Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump said Crimeans want to be with Russia rather than Ukraine.

US Republican Party Presidential candidate Donald Trump said Sunday that the people of Crimea prefer to be with Russia.

"The people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were [Ukraine]," Trump told ABC News in an interview.

Russia's historical southern region of Crimea rejoined Russia after a 2014 referendum. Almost 97 percent of the region's population voted for reunification in a referendum. Sevastopol, which has a federal city status, supported the move by 95.6 percent of votes.

Last week we observed that Germany quietly escalated the potential for a "proportional" response to upcoming terrorist attacks (by those admitted in the country thanks to Merkel's "open door" immigration policy) by including the army, in what to many sounds dangerously close to preannouncing martial law under "special cases."

Recall that during a press conference given last week by Bavaria's interior minister, Joachim Hermann, the politician suggested that Germany's army should be used to aid police in dealing with major terror threats. The debate over whether to deploy the Bundeswehr domestically should not wait "until the next attack happens." Lawmakers in Berlin are also discussing the possibility of establishing "troops of reservists" to aid police during internal crisis situations, German media outlet Bild reported, citing its own sources.

It appears that a dramatic response in response to the rising refugee threat - unleashed in Europe by Angela Merkel - is not only planned for Germany. Over the weekend, Bart De Wever, mayor of Antwerp and the leader of Belgium's largest party, the Flemish separatist New Flemish Alliance, took a page right out of the Bush playbook, and said in interview with Gazet Van Antwerpen that Belgium needs a Patriot Act to give authorities more power to crack down on terrorism.

Turkey will not fulfill its part of the refugee deal with the EU if the bloc does not lift its visa requirements for Turkish citizens by October, Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, told a German daily.

Turkey's fulfillment of its commitments under the refugee deal with the EU "depends on the lifting of visa requirements for our citizens that is also a subject of the agreement," Cavusoglu said during an exclusive interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The minister also stressed that the Turkish government is waiting for a "specific deadline" to be set for the lifting of visa requirements. "It can be early or mid-October but we wait for an exact date," he said.

Cavusoglu also emphasized that his words are "not a threat," but added that "if there is no visa abolition, we will be forced to abandon the agreement struck on March 18 concerning taking back [refugees]."

Leading up to Monday's Democratic Party convention, Hillary chose Blue Dog Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her VP. This was followed by the Wikileaks release of Democratic National Committee (DNC) e-mail files showing it acting as the Clinton Campaign Committee even to the point of using the same lawyers as her own campaign to oppose Bernie Sanders.

The response across the Democratic neocon spectrum, from Anne Applebaum at the Washington Post to red-baiting Paul Krugman and the Sunday talk shows it was suggested that behind 'the Wikileaks to release DNC e-mails' was a Russian plot to help elect Trump as their agent. Former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul lent his tattered reputation to claim that Putin must have sponsored the hackers who exposed the DNC dirty tricks against Bernie.

The attack on Trump was of course aimed at Sanders. At first it didn't take off. Enough delegates threatened to boo DNC head (and payday-loan lobbyist) Debbie Wasserman Schultz off stage if she showed her face at the podium to gavel the convention to order. The down-note would have threatened the "United Together" theme, so she was forced to resign. But Hillary rewarded her loyalty by naming her honorary chairman of her own presidential campaign! If you're loyal, you get a pay-off. The DNC was doing what it was supposed to do. No reform seems likely.

The Democratic machine orchestrated a media campaign to distract attention by attributing the leaks were to a Russian plot to undermine American democracy (as if the e-mails did not show how undemocratic the DNC had operated in stacking the primaries). A vote against Hillary would be a vote for Trump - and a vote for Trump would really be for Putin. And as Hillary had explained earlier, Putin = Hitler. The media let it be known that attacking Wasserman Schultz - and by extension, Hillary's neocon policies - makes one a Russian dupe. This theme colored the entire convention week.

Endorsing Hillary's presidential bid on Monday evening, Sanders joined in the chorus that this November will pit Good against Evil - or as Ray McGovern put it on RT's Cross Talk, at least proxies for Netanyahu vs. Putin. Wall Street Senator Chuck Schumer went on TV to heave a sigh of relief that the party was indeed united together.

Many Sanders' supporters felt no obligation to follow his obeisance. Many walked out after he closed Tuesday's state-by-state roll call by throwing his support behind Clinton. Others chanted "Lock Her Up".

Washington DC's up-and-coming Bloomingdale neighborhood remains gripped by fear three week after the murder there of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich — with still no reported leads, suspects or arrests in the killing. At the same time, conspiracy theories surrounding the murder have reached a new frenzy, especially after the hacking of DNC e-mails led to the resignation of its chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Rich was beaten, shot and killed early on the morning of July 8 while he was walking home and talking on the phone to his girlfriend. Police have said they haven't determined if his murder was a botched robbery or something else. The killer or killers appear to have taken nothing from their victim, leaving behind his wallet, watch and phone. DC's Metropolitan Police Department tells Heat Street on Friday that there are "no updates" in the case. But while information from authorities may be scarce, the Internet has certainly taken Seth Rich's story to some very dark places — despite no evidence to back up any of the reigning conspiracy theories.

Shortly after the killing, Redditors and social media users were pursuing a "lead" saying that Rich was en route to the FBI that fateful morning, apparently intending to speak to special agents about an "ongoing court case" possibly involving the Clinton family. Further "investigation" dug up no such court case and there is no evidence whatsoever that Rich, who did voter outreach work for the DNC, had any knowledge of alleged Clinton misdeeds.

More recently, Wikileaks's thousands of DNC emails and voice mails have piqued Reddit's interest, with Redditors combing through years of communications looking for any clue to Rich's murder. Reddit's pro-Donald Trump subreddit, /r/The_Donald posited that Rich could be the DNC's "leaker" - the one who ultimately gave Wikileaks 30,000 emails to publish. The theory is apparently based on Julian Assange's recent ITV appearance, where he scoffed at the idea that Russian hackers could be responsible for the data dump, and said that "anyone" within the Democrats' organization could easily have sent Wikileaks the offending messages.

Given that Rich as a DNC staffer presumably would have had some access to its servers, Reddit is absolutely positive Rich paid the ultimate price for exposing Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC's crusade against Bernie Sanders.

It appears that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is not someone to cross as he admitted he has a black book with a list of his enemies. He also told Belgium's Le Soir that he is not an alcoholic and never kissed former UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

Juncker said that he has been updating his enemy book, dubbed Little Maurice - after a German saying - for some 30 years. There in his log, he writes the name of every single person who somehow did him harm or betrayed him.

"I've never taken revenge. I take my precautions," Juncker said, adding that he is not "rancorous" but definitely has "a good memory."

When it comes to electing or otherwise supporting any political figure the central criterion must be the person's policies. These policies must be analyzed based on present realities, historical fact and future desires. Beyond this though, and especially when one is dealing with the election of an individual as opposed to a party, one must examine the nature of the person. When it comes to Hillary Clinton, something just isn't right.

In her speech accepting the nomination of her party for President of the United States, she devoted barely five minutes to foreign affairs in a speech that lasted over an hour. I'm a firm believer that foreign affairs is the axis round which all other matters revolve. It effects the very lives and quality of life of all people. It has an impact on trade, monetary policy, fiscal policy and the ability of governments to support the rights and privileges of her citizens. On foreign affairs, all other matters except for the very most mundane, depend.

In the five minutes she devoted to foreign affairs, she said very little other than she plans to continue 15 years of a monumentally disastrous policy in the Middle East, that she feels Donald Trump is irresponsible and that Russia is a threat; all of it predicable to the point of inducing sleep. The vast majority of people in America, like the vast majority of people in the world, know exactly what forces threaten world peace and stability and they all know who does not do so. Russia simply does not do so and does not want to. If Hillary Clinton's closest comrades are to be believed, Russia personally threatens her dodgy email accounts, but even this is farcical to most grown up individuals.

The Belgium authorities have frozen the assets of 12 terrorist suspects for the first time without juridical intervention at the request of the Organization to Coordinate Threat Analysis (OCAM), local media reported on Saturday.

According to Belgium RTL info, the corresponding decision is aimed at 12 terrorists suspects, including Mohamed Abrini, who allegedly was involved in the plotting of the November 2015 Paris attacks and the 2016 Brussels bombings. The suspects were reportedly blocked from access to their finances, property, and other possessions.

This measure reportedly seeks to prevent possible support for financing terrorist groups. It has been in place since 2006, but was never applied till now, the media outlet added.

If by "one of the greatest," they mean "the worst," then we concur.

It would be difficult to find another mainstream magazine that has genuflected so deeply before Barack Obama than the men's style mag GQ, which a few months ago named the President its Man of the Year and which has done at least two fawning cover stories on the worst president in American history. Now the magazine's Jim Nelson has come up with perhaps their most sycophantic piece yet, "Why Obama Will Go Down as One of the Greatest Presidents of All Time."

Here is a nauseating sample of Nelson's bootlicking: "In so many ways, Obama was better than we imagined, better than the body politic deserved, and far, far better than his enemies will ever concede, but the great thing about being great is that the verdict of enemies doesn't matter." We told you it was nauseating.

In Nelson's mind, Obama will "replace Bill [Clinton] in the public mind as the Greatest Democrat since FDR." Now that's simply funny.

Why does Obama deserve this "One of the Greatest" accolade? Well, Nelson believes "he's charismatic, presided over an economic revival, and changed and elevated the view of the presidency."

We will grant that Obama is charismatic (in the manner of a charming con man), but presided over an economic revival? No. Elevated our view of the presidency? This is the same Barack Obama who granted an interview to a YouTube star who bathes in Fruit Loops and milk, the man who bows and scrapes before our enemies around the world, the man who golfs while Rome burns. The man has done more to degrade the Presidency than any White House occupant in history.

With the Democratic National Convention in high gear, the corporate media has inundated the television and computer screens of American voters with endless accusations of Russian meddling in US electoral politics. Democrats have conveniently chosen to deflect attention away from their own criminality - the Wikileaks release of official Democratic Party communications revealed collusion against Bernie Sanders, among myriad other crimes and unethical behavior - by making the story about Russia hacking DNC servers. But the reality is that the emails show just how controlled and undemocratic the ironically named Democratic Party, and the US political system in general, truly is.

But the corporate media, whose job it is to run interference for the establishment thereby providing invaluable service to its elite patrons, has now gone even further by planting in the public consciousness the narrative that the Kremlin intends to hack US voting machines in a further indication of the depravity of the Mephistopheles of Moscow, Vladimir Putin. Indeed, it seems that the Russians are the real threat to democracy as we know it. At least, that's what we're told to think.