With a ceasefire in southwestern Syria in the works, meeting proves diplomacy beats demonization.

From the start, the "positive chemistry" in the Mother of All Sit-Downs was a given. The format - with only the four principals, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and two translators - prevented any leaks. What was originally scheduled for 35 minutes went on for 2 hours and 16 minutes, and not even an impromptu appearance by First Lady Melania Trump - they were late for the Elbphilharmonie pomp and circumstance - managed to stop the flow.

They needed to deliver. They needed headlines. They got plenty. Including a possible first step at real cooperation; a ceasefire deal in southwestern Syria. Yet the real headline is that diplomacy beats demonization.

It's unclear whether she is speaking for herself or the White House.

I went to a meeting the other night with some Donald Trump supporters who, like me, had voted for him based on expectations of a more rational foreign policy. They were suggesting that the president's attempts to move in that direction had been sabotaged by officials inside the administration who want to maintain the current warfare state. Remove those officials and Trump might just keep his pledge to leave Bashar al-Assad alone while improving relations with Russia. I was somewhat skeptical, noting that the White House had unilaterally initiated the April 7 cruise missile attack on a Syrian airbase as well as the more recent warning against an alleged "planned" chemical attack, hardly moves that might lead to better relations with Damascus and Moscow. But there are indeed some administration figures who clearly are fomenting endless conflict in the Middle East and elsewhere.

One might reasonably start with Generals James Mattis and H.R. McMaster, both of whom are hardliners on Afghanistan and Iran, but with a significant caveat. Generals are trained and indoctrinated to fight and win wars, not to figure out what comes next. General officers like George Marshall or even Dwight Eisenhower who had a broader vision are extremely rare, so much so that expecting a Mattis or McMaster to do what falls outside their purview is perhaps a bit too much. They might be bad choices for the jobs they hold, but at least they employ some kind of rational process, based on how they perceive national interests, to make judgements. If properly reined in by a thoughtful civilian leadership, which does not exist at the moment, they have the potential to be effective contributors to the national-security discussion.

The German Intelligence Agency (BND) claims that Iran is "actively seeking products and scientific know-how" from German companies "for developing weapons of mass destruction and missile technology," but Iranian political observer Hassan Beheshtipour dismissed the accusation as a "US-Israeli conspiracy against Iran" where BND is merely a pawn.

On Thursday, Fox News reported that German intelligence agency BND has prepared a report on Iran, warning that the Islamic Republic

"is actively seeking products and scientific know-how for the field of developing weapons of mass destruction as well as missile technology." For the purpose, the country is "targeting German companies through various fronts."

The 181-page manual, the broadcaster said, was published last month and released on Tuesday by officials from the heavily industrialized southern German state of Baden-Württemberg. According to it, "in one case, Iran allegedly worked through a Chinese front company to seek 'complex metal-producing machines' from a German engineering firm. German intelligence officials blocked the sale when they told the engineering firm the merchandise was slated to be unlawfully routed to Iran."

Thousands of soldiers and civilians gathered at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang Thursday, dancing to a dazzling fireworks display while marking the launch of what North Korea say is its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

"We enthusiastically celebrate the successful test launch of the intercontinental ballistic rocket, the greatest landmark in the history of our republic," read a banner across the square, AFP reported.

Several high-ranking officials including Kim Yong-nam, the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea, and Vice-Marshal Hwang Pyong-so of the Korean People's Army joined in the celebrations.

Two US B-1 strategic bombers joined South Korean fighter jets for a live-fire exercise involving the mock destruction of enemy missile launch sites. The drills came days after North Korea said it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The bombers took off from Andersen airbase on the Pacific island of Guam and flew to the Korean Peninsula, AP reported.

They were then met by South Korean Air Force F-15K and F-16 fighter jets over the eastern province of Gangwon, to take part in the simulated destruction of enemy ballistic missile launchers and underground compounds, South Korea's military said on Saturday.

The aerial drill was to "sternly respond to the series of ballistic missile launches by North Korea," the air force said, as cited by Yonhap news agency.

A new Operation Inherent Resolve report has confirmed a total of 603 civilian deaths in the US-led air campaign in Iraq and Syria, while the UN warns of a new spike in casualties as the assault on Islamic State-held Raqqa in Syria unfolds.

"To date, based on information available, CJTF-OIR [Combined Joint Task Force] assesses that, it is more likely than not, at least 603 civilians have been unintentionally killed by Coalition strikes since the start of Operation Inherent Resolve," the statement issued on Friday reads.

The new data has upped the total civilian death toll by more than 100, after a report last month acknowledged 484 civilian deaths.

"Although the Coalition takes extraordinary efforts to strike military targets in a manner that minimizes the risk of civilian casualties, in some incidents casualties are unavoidable. Twenty-seven reports were assessed to be credible resulting in the unintentional death of 119 civilians," the report reads.

"To date, based on data between August 2014 and May 2017, the Coalition conducted a total of 21,910 strikes that included 46,534 separate engagements. During this period, the total number of reports of possible civilian casualties was 727."

Last night we asked a very simple question about why the DNC has failed to cooperate with Russia investigators by handing over their infamous email server to either the FBI or Robert Mueller's team (see: DNC Server: Most Critical Evidence To Proving "Russian Hacking" Is Being Withheld From Mueller, Why?). After all, if Russia did "hack the election", as we've been told 24/7 by CNN going on 8 months now, then the evidence could very well be on that server. Which prompted us to ask this very simple question:

All of which brings us back to our original question: If the DNC is in possession of actual tangible evidence that could prove once and for all that Russians hacked their servers and attempted to undermine the campaign of Hillary Clinton, why not share that evidence with investigators and enjoy the blissful vindication that its public release would provide?

We concluded by wondering whether the stonewalling from the DNC just might have something to do with this "purely coincidental' meeting between Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton on a tarmac in Phoenix and/or Loretta Lynch's 'assurances' to members of the Clinton campaign that the FBI's investigation (or, "matter" if you prefer) of Hillary Clinton "wouldn't go too far"? Afterall, if evidence of "Russian hacking" were on that server, so to would there be evidence of Lynch's transgressions...if they existed, of course.

It was a political victory for both Putin and Trump with possibly important short-term geo-political implications.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has given a detailed explanation of what was discussed during the meeting between himself, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Rex Tillerson. The meeting which was supposed to last for 35 minutes went on for 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Here are the main points.

What should people take away from the first Trump-Putin formal meeting?

Tucker Carlson avoided the typical propaganda demonization of Putin that 99% of the mainstream media immediately started to dispense after US President Trump meet with the Russian President in Hamburg during the G20 summit.

Because one of the positive outcomes of the meeting between to the two leaders was a ceasefire in Syria, Assad was also conveniently lumped into the mainstream media demonization blitz as well.

But if Mr. Trump agrees to work with Mr. Putin despite a list of Russian transgressions beginning with the annexation of Crimea and ending with its interference in the 2016 presidential election, he will also look weak while Mr. Putin can claim that he reconstructed the relationship.

—The New York Times

America wakes up to astonishing bullshit from its so-called Newspaper of Record in this lead front-page propaganda dump du jour. Granted, American education has succeeded in destroying the critical faculties of at least three generations so that the public drowns in a soup of unreality every day. In the news business now, as in the national life generally, anything goes and nothing matters.

One has to wonder, though, about the editors who serve up this baloney. Are they mere servelings of the Rand Corporation, Raytheon, and other parties with an interest in the war business, or can they possibly believe their own extrusions of fabricated agit-prop?