Sounds of explosions rocked an area in Syria's Latakia province, where Russia's Khmeimim Air Base is located. The base's air defenses fended off a new suicide drone attack on the base, launched by jihadists from nearby Idlib.

The loud blasts were reported by several regional media, including Syrian state TV SANA. The channel's correspondent said they were made by Khmeimim's air defenses shooting down terrorist drones.

Two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) were detected on course for the base on Tuesday evening, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They were "destroyed at a safe distance" by stationary air defense systems. There were no injuries or damage at the base, which "continues to operate as planned" the MOD said.

A new report from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) accused the United States, France and Britain of possibly being complicit in numerous war crimes for their respective roles in aiding the violations of international humanitarian law that have taken place in Yemen within the past five years.

The UNHRC's Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen published a report Tuesday that called for the US, France and Britain to halt the trade of arms and support to a Saudi-led coalition that is known to use starvation of civilians as a war tactic.

According to the 274-page document, the names of over 160 top military and political individuals belonging to Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as the Houthi movement, have been forwarded to the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, though the report did not clarify whether any of these "main actors" are potential suspects of war crimes.

Huawei Technologies Co., China's tech giant, is ready to work together with foreign nations to eliminate security concerns, a company executive said Tuesday, amid lingering anxiety that its products may facilitate spying.

While pledging to take security measures, depending on the situation in each country, Huawei would, if necessary, make its source code available to other nations, Senior Vice President John Suffolk said in an interview with Kyodo News.

He also emphasized that the company has not received any request by the Chinese government to share confidential information, again brushing aside rumors that Huawei has engaged in spying activities.

"We are open to have the conversation about what is the right model" to verify the security of Huawei products, Suffolk said at one of the firm's facilities in Dongguan, adding, "And if the source code is the right model, then we'll work out how best to do that."

He said Huawei has so far provided its source code for countries including Britain, Canada and Germany, but stressed that different nations have different ways of evaluating the safety of Huawei goods.

From former spooks to libertarian-conservative talk show hosts to leftists and liberals various theories have been put forward as to why and how Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to 'destroy Americans' confidence in democracy' and 'sew chaos across American and the world.' In short, Putin ultimately seeks to destroy faith in democracy and sew chaos in the United States and thereby weaken America and its ability to promote democracy abroad. The US will no longer be 'that shining city on a hill', as US late President Ronald Reagan eloquently put it. The same is said about Russia's supposed support for ultra-nationalist groups, even though that 'support' is nothing more than a limited overlap of interests and views. Never mind that Russia has good relations with numerous democracies, including the world's largest, India, as well as with Japan, South Korea, and others. It has bad relations only with NATO countries. A coincidence? You decide.

In order to support the 'chaos theory,' its proponents deploy another theory; one we might call the 'breadcrumb theory.' This theory has been brought to bear in the case to support the view that Putin ordered the murders of Alexander Litvinenko, Novaya gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, even his own mentor and friend Anatolii Sobchak, the poisoning of the Skrypals, the supposed hack of the DNC computers. It has even been brought to bear to in explaining alleged 'collusion' of US President Donald Trump with Russia and the 'Russiagate' meeting between Trump aides and the Russian lawyer Nataliya Veselnitskaya meeting.

For example, a former CIA operative wrote in the New York Times recently: "No conclusive proof has yet emerged that the Kremlin arranged this meeting, and the Russians involved have asserted they were not working for the Putin government. Mr. Kushner himself told Senate investigators that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. But to me, the clearest evidence that this was a Russian influence operation is the trail of bread crumbs the Kremlin seemed to have deliberately left leading from Trump Tower to the Kremlin. This operation was meant to be discovered".

But if the idea is to sew chaos and disillusion by letting everyone know that the Kremlin was behind this or that move, this or that operation, why not just pinpoint Russia's responsibility so other targets and any future transgressors can be quite sure they will not get by with impunity? Why not state that Litvinenko as a former security officer was a 'traitor to the state' and that all traitors of the Russian state are subject to execution? Why not state the same about Mr. Skrypal (we apologize for infecting his daughter)? Similarly, why not state that there were meetings between Kremlin agents and Trump aides and these had on their agenda ways to undermine the campaign of Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton? Reference could be made to the far more extensive US interference in the domestic politics of foreign states, including Russia's own. That's it. Russia defends herself against traitors, so all traitors beware, and we reserve the right to use the very same interference in the domestic politics of states that interfere in Russian politics.

The Taliban has taken credit for killing at least 16 civilians involving a car bombing and gunmen in Kabul on September 2 as the Afghan-based militant group agreed "in principle" to a deal to end the nearly 18-year conflict, the longest war in which the United States has been embroiled.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nusrat Rahimi said the explosion occurred in a large compound of the Afghan capital where foreign organizations and aid agencies are based, and which is outside the heavily fortified Green Zone.

At least 119 were wounded "in last night's attack.... The explosion was caused by a tractor filled with explosives," Rahimi said on September 3.

The attack came as U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad was in Kabul to discuss with Afghan officials the draft peace deal.

In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, Khalilzad said the Taliban had agreed "in principle" that any Afghan territory it controls in the future will not be used as a sanctuary for terrorists to launch attacks against the United States and its allies.

He also said that U.S. and Taliban negotiators had also agreed on the gradual "reduction and withdrawal" of Western forces from Afghanistan.

"That would depend on the situation on the ground," the envoy said.

The world's major powers are in the middle of an artificial intelligence (AI) arms race. Over the next several years, China expects to deploy a fleet of unmanned submarines in contested waters like the South China Sea. Russia has tested its robotic tank on the battlefield in Syria and is reportedly working on developing autonomous nuclear submarines. For its part, the United States is in the process of testing autonomous swarming drones.

This development has major implications — not just for how wars are fought, but also for the future of American foreign policy. As AI grows into an essential part of modern warfare, it will become more difficult for the United States to exit wars and avoid new ones. In short, the use of AI could very well keep our military trapped in forever wars.

It's not difficult to see the appeal of AI in conflict. Robots are far more capable of processing large amounts of data than humans are. At a time when the speed of warfare is increasing, AI systems offer quicker reaction time, allowing militaries to lessen their reliance on human personnel — ultimately limiting bloodshed and lowering costs.

Unfortunately, there's another side of the coin. AI might also inspire unmerited confidence among top military brass. When humans are no longer doing the fighting, it's easy to conclude that the costs of war are smaller. Of course, that isn't true.

Iran is ramping up negotiations as signs gather that it's closer to ending a showdown with Europe over the wobbling 2015 nuclear deal and easing a security crisis in the Persian Gulf.

Iran's top envoy Mohammad Javad Zarif held talks in Moscow with counterpart Sergei Lavrov as the threat of another erosion of Iran's compliance with the accord looms. His deputy Abbas Araghchi went to Paris with a team of economists and central bank officials to discuss a French proposal to help restore Iran's oil exports, the backbone of its economy.

Tehran is self-reliant enough to survive without the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, but if Europe doesn't save it, it won't be the last international accord the US will trample, the foreign minister of Iran has told RT.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appeared on Oksana Boyko's show 'Worlds Apart' during his visit to Moscow, where he spoke to top-tier Russian officials. His trip comes at a time when European nations, fronted by France, are frantically trying to prop up the nuclear deal and to encourage Iran to stay in it.

The Europeans want the deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, to survive, but they are caught between Washington's pressure to cut Iran off, and Tehran's insistence that it has fully complied with the 2015 accord, and that the ball is now in Europe's court.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasop spent just seven hours at City Hall during the month of May - when he was 'hard at work' launching his bid for the White House, according to records reviewed by the New York Post.

The Mayor showed up just six times in May in order to attend two meetings, four events and hold five phone calls - including his weekly appearance on WNYC radio, according to his official calendar.

The 11 appointments amounted to a meager one-fifth of the 50 meetings, calls and other events at City Hall on de Blasio's calendar for May 2018. He had a total 152 city events scheduled for the month. -New York Post

"If he's trying to show New Yorkers that he's over doing the job, he's doing a good job of it," one ex-aide told the Post, while another 'de Blasio insider' called the Mayor's attendance "real bad," adding "At this point, you've got to wonder how much of his heart is really in it."

Washington has repeatedly accused the Chinese tech giant of stealing technologies, as well as spying on its users under orders from Beijing, something that the company has vehemently denied. The US recently initiated a crackdown, banning Huawei from the American market.

Chinese tech giant Huawei has in a recent statement accused US authorities of using a number of "tools" in a bid to "disrupt the normal business operations" of the company and its partners. The tech giant argues that apart from typical "judicial and administrative powers", Washington has resorted to "a host of other unscrupulous means".

Most notably, among these "means" have been attempts to launch cyber-attacks against the company to "infiltrate [its] intranet and internal information systems" - a method of action that the US earlier claimed that Chinese companies were employing.