The Syrian government has repeatedly denied any accusations of using chemical weapons, insisting that the country "simply" had none in its possession.

Terrorist groups in Syria's Eastern Ghouta are preparing to stage an attack with the use of chemical weapons and then blame it on the Syrian Arab Army, SANA reported, citing an unnamed military source.

According to the source, speaking on condition of anonymity, the leaders of such groups as Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Nusra Front), Faylaq al-Rahman and Ahrar al-Sham have received instructions from the United States, the United Kingdom and its allies to use chemical agents near the front lines with the Syrian army, as well as to target civilians and accuse Damascus of those actions.

On February 26, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that the leaders of the militant groups were preparing provocation with the use of poisonous substances in Eastern Ghouta in order to accuse Damascus of using chemical weapons.

He was an NSA staffer but also a volunteer, having signed up to provide technical expertise for a wide-ranging, joint CIA mission in Iraq. He did not know what he was getting himself into.

After arriving in Baghdad "grungy and tired," the staffer would later write, he discovered that the CIA and its partner, the Defense Intelligence Agency, had moved beyond talking to locals and were now intent on looking through their computer files. Marines would bring the NSA man "laptops, hard drives, CDs, phones and radios." Sometimes the devices were covered in blood - and quite often they contained pornography, deemed "extremely useful" in humiliating and "breaking down" for interrogation the people who owned them.

The story of how the National Security Agency harvested porn for use against prisoners in Iraq is just one of the revelations disclosed in the agency's internal newsletter SIDtoday during the second half of 2005.

There's also the tale of how some intercepts would be rushed almost instantly to the president at Camp David via golf cart "with virtually no oversight."

Then there's one about how the NSA declared it could find "not many" Arabic translators it could trust among "the largest Arabic-speaking population in the United States."

Or the story of how the agency listened as the Egyptian government dictated through its communication channels the final results for an election that had barely begun.

Told in more detail below, these are highlights from some 297 SIDtoday articles published today by The Intercept as part of an ongoing project to release, after careful review, material provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

May you live in interesting times, goes the Chinese proverb. Few can doubt that we are indeed living in such an interesting time. Big changes are afoot in the world, it seems.

None more so than the collapsing of the American Empire.

The US is going through an historic "correction" in the same way that the Soviet Union did some 30 years ago when the latter was confronted with the reality of its unsustainable political and economic system. (That's not meant to imply, however, that socialism is unviable, because arguably the Soviet Union had fatally strayed from its genuine socialist project into something more akin to unwieldy state capitalism.)

Students at the University of Texas, San Antonio are launching a new magazine called "No Whites Allowed."

A Facebook event announcing Thursday's launch says the magazine will "create a space" for "black and brown people, especially those who are queer," who have been "told that they don't have a space" or a "voice or a say."


"The [magazine] specifically features and promotes black and brown lgbtqa creatives," a description of the event reads. "We hope to showcase our talent and create an open space for our voices to be heard."

Zachary Rapp wakes up most mornings at the crack of dawn, goes for a run, sips black coffee while ripping through emails, and then steps into a freezing cold shower.

It's a routine designed to reduce the stress of juggling three different health and biotech start-ups for 18 hours a day.

Rapp is part of the growing "positive stress" movement, consisting of tech workers who claim that such radical tactics will help them live better and longer or - in Silicon Valley - work better for longer.

A ministerial task force on rough sleeping will meet for the first time next week three months after it was set up.

A £28 million fund to provide accommodation for the homeless established at the same time has yet to distribute any money, officials admitted yesterday. Three pilot areas have been identified but no grants have been made.

YouTube is purging right-wing and independent commentators in the wake of the Parkland High shooting while admitting that it is mistakenly banning conservatives.

Independent journalist Mike Cernovich reported earlier today that a video he uploaded of left-wing Antifa activists chanting death threats had been taken down by YouTube. The video shows Antifa shouting violent threats at attendees of Cernovich's Night for Freedom event in Washington DC, which took place on Saturday. Cernovich commented to Breitbart News on YouTube's removal, saying, "YouTube is censoring honest, unedited reporting about ANTIFA's actions. This can mean only one thing - they endorse far left wing violence."

The Afghan capital has been rocked by a strong car bomb blast, which targeted foreign troops and which killed at least one person and wounded four others.

The Afghan Interior Ministry said that the blast occurred early Friday morning in Qabil Bay in eastern Kabul, an area that is home to a military training center, the government's customs offices, and some guest houses.

The bomb-laden vehicle belonged to an international contractor, according to the ministry spokesman, Najib Danish, who did not name the company.

At least 30 people have been killed in a fire that engulfed a drug treatment center in Azerbaijan's capital Baku, according to local media.

Four people who sustained injuries have reportedly been taken to a local hospital.

The blaze, which broke out at the drug treatment center in the north of Baku early on Friday, has already been extinguished.

Why does the CPC want to remove the expression that the President and Vice-President of the People's Republic of China "shall serve no more than two consecutive terms" from the country's Constitution?

Why is China lifting the two-term limit for Xi? The answer can be found by reading the amendment itself (and remembering a little history):

1. In the seventh paragraph of the Preamble to the Constitution, "the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents" is amended to read "the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era"; "improve the socialist legal system" is amended to read "improve the socialist rule of law"; before "work hard and self-reliantly" is inserted "apply a new vision of development"; and "promote the coordinated development of the material, political and spiritual civilizations, to turn China into a socialist country that is prosperous, powerful, democratic and culturally advanced" is amended to read "promote the coordinated development of the material, political, spiritual, social and ecological civilizations, to turn China into a strong modern socialist country that is prosperous, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful, and to realize the great rejuvenation for the Chinese nation." This paragraph is accordingly amended to read: "The victory in China's New-Democratic Revolution and the successes in its socialist cause have been achieved by the Chinese people of all nationalities, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, by upholding truth, correcting errors and surmounting numerous difficulties and hardships. China will be in the primary stage of socialism for a long time to come. The basic task of the nation is to concentrate its effort on socialist modernization along the road of Chinese-style socialism. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the Chinese people of all nationalities will continue to adhere to the people's democratic dictatorship and the socialist road, persevere in reform and opening to the outside world, steadily improve socialist institutions, develop the socialist market economy, develop socialist democracy, improve the socialist rule of law, apply a new vision of development, and work hard and self-reliantly to modernize the country's industry, agriculture, national defense and science and technology step by step and promote the coordinated development of the material, political, spiritual, social and ecological civilizations, to turn China into a strong modern socialist country that is prosperous, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful, and to realize the great rejuvenation for the Chinese nation."

[This article, among other changes, adds Presidents Hu Jintao's and Xi Jinping's political ideologies to the Preamble; replaces "legal system" (法制) with "rule of law" (法治; which is effectively rule bylaw, one could argue); and modifies the goal of the Chinese people's endeavors in accordance with the phrase used in Xi's report to the Party's 19th Congress.] [NPC Observer]