Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism about alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

Clapper incorrectly claimed that no Republican data was released during the campaign, WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange said on Twitter, offering documents published in August 2016 as proof.

The highly anticipated hearing is expected to fill in key details in the chain of events that led to the ouster of Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, during the administration's first month in office.

War threats before a major political election had been effective in the past in swinging the South Korean electorate to the right, but not this year. The conservative camp is battered and split into two warring parties following the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye. The general public—its collective consciousness heightened through the mass protests that successfully ousted Park—is no longer rallying behind hawkish candidates who fan public paranoia to garner votes.

Barring a last-minute surprise upset, liberal democrat Moon Jae-in will be the next president of South Korea. But does he truly represent the interests of the millions who took to the streets to unseat Park and demand systemic change? And what are the tasks facing the left vis a vis the new administration? These are the questions this article will discuss, but first, let's quickly review the field of candidates.

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis questioned the Russian-sponsored plan on Syrian safe zones saying that Washington is going to study Moscow's proposal.

Representatives of the countries-guarantors of the truce in Syria (Russia, Iran, Turkey) signed on May 4 a memorandum on the creation of four zones of de-escalation in Syria, which include the province of Idlib and seven other regions. According to the memorandum, any clashes between the government forces and opposition armed groups must stop within the zones.

The memorandum on these de-escalation zones took effect on May 6.

The Pentagon chief told journalists on Monday that the Russian plan poses many unanswered questions, including whether it would be effective. He said that the possible impact of the plan on US-led fight against Daesh in the country is unclear yet. "Will it affect the fight against ISIS [Daesh]? I think the international community is united in the sense of wanting to see ISIS put on its back foot," the defense secretary said.

"Who is going to be ensuring they're safe? Who is signing up for it? Who is specifically to be kept out of them? All these details are to be worked out and we're engaged," Mattis said. The Pentagon head was cautious enough not to answer directly a question on whether there is hope that the Russian plan will help end years-long violence in Syria.

"The devil is always in the details, right? So we have to look at the details, see if we can work them out, see if we think they're going to be effective," he continued. The US owes it "to the situation there, the people there to at least examine it very, very carefully. All wars eventually come to an end. And we've been looking, for a long time, how to bring this one to an end," he concluded.

The USS George H.W. Bush, an American aircraft carrier parked perpetually off the coast of Iran, appears to have attracted the attention of Iran, and officials say that Iran's use of surveillance drones to keep an eye on the massive US warship is a "nuisance."

Officials also hyped the presence of small Iranian naval boats operating off the coast of Iran, claiming them to be "naked aggression" for sometimes being close to the US carrier, despite also appearing to have never actually left Iranian waters by all indications.

US officials have repeatedly made a big deal about Iran having ships off their own coast, while Iranian officials have responded by saying that they think a better question is why the US warships are 7,500 miles away from their own territorial waters, and constantly looming around Iran's coasts.

The US has had warships off the Iranian coast for years, mostly to shore up their constant threats to attack Iran. Iran, by contrast, has focused on a small, coastal navy whose use would be purely defensive. Given the mostly offensive nature of the US presence, that Iran is preparing to defend itself will always be a sore spot.

The combined budget of the two primary intelligence agencies of Israel, the Mossad and the Shin Bet, has doubled in the past decade, according to a report issued by the Israeli Ministry of Finance. Shin Bet is Israel's domestic intelligence service, and is primarily responsible for counterterrorism and counterintelligence. The Mossad is Israel's primary intelligence service, which means that it collects intelligence from foreign targets. The secretive agency also conducts covert and clandestine operations when authorized to do so by Israel's government. The two agencies tend to work together with varying degrees of succces, but have distinct budgets.

Last week saw a rare instance of the release of a government report on the finances of these two agencies, which tend to shy away from discussing details about their financial scope. The information was included in a larger report about the Israeli government budget for 2018. The Finance Ministry report said that the 2018 budget for the Shin Bet and the Mossad will reach 8.6 billion shekels in the coming year. That amounts to approximately $2.5 million. The ministry report noted that the budget for the two spy agencies has increased by just under 10 percent since last year. The same budget for 2017 was 7.8 billion shekels. That represented an increase of 300 million shekels from the 2016 budget.

Observers noted, however, that, although seemingly incremental, Israel's spy budget for the Shin Bet and the Mossad appears to have doubled in just a decade. In 2006, under the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the combined Shin Bet/Mossad annual budget was below 4.5 billion shekels. By 2009, when Olmert was succeeded by Benjamin Netanyahu, the budget for the Shin Bet and the Mossad had reached 5.3 billion shekels. But Netanyahu, who promotes his image as a big believer in the capabilities of the Israeli intelligence community, presided over large budgetary increases for the Shin Bet and the Mossad alike. During his presidency, the Israeli intelligence community has seen near-unprecedented rates of growth in both its size and wealth.

Iran has warned Pakistan that Tehran would hit militant bases inside the neighboring country if Islamabad does not confront Sunni insurgents who carry out cross-border attacks.

Iranian state media quoted the army's chief of staff, Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, as saying on May 8 that Tehran expects "the Pakistani officials to control the borders, arrest the terrorists, and shut down their bases. If the terrorist attacks continue, we will hit their safe havens and cells, wherever they are," he said.

Ten Iranian border guards were killed in April in an attack claimed by the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited Islamabad early in May to discuss border security with Pakistani authorities. Pakistan assured Iran it would deploy additional troops along its border. The porous frontier between the two countries has long been used by drug smugglers and militants, both of whom occasionally clash with Iranian security forces.

Jaish al-Adl that has carried out several assaults on Iranian security forces, claimed responsibility for attacks that killed eight border guards in April 2015 and 14 border guards in October 2013. The militant group says its attacks are aimed at what it calls discriminations against Sunni minorities in predominantly Shi'ite Iran.

Responding to Saudi Arabia's latest threats to take their conflict inside Iran, Tehran said it will leave nothing standing in the kingdom except for Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina if the Saudis do anything "ignorant," Al-Manar reports. "We warn them against doing anything ignorant, but if they do something ignorant, we will leave nowhere untouched apart from Mecca and Medina," Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan told Arabic-speaking Al-Manar channel, as cited by Reuters.

"They think they can do something because they have an air force," he added in an apparent reference to Riyadh's bombing of Yemen, where Iran-affiliated Houthi forces are being routinely targeted by the Saudi Air Force.

Dehghan's comment followed unusually blunt remarks by Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who said on Tuesday that any struggle for influence between Riyadh and Tehran would take place "inside Iran, not in Saudi Arabia."

In a rare interview broadcast on multiple Saudi TV channels, the 31-year-old prince, who was named in 2015 by his father, King Salman, as successor to the throne, outlined his vision of modern-day Iran. Making use of sectarian terms, Prince Salman said Iran is eager "to control the Islamic world" and to spread its Shiite doctrine, according to AP. When asked if there is a mere possibility to mend ties with Iran, the prince said: "How can I come to an understanding with someone, or a regime, that has an anchoring belief built on extremist ideology?"

"When the rivers and air are polluted, when families and nations are at war, when homeless wanderers fill the highways, these are the traditional signs of a dark age."— Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart

Those coming of age today will face some of the greatest obstacles ever encountered by young people.

They will find themselves overtaxed, burdened with excessive college debt, and struggling to find worthwhile employment in a debt-ridden economy on the brink of implosion. Their privacy will be eviscerated by the surveillance state. They will be the subjects of a military empire constantly waging war against shadowy enemies and government agents armed to the teeth ready and able to lock down the country at a moment's notice.

As such, they will find themselves forced to march in lockstep with a government that no longer exists to serve the people but which demands they be obedient slaves or suffer the consequences.

It's a dismal prospect, isn't it?

Unfortunately, we who should have known better failed to guard against such a future.

Worse, we neglected to maintain our freedoms or provide our young people with the tools necessary to survive, let alone succeed, in the impersonal jungle that is modern America.

We brought them into homes fractured by divorce, distracted by mindless entertainment, and obsessed with the pursuit of materialism. We institutionalized them in daycares and afterschool programs, substituting time with teachers and childcare workers for parental involvement. We turned them into test-takers instead of thinkers and automatons instead of activists.

We allowed them to languish in schools which not only look like prisons but function like prisons, as well—where conformity is the rule and freedom is the exception. We made them easy prey for our corporate overlords, while instilling in them the values of a celebrity-obsessed, technology-driven culture devoid of any true spirituality. And we taught them to believe that the pursuit of their own personal happiness trumped all other virtues, including any empathy whatsoever for their fellow human beings.

No, we haven't done this generation any favors.

Based on the current political climate, things could very well get much worse before they ever take a turn for the better. Here are a few pieces of advice that will hopefully help those coming of age today survive the perils of the journey that awaits:

US Senator Dianne Feinstein has revealed that the FBI paid $900,000 to hack into the iPhone of the San Bernardino killer after Apple resisted a court request to help the agency. The FBI director, James Comey hinted at the figure last year.

"I was so struck when San Bernardino happened and you made overtures to allow that device to be opened, and then the FBI had to spend $900,000 to hack it open," said Senator Feinstein, (D-California) during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, according to AP. "And as I subsequently learned of some of the reason for it, there were good reasons to get into that device."

Immediately following the disclosure, FBI director James Comey did not confirm or deny the figure.

The amount was disclosed by Feinstein as Comey was testifying on the agency's work, the events in the run-up to the 2016 elections, and the impending reauthorization of the government's surveillance powers.

So in the end the West was saved by the election of Emmanuel Macron as President of France: relief in Brussels, a buoyant eurozone, rallies in Asian markets.

That was always a no-brainer. After all, Macron was endorsed by the EU, Goddess of the Market, and Barack Obama. And he was fully backed by the French ruling class.

This was a referendum on the EU - and the EU, in its current set-up, won.

Cyberwar had to be part of the picture. No one knows where the MacronLeaks came from - a last minute, massive online dump of Macron campaign hacked emails. WikiLeaks certified the documents it had time to review as legitimate.

That did not stop the Macron galaxy from immediately blaming it on Russia. Le Monde, a once-great paper now owned by three influential Macron backers, faithfully mirrored his campaign's denunciation of RT and Sputnik, information technology attacks and, in general, the interference of Russia in the elections.