Permanent sanctions? No problem.

The myth that is propelling the Trump Manchurian candidate conspiracy theory is that Putin desperately needs sanctions removed, and therefore has installed a puppet in the White House to do away with them.

Not quite.

Here is Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, explaining why Russia is not looking for "mercy" from the West:

Rebels from various parts of Syria are flocking to the country's northwestern corner, giving rise to a "second Islamic State," a US journalist and former Al-Nusra captive told RT, warning that the West is blind to what's happening on the ground.

Western media coverage of the Syrian crisis is inadequate and biased, while most things reported about Aleppo are false or unprovable, a US journalist and former Al-Nusra captive told RT, while noting that the rise of a "second Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL]" is being completely overlooked.

The Czech Republic's conservative Euroskeptic president has declared that he is an agent of his Russian counterpart, as well as other leaders and nations, during a press conference where he announced his intention to run for a second term.

Speaking in Prague during a televised event on Friday, Milos Zeman launched his 2018 re-election campaign, vowing not to change his often-criticized conservative platform, which includes prioritizing Czech interests over pan-European ones.

Zeman is often at odds with the government of Social Democrat Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, which supports Brussels on issues like anti-Russian sanctions and immigration.

CENTCOM commander Gen. Joseph Votel said that the United States and Iraq were working on a five-year plan to keep US forces in Iraq after the defeat of Daesh.

The United States and Iraq are working on a five-year plan to keep US forces in Iraq after the defeat of Daesh terrorist group, Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Gen. Joseph Votel said on Thursday.

"We are working with the GoI [government of Iraq] to finalize a five-year plan to ensure enhanced cooperation," Votel said in written testimony for the US Senate Armed Services Committee.

Votel emphasized that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was a willing partner and had clearly stated a desire for continued US support after Islamic State is defeated.

The Pentagon maintains US troops are supporting Iraqi forces in an advise and assist role in counter-Daesh operations at the invitation of the government.

In October, then-State Department spokesman John Kirby said there was no agreement between the two governments on a sustained US troop presence after Daesh is defeated.

Kiev has cut off water supplies to the Lugansk People's Republic, the Ministry of Communications of the LPR has reported.

Water supplies from the Western Filtration and Pumping Station were cut off at 3:00 A.M. Although Kiev has said such is the result of an industrial accident, the LPR says that no official documents confirming such have been provided.

The water station in question is on Ukrainian territory and supplies water to Pervomaysk, Stakhanov, Kirovsk, Bryanka, Alchevsk, Perevalsk, Krasny Luch, and Antratsit.

There is nothing more despicable than those responsible for carnage and suffering on a grand scale not only escaping justice for doing so but seeking to ascribe something noble, honorable, and moral to that carnage and suffering. Step forward the British ruling class.

In advance of the anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq on March 20, 2003, the British government has unveiled a memorial to British servicemen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan between 1990 and 2015.

The 682 British soldiers killed while serving in Afghanistan and Iraq in this period were victims of conflicts fought not in the name of democracy, liberty, or humanitarianism, as the apologists for these wars and occupations continue to maintain, but imperialism. As we know, imperialism is not and has never been driven by idealism or justice but by economic and strategic advantage. It is why the lack of any commemoration of the countless thousands of Afghans and Iraqis also killed in these wars is such a crying injustice.

The past week has seen a glut of opinion pieces claiming a United Ireland is suddenly on the cards. Plenty of otherwise intelligent people are jumping the gun.

Sorry to be a party-pooper here. Because since pro-British Unionists finally lost their outright majority in the north of Ireland assembly, an awful lot of rubbish has been written and said about the imminent 'inevitability' of a United Ireland. On radio, television, blogs, social media posts and even in 'serious' newspapers. But the reality is a 32-county state is most likely not impending.

Sure, there is absolutely no doubt how, from Bantry Bay to Derry Quay and from Galway to Dublin town, the vast majority of Irish people theoretically want a unified island. And always have done so, regardless of London's commitment to its loyalists and their devotion, in turn, to everything British. It's also irrefutable that Ulster's Protestant community has mellowed in its attitude to Dublin. And how its liberal members have become increasingly disenchanted with unionism. Which, in its present condition, is as backward as a fellow riding a High Nelly in a world of electric cars. Anyway, it was always a cadaverous, dogmatic conviction hatched in the trenches of perdition. Much like the Catholic chauvinism it felt repugnance toward.

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, who collapsed in his office last month, died from a heart attack, and no foul play was suspected, according to a senior city official briefed by the medical examiner's office.

The official was not authorized to reveal the cause of death for Ambassador Vitaly Churkin and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday after the medical examiner's office, citing diplomatic protocol, said it was instructed not to publicly release the cause of death.

An autopsy was performed on Churkin last month, but the death required further study. The additional tests had been completed, but Julie Bolcer, spokeswoman for the city's medical examiner, said that the city's law department told the office not to release any further information, "in order to comply with international law and protocol."

The State Department asked the city in writing on Feb. 24 to not reveal the autopsy results, because Churkin's diplomatic immunity survives his death.

Any foreign forces, including those from the US, that enter Syria without invitation are invaders, Syrian President Bashar Assad told Chinese media in an interview, noting that no one had given the US troops currently in Manbij permission to be there.

"Any foreign troops coming to Syria without our invitation or consultation or permission, they are invaders, whether they are American, Turkish, or any other one," Assad told Chinese PHOENIX TV, as cited by the Syrian state-run SANA news agency.

When a journalist asked the Syrian president if Damascus had "opened doors" for American troops in Aleppo province's city of Manbij, Assad said "No, we didn't."

"What are they [foreign troops] going to do? To fight ISIS [Islamic State, formerly ISIL]? The Americans lost nearly every war. They lost in Iraq, they had to withdraw at the end. Even in Somalia, let alone Vietnam in the past and Afghanistan."

Even those not following the latest evidence of the tyrannical noose tightening around our necks, know something has gone terribly wrong in America. Through NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations four years ago, we learned that US citizens as well as foreign countries are the most spied upon in human history. But this week's latest massive WikiLeaks' release, aka Vault 7, amounts to almost 9,000 pages of CIA documents collected from 2013 through 2016 that disclose highly classified hacking secrets. With this largest dump of confidential CIA files ever published, the world is beginning to realize just how far gone our privacy rights are, becoming virtually nonexistent under traitor Obama's second term in office.

On the heels of last week's bombshell revelations that outgoing president Obama illegally wiretapped and surveilled all of President Trump's communications (both domestic and overseas) including his pre-administration officials, now we're learning that the Orwellian nightmare of myopic control over us as a national population is far worse than ever imagined. These back-to-back, very much related unfolding events only demonstrate that not only is the legitimately elected American president apparently in the process of an overthrow attempt by treasonous subversive forces for the first time in US history, but through the ruling elite's private army - the CIA, it has extended its technologically invasive beta test control over the most spied upon population ever on its way to imprisoning every human on earth with a one world crime cabal government.

Americans are not the only victims of deep state cyber aggression. The CIA data dump also reveals that the NSA and CIA have been conducting a large scale covert operation out of the Frankfurt, Germany American Consulate, largest in the world, busily hacking targeted individuals, groups and national entities throughout Europe, the Middle East and China. Granted immunity and top secret identities, individuals comprising deep state America employed in Frankfurt have developed a massive digital hacking arsenal smack dab in the middle of Europe as Empire's vassal.