Seven suspected members of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) have been detained outside Moscow. The men were tasked by "foreign emissaries" to recruit more terrorists locally, investigators said.

The group was busted during a joint operation of several Russian law enforcement and intelligence agencies, Russia's Investigative Committee said Monday. It released an undated video, showing a special police task force raiding a house somewhere in the Moscow Region and arresting several men.

Footage of the arrest indicates that at least one firearm was seized during the raid. Apart from that, the police uncovered a cache of prohibited extremist literature and digital materials.

An Israeli illustrator drew his own version of the 'anti-Semitic' cartoon printed in the New York Times depicting PM Netanyahu as a guide dog leading 'blind' President Trump. RT asked people in Israel what they think.

Shay Charka, a cartoonist for Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon published his own 'response' to the controversial New York Times cartoon on Sunday after the leading US paper was accused of printing anti-Semitic imagery.

In Charka's version, Donald Trump was swapped for a copy of the NYT and the dog's head was replaced with a copy of 'the Protocols '- a reference to the so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion - a century-old anti-Semitic forgery. First published in late-imperial Russia, the discredited document quickly became a centerpiece in anti-Semitic propaganda across the globe, claiming that Jews secretly seek world dominance.

The weekend just gone, Manifestation 23, marked a seismic shift in the five month battle between the Gilets Jaunes and the French state. The Notre Dame fire has brought into the open the strategic shift in public opinion that has occurred over the winter; shifts all to the advantage of the Gilets Jaunes. While the cold winter months with their looming darkness only allowed us to glimpse two equal parties grinding away at each other in the gloom, the advent of spring and its clear light, reveals how the Gilets are gathering reserves of strength all over France, and how, now, they are slowly winning in Paris as well. The sight of French police surrounding Notre Dame and denying access to its 'own' population, starkly illustrates what the state seeks to deny. After all, these sort of monuments are the materiality through which states demonstrates their connection to the population, their right to rule and their own power.

The Neo-liberal state is crumbling and Macron is going be the sacrificial lamb. At this stage he will be lucky to last two months. His clumsy handling of the Notre Dame blaze has outraged and enraged more sections of the French population. Indeed throughout the five months of protest, and despite the wall to wall media propaganda, opinion polls consistently show continued and unwavering sympathy and support of the Gilets Jaunes.

In the sharp light of spring it is clear that Macron's winter strategy: the Great National Debate, has achieved nothing for the government and more tellingly perhaps, has further revealed Macron's own incapacity to either change himself or shift course. As one anonymous French state official reportedly said: 'Mitterrand gave them an extra week's holiday, but Macron can't manage anything'. He simply seems unable in any form to communicate with either the Gilets or the people of France. His constant speeches, with their casual insults and lack of empathy, remain one of the best recruitment tools the Gilets possess.

The term "globalism" means many different things to many different people. The definitions vary as much due to cultural factors as ideological ones. When the word first appeared in the common vernacular it tended to have universally positive connotations which referred to the power of technology and the confluence of global trade to prevent world wars and bring nations closer together economically, culturally and diplomatically.

Since then, while the word has retained much of its original spirit in China and other Asian nations, in other parts of the world but particularly in Europe, the United States and the so-called "white (British) Commonwealth", the word has taken on many negative connotations. For China, globalism is contrasted with economic insularity, competing nationalist and extremist geopolitical narratives and geo-economic caution. By contrast, in the west, globalism has become something of a catch all which can mean neo-liberal economics, so-called Cultural Marxist sociological programmes, elitism, so-called reverse racism and at more extreme levels it has become a code word for either a "vast Jewish conspiracy", "vast global Illuminati" conspiracy or the "New World Order" as first articulated by US President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s.

While everyone has the right to define categorically broad terms in the manner of their choosing, in reality insofar as geopolitical policy is concerned, today's world has but two competing forms of globalism: A Chinese win-win model versus the western neo-liberal, zero-sum model.

The US embassy in Haiti reported gunfire on Monday near its diplomatic compound as it urged bystanders to take cover.

In a travel alert, the US State Department said that gunfire had come from the "rear entrance to the embassy" in Port-au-Prince. It said the staff had taken shelter inside the embassy.

"If you are traveling to the embassy, find a safe area to shelter," it wrote on Twitter.

State Department officials did not immediately have further details on the incident, including whether it was ongoing.

Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries, witnessed widespread riots in February when thousands of people took to the streets demanding better living conditions. Haiti's President Jovenel Moise earlier this month appointed a new prime minister to tackle mounting problems, including insecurity in the capital.

The elite are very "tolerant" of the homeless until they start showing up in their own neighborhoods. Even though the mainstream media keeps telling us that the U.S. economy is "booming", the number of Americans living on the streets continues to grow very rapidly, and this is particularly true in our major west coast cities. More than half a million Americans will sleep on the streets of our cities tonight, and they need help, care and shelter. Sadly, as economic conditions deteriorate that number is likely to double or even triple. Of course many among the elite are all in favor of doing something for the homeless, as long as they don't have to be anywhere around them.

For example, let's talk about what is going on in Los Angeles. No city on the west coast has a bigger problem with homelessness than L.A. does, and many in the homeless population enjoy camping out on the beautiful beaches in the L.A. area at night.

But of course many of the elite that paid millions of dollars for beachfront property are not too thrilled about this. Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten was a key symbol of anti-establishment rebellion in the 1970s, but now he is freaking out because homeless people are making life very difficult for him and his wife in Venice Beach, and what he recently told Newsweek's Paula Froelich is making headlines all over the nation...

He told her the homeless situation in his swanky LA neighborhood is so bad that thieves are tearing the bars from the windows of his multimillion-dollar home, lobbing bricks, setting up unsightly tent cities and littering the beach with syringes.

"A couple of weeks ago I had a problem," the former punk prince opined. "They came over the gate and put their tent inside, right in front of the front door. It's like . . . the audacity. And if you complain, what are you? Oh, one of the establishment elite? No, I'm a bloke that's worked hard for his money and I expect to be able to use my own front door."

On Friday's Real Time show, HBO comedian Bill Maher ended his show with a commentary celebrating reports that young Americans have less sex and produce fewer children than past generations.

As he argued that humans hurt the environment, he concluded that it would be better for Earth for more people to "not have kids, die and stay dead."

One frustrated parent has dismissed the project as "propaganda" for the "meat-eating community" while supporters have rallied to its defence as a necessary way of educating children about the sources of the food they consume.

A primary school in the UK has been embroiled in controversy over its plan to slaughter two young pigs in an effort to educate children about where meat comes from.

Reportedly, pupils at the Farsley Farfield Primary school near the English city of Leeds have been helping to feed and raise the small group of pigs in a makeshift farmyard on the school's premises in preparation for the slaughter.

The school's headteacher, Peter Harris, has written in defence of the project in a blog on Farfield's website, saying that: "through keeping the pigs, the children will learn more about the provenance of their food and issues around animal welfare. We will be investing in information boards for outside the enclosure. The pigs will not be pets and will only be with us for nine months. The pigs will have a life twice as long as modern commercially-reared breeds and will have a truly free-range life."

Gunmen killed four worshippers and a pastor in the first jihadist attack on a church in Burkina Faso, security and local sources said Monday, in the latest violence to rock the formerly peaceful west African nation.

Sunday's raid took place in the small northern town of Silgadji near Djibo, the capital of Soum province.

"Unidentified armed individuals have attacked the Protestant church in Silgadji, killing four members of the congregation and the main pastor," a security source told AFP.

"At least two other people are missing," the source added.

It was the first attack on a church since jihadist violence erupted in Burkina Faso in 2015.

Yellow Vest protesters who have suffered life-changing injuries at the hands of French police have launched their own association, promising fresh actions against police brutality.

Called "the mutilated for the edification of others," the collective aims to accurately calculate the number of people who have been injured nationally by police during Yellow Vest protests. It also called for an end to the use of the non-lethal weapons deployed by French police - namely tear gas canisters and Flash Balls - and a large national demonstration is scheduled in Paris on May 26.