On Friday, presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton addressed a hand-picked audience at a Dartmouth College campaign event. She lied calling Iran an "existential threat to Israel... I hope we are able to get a deal next week that puts a lid on (its) nuclear weapons program."

Even if we do get such a deal, we will still have major problems from Iran. They are the world's chief sponsor of terrorism.

They use proxies like Hezbollah to sow discord and create insurgencies to destabilize governments. They are taking more and more control of a number of nations in the region and they pose an existential threat to Israel.

We...have turn our attention to working with our partners to try to reign in and prevent this continuing Iranian aggressiveness.

Fact: US and Israeli intelligence both say Iran's nuclear program has no military component. No evidence whatever suggests Tehran wants one. Plenty indicates otherwise.

Writer and political analyst Kirill Benediktov on Yevgeni Maximovich's role in Russian politics

It seemed that Yevgeni Maximovich Primakov would live forever.

He was a wise old man, holding no official post, but always ready to help the country. To give advice to the people invested with real power; to meet informally with foreign partners—not the ones you see on TV, but those who make the decisions; to influence his friends and followers, who held key posts in various powerful agencies.

Primakov was the incarnation of the concept of "soft power," and virtually its only practitioner who was fighting for Russia's glory.

Of course, the media is as full of "soft power" soldiers as a tin of sardines. They go on and on about "the Chinese danger," and how Russia, having quarrelled with the West, is doomed to become a raw materials appendage of China, or how it is for naught that the Kremlin is trying to establish mutually beneficial contacts with Turkey. They carry on about Iran using us as a pawn in its game with Washington, and how Beijing and Delhi will never trade in their friendship with America for the dubious benefits of an alliance with Moscow... Now that Primakov is gone, those thin, whiny voices will be louder and shriller on the air.

Right now, that is insignificant. Because Primakov's idea of creating a Great Triangle, Moscow-Delhi-Beijing, is becoming a real political construct before our very eyes, no matter how loud the liberal jackals may yap.

Yevgeni Maximovich first proclaimed the idea of the Great Triangle during his visit to Delhi in 1998. Many of us recall the condition Russia was in at that time: politically and economically crushed, having barely survived the August default, and just barely beginning to find our way out of the deep crisis into which Russia had been plunged by the "young reformers" in alliance with the corrupt members of the Yeltsin Family.

No details offered, and a bit cagey in how it's delivered by Yanis, but this is big news if it's true:

Yanis Says Europe Has Offered A Deal "We Would Sign On The Dotted Line"

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis says the European governments with whom he is negotiating have offered him a deal he is willing to sign, according to an interview on Channel 4.

There is a condition, however. Greece must first vote "no" in the referendum on accepting Europe's bailout conditions, on Sunday. It is not clear what the terms of the deal are, and Channel 4's video ends before Varoufakis describes them.

A transcript of that interview reads like this:

Varoufakis: Let me tell you something which is probably unknown. Ever since we declared a referendum and incensed our European partners we had the most, er, interesting proposals coming from Brussels. Perhaps this referendum and the impasse that it represents concentrated several minds in Brussels and we've had some really good proposals. Proposals that we would sign on the dotted line for.

Channel 4's Paul Mason: You have a proposal you would sign on the dotted line for?

Varoufakis: Yes we do.

Paul Mason: Where is it?

Varoufakis: I'm not going to tell you. It's somewhere in this building. But the of course crucial part of the story is that before this proposal becomes a genuine negotiating document which we can sign off on Monday, the Greek people have to empower us with a "no."

The background here is that after Greece defaulted on a 1.5 billion euro repayment to the IMF, the IMF then admitted that Greece's debts are so large they need to be restructured. This gave a huge boost to Varoufakis's left-leaning Syriza government in Greece, which wants voters to vote "no" to Europe's bailout conditions. The EU and the IMF want Greeks to vote "yes" and accept the bailout conditions. Those conditions require Greece to repay its debts in full by reforming its economy, cutting public spending, and increasing the level of tax collection.

Vienna -- As the clock ticks towards a -- possible? -- Iran nuclear deal, sources very close to Iranian negotiators expressed to Asia Times their frustration about American negotiators; they seem not to be prepared, yet, to make a clear choice between keeping some UN Security Council sanctions and getting an agreement.

Asia Times has also learned that the major -- extremely contentious -- point at the negotiating table concerns the operation of the Joint Commission dispute resolution mechanism. None of the P5+1 players want this to be leaked -- yet.

As for an overview of the status of negotiations, Iranian officials are cautious; "Still undecided."

A good sign is that the general language on how sanctions are to be lifted, including the "simultaneous and parallel" principle, is already decided. The negotiations advancing towards this make or break weekend are now focused on "operational details."

Still, there are serious divisions within the P5+1, especially over key aspects of what the UN Security Council should be doing; on the complex mechanism through which sanctions would be lifted; and on access -- the famous "verification" regime. That leads Iranian negotiators to a quirky formulation; "We can say with authority that they have to spend more time negotiating among themselves than negotiating with us." At the same time the Iranians acknowledge the problems faced by the Obama administration; "They have to go through so many difficult channels."

Over the past few days, stonewalling by the U.S. side has run -- in parallel -- with anti-deal lobby machinations now introducing Divide and Rule inside the Iranian political decision system, pitting factions against each other.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday congratulated US President Barack Obama on the US national holiday - Independence Day, the Kremlin reported Saturday.

"In his message of congratulations, the Russian President noted that, despite the differences between the two countries, Russian-American relations remain the most important factor of international stability and security," the report on the Kremlin's website said.

"Vladimir Putin expressed confidence that Russia and the USA can find solutions to the most complicated international issues and efficiently resist global threats and challenges as they base their dialogue on principles of equality and respect of each other's interests," it said.

The new chief of the Odessa regional state administration, Mikhail Saakashvili, has cracked down on the departments of internal audit and cooperation with law enforcement agencies and of the prevention of and struggle with corruption. Having heard 2014 performance reports by the heads of these two agencies last year Saakashvili said they were doing nothing and ordered the dismissal of all staff.

"You are being dismissed for doing nothing at all. People are complaining about bribers and extortions. In the meantime, you say everything is fine and nobody has been punished. We will rely on the public. We will find experienced auditors, accountants and other specialists, who will be addressing these issues instead of the negligent bureaucrats," local media quote Saakashvili as saying.

He promised that he would identify the sources of funds to pay public activists for their efforts and grant them appropriate powers.

In the past days there have been dozens of separate attacks in Egypt, from the Sinai up to Cairo. Probably more than 60 people have died, when the Egyptian army used F16 fighter jets to protect itself against it disgruntled population. It is clear that the Egyptian rulers are not going to be able to contain the current situation, today could be marked as the start of Egypt's civil war.

Democratic elected governments have been violently overthrown, in Algeria, Egypt and Palestinian territories. In Algeria the FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) had won the first held elections with a convincing majority in 1990 and 1992. It has been removed from power in 1992 by a coup d'etat that was highly approved by the West. Probably 150,000 people died in the civil war that followed these events up.

HAMAS winning the 2006 elections in the Palestinian territories resulted in a war among Palestinians and ended up with a split of Gaza and the West Bank.

In 2011 Morsi, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood won the first free elections in Egypt.

In 2013 the first elected president of Egypt was removed by the army. There are clear signs that anti-democratic forces were deliberately destabilizing Egypt before the coup d'etat in 2013. In the running up of the July 3th coup by General Sisi an artificial oil shortages was created that contributed to the mass protest against the elected president of Egypt.

John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, discusses how Greece and other eurozone countries have become the new victims of "economic hit men."

John Perkins is no stranger to making confessions. His well-known book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, revealed how international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, while publicly professing to "save" suffering countries and economies, instead pull a bait-and-switch on their governments: promising startling growth, gleaming new infrastructure projects and a future of economic prosperity - all of which would occur if those countries borrow huge loans from those organizations. Far from achieving runaway economic growth and success, however, these countries instead fall victim to a crippling and unsustainable debt burden.

That's where the "economic hit men" come in: seemingly ordinary men, with ordinary backgrounds, who travel to these countries and impose the harsh austerity policies prescribed by the IMF and World Bank as "solutions" to the economic hardship they are now experiencing. Men like Perkins were trained to squeeze every last drop of wealth and resources from these sputtering economies, and continue to do so to this day. In this interview, which aired on Dialogos Radio, Perkins talks about how Greece and the eurozone have become the new victims of such "economic hit men."

Broadcasting from deep in the heart of the American Empire, join your hosts Harrison Koehli and Elan Martin, and fellow Sott.net editors, as they discuss everything from current events and the latest machinations and manipulations of the global elite to history, science, and religion, and how it all fits together.

This week, join our hosts as they discuss that glorious American holiday Independence Day, and why you're not as free and independent as you think you are.

The Truth Perspective is brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT.net, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events.

Live every Saturday from 2-4pm EST / 11am-1pm PST / 8-10pm CET.

Running Time: 02:01:00

Download: MP3

The second largest stock market in the entire world is collapsing right in front of our eyes. Since hitting a peak in June, the most important Chinese stock market index has plummeted by well over 20 percent, and more than 3 trillion dollars of "paper wealth" has been wiped out. Of course the Shanghai Composite Index is still way above the level it was sitting at exactly one year ago, but what is so disturbing about this current crash is that it is so similar to what we witnessed just prior to the great financial crisis of 2008 in the United States. From October 2006 to October 2007, the Shanghai Composite Index more than tripled in value. It was the greatest stock market surge in Chinese history. But after hitting a peak, it began to fall dramatically. From October 2007 to October 2008, the Shanghai Composite Index absolutely crashed. In the end, more than two-thirds of all wealth in the market was completely wiped out. You can see all of this on a chart that you can find right here. What makes this so important to U.S. investors is the fact that Chinese stocks started crashing well before U.S. stocks started crashing during the last financial crisis, and now it is happening again. Is this yet another sign that a U.S. stock market crash is imminent?