On the evening of 28th June, information appeared in the media about the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Shirokino near Mariupol capturing eight DPR soldiers, who allegedly led intelligence activities on the territory controlled by Ukraine. In addition, it was reported that in a special operation the Ukrainian military killed two of the militia.

Adviser to the head of the SBU Yury Tandit confirmed the information about the sabotage, stating that during the detention of the DPR military personnel, they were asked to surrender their weapons, and those who did not comply were killed on the spot.

Representative of administration of the Ukrainian President on issues of the so-called ATO Alexander Motuzyanik also commented on this incident. He reported that they were taken prisoner by soldiers of the 9th separate motorized rifle assault corps (Novoazovsk). He said the names of all the detainees captured, the youngest of them is only 21 years old, and the oldest is 49. Motuzyanik said that the militias were captured in the village of Vodyane, near Shirokino.

For its part, there is information about the capture near the village of Shirokino of eight DPR soldiers, and two are confirmed killed in the defence of the DPR. The Deputy Commander of the operational command of the DPR Eduard Basurin reported that it happened when the engineering unit of a separate unit of the DPR was conducting routine mine clearance in coordination with the OSCE mission in the area of the front of the Shirokino village. Specifically, in order to capture the bomb squad, the reconnaissance group of the 54th brigade of the UAF and a division of the volunteer unit of the Ukrainian army moved forward to the specified area.

Riyadh appears to be falling victim to a crisis of their own making as their bid to undercut the world's oil market has left the country's economy in shambles.

Economic data suggests that Saudi Arabia may finally be feeling the effects of the oil war they waged against the world sending prices barreling into crisis levels in February below $30 per barrel and well below the country's own breakeven price of roughly $65 per barrel.

In the first quarter of 2016, real GDP growth decelerated to 1.5% year on year well below last year's first quarter figure of 3.3% growth signaling that the government's austerity measures imposed to withstand the shock they instilled in oil prices may soon trigger a recession in the Kingdom.

With oil prices recovering, Saudi Arabia's struggles are a promising sign for energy-rich countries around the world that may soon be able to look forward to a surge in oil prices if Riyadh starts to pull supply offline.

The German spy chief has confirmed the possibility of massive terror attacks in Germany as his agency has obtained information on 17 ISIS militants who had entered Europe under the guise of refugees. The biggest threat to Germany's security is the possibility of terror attacks similar to the shooting and bombing that took place in Istanbul last week, Hans Georg Maassen, the head of country's domestic intelligence agency, said in an interview to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Saturday.

"We can't rule out attacks like those in Istanbul also happening in our country," Maassen said. The German Special Services know about at least 17 Islamic State militants who entered the European Union pretending to be refugees, Maassen added. "There is strong evidence that... 17 people have arrived under Islamic State instructions," Maassen said.

Russia has increased crude exports by almost five percent to 5.55 million barrels a day in the first half of the year compared to 2015. Analysts say exports may reach a record high this year.

The Russian Energy Ministry says output last month grew by 1.14 percent from a year earlier to 10,843 million barrels a day, with increases every month since July 2014. The ministry is predicting a 4.5-4.9 percent growth this year.

"If production remains steady, then it will likely be a record year for exports," said Christopher Haines, head of oil and gas at BMI Research, as cited by Bloomberg. "This should mean competition is strong, especially with Iran sending more oil into southern Europe."

In April, Russian crude exports jumped nine percent to their highest level in sixteen months. Overall, the country exported 20.3 million tons of crude that month.

Russia is ready to step up anti-terrorism coordination with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region and elsewhere, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

Condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, the ministry expressed Moscow's readiness to "strengthen the coordination of anti-terrorism efforts with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region and beyond."

There is no way of getting around this: According to Director James Comey (disclosure: a former colleague and longtime friend of mine), Hillary Clinton checked every box required for a felony violation of Section 793(f) of the federal penal code (Title 18): With lawful access to highly classified information she acted with gross negligence in removing and causing it to be removed it from its proper place of custody, and she transmitted it and caused it to be transmitted to others not authorized to have it, in patent violation of her trust. Director Comey even conceded that former Secretary Clinton was "extremely careless" and strongly suggested that her recklessness very likely led to communications (her own and those she corresponded with) being intercepted by foreign intelligence services.

Yet, Director Comey recommended against prosecution of the law violations he clearly found on the ground that there was no intent to harm the United States.

On Monday, July 5, suicide bombers blew themselves up in Qatif and Medina, several hours after Saudi security officers foiled an attack near the US Consulate in Jeddah. In Medina, a bomb exploded in the vicinity of a police post outside the Prophet's Mosque, killing four policemen and two civilians. In Qatif, two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a Shiite Mosque. No casualties were reported.

The suicide attacks are specially alarming as they underline various basic and important points:

Attacking a Shiite mosque, a US entity, and a holy city are meant to embarrass the House of Saud. The attack on a Shiite mosque was meant to fuel sectarian violence, while the one in Medina specifically undercuts the Saudi family's claim to be the "custodians" or "protectors" of the two holy places - Mecca and Medina. The suicide attack couldn't be more counterproductive because it took place at a revered Muslim location during Ramadan, meaning the suicide bombers' religion is terrorism. That says why Iran, despite its political differences with Riyadh, was among the first to strongly condemn and respond to the attacks with outrage and horror.

Many aren't surprised that Saudi Arabia is now under attack, where even the holy sites are at the top of the target list for suicide bombers. The regime has a lot of explaining to do with regard to its "well-established" and "well-documented" links to ISIL and Al-Qaeda.

International commissions of Russia's and Italy's upper parliament houses will have their first joint meeting in early October in Moscow, a Russian senior lawmaker said on Tuesday.

"We have agreed with our colleagues in the Italian Senate to switch over from the regime of visit exchanges to the regime of join commissions meetings," Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the international committee of Russia's Federation Council upper parliament house, said after his visit to Rome. "A joint commissions meeting implies a one-or two-day session with a clearly defined and structured agenda of four to five blocks, with a rapporteur in each of them. It is important to consider the topics separately."

"The first such joint session will be held in Russia in early October. It will take place in Moscow. Apart from that, our Italian colleagues are supposed to visit one of Russian regions," Kosachev added.

The now-infamous whistleblowing website has published an archive of what is said to be over 1,200 of Hillary Clinton's private emails pertaining to the Iraq War. Julian Assange previously said that the release would be "enough to indict her."

On Monday, WikiLeaks tweeted a link to a search aggregate of 1,258 emails that Clinton wrote or received discussing US engagement in Iraq while she headed the State Department. The Iraq War email bundle is part of a trove of Clinton's correspondence that was released by the State Department in February, under the Freedom of Information Act.

In March, WikiLeaks launched a searchable archive consisting of 30,322 emails from Hillary Clinton's private email server that she used while serving as Secretary of State. The 50,547 pages of documents cover Clinton's correspondence from 30 June 2010 to 12 August 2014. Out of that number, 7,570 of the documents were sent by Hillary Clinton.

The use of private email for state-run business has become a thorn in the side of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. With Democratic convention just weeks away, the public eye is following a close watch of a potential grand jury indictment. This past weekend, the FBI spent more than three hours questioning Clinton about the email scandal, but as elections loom, the Bureau has yet to issue a report on its findings.

The terror proxies that the Central Intelligence Agency has furnished in Syria over the past five years no doubt smell a rat that Washington is about to sell them out.

In the last week, a wave of deadly bombings connected to al-Qaeda-linked extremists - from Bangladesh to Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia - has resulted in over 200 deaths.

The latest violence attributed to the radical Wahhabi terrorists saw suicide attacks in three Saudi cities on Monday, including Medina and Jeddah, where the target in the latter place was the US consulate building.

It seems no coincidence that the upsurge in international terror assaults, which has inflicted American deaths among the victims, followed quickly on reports that the Obama administration is moving to do a deal with Russia over Syria.

The Washington Post reported last week: "The Obama administration has proposed a new agreement on Syria to the Russian government that would deepen military cooperation between the two countries against some [sic] terrorists in exchange for Russia getting the Assad regime to stop bombing US-supported rebels."

Apparently, American solicitations for Russian cooperation has been ongoing for several weeks, perhaps even months. When the Saudi regime's leaders, including deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (the king's son), were invited to the White House last month, it is most likely that this key US partner in the Middle East was briefed on the plan. The Saudis weren't pleased, as indicated by their call immediately following the White House meeting for an escalation of American military intervention in Syria, thus appearing to snub the Obama administration.

According to the Washington Post: "The crux of the deal is a US promise to join forces with the Russian air force to share targeting and coordinate an expanded bombing campaign against Jabhat al-Nusra [Al Nusra Front], al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, which is primarily fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad."

The quid pro quo is that Russian and Syrian forces would halt their withering offensive on "US-backed rebels".

Of course, any distinction between "terrorists" and the palatable-sounding "rebels" is a fiction.