President-elect Donald Trump will nominate retired Marine General James 'Mad Dog' Mattis to be the 26th secretary of defense, the Washington Post reported. He would also serve as a member of the National Security Council.

If confirmed, he would replace the current secretary, Ash Carter, who was confirmed in February 2015. However, Congress must pass a waiver before that happens because federal law states that service members must wait seven years after retiring from active duty before they can hold senior civilian defense positions, including secretary of defense.

Mattis retired from the Marine Corps in 2013 after serving as the 11th commander of US Central Command, replacing General David Petraeus as the overseer of US operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan. As the head of CENTCOM, he maintained good relations with congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, according to Military.com.

On December 4th, presidential elections will be held in Austria. Although the country is relatively average in size and population, nevertheless, the Austrian elections have far more than local importance. This country belongs to the list of those who have enormously contributed to the development of European (Romano-Germanic) culture. Vienna was one of the commonly-recognized capitals of Europe (alongside Paris), and the Austrian Habsburgs were the rulers of more than half of Europe.

Today, however, none of its former political strength or imperial borders have remained, but Austria remains an integral part of the common German space. Therefore, Germany and other countries with a majority or significant German population are closely following the Austrian elections. According to the theory of communicative vessels, the results of the Austrian elections could also impact neighboring Czech Republic, as well as Hungary and Slovakia. The political unity of these countries and Austria was destroyed long ago, but the strong social bond between them has been preserved.

Russia is also following the elections with considerable interest. Despite its modest size, Austria is widely represented on the Russian market. In political terms, Austria has allowed itself to play the role of the enfant terrible of European politics, even criticizing the anti-Russian sanctions. This, of course, has not gone unnoticed in Moscow. Therefore, Russians in general are well-disposed towards Austria's political affairs and especially hope to see the Austria Freedom Party's candidate, Norbert Hofer, claim victory in the presidential elections.

However, I am sure that good relations with Russia could also come from Hofer's rival, van der Bellen. Yet it is Hofer's victory that is Russia's "little European dream." Why? After all, the country is relatively small and the presidential post is purely symbolic.

Russia has an understandable and clear sympathy for the Eurosceptic parties and the so-called "Euro-nationalists." A Hofer victory would be another brick in the wall of defense of "national Europe" against the liberal-Trotskyist international. Parties from this spectrum can be found across Europe from Lisbon to Warsaw. But if in some countries (Western and Central Europe) these parties have managed to become a part of the official political layer, then in others they remain outside of the democratic process and are taboo (Eastern European countries such as Czech Republic and Poland). Especially telling in this regard is the fate of the leader of the Polish party Zmiana, Mateusz Piskorski, who in May became the most famous prisoner of conscience in "democratic" Europe.

An Islamist infiltrator has been exposed in the headquarters of the German Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution (BfV) - a domestic intelligence service particularly running antiterrorist operations, German media report, citing security sources. The information about "a suspected Islamist, [who] was exposed amid the [BfV] staff" was obtained by German dailies Die Welt and Der Spiegel from BfV sources. The suspect has been detained and handed over to the Dusseldorf Prosecutor's Office, and is now in custody.

According to the German media, the suspected infiltrator violated official secrecy by disclosing BfV's "confidential data" and was collecting information needed for planning a terrorist attack. The suspect, who has not been identified due to security reasons, has partly admitted his guilt and told the prosecutors that he planned to infiltrate the BfV to collect all necessary information for carrying out a bomb attack on its headquarters "at the mercy of Allah," Der Spiegel reports.

However, a BfV spokesman told Die Welt that there was no immediate threat to the security service's personnel as the suspect's preparations did not apparently enter an active phase. At the same time, the spokesman stressed that it was still unknown if the suspected acquired any explosives.

As most people are still trying to figure out exactly what Jill Stein is doing and why she's doing it, a judge in Montgomery County Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia, has decided he's seen enough. After hearing arguments from attorneys representing Jill Stein's campaign and the Montgomery County Board of Elections, Judge Bernard A. Moore dismissed the petitions of voters in 78 precincts to recount votes or forensically analyze voting machines due a lack of evidence and improperly filed petitions. Per The Times Herald of Montgomery County:

"What we keep going back to is that our voting machines are not connected to the internet," said board of elections Solicitor Nicole Forzato. "Montgomery County takes great, great pride in being concerned about its infrastructure for IT generally, and they have gone through a vigorous process to make sure our technology general, including voter services technology and the voting machines are safe and secure to use. "

The judge did not give an explanation of his dismissal, but objections made by Forzato focused on two areas: first, that there was insufficient evidence to suggest that the machines had been tampered with in any way and second, that the petitions were not filed properly with the proper fees.

Stein campaign attorney Ilann Maazel argued that voting machines throughout Pennsylvania were vulnerable to hacking. He stated that the effort to request a recount or analysis of the machines was to make sure every vote was counted.

"We know that Donald Trump won the vote of machines in Pennsylvania. We want to know who won the vote of the people," Maazel said.

Maazel also argued that the manner in which the petitions were filed, county-by-county and district-by-district, was a result of "byzantine" election statutes in the commonwealth.

"They're requiring fees that don't exist, they are proposing deadlines that don't exist," Maazel said. "The Republican Party is saying that over 27,000 people in 9,000 districts have to request a recount or there can't be a recount anywhere. What kind of system is that? That is a disgrace."

Ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays, France has upgraded its national security alert system - known as Plan Vigipirate - to introduce a new highest level of warning. A Defense Council meeting at the Elysée on Wednesday saw an "in-depth revision of the Vigipirate plan," Le Figaro reported. "It is essential to adapt constantly to a constantly evolving terrorist threat and to be very responsive,"Louis Gautier, secretary general of defense and national security, was quoted as saying.

The alert system, first introduced in 1978, originally featured two levels: 'Vigilance' and 'Reinforced Security/Risk of Attack'. France is currently under the latter of these. The new system will now feature a third level, 'Attack Emergency', expected to be used for imminent assaults or immediately after them.

The new level will involve "exceptional measures" such as the closing of roads, Metro lines and schools, the newspaper reported, adding that some of the additional measures are confidential. All possible scenarios have been taken into account, including maritime piracy, attacks on large airports, chemical pollution, cyber attacks and drone threats, Le Figaro reported.

The new reinforced plan serves as a "genuine tutorial for public security actors," as well as large operators, including those in the fields of health, transport and energy. "There is no such thing as zero risk," Gautier noted, adding that before the deadly Paris attacks of last year, "there was little question about the vulnerability of a theater or a cinema."

The British government is so determined to avoid the embarrassment of soldiers' compensation cases that it may change its entire damages scheme in order to keep cases out of the public sphere, critics allege. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon will announce the changes amid a row about liability and the way legal firms have approached legacy cases from the UK's recent wars.

The plan is to end the proliferation of legal cases by paying out to injured soldiers and veterans without them having to sue the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Some critics say the sheer amount of cases presents a threat to Britain's ability to wage war while others hope the move would buttress the UK's combat immunity, making it harder to sue for incidents occurring on operations.

"Our armed forces put their lives on the line to keep us safe," Fallon will say. "I want more generous payments to anyone injured — or the families of those who are killed — in combat and to remove the stress of lengthy legal action." A three-month consultation period is expected to begin on Thursday before the new rules come into force. "As part of these reforms, the MoD will clarify in primary legislation that the common law principle of combat immunity should apply to deaths or injuries which occur in the course of combat situations," the MoD said in a statement seen by the Times.

As the alliance with Hillary Clinton and her doctrine, promoted by both Carl Bildt and Margot Wallström, flourishes in the Swedish awards to murky organizations such the White Helmets, Swedish Doctors for Human Rights prepare a new presentation to the Nobel Peace Prize committee for awarding the prize to the organization WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, for their contribution to transparency and democratic processes, cornerstones for world peace.

Sweden did not succeed in getting Bob Dylan to come to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Nevertheless as a consolation the "White Helmets" did arrive to get the Right Livelihood Award.

This article examines a likely geopolitical rationale that the Swedish elites had for selecting that organization. Facts suggest a congruence between the stances of those elites on Syria and the declared political aims of the organization White Helmets. The reviewing of the institutions involved in the award-decision and process can also result relevant in pondering the reason for the event. Finally, to inquire into the role of Carl Bildt, as member of the board of directors in the institution ultimately deciding, is interesting against the backdrop of his opposition regarding the participation of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden in previous international events organized by the same institutions - all of them under the umbrella of the Swedish Foreign Office.

The Hillary Clinton Doctrine

Sweden's awarding a prize to this organization - referred to as 'murky White Helmets' by Professor Jan Oberg - it might reveal a semi-concealed intervention in support of Hillary Clinton's doctrine in the dirty war against Syria. In concrete, another means used by Sweden's elites in uttering their pro-view for the No-Fly Zone campaign in Syria, and gathering support for it.

In recent days, a number of Arab media sources started speaking about Egypt's growing involvement in the Syrian war. In particular, with a special reference to the Lebanese agency As-Safir, a number of Arab media reported that Egypt is allegedly sending troops to provide assistance to Damascus. Moreover, we are being told now that Egyptian pilots are already flying sorties in the Syrian Hama. In particular, it has been stated that Egyptian jets and cargo planes have been deployed to the province of Hama, and while fighters are bombing ISIS, Egyptian transport planes are helping the Syrian army to rapidly redeploy its cargo and personnel.

At the same time, Egyptian Foreign Ministry's official spokesperson, Ahmad Abu Zeid denied this information and told reporters of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida that this information is false, since the doctrine of the High Command of the Egyptian state and its policies are based on the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states.

However, analysts say that Egypt has every reason to join the Syrian war on the side of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, and it has recently witnessed a growing number of reasons to do so.

The Congress of Colombia has approved the updated peace deal with FARC rebels, outlining a six-month countdown for the insurgents to abandon their weapons and form a political party. The new vote comes after the previous text of the deal was narrowly rejected. The agreement was approved in the lower house in a 130-0 vote late Wednesday, just one day after it passed the Senate in a 75-0 vote.

President Juan Manuel Santos and rebel leader Rodrigo Londono [pseudonym Timochenko] signed the accord last week, after the first deal was rejected in a national referendum. Santos is looking to get the deal implemented as soon as possible, in order to maintain a fragile ceasefire. Interior Minister Luis Ernesto Gomez praised the deal on Twitter, saying "Peace has arrived!"

However, Colombia's conservative population has expressed anger that Uribe ratified the agreement without holding another referendum, and lawmakers from the Democratic Center party left the floors of both houses of Congress in protest just before the voting began.

Former President Alvaro Uribe, now a senator for the Democratic Center party, has said the government is being too lenient on FARC rebels who have battled the government for 52 years, and that the deal does not serve as a deterrent for other groups involved in crime. The new agreement, aimed at ending Latin America's longest-running insurgency, was put together in just over a month, after the original pact - which allowed rebels to hold public office and skip jail - was narrowly defeated in an October 2 referendum.

Russian President Vladimir Putin played a crucial role in helping OPEC rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia set aside differences to forge the cartel's first deal with non-OPEC Russia in 15 years.

Interventions ahead of Wednesday's OPEC meeting came at key moments from Putin, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, OPEC and non-OPEC sources said.

Putin's role as intermediary between Riyadh and Tehran was pivotal, testament to the rising influence of Russia in the Middle East since its military intervention in the Syrian civil war just over a year ago.