Ambivalence, political twists and turns and the adoption of mutually exclusive decisions on Syria clearly show how completely lost the Saudi leaders are and their distinct lack of understanding of the fundamentals of modern foreign policy. The leaders of the wealthiest countries in the world, the leaders of the Arab and Muslim world have fully displayed their political inadequacy, inability to manoeuvre and adapt to the realities of the modern world. The once infinite riches are melting away rapidly, and soon ordinary Saudis will be faced with the issue of cost-cutting in their simple everyday problems.

But, as they say, all in good time. It seemed that only recently the Saudi press took after its main overseas sponsor and ally, the United States, which have put forward a plan of the "smooth transition" of power in Syria and did not call for the immediate resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. US Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN reporters that Washington had changed its position on Bashar al-Assad. The United States, according to The New York Times, have closed their largest training centres of so-called moderate Syrian rebels in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Saudi rulers even responded positively to the position of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was also forced to be in favour of negotiations with the current Syrian president. In this regard, experts drew attention to the statement of Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi ambassador in Washington and former intelligence chief, who expressed his confidence that Moscow's strategy on Syria seems to be more effective than the efforts of the United States, and that the Russian point of view demands attention and respect. However, Russia has never departed from its principled position and has consistently advocated peace talks with the legitimate President, al-Assad.

The Saker: You are a very well known public figure in the United States. Still I would like you to tell us three things about you which in your opinion is the most important things about you.

Cynthia McKinney: I am always in a state of questioning and learning and I love to research questions and an array of solutions of interest to me. I think curiosity is a good thing and broadens ones knowledge. But, it was exactly this questioning nature of mine that got me into political trouble because the institutions that I joined are steeped in "propriety" and "etiquette" and "place"; the culture is set by those who are there the longest and have accrued the most power. That is not Black women - and it's certainly not Black women who ask too many questions and don't know their "place."

I'm told that Rahm Emanuel, who recruited my opponent to run against me in the Democratic Primary, said that I was not a "team player" because I did not accept Democratic Party leadership nostrums on the 2000 Presidential Election that sent George Bush to the White House, September 11th, Hurricane Katrina, and George Bush's wars that became Barack Obama's wars. In fact, the first Iraq War funding bill brought to a vote in Congress after I left, passed with only the required number of votes, 218; had I been returned to Congress, that bill would have failed and quite possibly, we'd be having a completely different conversation right now. That's the importance of every vote on every issue; the importance of every vote on every candidate, in every election. Instead, I was turned out of Congress, the war funding bill passed with the vote of my replacement, and as is said, "the rest is history." The documentary American Blackout tells this story very well.

Yemen's army and popular committees killed dozens of Saudi forces, including senior commanders, in an attack on their command center in the Yemeni province of Ta'iz on Wednesday.

The Yemeni forces attacked the command center in Wadi al-Qadi district in Ta'iz, killing dozens of Saudi forces and injuring several others.

Reports said several senior Saudi commanders have been identified among the dead bodies.

There were no more details available.

When Edward Snowden revealed the NSA secretly monitored Americans' internet use, officials allayed concerns by explaining "only metadata" was collected. Now a federal court says some URLs fall outside the metadata category, qualifying as content.

When data is "non-content," such as who is sending or receiving communications, courts generally have ruled in favor of national security interests above privacy interests. However, a Tuesday ruling by the federal third circuit court of appeals adds nuance to that, protecting some URLs the same way as content found in email, text messages or phone conversations would be.

That protection requires authorities to have "probable cause" and may require them to seek a warrant if they want access, the court ruled.

The European Commission has adopted new guidelines on labeling of products from Israeli-occupied Arab settlements. Brussels says the move is technical but Israel has called it discriminatory.

The European Commission "adopted this morning the Interpretative Notice on indication of origin of goods from the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967," Reuters quoted an EU official as saying.

Russia will be developing strike systems capable of penetrating any missile defense shield, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

"We'll be working on the anti-missile defense system as well, but at the first stage, as we have said on many occasions, we'll also be working on strike systems capable of penetrating any anti-missile defense shield," Putin said at a meeting on the development of the Russian Armed Forces.

Putin said the meeting would discuss the development of such weapon systems that would determine the outlook of the Russian Armed Forces for the next decade and will become a response to the challenges confronted by Russia.

Ninety-seven years ago, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, fighting ceased in the "war to end all wars." People went on killing and dying right up until the pre-designated moment, impacting nothing other than our understanding of the stupidity of war.

Thirty million soldiers had been killed or wounded and another seven million had been taken captive during World War I. Never before had people witnessed such industrialized slaughter, with tens of thousands falling in a day to machine guns and poison gas. After the war, more and more truth began to overtake the lies, but whether people still believed or now resented the pro-war propaganda, virtually every person in the United States wanted to see no more of war ever again. Posters of Jesus shooting at Germans were left behind as the churches along with everyone else now said that war was wrong. Al Jolson wrote in 1920 to President Harding:

Believe it or not, November 11th was not made a holiday in order to celebrate war, support troops, or cheer the 15th year of occupying Afghanistan. This day was made a holiday in order to celebrate an armistice that ended what was up until that point, in 1918, one of the worst things our species had thus far done to itself, namely World War I.

Vladimir Putin is known for his sharp wit, but musings on love are a relative novelty. In an unexpected remark Friday, the Russian president spoke of the "meaning of life," saying that for him "in general" it is love that matters.

Briefly digressing from politics, Putin ventured a philiosophical observation that "multifaceted" love is the basis of all actions and the essence of being.

Without warning just after sunset on Saturday night the US Navy purposely picked a time to launch an unarmed Trident II missile from the submarine the USS Kentucky in the waters off the Southern California coast so hundreds of thousands of witnesses would be sure to see the sky lit up and headlines would spread around the world. The event was seen as far away as northern California, Arizona and Nevada. Beginning the night before on Friday evening the FAA announced that the US Navy created a no fly zone shutting down LA airport flights from flying west over the ocean from America's second busiest airport during this week until Thursday due to unspecified military activity.

The Senate has passed a defense spending bill that bans moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States. This throws a wrench in President Obama's 2008 campaign promise of closing the camp.

The $607-billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the Senate with a veto-proof 91-3, with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) notably casting a "no" vote.

The same defense funding package passed in a similarly overwhelming manner in the House last week, with a vote of 370-58. The legislation will now be sent to President Obama's desk for signature.

The president had vetoed the original version of the NDAA in October largely due to concerns about an extra $38 billion in war funding.

Congress has also repeatedly thwarted Obama's effort to fulfill a promise from his first presidential campaign to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, which is located in US-occupied territory in Cuba.