Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he could impose martial law if the drug problem in the country becomes "very virulent," warning that he is prepared to disregard the Supreme Court and Congress.

Speaking to members of the Chamber of Commerce in Davao on Saturday, Duterte said protecting his country supersedes any consideration of legal blocks to imposing martial law.

Kiev officials are scrambling to make amends with the president-elect after quietly working to boost Clinton

Donald Trump wasn't the only presidential candidate whose campaign was boosted by officials of a former Soviet bloc country.

Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton's allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.

A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The Ukrainian efforts had an impact in the race, helping to force Manafort's resignation and advancing the narrative that Trump's campaign was deeply connected to Ukraine's foe to the east, Russia. But they were far less concerted or centrally directed than Russia's alleged hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails.

Russia's effort was personally directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, involved the country's military and foreign intelligence services, according to U.S. intelligence officials. They reportedly briefed Trump last week on the possibility that Russian operatives might have compromising information on the president-elect. And at a Senate hearing last week on the hacking, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said "I don't think we've ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process than we've seen in this case."


There's little evidence of such a top-down effort by Ukraine. Longtime observers suggest that the rampant corruption, factionalism and economic struggles plaguing the country — not to mention its ongoing strife with Russia — would render it unable to pull off an ambitious covert interference campaign in another country's election. And President Petro Poroshenko's administration, along with the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, insists that Ukraine stayed neutral in the race.

Yet Politico's investigation found evidence of Ukrainian government involvement in the race that appears to strain diplomatic protocol dictating that governments refrain from engaging in one another's elections.

The U.S. intelligence community's unprecedented assault on an incoming U.S. president - now including spreading salacious rumors - raises questions about how long Donald Trump can hold the White House, says Daniel Lazare.

Is a military coup in the works? Or are U.S. intelligence agencies laying the political groundwork for forcing Donald Trump from the presidency because they can't abide his rejection of a new cold war with Russia? Not long ago, even asking such questions would have marked one as the sort of paranoid nut who believes that lizard people run the government. But no longer.

Thanks to the now-notorious 35-page dossier concerning Donald Trump's alleged sexual improprieties in a Moscow luxury hotel, it's clear that strange maneuverings are underway in Washington and that no one is quite sure how they will end.

In berating Russia for alleged interference in the recent U.S. election, the U.S. intelligence community ignores the extensive U.S. role in manipulating political movements around the globe, observes Jonathan Marshall.

The Director of National Intelligence's public report on alleged Russian hacking opens with a "key judgment" that "Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow's longstanding desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order."

That's a strong claim. The assertion suggests a fundamental and sustained Kremlin challenge to Western freedom, reminiscent of the early years of the Cold War. That such an unqualified and ideologically charged claim should lead the report speaks volumes about the politicization of the U.S. intelligence community's leadership. That such a claim has gone mostly unchallenged, aside from Donald Trump, speaks volumes about the powerful ideological consensus in Washington for escalating political and military conflict with Russia.

Yet a recent review of relations with Russia during the Obama years by former U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul — a harsh critic of President Putin — puts the lie to the notion that Moscow has consistently sought to undermine U.S. political interests. At the same time, however, McFaul's article illustrates the blinders shared by many American policy makers regarding the counterproductive impact on Russian behavior of repeated U.S. electoral and military interventions.

An Israeli tank has shelled south of the besieged Gaza Strip after an alleged gunfire attack from the Palestinian coastal enclave targeted the occupied territories.

The tank shelling, which resulted in no casualties, hit an observation post belonging to the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, on Sunday, said the Israeli military in a statement, claiming that the rounds had been fired shortly after alleged shots from the enclave targeted an Israeli military vehicle.

It further said that the vehicle had sustained damage, but no one was wounded, while it was working near the border fence.

Jordanian Prime Minister Hani Mulqi has unseated the country's interior and foreign ministers in a second cabinet reshuffle since September last year.

Mulqi said in a statement from the royal palace on Sunday that Interior Minister Salama Hammad will be replaced by Ghaleb Zohbi, a lawyer who had previously held the same post.

The statement by the Jordanian premier also announced that Jordan's long-serving Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh would be replaced by Ayman Safadi, formerly an adviser to the king and deputy prime minister. Judeh had served as foreign minister since 2009.

US President-Elect Donald Trump has told British officials that he wants to hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Reykjavik, Iceland, the Sunday Times reported.

US President-elect Donald Trump said that intelligence insiders have confirmed to him that the much-hyped dossier, alleging that Moscow has compromising evidence on him, was a fake.

"Intelligence insiders now claim the Trump dossier is "A COMPLETE FRAUD!" Trump wrote on his Twitter page.

The 'One China' principle acknowledging that there is only one Chinese government is non-negotiable and the ultimate basis for US-China relations, China's Foreign Ministry said in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's comments.

The Chinese ministry also called on "relevant parties" in the US to recognize the sensitivity of the Taiwan issue in a statement that came as a response to the remarks Trump made in the interview with the Wall Street Journal.

In an hour-long interview on Friday, Trump said that he may consider ending the long-standing agreement with China on relations with Taiwan. "Everything is under negotiation, including 'one China,'" Trump said during the interview.

A bombshell report from Israeli news service Ynet says Israeli and American intelligence officials are plotting to hide intelligence from incoming president Donald Trump.

Trump needs to see this report. Our lying press is completely ignoring it.