The US has capitalised on its trade war with China, the threat of terrorism and the regional military threats allegedly posed by Beijing to keep longtime allies such as the Philippines from turning against Washington.

China is now the second-biggest defence spender in the world, losing out only to the US (who - by the way - is so far ahead of the game that it accounts for 36 percent of all global defence spending). The rise of Beijing - and Washington's response to its ever-emerging preeminence - is putting traditional allies of both China and the United States in an increasingly interesting position.

One such ally is the Philippines. In October 2016, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was so emboldened by his newfound anti-American stance that he even dared the CIA to try to have him removed from power (and ultimately assassinated).

"You want to oust me?" Duterte said at the time. "You want to use the CIA? Go ahead."

Former Vice President Joe Biden told a journalist in 1974 that "cruddy politicians" like himself could "take away" the First Amendment if they wanted.

The current 2020 Democrat frontrunner made the comments to Washingtonian magazine while being interviewed fora profile published in June 1974. Biden, then only 31-years-old, came to regret the interview, as his penchant for gaffes and insensitive remarks-traits defining later portions of his career-heavily colored the piece. At the time, however, Biden appeared eager to discuss his life as the nation's youngest senator.

"I am proud to be a politician," Biden told then-Washingtonian writer Kitty Kelley, who authored the profile. "There is no other walk of life which can do more good for mankind than politics. It influences everything that happens to the American people."

The White House, CIA and Justice Department declined to comment on the allegations, with the businessman's lawyer stressing that his client was "not an intelligence operative."

Rashid al-Malik, an Emirati businessman whose name came up in a federal probe into possible illegal donations to pro-Trump groups, served as a secret paid intelligence source for the sheikdom's intelligence services in 2017, The Intercept has reported, citing official documents and unnamed sources said to be familiar with the matter.

According to the publication, al-Malik, formally working as an investment consultant, was given an official code name, and paid "tens of thousands of dollars a month" by the Emirati government to search for information on the then-incoming Trump administration's Middle East policy.

Specifically, Abu Dhabi reportedly sought to find out about Washington's stance in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the UAE and Qatar, the details of US officials' meetings with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the administration's attitudes toward the Muslim Brotherhood.

Iran is revising its economic policies in order to make its economy independent from oil and fend off the consequences of US sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has announced.

The top Iranian diplomat met his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono in Tehran on Wednesday, shortly before Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was set to begin his visit to the country, the first one of its kind in 41 years. Abe is set to hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani later in the day and meet with supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Thursday.

"They [the US] have opened economic war on our nation," Zarif said as cited by local media, accusing Washington of spreading anti-Iranian sentiment and propaganda on a daily basis.

"We will find ways for the welfare and comfort of our nation in these hard conditions, including revising the budget and financial policies to make them oil-free," the minister added.

Earlier this week, the Iranian Parliament's Research Center (IPRC) issued a scheme dubbed "Oil-Free Economic Conduct" (OFEC). The plan stipulates some amendments to the budget in order to "balance the payments and the foreign exchange market," according to Fars news.

Former US President Bill Clinton and top diplomat Madeleine Albright are among Western leaders flocking to Kosovo to receive honors by ethnic Albanian militants they backed in the 1999 NATO war against Yugoslavia.

Falsely claiming that Yugoslavia was committing "genocide" against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, NATO launched an air war in March that year, violating its own and the UN charter. Thousands of civilians perished, including ethnic Albanians the alliance claimed to be protecting, before an armistice was signed that allowed NATO to occupy the province as peacekeepers.

On Tuesday, Clinton arrived in Kosovo to receive honors from the ethnic Albanian authorities. He was presented with a medal by "President" Hashim Thaci, and a commemorative postage stamp bearing his face.

Clinton was welcomed to the stamp "club" by Representative Eliot Engel (D-New York), current chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee and another outspoken supporter of the ethnic Albanian cause.

Europe should think outside NATO dictates and restore relations with Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron stressed, calling for a "strategic debate" with Moscow over mutual areas of concern.

"Europe... must build new rules of trust and security with Russia, and should not only agree with NATO," Macron said in an interview with the Swiss television channel RTS. "It needs to build [relations] only between Europe and Russia."

While noting that disagreements between Moscow and Brussels do exist, in particular over Ukraine, Macron insisted that Russia's role in world affairs cannot be underestimated. Europe, the French president stressed, needs Moscow to solve major security issues, as Russia's highly successful anti-terrorist campaign in Syria has shown.

"We need to have a strategic debate, so this week I will have another, long and intense conversation with Vladimir Putin, as the president of France and the G7," Macron stressed."There is disagreement among us, but we work together."

Air defense systems have been activated around Tel al-Harah in southern Syria, close to the border with Israel, border to repel an incoming missile attack allegedly launched by the IDF, state news agency SANA reports.

Amid the strike on the strategic mountaintop area in the Daraa Governorate, the IDF allegedly waged "electronic warfare" against the Syrian army's radar installations, a SANA source noted. The high ground was captured by the government forces from al-Nusra terrorists in July 2018, and currently serves as a crucial air defense position, according to reports.

No casualties from the strikes have been reported. The attack did cause some material damage, the agency reports, citing military sources that blamed Israel for the aggression.

The IDF has not commented on the alleged attack. Israel rarely acknowledges its cross-border raids against Syria, and has repeatedly stated that it reserves the right to defend its 'national security' by any means necessary. In recent weeks, Tel Aviv has confirmed striking multiple Syrian Army installation targets, in retaliation to cross-border tensions surrounding the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Damascus views Israeli intrusions as a blatant violation of its sovereignty and says they boost the morale of the remaining terrorists in the country. Syria has repeatedly urged the UN to put an end to Israeli strikes and intervene to stop these violations.

US President Donald Trump claimed that Iran has completely changed its behavior as a result of his sanctions and ditching the nuclear deal. Tehran now respects the US and suffers from bread shortages, Trump said.

Answering questions from reporters on his way out of the White House on Tuesday, Trump spoke about the trade war with China and the spat over Mexico about immigration, before touching on the tensions between the US and Iran.

"Iran is a country that now, because of the all of sanctions and other things, is a much different country than it was when I came here," Trump said. "When I came here they were all over the place, causing terror, causing problems."

According to Trump, this is because "they respect the United States right now much more than they ever have."

Many Russians believed that investigative journalist and anti-corruption activist Ivan Golunov was framed by the police at the behest of some of the powerful oligarchic forces that he exposed through his work and that the dismissal of the case against him due to a lack of evidence validates their claims, which is why people of all classes from the regular man all the way up to RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and even the country's third most powerful person Chairwoman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko publicly expressed their support for him and ended up on the right side of history.

Golunov's Cause Galvanized The Masses

Last week's arrest of investigative journalist and anti-corruption activist Ivan Golunov in drug charges was shady from the get-go after the authorities originally released several photos of supposed "evidence" that they later admitted weren't even involved in his case. Not only that, but many Russians immediately suspected that he was framed by the police at the behest of some of the powerful oligarchic forces that he exposed through his work, which is why his plight quickly became a cause célèbre within the country and abroad. People of all classes from the regular man all the way up to RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and even the country's third most powerful person Chairwoman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko publicly expressed their support for him, ending up on the right side of history after his case was dismissed for lack of evidence.

The Kremlin's Concerns

The Kremlin was also forced to pay attention after several protests were organized in his support and following the unprecedented coordination of three of its largest newspapers when they ran identical front pages declaring that "I/We Are Ivan Golunov". Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov revealed that Putin was being regularly briefed on the case's latest updates and acknowledged that "errors are possible", though he cautioned that everyone should wait until the forensic report is released before drawing any conclusions. This was an important statement because the Interior Ministry earlier reported that the DNA of several people was found on the bags of drugs that were seized from Golunov, supporting the theory that he was framed and possibly being the reason why the charges against him were ultimately dropped.

The prime minister of the German state of Thuringia joined the chorus of resounding voices against sanctions on Russia, arguing that the "inefficient" penalties don't deliver peace in Ukraine but increase suffering.

"The political ineffectiveness of the sanctions has long been proven; their declared goal, much-needed peace in Ukraine, is as far away as ever," Thuringia Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow, a long-time member of Germany's Left Party, told a local paper, adding that "the suffering of the civilian population [is] great."

He isn't the only head of a German state to lash out at the sweeping sanctions the US and EU imposed on Moscow in 2014. The sanctions followed the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine that broke out after local residents denounced the Western-backed coup in Kiev.