Over the last couple of days, Russian President Vladimir Putin conducted a series of visits back-to-back, visiting Syria, Egypt and Turkey in less than 48 hours. In spite of the brief nature of these visits, Russia's leader managed to hold extensive discussions with the heads of the above mentioned states, while Egypt and Turkey saw a round of full-scale negotiations with representatives of each nation's respective business leaders, assisted by foreign ministries and ministers of defense. This fact became apparent when the composition of the Russian delegation was revealed, which included Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu, several economic ministers, heads of major state corporations, including Rostec, Rosatom and Gazprom.

In Syria, Putin has not just congratulated Russia's military for its success in destroying ISIS, confirming the intention of the Russian Federation to significantly reduce its military presence in the Syrian Arab Republic, but had a thorough discussion with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad about the prospects of a political settlement in Syria. Indeed, the conflict in Syria won't automatically end and it is necessary to organize an inter-Syrian dialogue in Damascus, while inviting the representatives of the united opposition. However, the task at hand is anything but simple, given the irreconcilable spirit of the opposition regarding the political fate of Bashar al-Assad and its preasumption that "Assad must go." But here there lies a legitimate question - why so? After all, it was the army under the president of Syria's command that, with the support of external allies such as Russia and Iran, succeeded in putting an end to ISIS and preserving the sovereignty of the country, despite attempts made by a handful of regional forces to divide it into enclaves and quasi-states. That is why Putin and al-Assad agreed to carry on their efforts to bring all parties together at a congress on inter-Syrian reconciliation in Sochi in February of 2018, together with Ankara and Tehran. They have also discussed issues related to the restoration of the destroyed infrastructure and the economy of Syria.

The release of FBI agent Peter Strzok's text messages has touched off a partisan debate in Washington over whether his anti-Trump and pro-Hillary Clinton comments undermine his work on the Clinton email as well as the Russia investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Republicans argue that Strzok's texts, which he exchanged last year with Lisa Page, his mistress who also worked on the Mueller team, mar his work on both of those investigations. Democrats are downplaying the exchanges and accusing Republicans of hyping texts in order to protect Trump from Mueller.

Strzok's texts do show that he made politically-charged comments right in the midst of his work leading both the Clinton and Russia investigations. Here is a definitive timeline of his investigative work, the text messages, and developments in both the Clinton email and Trump collusion investigations:

Taking on water from revealed FBI conflicts of interest, the foundering Russia-gate probe - and its mainstream media promoters - are resorting to insults against people who note the listing ship.

The disclosure of fiercely anti-Trump text messages between two romantically involved senior FBI officials who played key roles in the early Russia-gate inquiry has turned the supposed Russian-election-meddling "scandal" into its own scandal, by providing evidence that some government investigators saw it as their duty to block or destroy Donald Trump's presidency.

As much as the U.S. mainstream media has mocked the idea that an American "deep state" exists and that it has maneuvered to remove Trump from office, the text messages between senior FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok and senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page reveal how two high-ranking members of the government's intelligence/legal bureaucracy saw their role as protecting the United States from an election that might elevate to the presidency someone as unfit as Trump.

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

The Daily Caller's Luke Rosiak says that within 72 hours, "The House Is Going To Be Rocked" with a new bombshell which he says "will see the resignation of more than a dozen House members over harassment and secret settlements, and soon."

Hillary Clinton has been spotted still wearing her surgical boot two months after she fell down some stairs in her heels and broke her toe.

The former Secretary of State was in Vancouver as part of her global book tour to promote her election memoir What Happened.

Clinton strode out onto the stage, in a striking monochrome leather ensemble. But what was most noticeable was the bulky post-op shoe on her right foot - which she has been wearing since she took a tumble and broke her toe in October.

Hillary Clinton has been spotted still wearing her surgical boot two months after she fell down some stairs in her heels and broke her toe, during a book tour event in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Pakistan has told at least 10 foreign-funded aid groups to close, an umbrella agency said on Wednesday, including a charity founded by hedge fund billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, the group said.

Pakistan has toughened its stance towards domestic and international non-governmental groups in recent years, accusing some of using their work as a cover for espionage.

In January, it ordered about a dozen groups working on women's issues and human rights to halt their operations.

A representative of the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF), which represents 63 international aid groups, said the Ministry of Interior had issued 10 of its members "letters of rejection", meaning their applications to register had been rejected.

The US communications regulator has voted to weaken the rules that govern net neutrality in the country.

It's a decision that has enflamed passions, with many of the biggest names in tech opposing the change.

What is net neutrality?

Net neutrality is the principle that an internet service provider (ISP) should give consumers equal access to all legal content regardless of its source.

To put it another way, if the networks which form the bedrock of the internet were a motorway, then under net neutrality, there wouldn't be fast lanes for cars and slow lanes for lorries. Motorists wouldn't be able to pay to use a faster route. All data regardless of its size, is on a level playing field.

In practice what this means is that ISPs - the biggest ones in the US include Comcast, Charter and AT&T - cannot block content, speed up or slow down data from particular websites because they have been paid to do so. And they can't give preferential treatment to their own content at the expense of their competitors.

The USA Today editorial board issued a scathing rebuke of President Trump for saying Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand "would do anything" for campaign contributions.

"A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush," the editors write in a piece published late Tuesday.

Trump attacked the New York Democrat on Twitter after she called for him to step down amid allegations of sexual harassment.

"Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office "begging" for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!" he wrote.

"Gunfire aimed at protesters on Kiev's Independence Square, also known as the Maidan, was delivered in winter 2014 by the mercenaries who had arrived in Kiev for the purpose of organizing disorders," lawyer Alexander Goroshinsky told 112.Ukraina channel on Tuesday, as reported in Tass on December 13th.

In a dramatic development in the trial in Kiev of several Berkut police officers accused of shooting civilians in the Maidan demonstrations in February 2014, the defence has produced two Georgians who confirm that the murders were committed by foreign snipers, at least 50 of them, operating in teams. The two Georgians, Alexander Revazishvili and Koba Nergadze have agreed to testify by video from Tbilisi, if permitted, as they feared for their lives if brought to Kiev.

The defence lawyer stated,

"The eyewitnesses said they had seen with their own eyes a group of people who had received weapons and cartridges and who would deliver fire afterwards from the building of the Conservatoire. Nergadze also saw snipers at the roof of Hotel Ukraine. They know the individuals personally. Besides, they know the organizers and clients and are ready to give their names, as well as the names of the perpetrators."

"In all, about fifty mercenaries arrived in Kiev then and they were involved in the events on the Maidan afterwards and fired at the protesters on February 20," Goroshinsky went on. "The mercenaries split into groups of ten men each and were dispatched to different spots where from they delivered fire."

"Each of them [the mercenaries] received $5,000 for the job done," he said. "In other words, these people had been brought [to Kiev] with a well-specified task to create a conflict."

This dramatic and explosive evidence was first brought to light by the Italian journalist Gian Micalessin on November 16 in an article in the Italian journal Il Giornale and is again brought to the world's attention by a lawyer with some courage picking up on that report and speaking with the witnesses himself. These witnesses stated to Gian Micalessin, even more explosively, that the American Army was directly involved in the murders.

Democrats are attacking Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's credibility after the Department of Justice released text messages showing a top FBI agent on both the Clinton email investigation and the Russia probe rooting for Clinton while he was investigating her and discussing an unknown "insurance policy" against Trump in case he won the election.

The pro-Clinton, anti-Trump messages were, ironically, discovered as part of an investigation into the DOJ and FBI launched by the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (IG) in response to Democratic politicians demanding a probe into possible anti-Clinton bias at the FBI.

Democratic politicians and left-wing media have attacked Rosenstein's credibility in response, claiming he should have blocked the messages' release.

Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, one of 58 House Democrats to vote in favor of impeaching Trump, attacked Rosenstein and the Department of Justice on the House floor on Thursday.

Raskin claimed the release of the text messages shows "that there are people in the Department of Justice who apparently are cooperating with this effort to undermine the integrity and the strength of this special counsel investigation."