The breathtaking and qualified investigative report, recently released by Jerome Corsi on the Clinton's cash-sucking empire, have unleashed a wide public campaign to seriously audit and eventually close the controversial Clinton Foundation. Established back in 2001, it was designed to add some charity charm to banal capitalization of the still powerful brand of the former US President.

According to the Daily Wire, only in 2009-2012 the CF officially (!) raised over $500 million while spending only $75 million on "programmatic grants" and over $400 million on employee salaries and "other expenses". After having forced to disclose its list of contributors, many investigators exposed numerous facts of the conflict of interests during the period when Mrs. Clinton held the position of the US Secretary of State.

The cases of Marc Rich, the world's most famous tax evader who was granted amnesty by Bill Clinton in the last minutes of his presidency by enabling the "HRC option", the former Lebanese DPM and Hezbollah sympathizer Issam Fares making seven-figure donations to the CF, the Ukrainian billionaire, ex-president Kuchma's son-in-law and major CF contributor Viktor Pinchuk who used to breach the US sanctions regime against Iran, are already properly reported worldwide.

While the story of Mrs. Clinton's lobbying affair with the Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg has also had a notable coverage in the US media, the plot was generally focused on a gibberish 2012 Clinton Global Initiative email controversy. The most detailed report "From Russia With Money" on Clinton's cronyism in Russian favor was done by Peter Schweitzer, president of The Government Accountability Institute, this August. According to the latter, in 2010-2012 Mrs. Clinton advocated multibillion American technology investments into the Vekselberg-run Skolkovo Project (the Russian Silicon Valley), engaged e.g. in developing hypersonic cruise-missile engines, radar surveillance equipment, and vehicles capable of delivering airborne troops.

The Russian government has drafted a set of amendments extending state protection programs to military servicemen and police who take part in counter-terrorist operations, as well as intelligence agents who protect the interests of the country.

The bill, which was published on the government's website on Thursday, proposes changing the current norm under which state protection can only be offered at the written request or written consent of those eligible for such protection - witnesses, judges, jury members, and other participants in criminal law proceedings. The new document contains provisions allowing the protection measures to be extended to those who cannot file such requests or give consent when state authorities possess information showing that their life or health is in danger.

The bill authorizes investigations into such reports and sets the terms under which these probes must be completed. It empowers the authorities to take urgent measures to protect the persons in extraordinary cases.

The government is to face a major legal challenge to its Brexit policy next week when ministers will be accused of bypassing democracy if it triggers Article 50 without parliamentary consent.

The Times newspaper has seen a draft legal argument which accuses the government of acting unconstitutionally by over-extending the use of royal prerogative, a power which enables ministers to make decisions without a vote in parliament.

It will be heard by the Lord Chief Justice in the High Court next Thursday, where Attorney-General Jeremy Wright will act as barrister for the government.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised concerns over ballooning global debt that has reached 225 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP), which could lead to financial crises.

"At 225 percent of world GDP, the global debt ...is currently at an all-time high. Two-thirds, amounting to about $100 trillion, consists of liabilities of the private sector which can carry great risks when they reach excessive levels," the IMF said.

In 2002, global debt stood at 200 percent of the global GDP.

"The sheer size of debt could set the stage for an unprecedented private deleveraging process that could thwart the fragile economic recovery," said the Washington-based fund.

The White House accused Israel of a betrayal of trust, in an unusually sharp rebuke over its plans to build hundreds of new settlement homes deep in the West Bank.

Days after President Barack Obama approved a $38 billion Israeli military aid package and attended former president Shimon Peres's funeral in Jerusalem, the White House railed at the construction of 300 housing units on land "far closer to Jordan than Israel."

Warning that the decision jeopardizes the already distant prospect of Middle East peace as well as Israel's own security, press secretary Josh Earnest said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's word had been called into question.

"We did receive public assurances from the Israeli government that contradict this announcement," he said.

"I guess when we're talking about how good friends treat one another, that's a source of serious concern as well."

In an effort to find illegal work and settle permanently in America, at least 44 Afghan troops visiting the US for military training have gone missing since January 2015, Pentagon officials said. It raises concerns about procedures for such programs.

Eight Afghan troops have left military bases without authorization since September alone, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump told Reuters, disclosing the total number of Afghan troops who have gone missing for the first time.

"The Defense Department is assessing ways to strengthen eligibility criteria for training in ways that will reduce the likelihood of an individual Afghan willingly absconding from training in the US and going AWOL [absent without leave],"Stump said.

The Afghan Army has previously been occasionally infiltrated by Taliban militants who carried out attacks on Afghan and US troops. Rogue shootings of foreign troops claimed lives of nearly 40 soldiers in several dozen attacks in 2012.

The Syrian army will reduce airstrikes and shelling in eastern Aleppo to allow the civilians to leave the besieged territory, the general command said in a statement Wednesday.

Aleppo has seen intense fighting over the past few months, with the Syrian army and local militia forces managing to encircle large groups of militants in the eastern districts of the city. "The command of the army made a decision to reduce the number of air forces and artillery strikes against the positions of terrorists to help the civilians who wish to leave for safer regions," the statement said, as quoted by the SANA news agency

Russia's Defense Ministry has cautioned the US-led coalition of carrying out airstrikes on Syrian army positions, adding in Syria there are numerous S-300 and S-400 air defense systems up and running.


Russia currently has S-400 and S-300 air-defense systems deployed to protect its troops stationed at the Tartus naval supply base and the Khmeimim airbase. The radius of the weapons reach may be "a surprise" to all unidentified flying objects, Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson General Igor Konashenkov said.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, any airstrike or missile hitting targets in territory controlled by the Syrian government would put Russian personnel in danger.

The defense official said that members of the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria are working "on the ground" delivering aid and communicating with a large number of communities in Syria.

This is not about Donald Trump. And I mean it.

From the moment the first scribe etched a paean of praise to Nebuchadnezzar into a stone tablet, it's reasonable to conclude that never in history has the media covered a single human being as it has Donald Trump. For more than a year now, unless a terror attack roiled American life, he's been the news cycle, essentially the only one, morning, noon, and night, day after day, week after week, month after month. His every word, phrase, move, insult, passing comment, off-the-cuff remark, claim, boast, brazen lie, shout, or shout-out has been ours as well.

In this period, he's praised his secret plan to destroy ISIS and take Iraqi oil. He's thumped that "big, fat, beautiful wall" again and again. He's birthered a campaign that could indeed transport him, improbably enough, into the Oval Office. He's fought it out with 17 political rivals, among others, including "lyin' Ted," "low-energy Jeb," Carly ("Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?") Fiorini, "crooked Hillary," a Miss Universe ("Miss Piggy"), the "highly overrated" Megyn Kelly's menstrual cycle ("You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever"), always Rosie O'Donnell ("a slob [with] a fat, ugly face"), and so many others.

He's made veiled assassination threats; lauded the desire to punch someone in the face; talked about shooting "somebody" in "the middle of Fifth Avenue"; defended the size of his hands and his you-know-what; retweeted neo-Nazis and a quote from Mussolini; denounced the outsourcing of American manufacturing jobs and products while outsourcing his own jobs and products; excoriated immigrants and foreign labor while hiring the same; advertised the Trump brand in every way imaginable; had a bromance with Vladimir Putin; threatened to let nuclear weapons proliferate; complained bitterly about a rigged election, rigged debates, a rigged moderator, and a rigged microphone; swore that he and he alone was capable of again making America, and so the world, a place of the sort of greatness only he himself could match, and that's just to begin a list on the subject of The Donald.

Although Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has praised his vice presidential pick Mike Pence's debate performance on Twitter, sources close to the campaign say Trump is upset the Indiana governor upstaged him and threw him under the bus.

Conventional wisdom says that Pence won the vice presidential debate over Democrat Tim Kaine on Tuesday night. Pence's background as a talk radio host appeared to help his cause, while the senator from Virginia came across as the attack dog defense attorney he once was.

Pence scored his victory, however, by not only declining to defend Trump's offensive statements, but denying that the billionaire businessman hadn't said the things he's been recorded as saying.

Instead, the Indiana governor "spent most of the debate defending a Trump that doesn't exist," the Washington Post's Amber Phillips wrote, while National Review Executive Editor Rich Lowry said: "Pence evidently decided to pretend that he is on a ticket with an utterly conventional Republican... [and his] sidestepping of Trump is the big asterisk on his night."

On Twitter, Trump supported his VP, saying that Pence did "a great job" and that he "won big." Of the nearly 50 messages about the debate that Trump tweeted or retweeted, only three appear to have been written by Trump about Pence's performance. The rest were either written by others or were attacks on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton or Kaine.