipping US military policy around the globe. "We operate and fight in every corner of the world," recently boasted chief of US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) General Raymond Thomas.

"Rather than a mere 'break-glass-in-case-of-war' force, we are now proactively engaged across the 'battlespace' of the Geographic Combatant Commands," Thomas enthused, adding that US forces were globally "providing key integrating and enabling capabilities to support [...] campaigns and operations," cited by The Nation.

But that worldwide scope has only spread thinner the assets of a country already to seen to be too involved in the doings of other nation-states, and Capitol Hill members are growing increasingly concerned. "We don't know exactly where we're at in the world, militarily, and what we're doing," stated a shocked Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), of the Senate Armed Services Committee in October, after four US Special Operations soldiers were killed in West Africa's Niger.

"Most Americans would be amazed to learn that US Special Operations Forces have been deployed to three quarters of the nations on the planet," declared the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, William Hartung, according to The Nation. "There is little or no transparency as to what they are doing in these countries," Hartung asserted, "and whether their efforts are promoting security or provoking further tension and conflict."

Government watchdog Judicial Watch, famous for breaking scandals wide open, has issued a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obtain the records of FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok.

Specifically, Judicial Watch is seeking the following:

Supervisor Peter Strzok to the special counsel's investigation led by former Director Robert Mueller

All records related to the reassignment of FBI Supervisor Peter Strzok from the special counsel's investigation to another position within the FBI.

All SF-50 and/or SF-52 employment forms, as well as all related records of communication between any official, employee, or representative of the FBI and any other individual or entity.

The EU is taking Hungary to the European court of justice (ECJ) over Viktor Orbán's crackdown on political freedoms and a leading university, as Brussels steps up its fight to protect democratic values in central Europe.

The Hungarian government was referred on Thursday to the court in relation to a higher education law that could force the closure of Central European University (CEU), founded by the billionaire George Soros, who has been the subject of a demonisation campaign by Hungary's prime minister. The European commission said the legislation ran counter to academic freedom and the right to run a business under the EU's charter of fundamental rights.

Hungary is also being referred over a law that requires non-governmental organisations (NGOs) receiving foreign donations to label themselves as "supported from abroad".

Separately, Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic have been referred to the ECJ for refusing to take refugees under a mandatory quota system forced through by the EU at the height of the migration crisis in 2015.

The batch of announcements came as the commission published its monthly file of legal actions against member states breaking EU laws. The long list of violations ranges from Portugal's neglect of EU restrictions on single-use plastic bags to Italy's failure to ensure suppliers are paid on time.

Something surprising happened yesterday. Russian President Putin publicly thanked US President Trump for helping to prevent a major ISIS-linked terrorist attack in St. Petersburg. The CIA had provided intelligence to their Russian counterparts, enabling the Russians to find and detain the seven individuals planning the attack and coordinating with "ISIS masterminds" abroad. The raid occurred last Wednesday and Thursday, during which the FSB seized explosives, weapons and ammunition, extremist material, and dismantled a bomb-making workshop.

The Kremlin press service issued a statement on the call Putin made to Trump:

"The Russian president thanked his US counterpart for information shared by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that helped trace, expose and detain a group of terrorists who had plotted explosions in St. Petersburg's Kazan Cathedral and in other crowded places in that city," the press service said.

Putin then reassured Trump that he would reciprocate information sharing if Russian security services knew of any leads.

"Russian security services, should they have information about possible terrorist threats to the United States and its citizens, will swiftly and unconditionally share it with the US colleagues via partner channels," the press service stressed.

Putin asked Trump to pass on his thanks to CIA Director Pompeo and the agents/analysts who gathered the relevant intelligence.

Never one to shy away from controversy, Fox News may have crossed the line between biased news coverage and self-satire - intentionally or otherwise - as host Jesse Watters alleged a coup may be underway in the US on Sunday.

The highly inflammatory comments were made during the course of a discussion on special counselor Robert Mueller's investigation into the so-called 'Russiagate' scandal of alleged collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government.

"We may now have proof the investigation was weaponized to destroy [Trump's] presidency for partisan political purposes and to disenfranchise millions of American voters," Watters said on his show Watters' World on Sunday. "Now, if that is true, we have a coup on our hands in America."

Moscow is ready to become a new mediator in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Russian deputy UN envoy Vladimir Safronkov said. He also added that Russia is ready to host direct talks between the two sides.

Russia is ready to become "an honest mediator" in the Middle Eastern peace process, Nebenzia said at the UN Security Council meeting, after a resolution on Jerusalem demanding the US decision recognizing it as the Israeli capital be withdrawn was vetoed by Washington.

The Russian representative called on all parties to "show restraint" and refrain from any provocative actions. He also said that any unilateral action could exacerbate the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, making the already complicated peace process even more difficult.