MPs will see their salaries rise by over £1,000 ($1,271) next April, in the second pay hike in just one year, despite average UK earnings falling by over 10 percent in real terms over the past 10 years.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) approved the rise just months after the body pushed through a controversial 1.3 percent salary increase.

The £1,049 pay hike represents a 1.4 percent salary jump, and will see MP's annual earnings rise from £74,962 to £76,011.

It is well above the one percent cap imposed on public sectors until 2019, and significantly higher than most UK wage earners, who have seen their pay drop in real terms over the past decade.

Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin hit back at his US counterpart, Samantha Power, at a UN Security Council meeting, saying that she was not Mother Teresa and represents a country with a long record of violations.

Power and Churkin both spoke at a UN Security Council meeting on Aleppo in New York City on Monday. Power began by accusing Russia, the Assad government of Syria, and Iran of "conquest and carnage in Aleppo."

"You bear responsibility for these atrocities by rejecting UN ICRC evacuation efforts, you are signaling to those militia who are massacring innocents to keep doing what they are doing, denying or obfuscating the facts as you will do today," said Power emotionally.

According to the Power, Washington knows "what was happening" and everyone knows that Russia is involved.

"To the Assad regime, Russia and Iran, your forces and proxies are carrying out these crimes, your barrel bombs and mortars and airstrikes have allowed the militia to encircle tens of thousands of civilians," she said.

Stop blaming WikiLeaks.

Stop blaming Russia.

Stop citing a secret CIA report, especially since The New York Times published an article on October 31, 2016 titled Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia:

Law enforcement officials say that none of the investigations so far have found any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government. And even the hacking into Democratic emails, F.B.I. and intelligence officials now believe, was aimed at disrupting the presidential election rather than electing Mr. Trump.

Therefore, the FBI has already contradicted the CIA on its Russian conspiracy theories.

Was this New York Times article an example of "fake" news?

As for Russian interference through WikiLeaks, NSA Chief Mike Rogers is quoted on November 21, 2016 in The Hill stating DNC emails had little impact on the election:

National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers said Sunday that he does not believe the publication of stolen Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

"I don't think in the end it had the effect that [the hackers] had hoped it might," Rogers said during a panel at the Halifax International Security Forum.

Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Az.) expressed a similar sentiment on Saturday, stating that, "I do not think that the outcome of the election was impacted by Russian hacking."

Those who wished to read the full text of the notorious Senate report on documenting the CIA torture of detainees after 9/11 will have to wait for 12 years. The White House ordered it kept under seal after Barack Obama leaves office.

Seven US senators urged the Obama administration to declassify the 6,770-page Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program so the public could have a full account of past torture practices.

White House counsel Neil Eggleston, in responding to the request, said the president had told the National Archives and Records Administration that access to the classified material should be shielded from public access requests for 12 years.

"At this time, we are not pursing declassification of the full study," Eggleston wrote in a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein (D, California).

US business magazine Forbes named Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin the most influential person in the world for the fourth time in a row.

The magazine also included US President-elect Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the list of The World's Most Powerful People, granting them the second and the third places, respectively.

"For the fourth consecutive year, Forbes ranked Russian President Vladimir Putin as the world's most powerful person. From the motherland to Syria to the U.S. presidential elections, Russia's leader continues to get what he wants," the magazine said.

The magazine ranks global state leaders, capitalists, philanthropists and entrepreneurs along four criteria. The magazine editors assess the extent and use of the person's political power, influence and financial resources.

Retaking Aleppo and getting eastern Aleppo under full control of the Syrian government would be one of the key points to go ahead with a political solution for the future of Syria, says former Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini.

The Syrian army is reportedly on the brink of liberating the city of Aleppo; that has been engulfed in violence for almost six years. Although fighting continues in some areas, there have been scenes of celebration on the streets over the army's advance.

RT: What can the liberation of Aleppo mean for the future of the Syrian conflict?

Franco Frattini: It would be very important. It is key in the liberation of the entire territory of Syria from those that I wouldn't define as good faith rebels; they have close links to terrorist organizations. So, retaking Aleppo and eastern Aleppo under full control of the regime - even though the regime has committed some activities I don't like - would be one of the key points to go ahead with the political solution for the future of Syria. And this is very important, [it is] what Russia is [calling] for, what other partners want... But the first precondition is to liberate the most important cities and particularly Aleppo. Great success for the coalition against terrorism, against so-called rebels.

There'll be opposition to Trump's pick for Secretary of State, but there's a lot of momentum behind the anti-establishment president, and Rex Tillerson will be seen as a part of the anti-establishment future for the US, says political commentator John Wight.

US President-elect Donald Trump has picked Rex Tillerson, the head of oil giant ExxonMobil, as his Secretary of State.

He is to become the 69th Secretary of State and will also serve as a member of the National Security Council.

RT: Trump has picked Rex Tillerson as his Secretary of State, what do you think about his choice?

A NATO-Russia confrontation has been deemed a top risk by a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) survey, conducted by foreign policy experts. This placed it alongside the risk of a nuclear crisis with North Korea and a severe terrorist attack on the US.

The likelihoods for all major American fears coming true were split into two groups - those with a moderate likelihood of happening, but causing a high impact; and those with a high likelihood of happening, but causing a moderate impact.

This year was different, however. Despite tempers flaring and tensions boiling over, the experts didn't feel there was anything to warrant their attention that would carry both - a high likelihood of happening, and a high risk of a severe impact at the same time. This was the opposite of last year, when the Syrian civil war was projected to intensify even further.

Nonetheless, the CFR's Center for Preventive Action (CPA), which conducted the survey, believes that if any escalation - intended or accidental - takes place alongside Russia-NATO borders, it will stem "from assertive Russian behavior in Eastern Europe" - and not any sort of provocation by Baltic NATO members, whether it be renewed force buildups or mass-scale military exercises.

If someone shouts "Kill Ukrainians!" at a Polish nationalist march in a city that was a battlefield in a Polish-Ukrainian war, it can be nothing other than a provocation by Moscow, the Polish ambassador to Ukraine stated.

Jan Pieklo sees "the hand of Kremlin" behind an incident that took place during an annual march of nationalist youths in the border city of Przemyśl on Saturday. As the column was passing a Ukrainian cultural center, one of the participants shouted "Death to Ukrainians," footage of the incident shows.

How does one spot the difference between a fraud and a real event? Yes, in the real world — as opposed to the Kosher Hollywood cartoon world that America is fed — I do believe there might be real — "not insane" — radicals who use violence. But under such an assumption, my hypothesis is that they would go after high-value targets, not little old church ladies.

However, is it possible that Americans have become so culturally sick and satanic that people are acting out in insane ways, such as randomly killing people? There could also be copycat triggers. A few years ago there was a rash of stabbings involving "carrying out orders" from a pseudo-paranormal character called "Slenderman" [see "Who is Slenderman?"]. This is more cult-of-death, evil, B.S. pushed onto popular culture by the psychopaths running the show.

If so, this is far beyond what some new gun laws could curtail and demonstrates a massive social and cultural pathology. If American society is that pathological, then TNN would advocate that thinking, decent people own guns or arms for protection. TNN would advocate awakening less compromised local law enforcement personal, who are being employed to carry out the deconstruction of American civil liberties and the psychopaths' agendas. If you are a proto-psychopath working within the system, you need to realize you are expendable to that system — just look at the bloodbath of questionable characters after the JFK assassination. TNN would advocate that you bail out and save yourself, if nothing else.

Even though the mainstream, control-grid media is doing a good job of wrecking its own credibility, more work needs to be done to take them down. TNN advocates for exposing their methods and lies at every opportunity. Promote and support good alternative media. Another option is to leave the country, as I have. If you stay, TNN would never advocate sacrificing yourself or committing a violent act. If at some point you are rounded up like the Cathars, it will be too late.

Targeted zombies can easily be programmed to kill or carry out other missions. Jared Loughner, who attempted to assassinate Gabby Gifford, for instance was heavily into the topic of mind control. Sirhan Sirhan says he has no idea why he was where he was on the day he killed RFK. Timothy McVeigh was very disoriented on the day he was said to have bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City, and he was likely involved in other covert missions. In prison, he was visited by one of the leading mind-control experts in the U.S., who eventually went on to work his craft at Gitmo. For a good descriptive book on this, read "Virtual Government: CIA Mind Control Operations in America" and "Operation Mind Control."

James Holmes, the alleged Aurora shooter, was actually in a special neuroscience (DARPA) program at University California Riverside. While drying out in jail, Holmes said, "I'm in mind control, help me." This is a long but fully packed interview that discusses the whole issue. At one point, I listened to about four hours of his psychiatrist's interview and my observations are here.