Imagine a computer system in which people voluntarily submit personal information about everything in their private lives from the type of perfume they like to their worldly and political views. Then imagine what someone with access to that information could do with it. The implications are horrifying — yet this system exists, and more than 1.7 billion people readily submit to using it. It's called Facebook.

Every time you hit the like button, react to a post, click on a link, like a page, scroll past something, or update your status — Facebook is watching and recording it.

The social media leviathan will tell you that it does these things to better serve its users and its advertisers. However, it effectively establishes divisive categories in which to place its users, so they are unlikely to see things that challenge their way of thought.

Peacefully challenging one's worldviews, however, is how progress is made. When we are constantly reassured that everything we believe as a Democrat or a Republican is correct, we are more likely to dismiss beneficial arguments to both of those paradigms. And it's dangerous.

On Saturday, August 20, the U.S. stated that it was going to reduce the number of its 'advisers' currently working in tandem with the Saudi Arabia led coalition in Yemen, further stating that the primary reason was the coalition's inability to control civilian casualties. Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey said that the United States now has 'a limited number, less than five, that are working directly on the advisory cell that we have here' in Bahrain. That number is down from about 45, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, at its peak. While the U.S. has made its pull out from Yemen quite "public", the reality remains hidden and the actual extent of the support the U.S. continues to provide continues to fail to attract the Western media's attention at the same time.

While McConnaughey was right in saying that the U.S. team of advisers is engaged primarily in providing "imagery" to the coalition forces that in turn allows their forces to make better decisions, this is however not the actual support the U.S. has been and is still providing to the Saudis. It is through arms sale, worth billions of dollars, that the U.S. is supporting Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. The illusion of this "pull out" becomes evident when we look at the fact that it was only a month ago that there was an announcement from the U.S. State Department about an arms sale to Saudi Arabia of over $1 billion.

George Galloway has defended Jeremy Corbyn from an "absurd" scandal in which the Labour leader was accused of fabricating claims that he couldn't find a free seat on a busy Virgin train.

The former Labour MP told RT that he had heard the true story "from the horse's mouth," and that Corbyn was telling the truth when he said the train was "ram-packed."

He accused Virgin boss Richard Branson of breaking data protection laws by releasing CCTV images of the train showing passengers' faces and claimed the multi-billionaire is worried about Corbyn's plans to re-nationalize the railways.

China has appeared on the world stage as a "Global Power" with military might and the world's fastest growing economy. The Chinese leadership has not only curtailed the US' dirty game to prevent China from becoming world power, but they also proven that China has the potential to repair, through development, the damage dealt by the US striving to maintain hegemony. Russia's struggle to reenter onto the world stage as a superpower as it was during the Soviet era has been successful under the leadership of Vladimir Putin. The leaderships of both countries, China and Russia, have realized that the only way to defeat the unipolar world is through constituting the institutions of a new multipolar world by shifting the centers of power. In fact, Sino-Russian strategic partnership is introducing a new world order based on peace and development.

Last year, both leaders celebrated the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II together by inviting multipolar world leaders to Red Square and Tiananmen Square's military marches of the world's armies. Nearly the whole world and their armies participated, except the US and Europe. The US and the Western NATO bloc who boycotted the Russian and Chinese celebrations of victory over Nazism and fascism are those very ones dragging the world towards total war, while both Russia and China have joined efforts to make the world safer from this emerging threat of war. The all-embracing partnership between Moscow and Beijing has hinted that both are ready to defend the world from this US-sponsored dirty game. Hence why both of the multipolar world's super powers are not only constituting a joint security mechanism for multipolar world security, but both are also preparing to team up against the common foe from the Black Sea to the South China Sea.

The Israeli military on Wednesday cleared its forces of wrongdoing in three deadly incidents that took place during the 2014 Gaza war — including an airstrike that killed 15 members of a single family.

Israel's investigative process is at the heart of a Palestinian case to press for war crimes charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. The Palestinians say that Israel has a poor record of prosecuting wrongdoing in its ranks. Wednesday's announcement was likely to add to those claims.

In a statement Wednesday, the military said it had closed a total of seven investigations without filing charges after a special team collected testimony from Gaza residents and Israeli officers.

The deadliest incident involved an airstrike in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Aug. 1, 2014, that killed 15 members of the Zoroub family.

The army said the building was used by Hamas as a command and control center. While its statement suggested that the civilian casualties were higher than expected, it said the airstrike was in line with international law, which can allow attacks on homes used for military purposes. It said that among the dead was Nazmi Zoroub, whom it identified as a senior Hamas commander.

After Baton Rouge, Louisiana, suffered inundating rains and widespread, historic flooding, residents have begun the formidable cleanup and rebuilding necessary to bring some normalcy back to their lives. As laborious as these tasks might be, however, the government has no intentions of alleviating stress from the effort: burdensome building permits — essentially, government permission slips — must still be obtained before rebuilding can begin.

Considering the daunting expense of rebuilding in itself, those State permission slips may make reconstruction cost-prohibitive for some, while others — given the strict regulations pertaining to the floodplain and more — may not be allowed to rebuild on their own property at all.

"We haven't suspended any or our requirements for permitting," Justin Dupuy, building official for Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge, told Reason in an interview. "Before they start making any repairs, they just need to call in and check with us to see what they need."

Any homes needing more extensive reconstruction than simply the removal of water-damaged drywall and carpeting — cases where waters reached the level of electrical sockets — will need a full construction permit from the parish government.

A powerful explosion went off at a sports facility in the Belgian city of Chimay, partially destroying the building and injuring an unknown number of people, local media report.

At least one person was killed and two were injured after the building collapsed, Belga News Agency reported citing emergency services spokesperson.

The cause of the blast was not immediately clear. Rescuers are working at the site, and more people are believed to be trapped under the rubble.

Two Okinawa newspapers have accused the Japanese riot police of using force to remove their journalists from a protest against the construction of US military helipads in the area last week.

The Okinawa Times and the Ryukyu Shimpo newspapers said that the security forces acted in "violation of freedom of the press" by disrupting the activity of their reporters at the rally.

According to the outlets, the journalists had their hands twisted by police while they were being forcibly removed from the site of the demonstration.

The protest was against the construction of US military helipads in the small village of Higashi, in the north of the Okinawa prefecture.

"Reporters' news-gathering activities were restricted for about 30 minutes despite showing their IDs to officers to prove that they were reporters," the Okinawa Times stated.

The paper warned that the actions "constituted a violation of the freedom of the press and we will not tolerate it."

The Ryukyu Shimpo also ran a piece in which the outlet "strongly protested the violation of free speech" by the security forces.

Germany has just warned its citizens of an upcoming catastrophe and urged them to stockpile food, water and money for at least 10 days, to be autonomous and independent until the government has caught up putting the necessary public safety systems in place - in case of a 'catastrophe'. There was no mention on the type of disaster awaiting them. A war, an economic and or monetary collapse, or both? - The warning was later downplayed as part of a 'routine exercise' in Germany's new defense strategy.

On a related note, against many Members of Parliament and several ministers, the German Bundeswehr (army) has declared Russia as an enemy nation. This is akin to a declaration of war. The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma, Alexei Puschkow, has posted the Twitter message:

'The decision of the German government declaring Russia to be an enemy shows Merkel's subservience to the Obama administration.'

The idea of the German warning is to scare people. People who are afraid can be easily manipulated. While buying supermarkets' shelves empty, they will ask for more police and military protection. That's precisely what Washington and the EU want - a militarization of Europe. Germany, being Obama's chief vassal, is the mouthpiece for the rest of Europe. At the same time, this scare tactic is an indirect warning of a threat of aggression from Russia. The past weeks of western lie-propaganda have shown Russia's protection of Crimea with heavy maneuvers in the Black Sea, depicting them as a preparation of war towards the west. Never mind that Ukraine's self-styled lord Poroshenko has threatened to take Crimea back, amassing troops and tanks at the border of this historic and strategic Russian peninsula.

Of course, things do not look good for the US-NATO led West with its EU stooges. Turkey's President Erdogan has turned away from the notorious west to Mr. Putin and may be abandoning his alliance with Washington, Brussels - and NATO. Russia has asked Ankara to use its Incirlik airbase in the south, close to the Syrian border, currently mainly occupied by NATO, storing some 50 US nuclear warheads and uncountable US fighter jets and helicopters, plus housing at least 5,000 US-NATO troops. Turkey's Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim, said last Saturday, that Russia could use the base, but denied that any such request has been made by Russia. In fact, according to EurActiv.com, "the Pentagon has initiated the transfer of 20 B61-type aviation bombs with nuclear warheads from the Turkish Incirlik air base to the Deveselu base in Romania currently hosting the US missile shield." Although the Romanian Foreign Ministry has denied this news, it is nonetheless largely credible, says Valentin Vasilescu of Russia's katehon.com.

Incidentally, Incirlik is the base from which the two Turkish fighters took off to shoot down the Russian fighter jet Su24 patrolling the Turkish-Syrian border last November. The two pilots, one of whom was the killer, were either CIA agents, or were acting on CIA orders. It is known that Incirlik is infested with dozens of CIA agents.

According to US defense officials, the guided missile destroyer USS Nitze was intercepted by four Iranian vessels near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.

The American destroyer was operating in international waters alongside the USS Mason when officials say four Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels performed a "high-speed intercept" of the Nitze.

"These sorts of unsafe and unprofessional actions can lead to escalation and miscalculation, which may necessitate additional defensive measures," said Cmdr. Bill Urban, public affairs officer for US Naval Forces Central Command, according to Stars and Stripes.

"Commanding officers have an inherent obligation for self defense."