The Syrian-Hezbollah operation against al-Qaeda (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) on the Lebanese-Syrian border is over. HTS has accepted terms under which its surviving fighters, and any civilians who wish to follow, will be bused to Syria's rebel-held Idlib province.

Hezbollah actually offered a similar evacuation deal ahead of the battle, but HTS initially refused. It is believed between 7,000 and 8,000 people will be moved in the transfer which has already begun.

A larger ISIS-controlled pocket remains just to the north of the area now cleared by Hezbollah, but the success of the offensive means that after 4 years al-Qaeda no longer has a territorial presence in Lebanon.

Will the US be sending Syrians and Hezbollah a thank you note? We won't be holding our breath.

A leading government ethics group on Friday requested that the White House, Department of Justice and Office of Government Ethics investigate presidential strategist Stephen K. Bannon for using a private public relations executive to conduct official White House business.

The complaint was prompted by a Center for Public Integrity investigation that detailed Bannon's unorthodox arrangement with veteran Republican strategist Alexandra Preate - one that may violate federal laws.

It also comes less than a month after the Center for Public Integrity and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting launched #CitizenSleuth - a crowd-sourced investigation that is examining the detailed financial disclosures from more than 400 Trump administration officials, including Bannon.

"Veteran Republican media strategist Alexandra Preate is providing professional services to the White House and White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, yet is not employed by President Donald Trump's administration or paid by the federal government," wrote Lawrence Noble and Brendan Fischer of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.

A former colleague recently characterized Robert Mueller as "ramrod straight" and "utterly incorruptible." Similar language was breathlessly repeated in mainstream media biographies on Mueller in Politico, BBC, and Time magazine. Mueller's Vietnam-era service in the United States Marine Corps and 2004 tag-team with then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey to save American democracy from warrantless spying are mainstays of these biographies, which always send a clear message that his integrity is beyond reproach.

It's always suspicious when anyone's credibility is oversold like this, but that goes double when the same person was FBI director for 12 years-spanning across both the Bush and Obama administrations from 2001 to 2013-yet most people can't remember anything about him. We should remember actions he took to impartially uphold the law. Sadly, that is not the case.

What stands out most during then-FBI Director Mueller's term in office is the two-tiered system of justice, when obvious crimes and scandals involving government officials and private-sector elites were ignored or even covered up by the FBI. What Mueller failed to do to protect our country says more than anything he did.

Recent leaks suggest that Special Counsel Mueller is examining one of the President's 2008 Palm Beach real estate deals, as well as the 2013 Miss Universe competition held in Moscow. During the very same time period as those events, FBI Director Mueller repeatedly failed to act in cases involving government corruption and dangerous crimes. His level of aggressiveness in investigating our President is the exact inverse of how he acted when he was tasked with protecting America.

If Donald Trump is removed from office, which many of his opponents are now talking about openly, America will see chaos like never before in the lifetime of any American in 2017. One doesn't need to be on the Trump train to be on the peace train.

In true Orwellian newspeak fashion wherein, "war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength", the western mainstream media often accuses Donald Trump of precisely the opposite of that which he is doing. It comes from an arrogant attitude that those who have studied the last 60+ years of American rhetoric in geo-politics will be highly familiar with.

When terrorists become freedom fighters (the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan), patriots of a nation many in the US couldn't find on the map become threats to America (Vietcong), when the occupiers become the victims (Israel), when torture because enhanced interrogation (George W. Bush's war on Iraq) and when genocidal fascists become liberal Europeanists (the Ukrainian coup), it is easy to see how no nation has mastered what Orwell called "newspeak" in the novel 1984, just as thoroughly as has the United States.

But in recent years, what only those following geo-political affairs were subjugated to, became a mainstay of the domestic American political lexicon. Donald Trump is merely the most prominent victim of the all-American ultra-liberal newspeak.

Donald Trump has been accused of fomenting violence, inciting racial hatred, inciting hatred against women, of dumbing down political rhetoric, of being a traitor, of threatening the peace. All of this is in actual fact true of many if not most of his political opponents and their mouthpieces in the increasingly vicious mainstream media. One doesn't need to like Donald Trump's policies to realise this objective truth.

If one has the objective of keeping the peace domestically, preventing revolution and holding off discontent, the best thing to do is give an agitated majority of would-be revolutionaries (or counter-revolutionaries as the case may be) a leader to call their own. If one's views that are felt to be oppressed, suppressed or ignored are given power in the form of a national leader who articulates and seems to genuinely hold such views, the people will be satisfied.

Donald Trump articulated this phenomenon of pure logic when at a post-election rally, he remarked about how much calmer the audience was vis-a-vis during the election. A boxer is always at his most outwardly violent at the weigh-in. He is always at his most subdued during a victory lap.

Shortly after 11:00 AM, Wednesday August 2, 2017 US President Donald Trump declared full scale economic war on Russia. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is joined by millions of us who've now lost all hope of peace and reconciliation in the world. Cold War II is on.

Dmitry Medvedev attacked Trump's decision to sign the bill in the same way most of us analysts will, chastising the US President after his clear bow to a US Congress unified in its hysteria against Vladimir Putin's Russia. But the Russian Prime Minister did not delve into just "why" Trump is praying to the altar of neo-conservatism today. Trump feigned disagreement with sections of the law his team said are "unconstitutional", but the force behind these sanctions on Russia, Iran, and North Korea is hidden. Let me enlighten you on what is really taking place in Washington.

Two days ago, a close colleague of mine was on the line from Greenwich, Connecticut to discuss my upcoming book when the conversation turned to these new Russia sanctions. My colleague related a story from Capital Hill and an insider who explained the vote on the sanctions law. The gist of this insider's revelation was that the overwhelming "yes vote" in Congress indicated one powerful player behind the curtain - America's pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.

Venezuela's newly-elected Constituent Assembly has been inaugurated amid mass public demonstrations. President Maduro, however, says that the assembly is aimed at restoring peace and order in the country.

The 545-strong Constituent Assembly has been inaugurated in the capital, Caracas, with former Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez elected as the legislative body's president, and former Vice President Aristobulo Isturiz elected as first vice president. "This national constituent assembly, convened by President Nicolas Maduro, is hereby formally inaugurated," Rodriguez said at the inauguration, also praising the late President Hugo Chavez, who she referred to as "our eternal commander," as cited by RTE News.

Rodriguez also denounced what she called "foreign interference," and described the inauguration day as "magnificent," AFP reports. "I want to thank Maduro for having stirred the wise powers of the Venezuelan people," Rodriguez said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov held a meeting with Yemeni Socialist Party General Secretary Abdulraham Saqqaf in course of which the parties discussed crisis settlement in Yemen, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.

"The sides held a substantive exchange of opinions on important aspects concerning the development of the situation in the Republic of Yemen in light of the internal political conflict, which is going on there, and the critical situation in the social, economic and humanitarian spheres. Both officials agreed that a reliable and durable solution to the ongoing Yemeni crisis can be possible only through renouncing armed confrontation and launching a broad national dialogue with due regard for the interests of all major political forces in the Republic of Yemen," the statement read.

According to the statement, Saqqaf called on Russia to pursue its efforts aimed at assisting Yemen in overcoming the crisis and humanitarian aid supplies.

Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a thousandfold by a factor that is insignificant in, say, physics, mathematics, or medicine - the special pleading of selfish interests.

While every group has certain economic interests identical with those of all groups, every group has also, as we shall see, interests antagonistic to those of all other groups. While certain public policies would in the long run benefit everybody, other policies would benefit one group only at the expense of all other groups. The group that would benefit by such policies, having such a direct interest in them, will argue for them plausibly and persistently. It will hire the best buyable minds to devote their whole time to presenting its case. And it will finally either convince the general public that its case is sound, or so befuddle it that clear thinking on the subject becomes next to impossible.

In addition to these endless pleadings of self-interest, there is a second main factor that spawns new economic fallacies every day. This is the persistent tendency of men to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group but on all groups. It is the fallacy of overlooking secondary consequences.

The US-led coalition has allegedly struck a hospital in Syria's Raqqa with phosphorus bombs, Sana news agency reported citing the deputy head of the local brach of the Red Crescent.

Deputy Director of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent "SARC" Branch in Raqqa Dina al-Asa'ad said as cited by Sana that the shelling of the National Hospital in Raqqa by the coalition with phosphorus bombs occured on Thursday night.

"The hospital was also shelled with more than 20 shells which targeted the electricity generators, the ambulances and a number of departments inside the hospital," Sana reported citing al-Asa'ad.

Moscow and Tehran have agreed to strengthen military and technological cooperation as the Russian Deputy PM visited Iran following the latest round of US sanctions.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has met Iranian government officials during his visit to the country on Saturday. Rogozin leads the Russian delegation invited to the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who was reelected in May.

Rogozin held talks with Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan. The officials reportedly discussed new supplies of Russian arms to Iran. They agreed upon the implementation of deals boosting military and technological cooperation, according to Fars news agency.

The move comes just three days after the US decision to impose a new round of sanctions against Russia and Iran, along with North Korea. The 'Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act' was overwhelmingly approved by American lawmakers at the end of July and signed by Trump on Wednesday. The US leader himself said that the "legislation is significantly flawed" and warned that it puts "US-Russia relations at all-time & dangerous low."