In yet another mindless fake news story about fake news, NewsWeek explains how "Russia Controls the American Mind"

NewsWeek embarrassed itself with this shoddy headline story WHY CLINTON LOST: WHAT RUSSIA DID TO CONTROL THE AMERICAN MIND AND PUT TRUMP IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

The all caps shouting is theirs.

Fake news tweets and social media posts that flooded the internet leading up to the 2016 presidential election came from a Russian troll factory that works around the clock like any IT facility-except lies were pumping out to control the American mind and put Donald Trump in the White House.

Early this month, Twitter testified before Congress and provided the Senate Intelligence Committee with more than 2,700 accounts tied to the agency, while Facebook identified more than 80,000 pieces of content linked to the agency. Meanwhile, Google found about $4,700 worth of search-and-display ads with dubious Russian ties.

Mercy!

Imagine that.

Sudanese President Omar Bashir has given an exclusive interview to Sputnik, speaking on the possible military cooperation between Russia and Sudan as well as on the situation in the country's hotspot, the Darfur region.

"We have information that the US aspiration is to split Sudan into five countries, if we do not find protection," Sudanese President Omar Bashir told Sputnik, adding that Sudan faces "major pressure and conspiracy from the United States."

Washington has "devastated the Arab world," Bashir pointed out, citing the situation in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen as examples.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) famously brought a chart to Attorney General Jeff Sessions's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee this week. After listening to the attorney general for five hours, I made one of my own; more on that below.

Reporters and casual viewers alike had been waiting with bated breath for the hearing's promised questions about Sessions's previous Senate testimony regarding Russiagate, as well as for clarification of the Justice Department letter sent just the night before that disclosed an ongoing evaluation of the need for a second special counsel appointment. But hearings are meandering things. You never know what Gohmert is going to show up with. And even among more traditional representatives, the subjects may vary.

So the hearing ended up covering a broader range of topics, ranging from surveillance policy, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Alabama Republican Roy Moore's Senate campaign, the Justice Department's treatment of racial diversity (both within and without the department), and marijuana. But the discussion mostly circled around a few major themes: Russia and perjury, the USA Liberty Act, the potential for a second special counsel with Uranium One as a main point of discussion, and the evergreen topic of the year: loyalty. For those of you without five hours to spend watching the CSPAN video for those bits of the testimony that didn't make immediate headlines, I've got you covered with four major takeaways.

Memory is a fickle thing. What was said in this hearing didn't provide any more substantial evidence to fuel a perjury charge against Sessions - though the facts he had to admit were certainly embarrassing for him.

Washington - Overhauling welfare was one of the defining goals of Bill Clinton's presidency, starting with a campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it," continuing with a bitter policy fight and producing change that remains hotly debated 20 years later.

Now, President Donald Trump wants to put his stamp on the welfare system, apparently in favor of a more restrictive policy. He says "people are taking advantage of the system."

Trump, who has been signaling interest in the issue for some time, said this past week that he wants to tackle the issue after the tax overhaul he is seeking by the end of the year. He said changes were "desperately needed in our country" and that his administration would soon offer plans.

For now, the president has not offered details. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said more specifics were likely early next year. But the groundwork has already begun at the White House and Trump has made his interest known to Republican lawmakers.

Bill Kristol admits to his "Inner Socialist"

The Duran has consistently noted that one of the strangest occurrences in political ideology during the Obama Presidency was the fusion of neo-liberal and neoconservative dogmas.

Though on opposite sides of the political spectrum, under Obama, neo-liberals found common cause with neoconservatives, working hand in glove to destroy Libya, Syria, Iraq (again), and Ukraine.

Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson has some explaining to do. According to reports, the research firm was caught hiding bank transactions from House investigators.

Washington Times reports:

Fusion and the House at first worked out a deal for relevant banks records. But House lawyers say they learned that Fusion withheld 112 transactions pertinent to the Russia probe.

The suspect transactions, House lawyers say, deal with two Russia issues. One is the dossier. The other is Fusion's payments from another law firm, BakerHostetler. That money came from the Russian firm Prevezon Holdings which is lobbying Washington to repeal a law that brought stiff economic sanctions on President Vladimir Putin's regime.

In that vein, the House committee wants copies of Fusion bank transfers with other law firms in addition to Perkins Coie and Hostetler.

"Fusion has established a pattern and practice of using law firms as intermediaries to mask the true beneficiaries of its research," the House filing says

On Tuesday, a federal court unsealed Fusion GPS's bank records, shining new light on Russia-related payments made by the firm behind the infamous 'Trump dossier.'

An FBI informant gathered extensive evidence during his six years undercover into the Russian plot to corner the American uranium market, which included the Uranium One deal the Obama administration approved in 2010, according more than 5,000 pages of documents reviewed by The Hill.

The documents disprove recent statements by Justice Department officials in recent days that said informant William Campbell's work would not shed light on the Uranium One deal.

"There is zero doubt we had evidence of criminal activity before the" approval of the Uranium One deal, "and that Justice knew about it through NSD [the natural security division]," a source with direct knowledge of the investigation told The Hill.

Campbell first documented for the FBI the initial illegal activity by Russian nuclear industry officials in fall 2009 - about a year before Russian state-owned firm Rosatom won approval from the Obama administration to purchase one-fifth of U.S. uranium assets, according to the memos.

Campbell, who was paid $50,000 a month to consult for the firm, was solicited by Rosatom colleagues to help overcome political opposition to the Uranium One purchase, while collecting evidence for the FBI that the sale was part of a larger effort by Moscow to make the U.S. more dependent on Russian uranium, records show.

The records show that Rod Fisk, a fellow American contractor who was also with Rosatom's commercial sales arm Tenex, discussed in 2010 with Campbell Rosatom's efforts to buy Uranium One through its subsidiary ARMZ.

Fisk also said some corporate management at Uranium One was not even told of the pending sale to Rosatom before it was announced, and that they had a lot of concerns, and that the price that Rosatom was paying for Uranium one seemed "strange."

Joe Biden is a creepy, lecherous old man who uses his position of high public office to gain access to and inappropriately touch and 'smell' prepubescent girls and boys that he has only just met. He does this in public. None of us want to imagine what he does in private.

Biden provides an example of what 'leadership' in the Western world looks like. The moral dregs of humanity have somehow risen to the top and are setting the agenda for our collective future.

The Syrian Minister of Transport spoke with Sputnik about the extent of damage done to Syria's infrastructure and what future transport projects are lined up in the country.

Syrian Minister of Transport Ali Hamud, estimates that the destruction war has done to his country's transport network will cost $4.765 billion in repairs. This amount, however, does not include the newly liberated areas.


The minister stated that during the war, the vital transport hubs, 50 automobile bridges and 17 railway bridges were destroyed, including those crossing through the Euphrates River.

In total, 50% of intercity roads are destroyed, that is 4,095 km of roads. As for the railways, 75% of the existing 2,400 km has been damaged," Hamud said.


According to him, the repair brigades have become the permanent companions of the Syrian Army. As soon as a district is liberated from the terrorists, the specialists immediately begin to restore the destroyed infrastructure and buildings so that the civilians can return to their homes as soon as possible.

"We have developed a plan of action, on how to restore the destroyed areas as soon as possible. By the end of the liberation of any district, we already have the necessary materials, tools and specialists. For example, when the military liberated the eastern Aleppo from the terrorists, we needed to bring the 18 km railway into operation. During the work on the railway canvas, 130 bombs were found and rendered harmless," the minister said.

He added that over 6 km of road had been reconstructed within 20 days. The road was used as a public transport before buses were launched and it is still being used for transporting townspeople.

"When the eastern Syrian regions were liberated, we faced the task of returning to operation a 186-km road to phosphate mines from Aleppo. It seemed that it was impossible to manage it within 6 months. However, we launched it in just 70 days," Hamud told Sputnik.

He added that the secret lies in the fact that they prepare everything in advance, and on the ground only assemble the finished parts of the road, saving a lot of time in the process.

As for future transport projects, the minister said that the priority lies in fixing the transport network within the country between its provinces at first. Then the plan is to construct railway line to Iraq, Iran, Jordan, and possibly to China and Turkey.

The minister also said that there is a plan to expand seaports in Tartus and Latakia.

However, many more challenges remain, for example, due to the sanctions imposed by the Western countries, Syria cannot repair out-of-date aircraft and it is impossible to buy missing spare parts, the minister said.

The US and Turkey have discussed "pending adjustments" to military support for Washington's "partners" on the ground in Syria, and have agreed to join forces against "all forms" of terrorism, including the Kurdish PKK and Fetullah Gulen's movement.

Washington and Ankara reaffirmed commitments to jointly fight not only Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), but "all terrorists organizations," including the Kurdish PKK and Fetullah Gulen's movement, the Turkish presidency said following Recep Erdogan's phone conversation with Donald Trump Friday. The two leaders also "discussed recent developments in Syria, bilateral ties and a summit in Russia's Sochi," where President Vladimir Putin hosted Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani earlier this week, the statement added.