Russian President Vladimir Putin has said certain clandestine supplies of arms to conflict zones are apparently primarily motivated by profit rather than geopolitical considerations. He called this "irresponsible" and unbefitting of any state.

Speaking at an arms export commission in Moscow, Putin stressed that while selling weapons is a multibillion-dollar business for Russia, it ensures that the bottom line never undermines the stability of the regions to which the weapons are delivered. He said this approach contrasted with that of "some actors in the arms market," refraining from naming the culprits, but apparently referring to the US and several of its allies.

"Instead of a genuine fight against terrorist groups we see a simulation of this fight while uncontrolled arms deliveries grow. One day the weapons go to so-called 'moderate opposition' in this or that place, and the next day they are in the hands of radicals and terrorists," Putin said. "It appears that the conflict zones have become for some just a lucrative business, a link in the chain of 'gray' schemes of supply of arms to nations and regions suffering from military and political instability."

On the election trail in 2016, Donald Trump promised tax reforms to tempt major US companies back onshore and "bring back trillions of dollars from American businesses that is now parked overseas".

As the first anniversary of his election victory looms this week, Trump and fellow Republicans are trying to drive those tax reforms through Congress.

On 1 November, Trump reiterated his commitment.

"Finally, our plan will bring back trillions of dollars from offshore ... that will come pouring back into our country that will be put to work and will be spent by our companies that could never get the money back for many years. Bring the money back. We're rebuilding America."

But Trump is surrounded by wealthy individuals who have legally either sheltered their own investments or presided over policies to keep company profits or clients' funds out of reach in tax havens.

Despite the attempt to marginalize the concept, "false flags" are so common that U.S. officials frequently use that phrase.

For example, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell:

The world's biggest mining firm Glencore secretly loaned tens of millions of dollars to an Israeli billionaire after enlisting him to secure a controversial mining agreement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), it has been revealed. The details were leaked as part of the Paradise Papers.

A trove of more than 13 million documents from the world's leading offshore law firms, including Appleby, was released through the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Sunday. The documents lay bare the secretive multi-jurisdictional dealings of Glencore, a scandal-plagued, Anglo-Swiss multinational with mining interests across the globe.

As a friend of the Congolese President Joseph Kabila, Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler's role has been questioned by anti-corruption campaigners since Glencore floated in London in 2011. His notoriety in the resource-rich but conflict-riven and corrupt DRC spans nearly two decades.

The real priority of US President Donald Trump's Asian tour could be forming a coalition to contain China, Andrew Leung, an expert on China, told RT. He added that the US leader does not want to openly "confront" Beijing.

Trump arrived in Japan on Sunday as he started his 12-day Asian tour, the longest for an American president in over two decades. The US leader is also expected to visit Vietnam, China, the Philippines, and South Korea during this journey. In Vietnam, he is also scheduled to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, where he could meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Even though Trump seemingly focused his attention on North Korea and its nuclear program as he already made several statements concerning the matter, the real agenda behind his tour might not be necessarily centered solely on Pyongyang, Leung told RT. The real driving force behind the US leader's endeavor might be "a lack of full scale trust between the two superpowers - the US and China."

Ever since November 8, 2016 when CNN reporters received the shock of their lives, their reporting has consisted pretty much of 24x7 coverage of the "Russian collusion" narrative...a narrative that looks increasingly like, as even their own Van Jones described it, "just a big nothingburger."

Now, as the Wall Street Journal notes today, CNN President Jeffrey Zucker has apparently somehow managed to convince himself that Americans would be all too happy to part with their hard-earned cash to pay for his network's constant narrative building exercises. While pricing plans have not yet been set, Zucker says you should plan on paying for his network's "nothingburgers" as soon as 2Q 2018.

Asleep on the floor of their 'luxury' five star prison 11 Saudi princes, government ministers and businessmen await their fate following their arrest in the biggest anti-corruption purge of the kingdom's modern history.

In a photo obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com the men are seen gathered together at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, inside one of its glittering function rooms - wrapped in blankets and sleeping on thin mattresses.

Saudi sources say that among those photographed in the room are billionaire investor Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who is a nephew of the king, worth an estimated $18 billion and owns stakes in Twitter, Lyft and Citigroup.

Left-wing CNN was caught using fake video Monday morning to mock President Trump for following the lead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with the emptying of a box of fish food into a koi pond. The only thing is that, in order to make Trump look like a rube, the Trump-hating network left out the part about following the Japanese prime minister's lead. UPDATE: This is only CNN's first piece of fake news today. The last-place network also selectively-edited a Trump quote to automakers as a means to "fact check" the president as either dishonest or ignorant.

As you will see below, the video in this CNN tweet is a banana, is presented in a way to make Trump look foolish by deceiving news consumers:


The event is a photo-op with the American president and Japanese leader. In a wide shot of the two men, both hold separate boxes of fish food as they spoon the food to the hungry koi in the pond below.

At right around the 42 second mark, the camera zooms close on Trump. At the 49 second mark you see President Rube simply flip over his box of fish food and dump it out.

More than a year after the Democrats began blaming Hillary Clinton's campaign problems on Russia, the allegations of massive Kremlin interference in U.S. elections are still based on the "high confidence" - but evidence-free - CIA assertion that Vladimir Putin ordered the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. One cannot imagine a less credible authority than the agency headquartered in Langley, Virginia: an organization specializing in disinformation, mass psychological manipulation, false flag operations, assassination, and regime change. No single entity in modern history, foreign or domestic, has told more lies -- and been caught bloody-handed, during or after the fact -- than the CIA.

Only a fool, or a willing accomplice, would believe a word from the CIA's mouth. Yet, the agency has arguable reached the all-time height of its influence over U.S. domestic affairs as the key player in the unfolding decapitation of the U.S. government, while the imperial war machine plays nuclear "chicken" with a range of demonized adversaries.

The Mother of All Liars is deemed the arbiter of truth. The CIA first conjures and then ritually deciphers both the crisis in domestic governance (the Russians did it) and the crisis (also Russia-based) of shrinking U.S. influence in the world. That the CIA continues to command such respect and authority, after all these years of ceaseless lying, is testament to the depth of the crisis of legitimacy that wracks U.S. ruling circles at this stage of capitalist decay.


We are inflicted with the spectacle of the Black political class -- worthless misleaders -- clucking that Russians are the root of escalating white supremacist outrages in the U.S. The Kremlin, supposedly on a social media budget of about a hundred thousand dollars, has replaced (or absorbed) the Republican White Man's Party as the wily villains of U.S. voter suppression, if you believe Atlanta Black Rep. John Lewis. Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters has forgiven the CIA for bringing crack cocaine to the ghetto; she now blames the Russians for sowing social "dissension," putting Black lives in danger. Waters revels in being called "auntie" by mostly white "liberal" crowds of Democratic "resisters" against Trump, and rants about "the Kremlin Klan " that pulls the strings in the White House, while a majority of her colleagues on the Congressional Black Caucus cast their votes for the Orange Menace's gargantuan war budget -- thus guaranteeing the further gutting of social programs for their constituents.