The retired Marine general chosen by President Barack Obama to head military efforts against Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS/ISIL) is leaving the position, according to a new report.

John R. Allen, the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, will leave the job in November, according to Bloomberg, which cited four anonymous Obama administration officials when reporting on the yet-public information.

Allen is reportedly frustrated with a lack of resources to counter the jihadist group, according to US officials. Allen had unsuccessfully lobbied administration officials for increased tactical air control teams to more efficiently target IS on the ground in Iraq, Bloomberg reported. Meanwhile, administration officials have portrayed his decision as one made out of concern for his wife's poor health.

Israeli police have been authorized to use snipers against civilians throwing stones in East Jerusalem, a practice which was previously limited to Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.

The Israeli police have been allowed to use snipers against Palestinians who throw stones at soldiers even though a lethal response is not necessary, Sarit Michaeli, spokesman for the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B'Tselem) told Radio Sputnik.

The policy was previously only practiced in the West Bank, but has now spread to occupied East Jerusalem, which is policed by Israeli forces. Under the new legislation officers can open fire if the stone throwers are endangering the lives of people in cars or houses.

The trajectory of the Syrian Civil War could fundamentally shift within in the nearest future.

Rebel factions led by Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra continue to pressure the Syrian government stronghold along the Alawite Coast following a several-month long campaign to expel Syrian Armed Forces forces from Idlib Province.

Turkey and the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition intend to establish an "ISIS-free" zone in northern Syria along the Turkish border with the assistance of so-called "moderate rebel forces". However, at the moment the Pentagon's $500 million campaign of turning American-sponsored moderate rebels into an independent power in the region has failed. The $500 million train and equip program was supposed to generate a 5,000-strong force of "moderate" rebels in the first year. In fact, only dozens were trained and they didn't achieve even a bit of success on the battlefield. Additional 75 militants, who were newly trained by the US-led coalition, entered into northern Syria from Turkey in a convoy of a dozen cars with light weapons and ammunition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Sunday. This could be related to a newly stated US approach.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to develop visa-free travel for short-term visits and transit by foreign tourists from BRICS countries, reported the Kremlin website on Tuesday. The deadline to submit proposals is set for October 30.

The BRICS bloc comprises five developing economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Putin has also asked to make legislative changes that will increase the number of Russian ports that allow foreign sea travelers' entry to Russia.

The idea of visa-free travel within the trade bloc was first proposed in 2013 at the 5th BRICS Summit in Durban. South Africa. It has already provided business people from BRICS easier access to the country, said South Africa's Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba in February.

Among the main projects of the group is the BRICS New Development Bank that opened for operations in Shanghai on July 21 aimed at deploying $50 billion in initial capital to bankroll infrastructure and sustainable development projects. Another is the development of a $100 billion currency reserve pool, intended to protect national currencies from volatility in global markets.

France says it may carry out airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria as an act of self-defense. Last week French aircraft started to undertake reconnaissance missions over Syria.

On Monday, French President Francois Hollande said French military sorties in Syria would soon expand to include airstrikes against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

"We are part of the coalition in Iraq [against ISIS]," Hollande said in a news conference with his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari. "We started reconnaissance flights [in Syria] to enable us to consider air strikes if they were necessary and they will be necessary in Syria."

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the use of weapons on Syrian territory is justified due to a string of Islamist attacks in Europe.

"We received specific intelligence indicating that the resent terrorist attacks against France and other European nations were organized by Daesh [Arabic derogatory term for IS] in Syria. Due to this threat we decided to start reconnaissance flights to have the option for airstrikes, if that would be necessary. This is self-defense," the minister told the Belgian media.

An airstrike by Saudi-led forces on houses in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, has killed at least 20 people, mostly civilians, according to medics and officials cited by Reuters.

It was previously reported that officials had identified the target as the Marina hotel in Sanaa's southern al-Asbahi district.

It comes after coalition air raids against Houthi forces in Sanaa killed at least 40 civilians and injured at least 130 others overnight on Friday.

Official UN figures illustrate that almost 4,900 people have been killed since Saudi forces began their bombardment of Yemen late March. The UN aid chief has called the scale of human suffering "almost incomprehensible."

The country is suffering from a shortage of vital supplies due to the ongoing blockade.

Yesterday on CSPAN I watched Bernie Sanders give a rousing speech in New Hampshire where he endorsed a "political revolution." He called for "radical" changes to take on the corporations and the billionaires, including the government moving in to dismantle big Wall Street financial institutions. Sanders has long supported such action.

But if Bernie Sanders is a radical on economic changes in the United States, he is a pussycat when it comes to changes in Israel and Palestine. Five days ago, he gave an interview to Little Village, an alternative publication in Iowa, and endorsed continuing U.S. military aid to Israel and more economic aid to Palestinians. He did not condemn the Israeli occupation, but blamed actors on both sides of the conflict; and while rejecting Benjamin Netanyahu declined to endorse any of the leftwing programs re Israel, notably BDS, boycott, divestment and sanctions. Here are some of his words:

"When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk: culture-death is a clear possibility."—Author Neil Postman

Caught up in the spectacle of the forthcoming 2016 presidential elections, Americans (never very good when it comes to long-term memory) have not only largely forgotten last year's hullabaloo over militarized police, police shootings of unarmed citizens, asset forfeiture schemes, and government surveillance but are also generally foggy about everything that has happened since.

Then again, so much is happening on a daily basis that it's understandable if the average American has a hard time keeping up with and remembering all of the "events," manufactured or otherwise, which occur like clockwork and keep us distracted, deluded, amused, and insulated from reality while the government continues to amass more power and authority over the citizenry.

In fact, when we're being bombarded with wall-to-wall news coverage and news cycles that change every few days, it's difficult to stay focused on one thing—namely, holding the government accountable to abiding by the rule of law—and the powers-that-be understand this. As investigative journalist Mike Adams points out:

This psychological bombardment is waged primarily via the mainstream media which assaults the viewer by the hour with images of violence, war, emotions and conflict. Because the human nervous system is hard wired to focus on immediate threats accompanied by depictions of violence, mainstream media viewers have their attention and mental resources funneled into the never-ending 'crisis of the NOW' from which they can never have the mental breathing room to apply logic, reason or historical context.

Consider if you will the regularly scheduled trivia and/or distractions in the past year alone that have kept us tuned into the various breaking news headlines and entertainment spectacles and tuned out to the government's steady encroachments on our freedoms:

Americans were riveted when the Republican presidential contenders went head-to-head for the second time in a three-hour debate that put Carly Fiorina in a favored position behind Donald Trump; Hillary Clinton presented the softer side of her campaign image during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon; scientists announced the discovery of what they believed to be a new pre-human species, Homo naledi, that existed 2.8 million years ago; an 8.3 magnitude earthquake hit Chile; massive wildfires burned through 73,000 acres in California; a district court judge reversed NFL player Tom Brady's four-game suspension; tennis superstar Serena Williams lost her chance at a calendar grand slam; and President Obama and Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg tweeted their support for a Texas student arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school.

According to State and Defense Department sources speaking to Foreign Policy, the Pentagon is "dusting off," reevaluating and updating its contingency plans for war with Russia. The publication explains why all of this is Russia's fault, and where things may go from here.

The article, written by well-known Russian politics critic and self-confessed Russophobe Julia Ioffe, explains this is "the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union" that the Pentagon has decided to review and update its contingency plans for war with Russia, based on revised appraisals of the country as a potential threat, rather than a potential partner, to NATO.

The reason for the Pentagon's rush to update its war plans is, ostensibly, Russia's 'annexation' of Crimea, referring to the referendum held in the territory in the aftermath of the Maidan coup d'état in Kiev in early 2014, which saw the peninsula breaking off from Ukraine and joining Russia. It also includes Russia's 'invasion' of eastern Ukraine, referring to the repeated allegations made by officials in Kiev that between nine and 200,000 regular Russian troops are engaged militarily in the eastern breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Last month a 'terrifying event' occurred on a Thalys high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris. Various combinations of American and British soldiers and students, and a French actor or two - the exact number and cast was never established - subdued a homeless Moroccan man, armed with a Kalashnikov rifle and box-cutter (aka utility knife). One version of events has the 25-year-old suspect, Ayoub El-Khazzani, being rushed and apprehended by the Western humanitarian interventionists after they heard "what sounded like a machine gun being loaded" in a train toilet.

Another version has two French passengers wrestling with the gunman, with one of them shot and wounded during this altercation, and some Americans arriving on the scene later. El-Khazzani denied having any terrorist motive - his plan was to rob the passengers - and claims that he found the weapons abandoned in a suitcase in a park in Brussels.

Last Friday, another Thalys train 'came under attack', this time at a train station in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. Right before the train was leaving Rotterdam, a 'man', as Dutch mainstream news sites reported, ran to the Thalys train, locked himself up in a toilet, and let it be known that he "had a bomb"... maybe, because this statement was never verified.

As a 'precaution', police officers and a heavily-armed 'SWAT' team arrived at the station, platforms 1-9 were cleared of people, a police helicopter was deployed, and a police dog was brought to the scene. At first, the man didn't want to make contact, but after nearly three hours, the officers got hold of him, brought him outside of the train, and arrested 'the man'... who turned out to be an adolescent: