"Welcome to Hell!" is the slogan with which G20 protesters greet the self-appointed leaders of the world to their summit on 7 and 8 July 2017 in Hamburg, Germany, under Madame Merkel's auspices to discuss the calamities of our globe and how to resolve them. Never mind that the distress of Mother Earth has been mostly caused by those who represent the West, and now pretend to fix it.

How utterly arrogant - and hypocritical!

In the wake of the summit, police were beating on aggressively against the demonstrators, most of them peaceful, unarmed; but some of them violent and hooded, as old tradition dictates, so they will not be recognized as police themselves or patsies of the police. Many people were hurt, several to the point of hospitalization. And the meeting just began.

At the onset of the summit, Donald the Trump, the chief-psychopath, is running amok declaring with echo, "America First"- "America First" - trying to justify his decision for the US to quit the Paris Climate Accords. In a cheap attempt to hit Russia under the belt, he offered Europe gas sales, so Europe would no longer be 'hostage' to Russia. How arrogant, again. The Donald doesn't seem to have a clue what he is doing, other than thinking the world is his puppet. By far most Europeans rather buy hydrocarbons from Russia than being in the bloody and ruthless claws of the United States of America - and those dark forces that pull the strings behind Washington.

It remains to be seen to what extent the psychopath-in-chief will have his European, Australian and Canadian vassal-psychopaths lined up and dancing to his tune.

Before the summit, 'informal' talks between the odd couple, Donald Trump and Angela Merkel, took place. They apparently focused on North Korea, Syria, and Ukraine — all countries where the US is intent to destabilize and push for 'regime change' - the sort of interference in sovereign nations' affairs Trump promised during his campaign he would abandon as President. The dark one-eyed Masters didn't allow it. And he isn't man enough to stand up for what he was elected. Well, let's face it - he could lose his job, or worse.

Putin asked to see some evidence...none was presented.

The meeting,was initially planned to last 30 minutes...it went on for over two hours.

The Duran reported on the seven main takeaways from the historic Trump-Putin meeting.

One outcome from the Trump-Putin exchange, centered around the Hillary Clinton concocted lie of "Russian election meddling", which has now been thoroughly exposed as fake news, forcing even the New York Times to walk away from many of its propagandized reports on the matter.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed that the two leaders discussed the the "strange" topic of "Russian election meddling"...

"President Trump said he heard President Putin's clear statement that [the allegations] are not true, and that the Russian government has not interfered [in the US election], and [Trump] accepts those statements."

Lavrov, added that the US has not revealed any proof of such cyber-election interference.

The leaders of Germany, France, and Russia have agreed that the Minsk agreements on ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine "should be comprehensively implemented," a German official tells RFE/RL.

The characterization of the meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, suggested no significant progress on efforts to bring peace to eastern Ukraine.

Moscow's role in fighting that began in April 2014 between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists prompted Western sanctions against Russia.

A 2015 cease-fire deal under the Minsk agreements was brokered by Germany and France -- together with Russia and Ukraine -- in a bid to end the fighting.

But hostilities have continued in the war that has killed more than 10,000 people.

Iraqi military commanders have said they will take full control of Mosul from the Islamic State (IS) militants at any moment, as the extremist group vowed to "fight to the death" in the city.

Earlier in the day, an Iraqi military spokesman said U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces took control of the medieval Old City of Mosul, the last area under control of IS militants in the city that previously served as the extremist group's stronghold in Iraq.

"We are just a few meters from the Tigris River. The Iraqi progress, backed by the army air power, is great," Brigadier General Yehia Rasul, a spokesman for the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, told state television.

Dozens of Iraqi soldiers celebrated amid the rubble on the banks of the Tigris River without waiting for a formal victory declaration.

Russia has brought two enemies of Syria to the peace table, a table on which regime change does not come into play.

Russia's agreement with the United States to create new de-escalation zones in south-west Syria is very similar to Russia's creation of the Astana group which has helped bring Turkey into an effectively Russian lead political peace process in Syria.

Like the United States, Turkey has for the duration of the Syrian conflict opposed the legitimate government in Damascus and sought to foment illegal regime change using jihadist proxies. In this sense ,Turkey's role and America's role has been identical until very recent months when the US shifted their strategy to put a greater emphasis on Kudrish proxy forces rather than jihadist terrorists.

Leadership of Abu Mohammad Joulani's terrorist group Hay'at Tahrir Al Sham has vowed to kill any Turkish soldier who will cross the border and enter the northwestern Syrian province of Idleb where the group is currently based, stressing that their defence is strong to enough to repel any type of attack.

According to reports on jihadist-affiliated social media sites, the group has already mounted machine-guns on the hills, overlooking the Syrian Turkish border, in the vicinity of Bab Al-Hawa border crossing north of Idlib.

The group leadership has, however, noted the group does not want to control the Bab Al Hawa border crossing, as its closure would badly affect the situation in Idleb, especially as regards the food and weapons supplies.

For his part, Abu Zubair Al Shami, military commander of Tahrir Al Sham terrorist group, said his group is well equipped and prepared to repel any type of assault on its positions.

Russia and France can now move to a new phase in bilateral relations, French President Emmanuel Macron told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

"On the subject of bilateral and regional issues, I welcome the quality and the intensity of the work that has been established since [meeting in Versailles in May]," Macron told Putin.

"So I think now we can move on to a new phase because we both saw that we were doing what we were saying," Macron concluded.

Maintaining a straight face, United States Secretary of 'Defense' James Mattis calls Iran "the primary state sponsor of terrorism". This from the man whose country is bombing at least six nations.

A week ago, I had the opportunity of traveling to Iran, to present at the conference 'United States, Human Rights and Discourse of Domination' held on July 2 in Tehran. Although only in Iran for four days, and only visiting two cities (Tehran and Mashhad), that is more time than most of the people who listen to Mr. Mattis's bizarre ramblings have spent there. So perhaps my impressions may be of some value.

Tehran is a bustling city: the business area is noisy, crowded and exciting, not all that different from any major city in the U.S. or Europe which I have visited. I observed women in various modes of dress; yes, all wore headscarves, as is required, but beyond that, they wore jeans, slacks, sneakers, high-heeled shoes, and any other fashion observed anywhere else. As I rode through both cities, I observed women driving, sometimes alone, sometimes with other women in the car, and sometimes with men in the car. Additionally, women with Ph.D.s presented at the conference, and I met a young woman studying for her Ph.D. in at the University of Tehran. It should be noted that none of these situations would be observed in Saudi Arabia, with which the U.S. has full diplomatic relations.

On Wednesday, the ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates gathered in Cairo to discuss Doha's rejection of their demands. They issued a joint statement, but refrained from further escalation, Egyptian political analyst Hassan Nafie told Sputnik.

Saudi Arabia and its allies refrained on Wednesday from imposing fresh sanctions on Qatar but voiced disappointment at the rejection of their demands and said their boycott of the country would continue "until Qatar changes its policies for the better."

Qatar's response to the demands has not been made public.

The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has confirmed that it will soon carry out another test of its THAAD system to examine the hardware's effectiveness against potential ballistic threats, Reuters reports.

A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) flight test will be conducted by the MDA from the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska "in early July," the agency confirmed to Reuters after it broke the news of the upcoming test.

THAAD test would "detect, track and engage a target" with an interceptor rocket, MDA spokesman Chris Johnson told Reuters.

"The test is designated as Flight Test THAAD (FTT)-18," Johnson added without elaborating.