Russia's State Duma, or the lower house of parliament, approved a "Turkish Stream" pipeline deal Friday to deliver its natural gas to Turkey and European markets through the Black Sea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated the Turkish Stream project in 2014, and sealed the agreement with his Turkish counterpart in Istanbul in October 2016 envisioning the construction of two underwater legs of the gas pipeline.

The project, put on hold after Turkey downed a Russian warplane in November 2015 near Turkish-Syrian border, was brought back to agenda in June 2016 when Moscow and Ankara agreed to revive their relations.

More destructive than bombs, money has become the weapon of choice for the global elite, for the hidden hand of finance can plunder and conquer entire nations, assimilate whole cultures, exploit resources and rape the earth while force billions into poverty, all with the surprising stealth of pen-strokes and business contracts.

Neoliberalism is the economic and political philosophic driving force in the world today. It suggests that human progress is the result of competition, best expressed by an extremist version of unfettered capitalism, where privatization of profits and socialization of losses are acceptable ethics, regardless of human and environmental costs incurred along the way.

"Neoliberalism is the killer plague of the 21st century. Neoliberalism is economic fascism. It is a criminal doctrine. Globalized neoliberalism privatizes public goods for private profit. Neoliberalism led by Washington with the shameful complicity of Europe has in the last fifteen years killed between 12 and 15 million people by wars, famine, deprived health services... forced refugees. Today a small world elite of corporate and Wall Street CEO's and selected politicians call the shots." ~Peter Koenig

First defined in 1938, its global implementation today is the product of the Washington Consensus of 1989 which describes a set of economic prescriptions for developing and crisis-wracked nations created by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Treasury Department. It is a policy which relies on the creation of social and financial crises to distract and soften target nations and peoples, creating problems while providing the 'solutions.'

The furor over Donald Trump's "legitimacy" as president presumes that the U.S. system of rule is, itself, legitimate, at home and abroad. The Democrats maintain "a legitimate President certainly cannot have peaceful relations with Russia." They are attempting to continue the momentum of the Obama period, which "has been the highest expression of the Democratic Party's transformation into the War Party and the most legitimate party of imperialism."

What Constitutes a Legitimate President in the United States?
by Danny Haiphong

The struggle to legitimize the US Presidency is ultimately a desperate attempt by the finance capitalist-aligned ruling class to stabilize the system with endless war.

A recent piece authored by Robert Kuttner, the founder of the liberal magazine The American Prospect, laid out the criteria for a "legitimate" Presidency. The purpose for such criteria is given away by the piece's title, aptly named "Impeaching Trump." There currently exists a layer of the liberal section of the ruling class that is committed to ousting the President-elect from office. The danger in such a move does not necessarily reside from the elimination of Trump and his particular form of rule. What is dangerous about the effort to impeach Trump is the conflation of the genuine interests of oppressed and working class people with Kuttner's particular definition of Presidential legitimacy.

What defines a "legitimate President" of the United States according to Kuttner? The criteria of Presidential legitimacy are simple. The President must be anyone else but Donald J. Trump. Trump's unsettled business ventures mix "official duties with personal enrichment," which is deemed "illegal" under the US Constitution. And a legitimate President certainly cannot have peaceful relations with Russia. Trump's so-called ties to Russia are grounds for treason and enough to warrant impeachment.

Yet Kuttner's argument for what constitutes a legitimate President rests on the assumption that the system of governance is legitimate in its own right. Yet the system of capitalism and imperialism in control of the US state apparatus has never been mired in a deeper crisis of legitimacy than the one currently in motion. Since Trump's election, establishment Democrats and Republicans have waged a multifaceted campaign of war against Russia in attempt to resolve the crisis. This campaign includes Kuttner's narrative that Russia meddled in US elections in favor of Trump as well as the vast NATO-sponsored military buildup in the Baltic States bordering Russia. The struggle to legitimize the US Presidency is ultimately a desperate attempt by the finance capitalist-aligned ruling class to stabilize the system with endless war.

NATO ships are closely monitoring the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and its group as it returns to Russia, a Maritime Command (MARCOM) officer said in a statement.

The Admiral Kuznetsov is returning to its home base in Severomorsk as the chair of the Russian General Staff, Army Gen. Valery Gerasimov, announced earlier in January, having completed its tour of duty in the eastern Mediterranean. To do this, it must pass through both the Mediterranean and the North Sea, where it will be closely monitored and escorted by NATO vessels.

"The Russian Navy is a capable navy, that's why their ships are a part of our routine surveillance plans," Vice Admiral Clive Johnstone said in a statement published on the MARCOM website.

"In the case of the Kuznetsov group, we've learned what we can from the group and how it operates, [and] we'll continue to monitor for any changes in behavior and continue to work closely within the Alliance to ensure all Allied navies are comfortable with the level of surveillance and information flowing regarding Russian Navy assets."

According to the notification from Facebook, the ban the RT broadcaster from uploading videos, images and links to its page on the social network has taken place because of an alleged copyright infringement, the RT press service stated.

A recent decision of Facebook to temporarily ban the RT broadcaster from uploading videos, images and links to its page on the social network has followed a complaint filed by one of the projects of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the RT press service said Thursday, citing a notification from Facebook.

Earlier in the day, RT reported that its Facebook page had been blocked until January 21 from leaving posts containing videos, images and links because of copyright infringement claim and the ban would last until Saturday morning, effectively preventing RT from broadcasting US President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Facebook.

"According to the notification from Facebook, [the ban] has taken place because of an alleged copyright infringement. The complaint has been received [by the social network] from the Nastoyashchee Vremya TV channel — a project of the US RFE/RL, which gets the financing from the US Department of State," the press service said.

RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan has told RIA Novosti that she is not surprised by the partial ban of the broadcaster's Facebook account.

Iran and Saudi Arabia successfully worked together to solve Lebanon's political crisis last year and should be able to cooperate to help end conflicts in Syria and Yemen, Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday.

"I do not see any reason why Iran and Saudi Arabia should have hostile policies towards each other. We can in fact work together to put an end to miserable conditions of the people in Syria and Yemen and Bahrain and elsewhere in the region," Mohammad Javad Zarif told the World Economic Forum.

In this day and age the media itself has become a hot story. Back when reddit and 4chan investigators started digging into the leaked Podesta emails, they found something a little odd. Strange references to pizza, ping pong, and a little place in Northwest DC called Comet Ping Pong. Investigators then started browsing Comet Ping Pong owner James Alefantis's Instagram profile and found some rather disturbing images along with comments that seemed suggestive of a connection to pedophilia.

Shortly thereafter, the Washington Post broke a huge story with the headline: "Russian propaganda effort helped spread 'fake news' during election, experts say" and immediately, anything the establishment didn't want to discuss became fake news. The timing here is worth noting: it was only after PizzaGate was gaining traction on the internet, connecting high-ranking democratic officials to pedophilia with their own words and their own pictures that the media started screaming fake news.

In an ironic twist, mainstream media outlets themselves then became the greatest purveyors of factually inaccurate news (Russia hacked the elections, Russia hacked a Vermont Electric Grid and Russia has blackmail material on Trump for a few examples) and in a stunning reversal, people all over the world began applying the term to outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN - the enshrined media mega-mouths with decades of history bringing news to Americans.

Clearly, they didn't see that coming. The Washington Post then decided it was time to 'retire' the term fake news, because heck, if the weapon you invented is working against you, you should try to get rid of it, and fast! But that hasn't seemed to work either. Once Pandora's box is opened, there's no closing it back up.

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists have destroyed part of a Roman theater and the legendary four-column structure 'Tetrapylon' in the ancient city of Palmyra, the Syrian antiquities chief said.

The facade of the Roman theater has been completely destroyed, according to Maamoun Abdulkarim, the Syrian director-general for antiquities and museums, as cited by Reuters. If Islamic State is not ousted from Palmyra in the near future, "it means more destruction," Abdulkarim added.

The scale of damage is currently unknown. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova describes the act as "a new war crime and an immense loss for the Syrian people and for humanity.

As far as we know, Syrian forces keep on trying to liberate this city and all other from terrorists," Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to TASS. Peskov declined to comment on whether Russia is planning to help the Syrian Army liberate Palmyra, forwarding the question to the Russian Defense Ministry. Peskov added that "Russian soldiers are assisting Syrians in their fight against terrorists."

An agreement signed by Russia and Syria stipulates that up to eleven Russian warships will be able to dock in the Syrian port of Tartus at any one time. The move is designed to boost defense capabilities, the document states.

"The maximum number of the Russian warships allowed at the Russian naval facility at one time is 11, including nuclear-powered warships, providing that nuclear and ecological security rules are observed," the agreement says.

The agreement has been signed for 49 years and could be prolonged by 25 more years if both sides agree.

"The Syrian Arab Republic gives consent to the Russian Federation to expand the territory of its naval facility and upgrade its infrastructure to conduct repair works, restock supplies and give crews time for rest," the document says, adding that the use of the naval facility will be free of charge.

Donald Trump is preparing to sign executive actions on his first day in the White House on Friday to take the opening steps to crack down on immigration, build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and roll back outgoing President Barack Obama's policies.

Trump, a Republican elected on Nov. 8 to succeed Democrat Obama, arrived in Washington on a military plane with his family a day before he will be sworn in during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

Aides said Trump would not wait to wield one of the most powerful tools of his office, the presidential pen, to sign several executive actions that can be implemented without the input of Congress.

"He is committed to not just Day 1, but Day 2, Day 3 of enacting an agenda of real change, and I think that you're going to see that in the days and weeks to come," Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said on Thursday, telling reporters to expect activity on Friday, during the weekend and early next week.