According to the president, the Belarusian opposition often mentions reforming the country's political system, but "nobody talks about what changes they actually want," he said.

Lukashenko also rejected calls to return to the 1994 Constitution, maintaining that the nation should move "forward," instead of looking back. Once a draft is finished, the document will be made public for open discussion, enabling Belarusians to "express their opinion" about the proposed changes.

Belarus needs a political system that is not tied to the head of state, according to President Alexander Lukashenko, who is currently experiencing the most substantial challenge to his reign since he first took power in 1994. Lukashenko's statement comes as the country begins work on a third version of the constitution, rejecting the opposition's idea to return to the original from 26 years ago.

Speaking to Chairman of the Supreme Court Valentin Sukalo, Lukashenko claimed that the country's political system is "somewhat authoritarian," and asked that the new constitution moves away from a reliance on the head of state to "make sure that the system that is not tied to an individual," including himself.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper went on CNN to accuse Russia of interfering in US affairs including the Covid-19 pandemic, Portland and Kenosha protests, and election meddling while giving no real evidence.

Clapper, who has previously said Russians are "typically, almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever," was more than happy to push more xenophobic Russia conspiracy theories during a Monday CNN interview when prompted by anchor Alisyn Camerota.

After bringing up violent protests in cities like Portland, Oregon, and Kenosha, Wisconsin - both of which have seen shooting deaths occur during demonstrations and riots - Camerota asked Clapper if he sees "evidence as we saw in 2016 that some of this unrest, some of this online ginning up of discord, you see Russian fingerprints?"

"Absolutely," Clapper replied without hesitation, before also blaming Russians for spreading "disinformation" in regards to the Covid-19 pandemic, including how it "disproportionately" affects minorities.

The fatal trouble with the US is that it has a chronic political disease. But none of the political class, including "populist" President Donald Trump, have a diagnosis to offer. And any remedial action always requires accurate diagnosis.

What we have instead are all sorts of quack, or at best inaccurate, assessments, which never lead to remedial action, but rather to a compounding of problems because the problems are left unaddressed and neglected and ultimately allowed to fester.

The basic problem is that the United States has devolved into a hyper militarized oligarchic state. The vast, growing social inequality in the nation, and its grotesque waste of economic resources on militarism are but two manifestations of this state. That is the outcome of decades of US corporate capitalism. All Western states tend to share similar deformities, but the American version of the disease is at its most virulent and moribund.

The next problem is that there is no informed public debate, awareness or political leadership to diagnose the disease and how to cure it.

We just witnessed the two ruling political parties hold their national conventions to nominate presidential candidates. For the Democrats and Joe Biden, the "problem" is all about getting rid of incumbent White House occupant Donald Trump.

A federal appeals court rejected Michael Flynn's effort to force a judge to immediately dismiss the charges against him, overturning an earlier decision that would have allowed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop its case against the former national security adviser.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 8-2 against Flynn's petition for it to step in and force a district judge to grant the Justice Department's motion to drop charges without holding a hearing on the issue.

The circuit court also denied Flynn's argument that the judge overseeing his case be forced to recuse himself. The former three-star general's legal team had argued that Judge Emmet Sullivan acted improperly by appointing outside counsel to argue against the DOJ's sudden decision to drop its case and by asking the full circuit court to revisit the earlier decision by a three-judge panel.

France has accused the UK Government of deliberately stalling post-Brexit trade deal negotiations and having unreasonable expectations.

The 27-nation EU and the UK remain deadlocked in their talks on future trade ties after a transitional divorce period ends on December 31.

It has raised concerns that no agreement will be in place in time and that tariffs and other impediments to trade will have to be enacted at the start of next year.

All over the Western world ever since 9/11 there have been incremental steps towards what many liberty advocates would call a "police state"; a system in which governments are no longer restricted by the boundaries of civil liberties and are given the power to do just about anything they want in the name of public safety. The use of "the law" as a tool for injecting tyranny into a culture is the first tactic of all totalitarians.

The idea is that by simply writing government criminality into the law books, that criminality somehow becomes justified by virtue of legal recognition. It's all very circular. Whenever government abuse of the people is initiated, it's always initiated in the name of what's "best for society as a whole". To save society, the individuals that make up a society must be sublimated or destroyed. This mentality is the complete opposite of what the Founding Fathers in America fought and died for, but as Thomas Jefferson once said:

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."

In countries like Australia, which claim to value Western democratic principles of liberty and rule by the people, the perception is that civil rights are codified into the legal framework just as they are in the US. However, there are some glaring differences and issues; specifically, Australian citizens (like many European citizens) have absolutely no means to compel their government or the elites that influence their government to limit themselves. It is these nations, in which the populations have been mostly disarmed and pacified, that any agenda for tyranny will first be established. But we will get to that in a moment...

Following the shooting death of a Trump supporter in Portland, Democrats have taken to acknowledging increasing violence at protests across the country, but are laying the blame at the feet of President Donald Trump.

Many Democrats made it clear through Sunday interviews that they believe President Trump is to blame for increasingly violent protests across the country.

"I have long condemned looting, violence, threats...but let's take a step back. This isn't just happening in one place. It's happening all over the country. It is happening under Donald Trump's watch," Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) told ABC News on Sunday morning.

Russia is closely following events in Belarus, which is gripped by post-election protests, but it has shown much more prudence than the West in doing so, President Vladimir Putin said, firing back at claims of meddling by Moscow.

"We believe this is, first and foremost, an internal matter for Belarusian society and the people of Belarus," Putin told the Russia-1 TV channel in an interview aired on Saturday. He was referring to mass protests that have rumbled on for weeks after officials declared a landslide victory for incumbent Alexander Lukashenko in the presidential election. The outcome has prompted accusations of electoral fraud from the opposition.

After the protests broke out, some European Union leaders called on Moscow not to interfere in Belarus amid media speculation that Russia would be sending or has already dispatched military to the country. Both Minsk and the Kremlin have rubbished the claims.

Israel is in secret talks with several Arab states on establishing ties, in addition to its US-backed deal struck with the UAE, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

"There are many more unpublicised meetings with Arab and Muslim leaders to normalise relations with the state of Israel," he said on the eve of Israel's first commercial flight to the United Arab Emirates.

The historic flight follows the August 13 announcement of a US-brokered agreement to normalise relations between the two countries, making the UAE the first Gulf country and only the third Arab state to establish relations with Israel after Egypt and Jordan.

French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said on Sunday that an investigation had been launched into a senior French officer who is suspected of being behind a "security breach". According to French media and a judicial source, the officer is believed to have transmitted sensitive documents to a "foreign power", possibly Russia.

Europe 1 radio reported that a French lieutenant colonel based in Italy and stationed with NATO is suspected of having transmitted sensitive documents to the Russian secret services.

Parly said her ministry had informed prosecutors about the case. She did not elaborate on what the officer was suspected of having done.