Two weeks ago we reported that chancellor Angela Merkel was facing humiliation, political defeat in in an election in her home state. Sure enough, she lost by a wide margin, with the anti-immigrant AfD party soaring in the first shock result of the current political cycle. That, however, was only the beginning because as Reuters writes today, still reeling from the state election rout, Angela Merkel's conservatives "are bracing for further losses in the Berlin city vote on Sunday."

Following the CDU's disastrous performance in the election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Merkel's home state, which pushed Merkel's party into an unprecedented third place by the AfD, her conservative CSU allies in Bavaria have blamed Merkel personally and demanded a migrant cap, which she rejects. Polls show the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) may be able to drop Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) as coalition partners in the capital's assembly.

Meanwhile, with the ruling coalition in shambles as a result of Merkel's widely unpopular immigration policies, the AfD, which has won seats in nine of Germany's 16 states, has soared by successfully playing on immigration concerns, validated most recently on Wednesday night by the violence between locals and refugees in the German town of Bautzen.

Investigators carried out surprise raids on the company offices of the spouse of Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras, as well as the couple's home, as part of a probe into the mismanagement of state funding for the Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Bank of Greece rejected the proposed candidates for the governing council of state lender, Attica Bank.

After this decision, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras, and his wife Stavroula Nikolopoulou, were victims of a government raid.

Investigators carried out surprise raids on the company offices of Stavroula Nikolopoulou, and a surprise raid on the couple's home, as part of a probe into the alleged mismanagement of state funding for the Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO).

Russian arms producer Almaz-Antey says Western media distorted, mixed up and unduly rejected the conclusions of its investigation into the the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash in 2014, according to a document obtained by a Russian media outlet.

Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper obtained an alleged statement from Almaz Antey, the producer of the BUK air defense system, believed to have been used to down the plane. The document accused Western media, including British citizen-journalist outfit Bellingcat, of trying to manipulate the public opinion and mixing up facts to discredit Almaz Antey's investigation.

This time the G20 was different. Intentionally so. The Chinese had prepared it and planned it to be so. Yet, as always, with the G20 meetings, there was little that is tangible to show for it all. No big solutions. No "in the margins" progress on Syria, Ukraine, Yemen or on a supposed ploy to manage the oil market. Just the usual, pre-cooked, bland communiqué about the need for growth.

Mostly, participants rehearsed their familiar stances (this was so for the Syria and Ukraine discussions: Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande had a case of cold feet about talking to Russia's Vladimir Putin without Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko being present - as had originally been scheduled).

So, how was this G20 different? Well, if one listens carefully, one might just detect the footsteps of change - of a new "order" readying itself to step onto the stage (at the apposite moment). The sound of these footsteps was intentionally "softened" - designed to allow for a peaceful rise of a new global leadership. The watchword here was "change without upheaval."

What was different was that it was distinctly China's G20. China did not simply host the G20 for America to sweep in, give its "leadership" and stamp to proceedings, and then to fly off. China, at this G20, made it very plain that it was leading, and to make it clearer still, it made sure that the world should see that the guest of honor was the Russian President, and not the American President (who regrettably experienced some technical difficulties that marred his ceremonial arrival). There was a deeper purpose here: to underline strategic co-ordination with Russia in the context of the display of Chinese leadership.

Lest this careful G20 choreography pass unnoticed in the West, President Xi had telegraphed the essence of his G20 message when he addressed the Chinese Communist Party on the anniversary of its founding, a month or so earlier.

On that anniversary, President Xi told the party that: "The world is on the brink of radical changes. We see how the E.U. is gradually crumbling, and the U.S. economy is collapsing. This will end in a new world order."

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said on Thursday the success of the Syrian ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia depends on whether Moscow decides it is in its interest to follow through with the agreement.

"Whether or not this works is really up to the Russians," Clinton told reporters after addressing a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina. "It is up to whether or not Vladimir Putin decides that it's time to do what the Russians can do to bring this conflict into a period where there can be the beginning of political discussions, a hoped-for protective zone for people who are under relentless assault form the air, and a commitment to going after the terrorist groups that pose a threat to everyone."

Japan will step up its activity in the contested South China Sea through joint training patrols with the United States and bilateral and multilateral exercises with regional navies, Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said on Thursday. Inada said in a speech at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank that Japan's increased engagement in the area, where Japan shares U.S. concerns about China's pursuit of extensive territorial claims, would include capacity building for coastal nations.

Inada, whose country has its own dispute with China over territory in the East China Sea, said that if the world condoned attempts to change the rule of law and allowed "rule bending" to succeed, the "consequences could become global. In this context, I strongly support the U.S. Navy's freedom-of-navigation operations, which go a long way to upholding the rules-based international maritime order," she said.

The Philippines is firmly committed to its alliance with the United States but will not be lectured on human rights and treated like a "little brown brother," the country's Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay said on Thursday.

Speaking in Washington after recent remarks by the Philippines' outspoken new President Rodrigo Duterte that have strained relations with the United States, Manila's main ally, Yasay said some of Duterte's remarks had been misunderstood. He said Duterte had explained that his call for the withdrawal of U.S. special forces from the southern Philippines was only a temporary measure to keep them out of harm's way while Philippine forces undertook an offensive against Abu Sayyaf militants.

Yasay also said Duterte's opposition to joint maritime patrols with the United States concerned the Philippines' "exclusive economic zone," not joint patrols within 12 nautical miles of its coast. The latter patrols, aimed at preserving the territorial integrity of the Philippines, "must continue, because this is our commitment to the United States," Yasay said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?

Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: No, I don't think I do, sir, no.

General Jack D. Ripper: He said war was too important to be left to the generals. When he said that, 50 years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; 1968

While it may no longer be our precious bodily fluids under attack by the big bad Rooskies and their ever-scheming leadership, it is clearly our political system that is in the Kremlin's crosshairs.

However detached from reality such an interpretation might seem to a clear-headed American, that is precisely the notion that Hillary Clinton and her gaggle of political guinea worms have endlessly droned on about. Listening to the Clinton campaign, and its public relations employees masquerading as corporate media journalists, one would think that World War Three had already begun on the battlefield of US electoral politics.

"Secret cables and reports by the U.S., Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies indicate that the moment Assad rejected the Qatari pipeline, military and intelligence planners quickly arrived at the consensus that fomenting a Sunni uprising in Syria to overthrow the uncooperative Bashar Assad was a feasible path to achieving the shared objective of completing the Qatar/Turkey gas link. In 2009, according to WikiLeaks, soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline, the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria."

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Why the Arabs don't want us in Syria, Politico

The conflict in Syria is not a war in the conventional sense of the word. It is a regime change operation, just like Libya and Iraq were regime change operations.

The main driver of the conflict is the country that's toppled more than 50 sovereign governments since the end of World War 2. (See: Bill Blum here.) We're talking about the United States of course.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for comparing those who oppose Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank to advocates of "ethnic cleansing."

"I am disturbed by a recent statement by Israel's Prime Minister portraying those who oppose settlement expansion as supporters of ethnic cleansing," Ban Ki-moon said in a statement, published on the official UN website, referring to a video message posted on Netanyahu's Facebook account last Friday.

Calling Netanyahu's remarks "unacceptable and outrageous," he also stressed that the international community "universally views the expansion of settlements as an obstacle to peace."