Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro promised that the people will have a final say whether to reject or greenlight a new constitution, which a special body called the National Constituent Assembly has been tasked with drafting.

"I shall propose it explicitly: the new constitution will go to a consultative referendum, so it is the people who say whether they are in agreement or not with the new, strengthened constitution," Maduro pledged Thursday in a speech broadcast by state Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), as cited by Reuters.

He did not provide any details on the date of the proposed plebiscite. He noted, however, that the process of convening the National Constituent Assembly, tasked with drafting the new state law, is in full swing.

The Central Bank of Russia has plans to introduce a national cryptocurrency of its design, according to Deputy Governor Olga Skorobogatova.

"Regulators of all countries have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to do a national virtual currency. This is the future. Each country will decide the issue of a specific time and maturity independently," said Skorobogatova, speaking at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2017).

Skorobogatova said testing of a national virtual currency has already taken place on the Masterchain and Hyperledger platforms.

In April the New York Times, published this bullshit: Russian Hackers Who Targeted Clinton Appear to Attack France's Macron

The campaign of the French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has been targeted by what appear to be the same Russian operatives responsible for hacks of Democratic campaign officials before last year's American presidential election, a cybersecurity firm warns in a new report.
...
Security researchers at the cybersecurity firm, Trend Micro, said that on March 15 they spotted a hacking group they believe to be a Russian intelligence unit turn its weapons on Mr. Macron's campaign — sending emails to campaign officials and others with links to fake websites designed to bait them into turning over passwords.

The group began registering several decoy internet addresses last month and as recently as April 15, naming one onedrive-en-marche.fr and another mail-en-marche.fr to mimic the name of Mr. Macron's political party, En Marche.

Those websites were registered to a block of web addresses that Trend Micro's researchers say belong to the Russian intelligence unit they refer to as Pawn Storm, but is alternatively known as Fancy Bear, APT 28 or the Sofacy Group. American and European intelligence agencies and American private security researchers determined that the group was responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee last year.

The Pentagon foresees a role for itself in Iraq and possibly eastern Syria post-Islamic State, telling Congress that stability will require arming and training fighters to the tune of $1.8 billion over three years, at least.

Achieving President Donald Trump's goal of defeating Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) may include a catch, as the Pentagon's 2018 budget request warns Congress of "Iraqi instability, [exacerbating] sectarian divisions, [contributing] to extremism, and [allowing] outside actors to destabilize the country," if $1.3 billion is not allocated toward extending the Obama-era program to equip and train the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), according to Defense News.

Another $500 million would go towards a similar arming and training program for Syrian fighters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the foundation of relations between Russia and the United States, which has been formed over decades, has been destroyed in recent years. He asked US businesses to help restore regular dialogue with Washington.

Economic cooperation between Russia and the US is generally good, added the Russian president.

"Our economic interaction with the US is balanced, diversified and technologically rich. It is generally in good shape,"

Putin said at the Russia-US Business Dialogue, which is taking place during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Some travelers seeking admission to the US are being handed a new form, requiring them to disclose biographical information going back 15 years and social media handles going back five. The temporary measure was fast-tracked by the Trump administration.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the new supplemental questionnaire on May 23, according to Reuters.

The form requests visa applicants to list information about their employment, place of residence, and foreign travel over the previous 15 years, as well as user names for any social media platforms "used to create or share content" for the previous five years.

In an interview with CBS' Face The Nation, Secretary of Defense James Mattis was briefly asked about the view of the military when it comes to civilian casualties as it stands with America's alleged new strategy of "annihilation" of ISIS. Mattis briefly responded with feigned sorrow at the loss of innocent life that "Civilian casualties are a fact of life in this sort of situation. We do everything humanly possible consistent with military necessity, taking many chances to avoid civilian casualties at all costs. The American people and the American military will never get used to civilian casualties. And we will - we will fight against that every way we can possibly bring our intelligence and our tactics to bear."

As Americans, we have been hearing rhetoric like this for many years. In fact, our society has become so habituated to our own aggression and violence as well as being so culturally degraded that statements of "acceptable casualties" and "collateral damage" actually rings as something representative of a strong leader and a dominant military in the ears of many. Such is an unfortunate reality.

However, since both the Secretary of Defense and the American public have accepted the concept that civilians will be killed in military conflict and that the deaths of innocent people are "facts of life," then why, we must ask, is it a war crime if Syrian or Russian airstrikes accidentally kill civilians?

Elon Musk has followed through on his threat to leave Donald Trump's White House advisory council after the president reneged on the Paris accord.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO fulfilled his promise Wednesday, saying he had done all he could to convince Trump of the threat posed by climate change.

ISIS have just carried out their first attack on a non-Muslim area of Philippines. In many ways, such an atrocity was inevitable.

ISIS have carried out their first terrorist atrocity in Philippines outside of the southern island of Mindanao. ISIS has clearly set out not only to conquer Mindanao, but to destabilize and destroy all of Philippines.

It is no coincidence that they chose to attack a country led by a man like President Rodrigo Duterte.

Canada's Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr just announced C$867 million (around $650 million) in financial supports for softwood lumber producers and the communities where they are based..."Canada is standing up to the U.S., Canada is standing up for Canadians."

On Wednesday, the Conference Board of Canada released a report saying Canadian softwood producers would pay $1.7 billion in duties a year and cut 2,200 jobs and $700 million in U.S. exports over the next two years before the dispute is settled.

And perhaps on the basis of that report, as Canadian Press reports, the package includes loans and loan guarantees to help cushion the blow for forestry companies and to help them exploring new markets and innovations.

Package includes up to C$605 million in loans and loan guarantees for companies, C$45 million to reach new markets, C$118 million in innovation funding for firms, C$9.5 million funding for those who lose jobs, C$80 million in training, C$10 million for indigenous resource development.

The help includes C$260 million to help diversify the market base for Canadian lumber products, improve the efficiency of indigenous forestry initiatives and extend work-sharing agreement limits to minimize layoffs.

The money also includes measures to support workers who want to upgrade their skills and transition to a different industry.

Cabinet discussed the options for a package last month, but the federal government wanted more input from the provinces via the special working group Carr established in February.