The central issue in the U.S. Presidential campaign can't even be discussed in U.S. newsmedia, because America's media have been almost uniformly complicit all along in hiding from the American public the crucial factual information that's necessary in order for the public to vote in an intelligent and truthfully informed way about it. No news medium wants to report its own having been complicit in anything; so, the cover-up here just continues; it has a life of its own, even though it's a life that brings the world closer and closer to a situation which would kill billions of people, as things get increasingly out-of-control the longer this coverup continues. The cycle of virtually uniform lying thus persists, despite the growing danger it produces. This article will need to be lengthy, because the American public have been almost consistently lied-to about so many very important things — things associated with the nation's central issue — an issue even bigger than terrorism, and than global warming, and than rising economic inequality and corruption, but which is still virtually ignored. This article is thus intended to be 'Drano' for a political system that has become clogged by lies just jammed down into it, now backing up and pouring out onto America's political floor. The overflowing sludge has got to be cleaned up, and discarded. Or else — and very suddenly — it will kill us all.

This central issue is whether or not to continue to move forward with the American government's plan, ever since the Soviet Union and its military alliance the Warsaw Pact ended in 1991, to extend NATO — the anti-Russia military club — right up to Russia's borders, surround Russia with NATO nuclear missiles a mere five minutes flight-time to Moscow, and simultaneously build a "Ballistic Missile Defense" or "Anti Ballistic Missile" (BMD or ABM) system to nullify Russia's retaliatory missiles against an unannounced blitz U.S.-NATO invasion to take over, if not totally eliminate, Russia and its resistance to U.S. power. This operation is an ugly reality, but it is an American-led reality, and the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election will bring it into its final stage, either by ending it, or by culminating it — two drastically different outcomes, but one side or the other will prevail in this political contest, and the present article links to the documentation that America's voters will need to be aware of that shows not only that they've been lied-to, but how and why they've been lied-to. The documentation is all-important, especially because the facts that are being documented have been hidden so successfully for so long. This is not a world that Americans want to know, but it is a world that especially the few Americans who are in control, don't want the American public to know. That's a toxic combination (public ignorance, which the people in control want to continue), but it is tragically real (as the documentation here will make clear).

After baseless allegations from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) that the Russian government was behind a hack of the DNC's emails, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sarcastically quipped that he hoped Russia would find and release the deleted emails from Hillary Clinton's private server from her time as secretary of state. The New York Times failed to note the sarcasm and treated the comments as evidence of high crimes against the state. It was an example of the modern day red-baiting against Trump, who is portrayed as being in league with Russian President Vladimir Putin to conspire against the United States itself.

The Times said Trump was "essentially urging a foreign adversary to conduct cyberespionage against a former secretary of state." While Trump is such a narcissitic buffoon that it is often difficult to discern when he is being facetious, he was clearly making a joke.

But treating the comment in the spirit it was intended would mean passing up a golden opportunity to bash Trump for what has become common knowledge in mainstream political analysis: Trump is anti-American for being diplomatic instead of vilifying Russia and Putin at every opportunity. They scrutinize and make a point of every statement Trump makes that fails to antagonize Russia for actions the US government doesn't antagonize other countries for.

While they merely imply "urging" cyberespionage is treasonous rather than state it explicitly, the Times finds it so important that they place it in the lead paragraph. This is curiously prominent, much more prominent that when President Barack Obama literally joked about incinerating a family with a remotely guided missile.

The long-awaited Chilcot Inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq War (2003-2011) was published in July with much criticism leveled at the government under prime minister Tony Blair. There seems to be a national consensus that Britain's war on Iraq is now a cause of deep shame and that future British governments should be chastened from embarking on similar warmongering.

On the contrary, however, Britain's strident role in pushing NATO's aggression towards Russia - again on the basis of trumped-up "intelligence" claims, as with its earlier invasion of Iraq - shows in fact that nothing has been learnt from the Chilcot Inquiry. Britain, shamefully, remains an incorrigibly belligerent state that acts as if it is above international law.

It remains to be seen if the new British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson can bring some sanity to Britain's anti-Russia policy that was pushed by David Cameron and Philip Hammond. Hammond's slavish following of Washington's hostile agenda was particularly baleful. The outlook does not seem promising as can be gleaned from the systemic nature of British pro-Washington's conduct, as revealed by the long-running Iraq imbroglio.

If Muslims in France don't help the country to battle extremists and those who threaten the Republic, it will be "increasingly hard" for Paris to guarantee freedom of Islam, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said.

"Through its history and its geography... and through its immigration, France maintains very strong ties with Islam," Valls wrote in a long essay in Le Journal du Dimanche, a French weekly newspaper.

According to the PM, Islam is "second-largest religion" in France and many French Muslims don't have to identify themselves "as an Arab-Muslim culture."

However, a "terrible poison" of extremism has started spreading in the country, the French PM wrote.

"Slowly, insidiously, against the background of influences from abroad and rising communalism, developed against a model of society which contradicts the Republic and its values. Many Muslims in France are taken hostage by the fundamentalist Salafism, the Muslim Brotherhood, who use their worship as a banner, a weapon against others."

And thus Paris must "invent a balance with Islam" under which "the Republic offers a guarantee of free exercise of religion," Valls concluded.

"If Islam is not helping the Republic to fight against those who undermine public freedoms, it will be increasingly hard for the Republic to guarantee this freedom of worship."

He added that the country should "build a true pact with Islam in France, giving this foundation a central place."

Tehran tries to achieve re-organisation of the Syrian army. Not long ago, the Commander of the elite Al-Quds unit of the Army of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), General Qasem Soleimani, again presented his proposals on this subject to the Syrian Minister of Defence, General Fahd Jassem al-Freij, and the Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Ali Abdullah Ayyoub, in Damascus.

The Iranian project envisages the creation of two main and independent-from-one-another structures that would submit to the Co-ordination Committee.

• The first structure should almost be a copy of the Iranian IRGC and include the 4th Armoured Division, which is now commanded by General Talal Makhlouf. It would include land forces, navy and air units.
• Other units of the Syrian armed forces should form the second structure.
• A single structure of the auxiliary forces, such as the Iranian Basij, should be created on the basis of the irregular armed militias.

The last Sunday in July is Navy Day in Russia. Russia's current Armed Naval Fleet consist of 4 fleets and one flotilla. This year's celebration of the navy is taking place against the background of deteriorating relations with NATO and Ukraine, which has yielded a most difficult situation for seamen of the Black Sea and Baltic fleets.

The main base of Russia's Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol (a unique bay and city on the Crimean Peninsula) finds itself in dangerous proximity to Ukraine, where joint NATO exercises are periodically held. A few years ago, when talking with officers of the large landing ship "Novocherkassk" based in Sevastopol, I heard complaints from officers that Ukraine had prevented the upgrading of ships in the Black Sea fleet. After Sevastopol and Crimea's return to Russia, the situation changed dramatically.

As the commander of the Black Sea fleet, Admiral Alexander Vitko, stated today, by the end of the year, the ship composition of the Black Sea Fleet will be replenished by three of the newest "Project 11356" frigates. There should be 6 ships already, but Ukraine's opposition to their construction slowed such progress down. The updating of ships and other military vehicles in Sevastopol and Crimea began in the first weeks after the peninsula joined Russia. Today, Crimea is one of the most modernly equipped bases of Russia's armed forces. Besides surface and underwater ships, naval air forces, and coastal units, several installations of the latest "Bal" coastal missile systems are also deployed in Crimea. What's more, "Bastion", the newest word in coastal defense, was adopted by the armed forces in 2014 and has a missile range of over 600 km. As experts from the fleet's officers affirmed to me during interviews, the deployment of "Bal's" and "Bastion's" renders the presence of NATO ships in the Russian part of the Black Sea largely futile and even fatally dangerous for themselves.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi said Monday that people should be prepared for the tough economic recovery measures.

On July 28, Egyptian Finance Minister Amr Garhy said the country is expecting to get $12 billion from the IMF in the next three years in exchange for certain austerity measures.

"The biggest challenge is not the measures themselves but their acceptance by the society, public opinion. The challenge is whether it is prepared to accept the measures, which is likely to be hard and tough," Sisi said talking at the Cairo youth forum.

He added that "the upcoming days will bring many good news," most likely relating to the ongoing negotiations between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Egypt's economic growth was undermined by five years of political turmoil after the 2011 Arab Spring uprising against long-standing Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. The national economy is suffering a severe shortage of foreign currency caused mainly by the blow to its tourist sector following the crash of the Russian Airbus A321 plane over the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015.

The US authorities have revised borrowing projections for the third quarter upward, intending to borrow some $200 billion, the Treasury Department announced in a press release on Monday.

In January 2016, US federal debt stood at $19 trillion, according to the Treasury.

"During the July - September 2016 quarter, Treasury expects to borrow $201 billion in net marketable debt," the release said. "This borrowing estimate is $47 billion higher than announced in May 2016."

The Treasury explained the increase in borrowing by "a higher end-of-quarter cash balance estimate and lower receipts."

In the October - December quarter, the US authorities will likely issue $182 billion in net marketable debt, the department noted.

Yemen's President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi has voiced his approval of a peace agreement for the country's warring sides proposed by the United Nations, media reports said Sunday.

On Saturday, Yemen's Houthi rebels and the General People's Congress (GPC) of ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh nearly pulled out of UN-backed peace talks with Hadi government representatives before agreeing to extend talks for another week due to what was reportedly a last-ditch effort to pursue peace negotiations by Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN special envoy for Yemen.

The agreement proposed by the UN envoy includes clauses on both the Houthis and Saleh forces laying down arms, withdrawing from the Yemeni capital Sana, as well as the cities of Taiz and Hudaydah, and creating a military committee responsible for overseeing the process, the Sky News Arabia channel reported.

The Hadi government delegation has reportedly told Ahmed that its side would sign the document in case the Houthi side does likewise before August 7. However, the Houthis refused approving the proposal and have insisted on forming a national unity government, according to the media outlet.

There's a blue hole in the South China Sea. Longdong ("Dragon Hole") is an astonishing 300,89 meters deep, in deep blue waters around Yongle, a major coral reef in the Paracel islands (or Xisha, in their Chinese denomination).

Cynics may argue that after the recent ruling in The Hague largely against China's "nine-dash line", the whole South China Sea would be more like a black - not blue - geopolitical hole, where serious turbulence is all but inevitable.

I have examined before how the South China Sea's history is now colliding with imperatives derived from the Westphalian system, and how the US's "pivot to Asia" is accelerating conflict. I have also examined how the US Navy's obsession with "access" actually tramples which sovereign nation is entitled to profit from the surrounding waters of a bunch of islands or "rocks".

And then, there's that inescapable logic that envelops all energy wars: "It's the oil, stupid".