Jeff Bezos spends a lot of time directing the newspaper he owns, The Washington Post, to criticize President Donald Trump in every way imaginable. But for some reason, the federal government cannot stop giving Amazon - the retail empire Bezos also owns - a slew of taxpayer-subsidized subsidies. Now, Congress is considering a new federal purchasing plan that could result in Amazon's most lucrative government handout yet.

The technology giant is no stranger to sweetheart deals that line its pockets at taxpayer expense. The U.S. Postal Service, for instance - which has lost $60 billion since 2007 - handles last-mile shipping for two-thirds of Amazon's deliveries. This means overtime for workers and a good incoming revenue number on the USPS's balance sheet, but it's a financial bonanza for Amazon.

According to media reports, USPS delivers Amazon packages for $2 per package - even though it costs USPS $3.46 per package to make these deliveries. And that's before you get into the $200 million three years ago for 270,000 handheld scanners to process the packages or the $5 billion or more to replace USPS vehicles with ones better suited to carry Amazon's packages.

Ukraine's first lady, Marina Poroshenko, is suspected of involvement in money laundering through international humanitarian agencies, which were intended to help children with disabilities. This is reported by the Luxembourg Herald with reference to a source in the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

Marina Poroshenko, the wife of the president, personally "controls" the flow of funds to the accounts of these organisations and actively participates in their promotion - says the article.

According to the publication, the United States and European countries transferred money for the needs of Ukrainian children with disabilities, via fake international humanitarian aid agencies. Funds from these accounts of charitable organizations were transferred to different firms, including offshore ones, and then the agencies were closed, the publication says.

Iran's foreign minister has said Saudi Arabia accusing Tehran of "destabilization" can only be described as "ironic," as his nation is involved in successful talks on the Syrian peace process, while the Saudis are provoking new regional crises.

Tehran has been working with international partners, such as Russia and Turkey, to ensure ceasefire in Syria and pave the way for further political processes there, the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Javad Zarif, said on Sunday. At the same time, Riyadh "fuels terrorists, wages war on Yemen, blockades Qatar [and] foments crisis in Lebanon," Zarif wrote on Twitter.

Triggering a process which could see the end of the long reign of Angela Merkel as German Chancellor, the centrist FDP party led by ambitious rising star Christian Lindner have pulled out of talks to form a new coalition government.

Lindner has explained his decision by citing "irreconcilable differences" with Merkel's other suggested coalition partner: the Greens.

Today there was no progress but rather there were setbacks because targeted compromises were questioned. It is better not to rule than to rule falsely. Goodbye!

A senior Israeli official has said Tel Aviv has "partly covert" ties with "many Muslim and Arab countries," including Riyadh. With the absolutist kingdom, Israel is now working on common concerns over Iran, the cabinet minister said.

"The connection with the moderate Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, is helping us curb Iran," Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in an interview on Israel's Army Radio. Riyadh, with which Tel Aviv does not have diplomatic ties, is not the only not so obvious Israel's partner in the region, the minister proffered, adding that his country is "usually the party that is not ashamed" of such contacts.

"It's the other side that is interested in keeping the ties quiet. With us, usually, there is no problem, but we respect the other side's wish, when ties are developing, whether it's with Saudi Arabia or with other Arab countries or other Muslim countries," he said, adding that there are a number of contacts that are kept secret.

The Israeli police have confirmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was questioned for several hours at his residence in Jerusalem on Saturday.

Saturday's interview marked the sixth time the prime minister was questioned in the course of police probes into alleged corruption.

"We confirm that the prime minister was questioned today [Saturday] for several hours in his Jerusalem residence as part of the investigation led by Lahav 433 [National Crime Unit]," the police said.

China has launched a website to report illegal online activities of the military and the spreading of "harmful information." Earlier, the Chinese leader vowed to turn the People's Army into a "world class force" and to "ensure a clean cyberspace."

China's official military website announced the launch of the platform on Sunday, which is supposed to maintain a "clear internet space" surrounding the military. Any person, both publicly and anonymously, can issue an online report on various violations, including those published on websites or social media platforms. The possible violations include fake news about the military, leaked secrets, and "distorting headlines."

Abuses from the likes of Comey and Mueller are just the tip of the iceberg. We need to be reminded why the founders opposed having any sort of national police force.

For the last few years, the media has been dominated by a number of sensational stories: that Trump colluded with Russia to influence the presidential election; that the Trump team was wiretapped by Obama intelligence officials; that Hillary used a private email server to transmit classified information; that Hillary and the DNC colluded with Russian sources to compile a dossier on Trump, and finally, that Russia acquired 20% of America's uranium supply during the same time period $145 million miraculously appeared in the Clinton Foundation's bank account. It all stinks to high heaven but it's created a confusing array of facts that has bewildered most Americans. They all know something is seriously wrong with their country even if they can't pinpoint exactly what the problem is.

But there is a common denominator in all these scandals or alleged scandals, and that would be the FBI and the actions they took or didn't take. Indeed, it's hard to not conclude that the agency's actions in these events were improper if not illegal. If so, this validates the warnings by constitutionalists in the early 1900s that a federal police force would someday be used to prop up the ruling elites and attack those who dare challenge the establishment.

Under FBI Director James Comey, Hillary was allowed to escape prosecution, even though he presented compelling evidence that she committed numerous felonies by transmitting classified documents using her private email server. Comey also leaked classified information to a friend to be disseminated to the media, another felony, and his FBI was the recipient of a dossier full of sensational but false allegations traced to Putin-connected individuals. Instead of investigating the dossier's sources, Comey used the phony intel as the basis for his allegation that the Russians intervened in our election, a charge later proven to be without factual basis. It also appears that Comey likely used the dossier's claims to convince a FISA court to authorize a phone tap on various Trump aides and possibly even Trump himself.

A FBI informant who gave the government information about a Russian bribery plot implicated in the sale of U.S. uranium rights tried unsuccessfully last year to recover upwards of $700,000 in bribes he said he was authorized to pay as part of the FBI investigation.

William D. Campbell has emerged now as the key figure in a congressional probe into Russia's 2010 purchase of U.S. uranium rights and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's role in approving the deal.

His identity had been shielded for weeks, but court records obtained by The Washington Times, as well as a report by Reuters, identified the man.

Mr. Campbell has not returned calls from The Washington Times seeking comment, but his civil suit, describing his involvement in the FBI investigation, matches details of the criminal case brought against Vadim Mikerin. Mikerin, who was the head of U.S. operations for Tenex, a subsidiary of Russia's atomic energy giant Rosatom, was convicted of money laundering and other crimes and in 2015 sentenced to four years in prison.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, House Intelligence Committee and House Oversight Committee have all begun to probe the circumstances of Rosatom's purchase of Canadian mining company Uranium One, which had mining rights in the U.S. Investigators have questioned whether the American agencies that signed off on the sale, including the State Department, were ever made aware of the FBI's ongoing investigation of Mikerin and Tenex.

Mr. Campbell told Reuters that he was the confidential informant cited in the Mikerin case. And Victoria Toensing, a lawyer for the informant, has previously told Fox News that her client filed a civil lawsuit to get an unspecified amount of money back that he paid out in bribes during the case after the FBI failed to return the money to him. She has not responded to subsequent requests for comment.

It's unclear what new information Mr. Campbell might be able to offer congressional investigators in their probes, or why he sought to speak with investigators this year.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued a series of letters inquiring about the Uranium One deal on Oct. 12.

World-renowned intellectual giant and respected academic, MIT professor Noam Chomsky recently sat down for an interview called 'A Continuing Conversation with Geographers'. In the interview, he clearly makes his thoughts known regarding the Trump administration's ongoing media driven pseudo-scandal involving Russia, and specifically concerning Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer.

Chomsky, the author of more than 100 books, including "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media," in which he breaks down how U.S. corporate media has been weaponized as a means of controlling public opinion by propagandizing the American people, didn't mince his words, previously noting:

"It's a pretty remarkable fact that - first of all, it is a joke. Half the world is cracking up in laughter. The United States doesn't just interfere in elections. It overthrows governments it doesn't like, institutes military dictatorships."

"Simply in the case of Russia alone-it's the least of it-the U.S. government, under Clinton, intervened quite blatantly and openly, then tried to conceal it, to get their man Yeltsin in, in all sorts of ways," said Chomsky. "So, this, as I say, it's considered-it's turning the United States, again, into a laughingstock in the world."

"So why are the Democrats focusing on this?" he said. "In fact, why are they focusing so much attention on the one element of Trump's programs which is fairly reasonable, the one ray of light in this gloom: trying to reduce tensions with Russia? That's-the tensions on the Russian border are extremely serious. They could escalate to a major terminal war. Efforts to try to reduce them should be welcomed."

"Just a couple of days ago," said Chomsky, "the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Jack Matlock, came out and said he just can't believe that so much attention is being paid to apparent efforts by the incoming administration to establish connections with Russia." He said, 'Sure, that's just what they ought to be doing.'"

Continuing, Chomsky said, "So, you know, yeah, maybe the Russians tried to interfere in the election. That's not a major issue. Maybe the people in the Trump campaign were talking to the Russians. Well, okay, not a major point, certainly less than is being done constantly."

"And it is a kind of a paradox," he said, "that the one issue that seems to inflame the Democratic opposition is the one thing that has some justification and reasonable aspects to it."