Israeli forces shot and injured at least five Palestinians and detained three others in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron overnight Saturday, as Israeli forces continued to impose a strict siege on the village of Sair after an Israeli man was shot and injured while driving his car around midnight near the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Teqoa.

A large number of Israeli forces raided Sair in the predawn hours, closing off the entire village.

Israeli forces closed the al-Adisa al-Duwara entrance of the village, as dozens of troops were deployed in the Wad al-Sharq area in central Sair, where clashes erupted and continued until dawn, with Israeli forces firing live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters, and stun grenades at locals who were throwing rocks.

Local sources told Ma'an that four Palestinians were shot and wounded with rubber-coated steel bullets and dozens more suffered from severe tear gas inhalation. Palestinian Red Crescent medics and volunteers administered first aid on the scene.

Sources in Hebron said Israeli forces carried out searches and seized recordings of security cameras from Palestinian homes and shops in Sair.

An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma'an that Israeli forces sealed off Sair and imposed security checks in response to a shooting Saturday night, when an unidentified gunman or gunmen fired at a passing vehicle near Teqoa northeast of Hebron, wounding the driver, an Israeli civilian.

Perhaps you've heard the expression: "We have met the enemy and he is us." Cartoonist Walt Kelly's famed possum, Pogo, first uttered that cry. In light of alien disaster movies like the recent sequel Independence Day: Resurgence and America's disastrous wars of the twenty-first century, I'd like to suggest a slight change in that classic phrase: we have met the alien and he is us.

Allow me to explain. I grew up reading and watching science fiction with a fascination that bordered on passion. In my youth, I also felt great admiration for the high-tech, futuristic nature of the U.S. military. When it came time for college, I majored in mechanical engineering and joined the U.S. Air Force. On graduating, I would immediately be assigned to one of the more high-tech, sci-fi-like (not to say apocalyptic) military settings possible: Air Force Space Command's Cheyenne Mountain.

For those of you who don't remember the looming, end-of-everything atmosphere of the Cold War era, Cheyenne Mountain was a nuclear missile command center tunneled out of solid granite inside an actual mountain in Colorado. In those days, I saw myself as one of the good guys, protecting America from "alien" invasions and the potential nuclear obliteration of the country at the hands of godless communists from the Soviet Union. The year was 1985 and back then my idea of an "alien" invasion movie was Red Dawn, a film in which the Soviets and their Cuban allies invade the U.S., only to be turned back by a group of wolverine-like all-American teen rebels. (Think: the Vietcong, American-style, since the Vietnam War was then just a decade past.)

Strange to say, though, as I progressed through the military, I found myself growing increasingly uneasy about my good-guy stature and about who exactly was doing what to whom. Why, for example, did we invade Iraq in 2003 when that country had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11? Why were we so focused on dominating the Earth's resources, especially its oil? Why, after declaring total victory over the "alien" commies in 1991 and putting the Cold War to bed for forever (or so it seemed then), did our military continue to strive for "global reach, global power" and what, with no sense of overreach or irony, it liked to call "full-spectrum dominance"?

Still, whatever was simmering away inside me, only when I retired from the Air Force in 2005 did I fully face what had been staring back at me all those years: I had met the alien, and he was me.

They were instructed according to their rules of engagement not to intervene, not to come to the rescue of the people inside the Bataclan nightclub or those in the street in front of the Bataclan. 89 people were killed, more than 100 wounded.

According to a Belgian news report (July 5 ),The night of the attack at the Paris Bataclan, November 13, 2015, six French military personnel of the Sentinelle Project (launched by France's Ministry of Defense) were at the entry of the concert hall.

They did not intervene because the circumstances [pertaining to the Bataclan attacks] did not meet their "rules of engagement", according to cdH [Political Party] Member of Parliament (Député) Georges Dallemagne in a Tuesday morning statement [July 5] on Belgium's RTL TV."

An early report by Nouvel Obs (May 6, 2016), confirmed that there were 8 military personnel. They outnumbered the four alleged terrorists inside the Bataclan. If they had intervened, this would have saved lives. It is unclear from the report as to time at which they were stationed in front the nightclub.

Military personnel invariably obey orders from higher up. The question is: Who instructed them not to come to the rescue of people inside the nightclub? Was it the Police or the Ministry of Defense? According to Nouvel Ops: The military of the Sentinelle force did not have the green light to use their weapons. "The victims will be rescued later, without the support of the Army" (translated from French).

It is worth noting that the 4 alleged terrorists were known to the police. It was also confirmed that there was foreknowledge of the November 13, 2015 attacks.

President Vladimir Putin has visited a famed Russian monastery to pray for Russian servicemen killed in Syria.

Two Russian airmen died in Syria over the weekend after their helicopter was shot down by Islamic State group fighters east of the ancient city of Palmyra.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says the president is spending his day at the 14th-century Valaam monastery in northwest Russia close to the Finnish border.

Peskov told reporters Monday that Putin has asked the monks and the visiting head of the Russian Orthodox Church to remember those who "work, fight and give their lives to serve the motherland" and to pray for the two troops killed over the weekend.

Like a game of whack-a-mole, Hillary Clinton's secret email server scandal continues this week as the former secretary of state has just one more day to explain to a federal court why she shouldn't have to testify under oath about the system.

On Friday, the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch submitted a request for permission to depose Clinton, along with two other current and former government officials, as part of the ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit looking into aide Huma Abedin's special employment arrangement with the State Department.

'As the primary driving force behind and principal user of the clintonemail.com system, however, Secretary Clinton's testimony is crucial to understanding how and why the system was created and operated,' the brief argued, calling Clinton a 'indispensable witness.'

At the heart of the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit is Abedin's double-dipping job arrangement.

In the spring of 2012, Abedin went from being Clinton's deputy chief of staff at the State Department to a senior advisor role, a job with a 'special government employee' status that allowed Abedin to bring in outside income as well.

A few weeks after the attorney Andrew Schmidt filed a labor lawsuit against Uber and its CEO Travis Kalanick last December — one of so many legal battles that keep the ride-hailing company's legal team occupied — Schmidt's friends and colleagues began receiving calls about him from people purporting to be "profiling up-and-coming labor lawyers in the US." Other calls were made to people who knew Schmidt's client, those ones made from people claiming to be researching "up-and-coming researchers in environmental conservation." Behind these calls was a third party investigator hired by Uber to dig up dirt on Schmidt and his client.

The Verge has been looking into the ensuing, ongoing legal battle that runs parallel to the original labor case, which appears to have been first reported on by CNBC last month when a judge ruled that Schmidt had provided enough evidence to reasonably suspect Uber of fraud, "raising a serious risk of perverting the process of justice before this court."

Uber communicated through encrypted channels with Ergo, whom it appears to have paid nearly $20,000 for the investigation. When Schmidt contacted Uber to ask if they were behind the calls about him, they originally said they were not. That's a mistake that could cost them, and they later called back to clarify that they sort of were. However, "Uber took reasonable steps to ensure that Ergo complied with the law," the company wrote in a filing. "It is undisputed that Uber and Mr. Kalanick were unaware that Ergo would use misrepresentations during its investigation."

The Verge pretty naturally sees this as potentially damaging the many other cases Uber is working on right now, noting that this marks the fourth time that Uber commissioned Ergo's services. There's also a connection to be drawn between the remarks of one Uber exec, Emil Michael, who in 2014 bragged about an idea to investigate the private lives of journalists to tarnish their arguments against the company.

Time to "feel the Bern", and much worse, after Bernie endorse Hillary.

There was a time a few months back where many Americans thought that Bernie Sanders was a different type of politician. A person of higher moral fabric...with a sense of integrity, sorely missing in US politics.

It was "Bernie of Bust" for many. A mantra that captured a country's desire to break free of the corruption that plagues its political system, from top to bottom.

Forget about all of that. Come tomorrow Bernie Sanders will kiss the ring of the most corrupt, scandal infested politician ever to run for the office of US President.

Maybe Bernie is being pragmatic. Maybe he is willing to do anything to stop Donald Trump from having a chance at winning the elections. Or maybe, just maybe, Bernie cut a deal...and like so many other people and institutions that come in contact with a Clinton, he too got infected with the corruption virus.

A true man of integrity would never endorse Hillary, no matter what party lines dictate. A man who supposedly stands up for the 99%, would never endorse a candidate who just used her 1% status to avoid an indictment, that would have landed anyone of normal, 'earthly' status, into prison.

Israel's prime minister claims that his recent approval of 800 new housing units in illegal settlements will not be 'preventing peace'

Benjamin Netanyahu is a busy man; he certainly doesn't have time to deal seriously with international objections - even from allies - to petty topics such as settlement expansion.

That was the impression Israel's prime minister gave on Wednesday, when he dismissed US concerns about the recent approval of 800 new housing units in settlements. "A few more apartments near the municipality of Ma'ale Adumim" are not "preventing peace", Netanyahu said.

This was classic Bibi disingenuousness.

First, Israel's settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory - every single one of them - are illegal. These colonies don't somehow pass a threshold of legality when they reach a certain size; from the largest city-settlement to the smallest hill-top caravan, the settlements are illegal. Period.

Italy's Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, fired shots at Germany's financial EU hegemony when, during a joint news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, said:

"If this non-performing loan problem is worth one, the question of derivatives at other banks, at big banks, is worth one hundred. This is the ratio: one to one hundred."

Renzi was referring to the massive, trillions of derivatives Deutsche Bank is carrying on its books. According to Renzi, Italy may have issues, but "other" European banks have much bigger problems.


Zerohedge provides context on Italy's banking woes..

In the aftermath of Brexit, much of the investing public's attention has turned to Italian banks which are in desperate need of a bailout as a result of €360 billion in bad loans growing worse by the day (and not a bail-in, as European regulations mandate, as that would lead to an immediate bank run) to avoid a freeze and/or collapse of Italy's banking sector. This has pushed stock prices - and default risk - on Italian banks to record levels. So far Italy's bailout requests have mostly fallen on deaf ears, as Germany's political leaders have resisted Renzi's recurring pleas for a taxpayer funded rescue. However, as we have alleged, and as the Italian Prime Minister admitted last week, the core risk for Europe is not just the Italian banking sector but the biggest bank of all in Europe: Deutsche Bank.

While we are just coming off the roller coaster ride that was the UK referendum, the European Union is about to go through another nausea inducing ride where not one, but two, very big EU players are about to get hammered. The messenger of more bad EU news, David Folkerts-Landau, the chief economist of Deutsche Bank, who has called for a multi-billion dollar bailout for European banks.

If you've ever wondered why corporations seem to hold so much sway over our government, look no further than who's making all the decisions in Washington - and more importantly, where many of these people worked before being handed comfy, high-level positions at top government agencies.

You might be surprised at the number of senior advisors, chiefs of staff, judges, commissioners and others employed at agencies like the Department of Justice (DoJ), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who all have one thing in common: they used to hold executive-level positions at multinational corporations like Monsanto.The infographic below depicts a revolving-door relationship between Monsanto and the federal government that dates back many decades. You'll probably recognize many of the names on the list, but chances are you had no idea these folks used to work for Monsanto or advocate for its interests before taking key positions of power on the taxpayer dime.