In a narrow vote Thursday, the US Senate confirmed David Friedman, President Donald Trump's controversial pick for ambassador to Israel, in his new role.

Friedman was confirmed by a majority of 52 to 46 in a vote that was deeply divided among party lines. All but two Democrat Senators - Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) - voted against the former bankruptcy lawyer, even those normally seen as pro-Israel. The level of opposition to Friedman was quite unusual, as most of a president's nominees tend to be approved by the Senate by a large majority.

A rift has opened up between NATO allies US and Turkey over the part Syrian Kurdish forces should play in the liberation of Raqqa from Islamic State terrorists as Ankara has openly rejected taking part in any operation that would involve the Kurds.

Turkey has "set out a model" for successfully fighting against jihadists in Syria, which it suggested should be further implemented to defeat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in the region, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said, as cited by Turkish media on Thursday.

Citing the liberation of the cities of al-Bab and Jarabulus in the Aleppo Governorate, which was carried out with the support of the Turkish military, the minister said Ankara was willing to support the anti-terrorist operation to free the IS stronghold of Raqqa in a US-led offensive.

ISIS reported to be withdrawing fighters from Deir Ezzor to defend Raqqa as apocalyptic battle for its 'capital' looms.

Reports are circulating in the Middle East that over the last few days ISIS has started pulling back some of its fighters from Deir Ezzor to its 'capital' Raqqa, which is coming under increasing threat from the Kurdish militia and the advancing Syrian army.

This news comes after reports that a senior Syrian government official has recently visited Deir Ezzor to inspect the defences of the encircled town and presumably to give some encouragement to its population and defenders.

There have also been reports that the Russian air force has been successfully air dropping supplies to the Syrian troops defending Deir Ezzor and its airport.

The White House gave the House Freedom Caucus a final offer as it tries to win support for a bill to repeal and replace parts of Obamacare, but the conservative group's leader said no deal was reached by Thursday afternoon.

The lack of an agreement throws more doubt on a planned Thursday night vote on the crucial legislation. The conservative contingent has threatened the bill's passage, as its members have said the GOP plan does not go far enough to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

President Donald Trump met with the caucus earlier as he and House GOP leaders aimed to rally enough support for their proposal. Following the meeting though, Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Mark Meadows told reporters "there are not enough votes" to push the legislation through.

Donald Trump is a racist, bigot, sexist, xenophobe, anti-Semitic and Islamophobe -- did I miss anything? The left and the media launch these hideous kinds of attacks at Trump everyday; yet, nothing could be further from the truth about the real estate mogul. As an entertainment journalist, I've had the opportunity to cover Trump for over a decade, and in all my years covering him I've never heard anything negative about the man until he announced he was running for president. Keep in mind, I got paid a lot of money to dig up dirt on celebrities like Trump for a living so a scandalous story on the famous billionaire could've potentially sold a lot of magazines and would've been a "yuge" feather in my cap. Instead, I found that he doesn't drink alcohol or do drugs, he's a hardworking businessman and totally devoted to his beloved wife and children. On top of that, he's one of the most generous celebrities in the world with a heart filled with more gold than his $100 million New York penthouse.

In 2004, the first season of The Apprentice aired and at that time I worked as an entertainment columnist for the "RedEye Edition of the Chicago Tribune" and as a freelancer for US Weekly. I had a gut feeling that Chicago contestant, Bill Rancic, was going to win the reality show. So I contacted him and covered the hit show the entire season. I managed to score an invite to New York for the show's grand finale and after-party. This is where I first met Trump and got to ask him a few questions. That year, Rancic did win The Apprentice. I attended The Apprentice finale the next two years in a row. Between that and the frequent visits Trump and his family made to Chicago during the construction of their Trump International Hotel & Tower, I got a chance to meet most of his family too and I've had nothing but positive experiences with them. Since the media has failed so miserably at reporting the truth about Trump, I decided to put together some of the acts of kindness he's committed over three decades which has gone virtually unnoticed or fallen on deaf ears.

F. William Engdahl, who is well known for books and articles in geopolitics, has recently published a book entitled The Lost Hegemon: Whom the Gods Would Destroy. The subtitle refers to a dictum by Euripides, "Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad."

This book describes how the U.S. has been going mad since the fall of the Soviet Union, thereby destroying itself. The madness involves the method through which the United States tried to prevent the loss of its global hegemony. Engdahl writes that the method was based on a scheme devised by Zbigniew Brzezinski, while he was serving as President Jimmy Carter's national security advisor.

The scheme was to destroy the Soviet Union's economy by luring it into an unwinnable war in Afghanistan. The method for doing this was for Osama bin Laden, working for the CIA, to invite fundamentalist Muslims in Saudi Arabia and other countries to Afghanistan, where the U.S. military would arm and train them (Operation Cyclone). Engdahl believes that the weakening of its economy led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Cold War was over. How would the United States respond?

Western Ukraine is "occupied", according to CNN. An earlier version of this amazing article claimed that Ukraine is a NATO member. Sure, why not?

CNN's newsroom is either staffed by turnips or master-level trolls.

"Since assuming office the Trump administration has taken a much harder line on the occupation of the western part of Ukraine, a partner of NATO," writes CNN.

Fake news, but also: True news? We are very confused.

A top House Democrat is calling for an investigation into Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes after he told the White House about new information that President Donald Trump and his associates might have been caught up in government surveillance.

"A credible investigation cannot be conducted this way," Schiff said.
Representative Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) told CNN on Thursday that the intelligence panel is a "very special committee."

"They are privileged to information that most members of Congress may never see and so you expect them to be extremely confidential," Cummings said. "What he did was basically go to the president, who's being investigated, by the FBI and by the intelligence committee, to give them information."

Turkey is at a dead end in Syria. Erdogan's dream of going on to Raqqa and Deir Ezzor or even Aleppo city has been blocked by an agreement between the U.S. and Russia. His proxy forces are stuck north-east of Aleppo city and have no way to go further south, east or west. They conquered a piece of rural land that gives Erdogan no negotiation leverage but potentially a lot of headaches. A small Russian contingent has moved into the Kurdish enclave in north-west Syria around Afrin blocking any serious Turkish move against that area.

Turkey and its paymasters in Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have lost the fight over Syria. Still tacitly backed by the U.S. they are currently trying a Hail-Mary pass to again achieve some negotiation power for the next round of Geneva talks. This is likely to again fail. Their proxy forces in the northwest, including al-Qaeda, moved from the north towards the city of Hama (see map, red=Syrian government). Over the last days they captured 11 small villages which were only lightly defended. The Russian and Syrian airforce are now devastating them and a counter-attack by the Syrian army is prepared and will soon throw them back.

In a suggestive but somewhat cryptic statement, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that Moscow would take note of Israel's actions — not words — in Syria, and respond accordingly.

Lavrov said on Wednesday that:

Russia "will judge how accurately this arrangement is carried out by our Israeli partners not on the basis of what they say but how they act," Lavrov stressed.

"During Israel's prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu's] second to latest visit to Moscow he and President [of Russia Vladimir] Putin achieved a clear agreement about the way Russian and Israeli militaries could cooperate in relation to the situation in Syria," Lavrov said, commenting on last week's Israeli strikes on the Syrian Armed Forces posts near Damascus.

We reported earlier this week that Syria's U.N. envoy Bashar Jaafari said that Syria's use of anti-aircraft missiles against Israeli fighter jets was a "message" from Putin.

Israel's ambassador was summoned by Moscow after Friday's airstrikes, and reports have emerged that Russian military advisors were operating just a few kilometers from the area that was targeted by Israeli strikes; so there's certainly circumstantial evidence to back up Jaafari's claim.

But Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists the exact opposite — that Putin understands that "if there is a feasibility from an intelligence and military standpoint - [Israel will] attack [targets in Syria]".

Lavrov's statement suggests that the Russia and Israel have some kind of agreement concerning Syria — and that Moscow is unpleased with how it's being carried out. The question now is: What does this agreement entail?