Russia's energy industry faces a new round of US sanctions - including on oil projects in any location if a designated entity holds more than 33 percent. And in Europe, where Russia's gas giant Gazprom currently holds a large share of the gas supplies, Poland and Lithuania are buying US (liquefied natural gas) LNG in an effort to shake off Russian dominance.

Despite the sanctions and cold shoulders from Poland and Lithuania, Russia still has plans to boost its LNG capacity and exports, with one of its major LNG export projects focusing on Asia, more specifically China, as its destination. The LNG project has relied on Chinese funding to bring the project to completion.

By securing funding from China, Russia is not only finding alternative sources of financing in the face of US sanctions; it's also securing sales volumes in the fastest-growing LNG import market.

The "completely shattered" US-Russia relationship is the greatest threat to peace across the globe, the German foreign minister warned. The world will see more uncertainty should Moscow and Washington fail to find common ground.

Should Moscow and Washington fail to mend ties, "our children will be growing up in a dangerous and uncertain world increasingly armed with nuclear weapons," German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told Bild am Sonntag in an interview on Sunday, as cited by Merkur. "The completely shattered relationship between the US and Russia is the greatest threat to world peace," Gabriel said, also citing the deployment of nuclear-armed intermediate-range missiles in Europe, which is "more than likely." According to the foreign minister, Germany should become "a power for peace" instead of Chancellor Angela Merkel's approach of "running after Trump's armaments plans."

The Al-Qaeda linked Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham rebel group launched a major offensive in the Golan Heights, today, targeting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) controlled town of Hader in a bid to break the siege on the Beit Jinn pocket.

Backed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), HTS and their allies managed to break-through the Syrian Army's lines at the western outskirts of Hader when two suicide bombers scored direct hits on their positions.

As a result of this attack, HTS captured several points while also killing at least a half dozen civilians inside the predominately Druze town of Hader.

According to eyewitnesses in Israeli-occupied Majdal Al-Shams, the Israeli Defense Forces provided support to the Al-Qaeda linked rebels that were attacking the Syrian government positions near the town of Hader.

On the eve of Donald Trump's first trip to Asia as US President the government owned Chinese English language newspaper Global Times - which is often used by the Chinese government to express views the Chinese government does not wish to state officially - has published an editorial warning Trump to respect China and its political system and to discard 'Cold War thinking'.

China's relations with the Trump administration have gone through complex stages, with Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping appearing to hit it off during their first summit meeting in Florida in April, but with relations subsequently coming under strain because of the two countries' differing approaches to the North Korean crisis and because of disagreements on trade issues. In addition there are the long-running sore of the US-China dispute over the South China Sea and the status of Taiwan.

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November!

V for Vendetta may be the most revolutionary film ever made, but don't expect the BBC to tell you that.

"V for Vendetta masks: Who's behind them?" the BBC recently asked.

They published a couple of vague, misleading answers.

The BBC quotes David Lloyd:

"'My feeling is the Anonymous group needed an all-purpose image to hide their identity and also symbolise that they stand for individualism - V for Vendetta is a story about one person against the system...' "

"...It is that image of collective identification and simultaneous anonymity that is appealing to Anonymous and other groups, says Rich Johnston, a commentator on the world of comics."

Blathering about individual vs. collective, the lure of anonymity, etc., without grounding the interpretation in specifics from the film is the worst possible way to answer the question. As a literature teacher - I have four advanced degrees in literature and have taught everything from Chaucer to Hausa Literature to Philip K. Dick - I would award a D at best to any student who offered such a lame interpretation of a story's central symbol.

"Remember, remember, the 5th of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot."

- Old English folk rhyme (anonymous)

Today, November 5th, is Guy Fawkes Day, also known as Gunpowder Day. In 2012 it's the 407th anniversary of The Gunpowder Plot or Gunpowder Treason, as it was first called.

It also happens to be my 78th birthday. So I've been more aware of Guy Fawkes Day than most. I'm especially happy about how ubiquitous the Guy Fawkes mask has become.

The mask was hugely popularized in the movie V for Vendetta. As stalwart 9/11Truther Kevin Barrett wrote, a year ago, in a piece entitled "Unmasking Media Lies: Why BBC's V-for-Vendetta Mask Piece is Fawked Up":

"V for Vendetta may be the most revolutionary film ever made. Its obvious message is: Let's get out there and visit some rough justice on the treasonous bastards who created the 9/11 and 7/7 media spectaculars, and destroyed the freedoms for which we've been fighting for centuries.

Watch (on YouTube) 'V for 9/11 Vendetta: Past, Present and Future'.

It is also possible to read the film from an interior, psychological perspective: Rather than just a call to action, it's about the psychological process of coming to terms with the 9/11 and 7/7 inside jobs, by allowing oneself to feel the overwhelming anger that is the natural response. Once one has faced the facts, overcome fear, and come to terms with one's own righteous anger, THEN it's time for revolution.

The real message of the V mask is simple: We know you bastards blew up the Trade Center. We know you're blowing up the economy. We know you're lying to us 24/7/365. We know you're trying to keep us poor and weak and fearful and impotent. Well, guess what? We're not afraid of you. We're not afraid to die. And we're coming to get you.

No wonder the BBC is afraid to admit what the V mask really means."

Deposed Catalan President Carles Puigdemont has turned himself in to Belgian police, public broadcaster VRT reports, citing a source. Puigdemont and Catalan ministers fled to Belgium after Madrid's central government imposed direct rule over the autonomous region.

Four former Catalan ministers who arrived with Puigdemont in Brussels also turned themselves in to police, VRT reports.

Puigdemont appeared in Brussels alongside other members of his cabinet on Monday. That same day, the Spanish Prosecutor's Office announced that it had filed a lawsuit against him, other members of his cabinet, and some regional MPs on rebellion, sedition, and embezzlement charges with the Spanish National Court.

The ousted leader spoke to press in Brussels. When asked whether he will be seeking political asylum in Belgium, Puigdemont said that he did not go to Brussels for that reason.

You've heard the story about the 'Catholic terrorist' Guido Fawkes and the English parliament. You know what they did to him when he was ratted out by informers. And unless you've been living under a rock these past years, you've heard about V for Vendetta, the Wachowski siblings' movie adaptation of Alan Moore's comic book icon. Even if you haven't watched it yet, then you've almost certainly seen the lead character V's legacy in footage and images from demonstrations across the planet's capital cities in recent years:

I don't think it's an overstatement to say that this revolutionary movie has inspired a generation to 'rise up'. It has certainly been a fitting prop! Britons traditionally celebrate today with a bonfire in commemoration of Fawkes's death and continuity of the status quo. What most don't realise is that they are celebrating a crime by the elite against the people.

After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had had a rough time under her reign had hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of their religion. Alas, he was not, and this angered a number of young men who decided that violent action was the answer.

One young man in particular, Robert Catesby suggested to some close friends that the thing to do was to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In doing so, they would kill the King, maybe even the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics.

To carry out their plan, the conspirators got hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder - and stored it in a cellar, just under the House of Lords.

But as the group worked on the plot, it became clear that some innocent people would be hurt or killed in the attack. Some of the plotters started having second thoughts. One of the group members even sent an anonymous letter warning his friend, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from the Parliament on November 5th.

The warning letter reached the King, and the King's forces made plans to stop the conspirators. Guy Fawkes, who was in the cellar of the parliament with the 36 barrels of gunpowder when the authorities stormed it in the early hours of November 5th, was caught, tortured and executed. [...]

The story of the Gunpowder Plot is an interesting one. It is generally accepted that it would have been unlikely that the conspirators could gather 36 barrels of gunpowder and store them in a cellar under the house of Lords without the security forces of the day getting suspicious. Furthermore, there is serious doubt about whether the letter mentioned above was in fact genuine. In fact, it is believed today to have been fabricated by the King's officials. Historians suggest that the letter was simply a tool for the King's officials who already knew about the plot from the very mouth of one of the plotters.

As a tool for the king's men, the letter was ideal. It made it easy to explain how the King found out about the Plot and stopped it just in time before his untimely death. At the same time, the letter was vague enough to give the officials all the latitude they wanted in falsifying confessions and to pursue their own anti-Catholic ends. In fact, we could go further and suggest that the entire plot was a set-up, a 17th-century 'false-flag', if you will.

So while the British today misguidedly celebrate the execution of a man whose main aim was to liberate them from injustice, the mask that has come to represent that man via the movie V for Vendetta is today a symbol of that same desire to liberate the ordinary citizen from the grinding, relentless death machine that is civilization in the modern age.

A ground invasion of North Korea is the only way to eliminate its nuclear weapon sites in case of war, while Pyongyang might respond with chemical and biological weapons, a top Pentagon official said in a letter to US lawmakers.

In a document that sheds light on a possible scenario in case of war with North Korea, the Pentagon has offered its vision. Such a conflict could prompt the reclusive state to use chemical (CW) and biological weapons, employing CW agents with the help of conventional munitions, including artillery and ballistic missiles, Rear Admiral Michael J. Dumont, vice director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in response to the letter from Representatives Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).

"The only way to 'locate and destroy - with complete certainty - all components of North Korea's nuclear weapons program' is through a ground invasion," Dumont wrote.

Even calculating the best- or worst-case casualty estimates is challenging, he added.

Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev suggests that Moscow should compile a list of foreigners who made a contribution to deteriorate relations of their countries with Russia.

"Possibly, soon we will need to draw up our 'Browder List' of foreigners who had a decisive role in worsening relations of their countries with Russia. Those who initiated these sanctions, " Kosachev, who chairs Russia's Federation Council (upper house) International Affairs Committee, wrote on his Facebook page.