On May 19, disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean Sea. Since then, the world has been treated to a barrage of contradictory statements. Was wreckage found or not? When? Was there evidence of an explosion or not? What really happened? On May 17, the U.S. Senate passed the JASTA bill, which could allow 9/11 victim families to sue Saudi Arabia for involvement in 9/11. This comes after months of media hype concerning the infamous 28 pages from the Joint Inquiry report on 9/11 and calling for their declassification. Was Saudi Arabia really responsible? Or is the truth more complex?

Also in the news: a leaked phone call exposes the coup in Brazil, the new ceasefire in Syria exposes American perfidy, Turkey spirals down the toilet of dictatorship, and the Israeli government takes a hard turn to the right (if that's even possible!). This latest episode of Behind the Headlines discussed these developing stories, plus a 'Police State Round-up' of recent police brutality in the US.

Running Time: 01:57:47

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Nadezhda Savchenko, jailed in Russia for 22 years for the murder of two Russian journalists in June 2014 outside Luhansk, has been freed in a prisoner swap deal, exchanged for two Russian servicemen imprisoned in Ukraine.

Savchenko, who joined the Ukrainian Army at the age of 16, served as a volunteer for the notorious Aidar battalion in the war in the Donbass. Aidar is funded by the oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi and stands accused by Amnesty International of being involved in widespread abuses, including abductions, unlawful detention, ill-treatment, theft, extortion, and possible executions. Amnesty accused the Aidar battalion of committing war crimes.

Today the Health and Wellness Show discussed the topic of sleep and the circadian rhythm or inner body clock. This quiet pulse is inside of us all, guiding our cycle from sleep to wakefulness and back to sleep again. From jet lag to shift work to inadequate or inappropriate light exposure, disrupting the circadian rhythm can have short and long term effects on mood, memory, learning, immune response and more.

Listen in as we discuss ways to optimize your sleep naturally and reap the benefits of a good night's snooze. Zoya's Pet Health Segment gave us the scoop on circadian rhythms in furry creatures.

Running Time: 01:35:55

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Have you ever believed something someone said and then found out it was a lie? You remember the initial feeling of shock and indignation, followed by anger at the audacity of the liar and then perhaps depression that human beings are prone to such weakness and insincerity. Then you might have struggled to understand why, and maybe you achieved that understanding, or not.

Being lied to is undoubtedly something that most people have experienced, and it's a valuable experience in that, ideally, it enables us to spot lies and liars before they cause us too much harm or heartache. The point being, everyone knows that people lie, that they justify some things they do with lies to themselves and others. The reason people lie is generally well understood also. We all live our lives according to a spoken or unspoken set of rules or values. When what a person wants conflicts with those rules, they resort to lying to cover up their momentary departure from living a moral life. Such lies can be conscious or unconscious.

What most people rarely, if ever, experience in the course of their lives, however, is a person who lies as a matter of course or who makes a lifestyle out of lying. We're talking here about someone for whom what they want is always at odds with conventional morality and they can therefore never be honest or express what they really think, feel and want out of fear of being utterly rejected (or worse) by their peers. Such a person would constitute a fundamentally deviant or abnormal human being. They might be fully aware that their desires sharply diverge from those of the average person and actively seek to cover them up with lies, or they may simply react 'instinctively' in each moment with a lie in a (largely unconscious) effort to preserve their ability to exploit others in service to their unwholesome desires.

An editorial in the New York Times on 19th May illustrates clearly that this US propaganda bullhorn of choice has totally lost the plot with its anti-Russian hysteria.

The article in question is a litany of misinformation, distortion and...dare I say it, lies. Virtually every sentence is beyond the pale in misrepresenting the actions of Russia under the presidency of Vladimir Putin, the unmitigated bias serving to present the USA as a bastion of goodness and benign intention.

It is difficult to know where to start and end with this piece of full spectrum Orwellianism, but there are four paragraphs which deserve special mention, presented below:

A century of secret programs, technological breakthroughs and rule by a military-industrial complex has all come to this: drone warfare, which today is the US' principal way of waging war.

How is it that the Pentagon's hi-tech 'precision' weaponry can ratchet up such staggering levels of 'collateral damage'? Why is it that the 'war on terror' is producing opposite results to its ostensible aim of 'eradicating terror'? The more the US military throws its weight around, the more terror, violent death, and destabilization results. Is that the REAL point?

This week on 'Behind the Headlines', we're discussing Kill Chain: Drones and the Rise of High-Tech Assassins, a book by journalist and writer Andrew Cockburn. We'll be looking at the way the US does war, exposing the thoroughly inept management of a system that is, at its core, rather more like a cornered beast than an all-powerful global Leviathan.

Running Time: 01:59:29

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Today on the Health and Wellness Show we connected some happy dots, for a change!

Silliness is all around us - some truly entertaining stories came out in the news these past few weeks. In addition, we discussed the meaning behind different types of dreams, various emotional healing practices, everyday life improvement remedies, the benefits of positive social networks and the importance of silence. Looking forward to some good news, laughs and a bit of happiness in this crazy chaotic world? Tune in - as always Zoya's Pet health segment and a delicious recipe to conclude.

Running Time: 01:48:40

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Here's the transcript of the show:

Just when you thought the Euro-liberals' 'Eurovision Song Contest' couldn't get any worse...

When strangers are coming,
They come to your house,
They kill you all
and say,
We're not guilty
not guilty.

Where is your mind?
Humanity cries.
You think you are gods.
But everyone dies.
Don't swallow my soul.
Our souls

~ 1944, the 'winning' entry in Eurovision 2016, by 'Ukrainian' singer Jamala

No, the above lyrics do not refer to US-supported Kiev forces waging war on southeast Ukrainians; they are meant to refer to Russian forces 'invading' Ukraine in 1944 and in 2014. In what can only be described as a blatant propaganda blitz against Russia, this year's Eurovision winner - in defiance of an anticipated Russian victory - was the Ukrainian entry. 'Eurovision' was aired to Americans for the first time this year. Just in time, then, for them to receive precisely the impression of Europe that Washington wants them to receive: that it is pro-US and anti-Russian.

In a move worthy of a Hunger Games 'gamemaker', the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs Eurovision, stated two days prior to the event that Russia winning the event (its entry was the bookies' red-hot favorite to win) would be "disastrous" for the event, and strongly hinted that it was prepared to rig the voting to prevent such an outcome:

A Eurovision source told the Mirror: "The feeling is that the European Broadcasting Union know how unpopular a Russia win would be and will do everything possible to help the other favourites to victory."

Unpopular to who, exactly? The live audience? The TV voters watching at home? Or the US Empire and its corporate minions in the EU?

Democratically-elected Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has been suspended pending impeachment, replaced with a corrupt, right-wing, unpopular U.S. spy. Modi's India seems to be aligning more with the U.S. in confrontation with China. South Africa is suffering at the hands of U.S. intrigue. In short, it appears as if the U.S. Empire is launching a multi-front war on Russia and China by 'converting' its BRICS allies to the dark side.

This comes as the U.S. 'policy' in Syria is coming apart at the seams. Their 'friend and ally' Turkey has been exposed as arguably the biggest supporter of ISIS/Daesh in Syria. The U.S. is feebly trying to maintain that the terrorist groups it supports are 'moderates'. But unwilling to admit defeat, the U.S. seems keen on taking the world down with it in perhaps the biggest case of suicidal hubris the world has ever known.

Behind the Headlines is brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events.

Running Time: 01:42:46

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Are humans schizophrenic? This is a serious question. In general terms, a schizophrenic is defined as someone who engages in abnormal social behavior and fails to understand reality. You could argue that those two criteria are more or less the same, or at least that one leads to the other. If you fail to grasp reality, you can't have normal social interactions, and if your interactions with others are faulty, there's something you're missing when it comes to understanding the reality around you.

But 'failure to understand reality', now that one really describes the average human being (and in particular some of the above average ones). Granted, there are degrees of such faulty comprehension, and true schizophrenics are obviously on the extreme end of the spectrum, but it's all the same condition. So it's not surprising that a more rational and objective analysis of schizophrenia defines it as social illness rather than strictly genetic or physical, i.e. it is the result of the toxic influence of our wonderful, modern social mores and 'norms' on a person's mind, body and soul. Schizophrenics may be extreme cases, but we're all affected.

Is there any essential difference between a schizophrenic who believes something because voices told them to, and an entire nation of people believing that the US invaded Iraq to bring freedom and democracy because their government told them to? In both cases, the person/people are being manipulated by a bogus, manipulative authority. The only important distinction I can think of is that in the first case a single person's life is negatively affected, in the second, millions of lives are not only negatively affected, but destroyed.

So I'd argue that everyone is 'schizophrenic' to one degree or another, and anyone who disagrees should go see a shrink. But a specific example of people's maladaptation to truth or reality was brought to my attention when reading a story on RT.com about a wonderful recent event at Kruger national park: a lion ate a buffalo. Not impressed? Well the 'highlight' of this event for observers (and half the internet) is the fact that the lion tore open the (female) buffalo's stomach and pulled out its unborn fetus and carried it off to a few other lions who all ate it.

As it burrows its head in the bloody cavities of the dead animal it can be seen pulling out a fleshy object.

'What is it?' the man watching wonders, 'It looks like a bit of stomach.'

Then suddenly, as the big cat makes off with its find, the woman gasps in shock, 'It's a baby!' she cries.

'That was pregnant, it got the baby out,' she says in disgust, 'Oh my goodness, gross.'