NSA contractor Reality Winner allegedly leaked documents showing that Russia probed U.S. election systems days before the 2016 presidential election.

How big a crisis is this?

Washington's Blog asked Bill Binney, the NSA executive who created the agency's mass surveillance program for digital information, who served as the senior technical director within the agency, who managed six thousand NSA employees, the 36-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a "legend" within the agency and the NSA's best-ever analyst and code-breaker, who mapped out the Soviet command-and-control structure before anyone else knew how, and so predicted Soviet invasions before they happened ("in the 1970s, he decrypted the Soviet Union's command system, which provided the US and its allies with real-time surveillance of all Soviet troop movements and Russian atomic weapons").

Binney told us:

If you think about this article [the story by the Intercept], and assume it's true, then hacking a few days before the election is a little late if they really wanted to influence the voting.

To me, this sounds more like fishing for information to find out as much as they could about the democratic party much like the Chinese did hacking the OPM [U.S. Office of Personnel Management] files. I'm sure the Chinese found more use for the data they got then the Russians did on the Democratic party because Hillary did not win.

A Philippine politician claims that residents fleeing Marawi City have seen at least 100 bodies "scattered" in the streets following weeks of intense fighting between militants linked to the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and government forces.

Recounting the testimony of people who recently escaped the besieged city, Zia Alonto Adiong, the Governor of the province Lanao del Sur, said scores of bodies are in an area which saw heavy gunfire.



"Dead bodies, at least 100, scattered around the encounter area," Adiong told reporters, according to Reuters. The army previously said that 290 people have been killed, including 206 militants, 58 soldiers and 26 civilians.

Adiong, who is helping rescue and relief efforts, had earlier claimed that up to 1,000 dead bodies were seen by the fleeing residents. He subsequently revised that number.

The politician also said that starvation has led residents to eat cardboard boxes.

"It's heartbreaking. It's almost unbelievable to think that people are living this way," Adiong told AFP.

The recession in the Russian economy is over and the record-low inflation will fall further to 4 percent this year, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday during his annual televised news conference.

Answering a question on whether the economic crisis in Russia is over, Putin said that objective data show the country has overcome it. "We have moved to a period of growth," Putin said, adding that "we've witnessed growth for three consecutive quarters."

According to the Russian president, industrial production and the volume of non-energy exports is also on the rise. Putin added that fixed capital investment is currently growing faster than the economy in general.

"The economy grew 0.7 percent in four months [January to April 2017], while investment into fixed capital grew 2.3 percent... it means the basis has been laid for growth in the near future," said Putin. He also noted the growth of Russia's foreign exchange reserves. "We started last year with $368 billion and finished it at the level of $378 billion. This year they stand at $405 billion," he said.

Russian Economic Development Minister Maksim Oreshkin said earlier the economy will grow 2 percent this year, with GDP returning to sustainable growth.

US President Donald Trump has lashed out in against allegations circulating today that he is now under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for obstruction of justice.


Not for the first time President Trump is absolutely right. As I have repeatedly pointed out, 10 months of investigation have discovered no evidence of collusion between anyone in Donald Trump's campaign team and Russia, and following former FBI Director Comey's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee it is now known that the US intelligence services accept that Russian meddling in the US election - if it even took place - had no effect on the outcome of the election and that President Trump himself is not under investigation for colluding during the election with the Russians.

In light of all this, in any rational world everyone should see that there is no substance to this scandal, leading to this pointless investigation being closed down.

The pressing question of who will be Russia's next president was among those Vladimir Putin addressed during his latest annual Q&A session. The Russian leader refrained from saying whether he would seek reelection, saying it's up to the people to decide.

"Certainly, one day I will make up my mind. I don't see anything bad in sharing my preferences [about the future president of Russia]. But ultimately let's not forget that only the voters, Russian citizens, can determine who will lead," Putin said.

The remark at Thursday's Q&A session comes amid uncertainty over Putin's plans for next year, when Russia will hold its next presidential election.

In September 2015, a young boy was found washed up on a beach in Turkey. Photos of Aylan Kurdi's lifeless body were quickly splashed across mass media, much the same way that Omran Daqneesh's photo inside an ambulance would also be disseminated.

Accusations of responsibility were hurled at the Syrian government, and leaders from Western nations upped their rhetoric about the need for intervention. Meanwhile, the corporate media and Western leaders continued their silence on the murders, decapitations, kidnappings, and actual starvation of children and adults alike in Syria by the armed mercenaries and zealots the West calls "moderates".

In February 2017, Tima Kurdi, Aylan's aunt, got in touch with US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and then spoke publicly, saying she supports Gabbards "message to stop arming terrorists, to stop supporting regime change. If the West keeps funding the rebels, we will see more people flee, more bloodshed, and more suffering. My people have suffered for at least six years. This is not about supporting Bashar. This is about ending the war in Syria."

The Senate bill passed 97-2 codifying sanctions on Russia is an unconstitutional infringement of the President's right to conduct foreign policy.

The US Senate - as universally predicted - has approved by a 97-2 margin further sanctions against Russia, codifying sanctions previously imposed by US President Obama into law.

The supposed purpose of these sanctions is to "punish" Russia for its alleged interference in last year's US elections.

That alleged interference by Russia in last year's US elections is supposed to be the subject of an investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Senate is pre-empting the result of that investigation and is assuming its outcome before it reports.

Putting all that aside, the true reason for this law - as everyone knows - is to prevent President Trump from implementing the policy he was elected on, which is to achieve a rapprochement between the US and Russia. As such it is a straightforward attempt by the Senate to interfere in the President's conduct of foreign policy.

Nazareth.

Israeli and US officials are in the process of jointly pre-empting Donald Trump's supposed "ultimate deal" to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They hope to demote the Palestinian issue to a footnote in international diplomacy.

The conspiracy - a real one - was much in evidence last week during a visit to the region by Nikki Haley, Washington's envoy to the United Nations. Her escort was Danny Danon, her Israeli counterpart and a fervent opponent of Palestinian statehood.

Danon makes Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu look moderate. He has backed Israel annexing the West Bank and ruling over Palestinians apartheid-style. Haley appears unperturbed. During a meeting with Netanyahu, she told him that the UN was "a bully to Israel". She has warned the powerful Security Council to focus on Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizbollah, instead of Israel.

To protect its tiny ally, Washington is threatening to cut billions in US funding to the world body, plunging it into crisis and jeopardising peacekeeping and humanitarian operations.

Coordinated moves by Syrian and Iraqi militaries towards the Syrian-Iraqi border show that the two countries have become de facto military allies against ISIS and the regional intrigues of the US.

One of the most striking turnarounds in the Middle East is the sudden close rapprochement between Syria and Iraq, who in their moves along the Syria-Iraqi border are increasingly coordinating together against both ISIS and the US.

To be clear, this is a major turnaround. Since the Second World War Syria and Iraq have more often been in bitter conflict with each other than allied with each other.

Higher interest rates will triple the interest on the federal debt to $830 billion annually by 2026, will hurt workers and young voters, and could bankrupt over 20% of US corporations, according to the IMF. The move is not necessary to counteract inflation and shows that the Fed is operating from the wrong model.

Responding to earlier presidential pressure, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates this week for the third time since November, from a fed funds target of 1% to 1.25%. But as noted in The Guardian in a March 2017 article titled "Trump Is Set to Win the Battle on Interest Rates, but US Economy Will Pay the Price":

An increase in the base rate, however small, will tighten the screw on younger voters and some of the poorest communities who voted for him and rely on credit to get by.

More importantly for his economic programme, higher interest rates in the US will act like a honeypot for foreign investors . . . . [S]ucking in foreign cash has a price and that is an expensive dollar and worsening trade balance. . . . It might undermine his call for the repatriation of factories to the rust-belt states if goods cost 10% or 20% more to export.

In its Global Financial Stability report in April, the International Monetary Fund issued another dire warning: projected interest rises could throw 22% of US corporations into default. As noted on Zero Hedge the same month, "perhaps it was this that Gary Cohn explained to Donald Trump ahead of the president's recent interview with the WSJ in which he admitted that he suddenly prefers lower interest costs."