Russia adheres to its obligations in the sphere of human rights and defends the basic values like freedom, justice, life, wellbeing and dignity of humans, the ministry said

Human rights are to become a factor, which should favor rapprochement of different countries, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a commentary, published on the Human Rights Day, marked on Sunday.

"Human rights are to become a factor, which favors rapprochement of different countries and groups of countries, as well as develops the climate of trust and mutual respect in the international relations," the commentary reads.

A Republican senator has attacked Donald Trump's characterization of the US political system, saying it is neither "sick" nor "rigged" as the president has suggested.

Senator Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) was responding to comments Trump made to supporters during a rally in Pensacola, Florida, Friday night, in which he repeatedly referred to a "sickness" in the country's political institutions. "It's being proven we have a rigged system. Doesn't happen so easy," Trump said. He added, "There's no country like our country, but we have a lot of sickness in some of our institutions."

At a time when it appears that almost the entire developed world has refuted a recent White House claim of support for the highly-disputed location of Israel's capital city, one of the world's most prominent global organizations has chimed in, asserting its refutation of the deeply unpopular Washington move.

The White House, isolated during a special United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting following an announcement by the administration of US President Donald Trump supporting Israel's claim that Jerusalem must be Israel's - and no other's - capital city, now has additional pushback from the UN.

Anyone following alternative news for the past decade and more understands the deceptive tactics used within the mainstream media. 'Fake news' is nothing new. However, the fervor behind anti-Russian hysteria is increasingly driving major outlets over the edge. Journalists and politicians have been scrambling to find any scrap that might support claims of collusion because as of yet there hasn't been a single shred of evidence to support their ridiculous narrative.

ABC News made headlines last week after incorrectly reporting that former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn was going to testify that Trump ordered him to contact the Russian government during the campaign. If true, this would have seemingly supported the Trump-Russia collusion fantasy. ABC's story turned out to be false. They had to make a major correction and suspend their reporter Brian Ross. It was actually during the transition that Trump's son-in-law directed Flynn to reach out to the Russians, which was a totally normal thing to do.

Now CNN is under fire for another bombshell dud. They initially claimed the Trump team knew about hacked Wikileaks files prior to them being released to the public. However, CNN's general lack of integrity led their reporter to get the date of an email wrong, which upended their whole story.

Ultra-liberal trash site BuzzFeed - memorably excoriated by Trump as a 'failing pile of garbage' at his first press conference since becoming president - has been under-fire ever since it published that fake 'golden-shower' dossier, and for good reason.

Its 'serious' reports on 'Russiagate' are all unsubstantiated nonsense that has actively jeopardized US democracy by giving legs to a now-sprawling witch-hunt 'investigation', damaging people and careers in the process - not least the American president's.

Aleksej Gubarev, Russian tech start-up expert and CEO of Webzilla and XBT Holdings, was alleged in the documents to have helped Russia 'hack the US elections.' He has since filed a libel suit against BuzzFeed, which has been unable to get the case thrown out of a Miami courtroom for lack of jurisdiction.

In addition, the US Department of Justice has thrown out BuzzFeed's lawyers' argument that libel constitutes 'fair reporting privilege,' so the New York City outlet has now taken it upon itself to prove the dossier's allegations - something any legitimate media outlet would have done before publishing it.

Foreign Policy reports:

Serious questions have been raised over the independence of Robert Mueller's investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in last year's US presidential election. This follows fresh reports of strong links between members of the investigating team and Hillary Clinton and her aides.

Investigator Aaron Zebley - often referred to as Mueller's "right-hand man" after having served as the former FBI director's chief of staff - acted as an attorney for Justin Cooper, the IT staffer who installed Clinton's private email server at her home, and who destroyed her old Blackberry phones with a hammer, a Fox News report states.

Documents obtained by the news outlet reportedly reveal that, Zebley, who was also a senior counselor in the National Security Division at the Department of Justice, "stonewalled" senate investigators following requests to interview him during their probe into Clinton.

We all know the CIA and its Saudi friends created ISIS as a proxy army to fight against any countries that dared stand up to American imperial aggression. But just for those who still doubt that truth, now we have the testimony of Talal Silo, a former Pentagon-backed commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to reconfirm just who has been pulling the strings on ISIS in the Middle East.

It was previously reported in October that the US allowed ISIS fighters to be bused out of Raqqa to other parts of Syria to continue their war on the Syrian people. Silo, who was also the SDF spokesman back in October when the deal was made and has now defected to Turkey, said that about 300 ISIS fighters had been allowed to leave. But in a recent interview with Reuters, he said that the real number of jihadists allowed to leave was far higher than that:

"Agreement was reached for the terrorists to leave, about 4,000 people, them and their families," Silo said, adding that all but about 500 were fighters.

He said they headed east to Islamic State-controlled areas around Deir al-Zor, where the Syrian army and forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad were gaining ground.

Note also what Silo said about the famous "last ditch battle" of Raqqa:

He told Reuters that the account of a last-ditch battle was a fiction designed to keep journalists away while the evacuation took place.

For three days the SDF banned people from going to Raqqa, saying fighting was in progress to deal with militants who had not given themselves up.

"It was all theater," Silo said.

"The announcement was cover for those who left for Deir al-Zor", he said, adding that the agreement was endorsed by the United States.

So the US military directly aided its alleged terrorist enemy - an enemy that was the ostensible reason for the US presence in Syria in the first place - by allowing them to flee to other parts of Syria and continue the destruction of its people, infrastructure and essentially its history. As part of the deception, the US government and CIA manufactured an elaborate cover story about a "final battle" in Raqqa in order to keep the media away and hide the fact that the 'exodus' was taking place.

The SDF commander claims that he came forward because he was "disillusioned" over the structure of the US-backed SDF and because in Raqqa, "they destroyed a city, but not the enemy". Then again, that's pretty much how the CIA has operated since its creation, using the US military and proxy forces as tools to achieve a covert agenda.

To those of us who are well aware of the true nature and role of the CIA over the last 80 years, it's no surprise that they would be disinclined to get rid of an 'enemy' that they themselves created, financed and armed. Such 'fake opposition' is the CIA's tried and tested way to justify the invasion, occupation, destruction and looting of any country they deem not compliant enough with the wishes of the US 'deep state'.

France is to begin trading unlisted securities using blockchain technology, a revolutionary move that will see middlemen such as brokers and custodian banks removed from the trading process.

The changes were announced by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and will come into force in July next year. It will only apply to non-listed securities that aren't required to be traded using a broker. The market, which is potentially worth up to three trillion euro, includes shares in hedge funds as well debt securities.

Author Alfred McCoy argues in his new book, "In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power," that not only is the US' status a superpower bound to be eclipsed by China, but also that America's downfall will "be more abrupt than we imagine."

Speaking with Sputnik Radio's Loud & Clear radio program on Thursday, McCoy said that empires seem "indomitable" while at the height of their power. "And yet empires by their very nature, because they operate far beyond their natural boundaries, are incredibly fragile."

Retired Russian Colonel General Nikolai Tkachev has slammed allegations of his being involved in downing the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in July 2014 as stupid.

"I don't know what it is they are saying but it is obvious stupidity," he told TASS commenting on an article about a joint investigation carried out by The Insider and Bellingcat. "I have been living in Yekaterinburg for many years, participating in military and patriotic education programs for kids. I have been maintaining contacts with public organizations and taking part in various public events, always on the media's radar. I have nothing to add," he noted.

Earlier on Friday, the so-called investigative group Bellingcat, together with journalists from The Insider, published the results of their investigation, claiming to "determine the identity of 'Delfin,' a key figure sought by the Joint Investigation Team." "The investigation has identified, to a high degree of certainty, Delfin as Colonel General Nikolai Fedorovich Tkachev, currently serving as the Chief Inspector of the Central Military District of the Russian Federation," the article reads.