unitedEditor (2019-08-29). US-Iran: 5 Points of Concord Over 40 Years of Confrontation. uwidata.com The U.S. and Iran are locked in a tough confrontation for forty years. They do not have direct diplomatic relations and are engaged in a major ideological war, playing an important role on the geopolitical map of the world at the same time. Nonetheless, although Tehran and Washington have turned into two hostile camps over …

unitedEditor (2019-08-29). A safe zone in Syria: a renewed military crisis or a diplomatic solution? uwidata.com The establishment of safe zones in war-torn countries is supposed to entail a reduction in violence. However, in the present situation in Syria, US involvement in the establishment of a safe zone will lead to the direct military entrenchment of Washington, Turkey, Russia, and Syria, and will only cause the situation to deteriorate further. WHY …

RT (2019-08-29). \'Apologies are not enough\': Eric Trump threatens to sue MSNBC & host over Russian loan \'smear\'. rt.com Eric Trump says he\'s taking legal action against MSNBC and its host Lawrence O\'Donnell for slandering and smearing the Trump family and company, while President Donald Trump took to Twitter to slam the host. | Trump responded to O\'Donnell\'s tweet apologizing for \"en error in judgement\" on his Last Word show on Tuesday night in which he claimed that the president took out bank loans with the help of Russian billionaires. The MSNBC host walked back his report after the president\'s attorney complained to the network. | \"Apologies are not enough,\" Eric Trump later tweeted, claiming O\'Donnell\'s \"true intent\" was to…

Eric Walberg (2019-08-29). Putin and Russia, the World\'s \"Heartland\" dissidentvoice.org Russia has always fascinated me—the mystical orthodox faith brought to Kievan Rus in the ninth century, the stern heroes who defended Muscovy against the Golden Horde in the 13—15th centuries, the vast spaces, the remarkable literature of Pushkin and Tolstoy, the Bolshevik Revolution against imperialism … The West has always been a bit jealous of …

RT (2019-08-29). Trump reviews Ukraine aid to ensure it\'s being used in US\' interests — report. rt.com US President Donald Trump is reviewing military aid to Ukraine to ensure American interests are being \"prioritized,\" according to a senior administration official, putting the funding on hold and enraging Russiagate truthers. | Around $250 million in funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, earmarked for weapons, training, equipment and intelligence support, has been frozen while administration officials review whether the money is being used \"in the best interest of the United States,\" the official told Politico on Wednesday. Trump reportedly wants to ensure that other nations are \"paying their…

RT (2019-08-29). Do ratings trump accountability in journalism? Latest retracted MSNBC \'bombshell\' suggests \'yes\'. rt.com Lawrence O\'Donnell\'s walkback of a supposed \"bombshell\" story involving a claim that Donald Trump received loans co-signed by Russian billionaires is the latest sign that journalism has become accountability-free. | Indicating that MSNBC deliberately chose to prioritize hype over facts, O\'Donnell admitted on air that the claim needed \"a lot more verification before [it] can be a confirmable fact\" — but he reported it anyway. | Typically, when a journalist does not have enough information to verify a claim, they wait until such time that they do. When that basic tenet of journalism is lost, the news becom…

Scott Ritter (2019-08-29). The Death of Arms Control. truthdig.com A deadly accident in northern Russia earlier this month caused the U.S. arms control community to stand up and take notice. The Russians claim they were testing \"isotopic sources of fuel on a liquid propulsion unit,\" and that only after the test was completed did the engine explode. There was a spike in radiation levels detected in the city of Severodvinsk, roughly 18 miles away, shortly after the accident. Seven people were killed as a result of the explosion, including at least two who died of acu…

RT (2019-08-29). #Resistance goes nuts over Trump axing automatic citizenship for kids born overseas. Only he didn\'t. rt.com Mainstream media, Democrats, and #Resistance Twitter have united to eviscerate a change to citizenship policy regarding children of overseas-deployed military members. The only problem is, they\'re all reading the policy wrong. | US Citizenship and Immigration Services released an update to its policies on how citizenship is assigned to children of American citizens born overseas on Wednesday. The admittedly confusing document centered on the definition of the term \'residence\' and how it figures in the transmission of citizenship from parents to child — a potentially thorny subject, given the Trump adminis…

RT (2019-08-29). \'We\'ll always have a presence\': Trump says 8,600 US troops will stay in Afghanistan. rt.com US President Donald Trump said that Washington plans to leave 8,600 American troops in Afghanistan, but suggested further cuts could follow — over 15 years after President Bush boasted major victories against terrorists there. | President Trump announced the possible drawdown on Thursday morning in an interview with Fox News\' Brian Kilmeade. | Even if an agreement is reached with the Taliban militants, there would be no complete reduction of the military personnel. Rather the presence of US troops in the country — now at around 14,000 — will be cut by nearly 40 percent. | \"We\'re going down to 8…

Eds. (2019-08-29). Brazil\'s Bolsonaro causes global outrage over Amazon fires. mronline.org The far-right populist leader initially dismissed the hundreds of blazes and then questioned whether activist groups might have started the fires in an effort to damage the credibility of his government, which has called for looser environmental regulations in the world\'s largest rainforest to spur development. | Source

Dean Baker (2019-08-29). Brazil, the Amazon, and Global Warming. counterpunch.org Brazil has gotten a huge amount of bad press with the fires in the Amazon with the emphasis on the harm its development policies are doing to efforts to limit global warming. While the policies of Brazil\'s right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, are disastrous, there is an important part of the story that is being left More

Staff (2019-08-29). Satellite Photos Show Burning Iran Space Center Launch Pad. truthdig.com A rocket at an Iranian space center that was to conduct a satellite launch criticized by the U.S. apparently exploded on Thursday.

Andre Vltchek (2019-08-29). \"We are waiting for war\" dissidentvoice.org Israel is right here behind this wall After the recent Israeli attacks against Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, the Middle East has found itself in the midst of undeclared war. Almost everyone in Lebanon appears to agree. \"This time Israel went too far. In just two days, it bombed three countries,\" I am told by a …

Martha Grevatt (2019-08-29). Belfast workers fight layoffs, climate change. workers.org Workers have occupied the Harland and Wolff shipyard in the north of Ireland since July 29. They are fighting to save the last 132 jobs at the 166-year-old Belfast company, which at its peak during World War I employed 35,000 and is most famous for building the Titanic. The workers . . . | Continue reading Belfast workers fight layoffs, climate change at Workers.org

Deirdre Griswold (2019-08-29). Trump, China and the stock markets. workers.org The longer that U.S. stock markets continue to rise, the more nervous become the investors and all the financial analysts. On Friday, Aug. 23, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by over 600 points after proclamations by Donald Trump that his trade war with China would intensify, putting higher tariffs . . . | Continue reading Trump, China and the stock markets at Workers.org

Norman Solomon (2019-08-29). Wall Street\'s Worst Nightmare for 2020 Is Coming True. truthdig.com For the plutocrats who see Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as the greatest threat to their bottom line, this summer has gotten a bit scary.

Michael Berkowitz (2019-08-29). \'Lehman Trilogy\' explores the demise of a financial empire: Buyers beware! peoplesworld.org …

José Olivares (2019-08-29). How Solitary Confinement Kills: Torture and Stunning Neglect Ends in Suicide at Privately Run ICE Prison. theintercept.com Guards at an ICE jail put Efraín Romero de la Rosa in solitary confinement despite a diagnosis of schizophrenia. He killed himself after 21 days.

H. Claire Brown (2019-08-29). How Ohio\'s Chamber of Commerce Killed an Anti-Pollution Bill of Rights. theintercept.com Emails reveal that the Ohio Chamber of Commerce enlisted a key Republican lawmaker in a successful effort to nullify the Lake Erie Bill of Rights.

Suyapa Portillo Villeda (2019-08-29). Under the U.S. Eye: When is the Time for Honduran Democracy? counterpunch.org A U.S. Federal court released documents in which a known narcotrafficker, Don H, implicated Honduran elites and politicians in the drug business. Most untenable is the revelation that the sitting president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, took drug money as bribes for himself and the Nationalist party. More

Max Lawson (2019-08-29). Billionaires are a Sign of Economic Failure. counterpunch.org The New York Times published an editorial comment on its front page in January 2019, provocatively entitled \"abolish billionaires.\" The editorial raised a serious question: what if instead of being a sign of economic success, billionaires are a sign of economic failure? In what ways can the boom in billionaires, and the dramatic increase in extreme More

Pandion Haliaetus (2019-08-29). A Plea From the Animal Kingdom. counterpunch.org Let me start by stating that I am an osprey. Many of you on Long Island know of me as a fish-hawk. As with many in the human population, I spend a great deal of time near the shores and coastlines of this area. Now, many of my fellow wild creatures of this nation, and the entire More

Manuel García, Jr. (2019-08-29). Night and Day, Being and Nonbeing. counterpunch.org Matter, energy, space and time: the entirety of physical existence. Einstein unravelled their truth: they are all entwined, a four dimensional yin-yang, the image of gravity. But, what gave him pause that he could never fully overcome was the yin-yang of existence and nonexistence: quantum reality. And that is what we live within and are: More

George Ochenski (2019-08-29). Environmental Collaborators, Hang Your Heads in Shame. counterpunch.org The so-called \"collaborative\" movement in Montana was launched as the Consensus Council about 25 years ago during the administration of Republican Gov. Marc Racicot. Its task, supposedly, was to find solutions to thorny natural resource issues. Its members were hand-picked by Racicot to represent industry and other \"stakeholders,\" and of course the outcomes were predictably More

Jack Rasmus (2019-08-29). Trump\'s Other Wall. counterpunch.org Trump brags about the \'wall of money\' now flowing into the US from abroad—from Europe, Asia, emerging market economies—as the global economy slides into recession there faster than in the US. He thinks that is great news for the US economy. But it\'s quite the opposite. More

Jonah Raskin (2019-08-29). PG&E Free: Revolutionary Energy at Stone Edge Farm in Sonoma, California. counterpunch.org \"The bourgeoisie has played a most revolutionary role.\" — Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto Pacific Gas & Electric has never had many loyal friends, not since 1905 when the San Francisco Gas and Electric Company and the California Gas and Electric Corporation merged to form the utility giant usually referred to as PG&E. The company has been More

John Steppling (2019-08-29). The Reality Brokers (or the Rise of the Automagicians). counterpunch.org Whether it\'s Twitter or Snapchat or whatever, the overriding quality associated with each platform is limited space for expression and impermanence. Snapchat is designed to literally disappear before your eyes. Twitter is particularly pathological in that it is all but impossible to have discussions, or debates there, but excels at individual declarations of fact — the users own sense of \'fact\' that is. More

RT (2019-08-29). Amazon \'smart\' doorbell company partnered with 400+ police departments to surveil your neighborhood. rt.com Over 400 US police forces have access to the video footage generated by Amazon\'s \"smart\" Ring doorbells, creating an unprecedented – and largely unaccountable – surveillance network outside existing legal structures. | Video-sharing partnerships allow law enforcement to automatically request video from Ring owners within a designated timeframe and area, giving them access to millions of cameras that police claim have proved invaluable for investigations. Officers are not supposed to receive access to live-streaming video, and users can deny the footage requests — which come in the form of emails thanking…

Staff (2019-08-29). Greta Thunberg, Frances Crowe and a Passing of the Torch. truthdig.com Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, sailed into New York Harbor Wednesday after an occasionally harrowing, two-week trans-Atlantic voyage. Greta walks the walk, living her life with as small a carbon footprint as she can. She decided to forgo flying as part of that commitment, so, in order to make it from Europe to North America, she sailed on a zero-emissions racing yacht. The day before Greta\'s arrival, on Tuesday, another activist ended a remarkable voyage. Frances Crowe, a lifelong peace activist, died at home in Western Massachusetts, surrounded by her family, at the age of 100. Frances w…

Staff (2019-08-29). The Israeli Elections Are Not About Palestine or Peace. therealnews.com Shir Hever discusses how the upcoming Israeli elections demonstrate the secular/religious divide on major issues like gender segregation, separation of church and state, public transportation during the Shabbath, and the conscription of women and ultra-Orthodox to the military…

RT (2019-08-29). \'Totally not suspicious\': DARPA freaks people out with urgent request for underground complex. rt.com DARPA has prompted panic and mockery for its bizarre Twitter shout out urgently seeking complex urban tunnel systems for unspecified \"research and experimentation\" at very short notice. | \"Attention, city dwellers! We\'re interested in identifying university-owned or commercially managed underground urban tunnels & facilities able to host research & experimentation,\" the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) tweeted on Wednesday, sparking a wave of alarming theories ranging from zombie and alien invasions, to psyops and the end of the world. | Why did you pick the creepiest possible images to attach…

Global Research (2019-08-29). \"The Globalization of War\" and \"Towards a World War III Scenario\" globalresearch.ca The Globalization of War: America\'s \"Long War\" against Humanity, by Michel Chossudovsky | America\'s hegemonic project in…

Norman Solomon (2019-08-29). With Sanders and Warren Surging, Is Wall Street\'s 2020 Nightmare Coming True? commondreams.org In this file photo taken on July 30, 2019 Democratic presidential hopefuls US Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders (L) and US Senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren hug after participating in the first round of the second Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/sanders_warren.jpg …

R.R. (2019-08-29). Emergency Palantir Mass Mobilization to Stop ICE Terror. indybay.org An angry group of activists mobilized on August 23 at the headquarters of Palantir Technologies in Palo Alto. Just 3 days earlier Palantir renewed its ICE Investigative Case Management contract that enables ICE to track the every move of undocumented immigrants until 2022; protesters responded quickly and loudly. | Photos by Jack Owicki, Pro Bono Photo. Please credit the photographer.

United Nations (2019-08-29). Venezuela migrant crisis begs a \'coherent, predictable and harmonized\' response: UNHCR. un.org There is \"no end in sight\" to the massive movement of Venezuelan migrants and refugees, now at around 4.3 million in number, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) shared on Thursday.

Anya Parampil (2019-08-29). The Grayzone\'s Anya Parampil on Fox: US regime change policy fuels migration crisis. thegrayzone.com On Fox News, Anya Parampil explained how the US coup in Honduras and bipartisan support for the corrupt, right-wing President…

teleSUR (2019-08-29). Live Updates: FARC Party Affirms Goal of Peace in Colombia. telesurenglish.net Update: Colombia\'s President, Ivan Duque condemned the actions of the minority faction of the FARC and asked Interpol to step in while putting a bounty on information on those who have decided to take up arms. Duque also accused, without offering any proof, the government of Venezuela of being supportive of this faction. No mention was made of the inability of the government to provide security to social activists and former members of FARC who have been murdered since the signing of the Peace Agreement. He further announced the creation of a security detail in charge of tracking down the rebels. Finally, he s…

Robert Norse (2019-08-29). City Attorney Stonewalls Homeless Activists on Settlement Conference. indybay.org After leveling the Ross Camp, sending its 200-300 residents fleeing into the parks, greenbelt, downtown, and neighborhoods, and fencing off the area, the City is now refusing to sit down and work out compromise settlement terms as suggested by Judge Edward Devila. It apparently prefers to incur more costs.at the expense of its homeless residents.

teleSUR (2019-08-29). Maduro Confirms New Dialogue With Venezuelan Opposition. telesurenglish.net The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, confirmed on Wednesday that his Government resumed contacts with Norway to engage in dialogue with the opposition, after the freezing of the negotiating table in protest against the executive order imposed by the U.S. against the South American nation. | RELATED: | Cuba, Canada Meet to Discuss US Intervention in Venezuela | \"I can report that contacts with the Norwegian government have resumed, there have been several meetings, contacts wit…

Fight for What\'s Right (2019-08-29). Protesters Force Palantir to Empty HQ. indybay.org Palantir, the secretive $20 billion data-analysis company whose work with ICE has even led some of its own employees to make a fuss, succumbed to the power of protesters on August 23. The main office at 100 Hamilton, Palantir\'s world headquarters, was emptied in advance of the arrival of demonstrators. | Photo credit: Cornelia Grimes, Pro Bono Photo…

End the Genocide in Yemen (2019-08-29). During Global Month of Action For Yemen, SF Protesters Make Demands of Pelosi. indybay.org As separatists and government-backed forces battle for control of the Yemeni capital, innocent civilians suffer. Yemeni-Americans and allies gathered in front of San Francisco\'s federal building on August 16 with a message for Nancy Pelosi. | PHOTOS: Please credit the photographer as noted | Cornelia Grimes, Pro Bono Photo.

Emily Apple (2019-08-29). Rapper Potent Whisper exposes why we need to shut down the London arms fair for good. thecanary.co One of the world\'s largest arms fairs is taking place in London this September. Protests are planned and people are getting ready to shut it down before it even begins. | Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) takes place every two years at the ExCeL centre. It describes itself as: The world leading event that connects g…

Stephen Lendman (2019-08-29). Boris Johnson Suspends UK Parliament. globalresearch.ca It\'s called prorogation, marking the end of a UK parliamentary session. | It\'s usually for a week or two at most. Approved by Queen Elizabeth, PM Johnson is suspending it for five weeks — from either September 9 or 12 …

Philip Giraldi (2019-08-29). Lying for Israel: Why Nearly Everyone in Washington Does It. globalresearch.ca It is not often that one hears anything like the truth in today\'s Washington, a city where the art of dissimulation has reached new heights among both Democrats and Republicans. Everyone who has not been asleep like Rip Van Winkle …

Mark Fiore (2019-08-29). PharmaGon: Your Antidote to Profit-Based Killing (Video). truthdig.com The opioid-pushing pharmaceutical companies may finally be forced to pay some of their billions to help remediate the crisis they helped manufacture. The state of Oklahoma won a big court victory against Johnson & Johnson, the huge corporation that downplayed the risks of opioids while keeping the country awash in their deadly product. Johnson & Johnson and …

Andrew Korybko (2019-08-29). \"Israel\" Will Never Let Iran Build a Pipeline to Syria Unless Russia Is Involved. globalresearch.ca It\'s impossible to imagine any realistic scenario where \"Israel\" would sit back and let its number one enemy strengthen its influence in the region unless Russia was involved as a stakeholder for keeping Iran in check. | *** | Iran is reportedly…

Padraig McGrath (2019-08-29). In the \"New Arms Race\", Washington Can\'t Get Its Story Straight. globalresearch.ca As of August 18th, when the United States test-fired a cruise-missile from San Nicolas Island, California, it would not be an exaggeration to say that we have entered an exceptionally dangerous phase in Russia-US relations, perhaps more so than at …

Timothy Alexander Guzman (2019-08-29). The Power to Oversee the Education System, A Historical Timeline from the Prussian Empire to the Rockefeller Dynasty. globalresearch.ca Throughout history, the idea of those in power to oversee the education system started in the 16th Century. The history is complex and is rarely mentioned. | The formation of the American public education system began in the Kingdom of Prussia …

Staff (2019-08-29). Lawrence O\'Donnell Retracts Trump-Russia Story. truthdig.com NEW YORK — MSNBC\'s Lawrence O\'Donnell on Wednesday retracted his story about supposed Russian ties to President Donald Trump\'s finances and apologized for reporting it — just as Trump\'s lawyer demanded. | O\'Donnell said, however, he still doesn\'t know whether or not the story is true. | His public pull-back unfolded quickly in the opening minute of \"The Last Word,\" where 24 hours earlier the cable news host said that a source had told him that Deutsche Bank documents showed that Russian oligarchs had co-signed a loan application for Trump. | O\'Donnell reported the story, based on a single source he di…

teleSUR (2019-08-29). Belarus Wants to Reset Diplomatic Ties With US: Lukashenko. telesurenglish.net The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, met with the U.S. National Security Official, John Bolton, in the capital city of Minsk Thursday as the two nations seek to strengthen their diplomatic ties. | RELATED: | Bolton Bemoans Venezuela\'s Upcoming Democratic Elections | During Bolton\'s visit, Lukashenko expressed Belarus\' desire to \'reset\' relations with the United States, despite Minsk\'s close ties with Russia. | \"Despite all the noise around your visit, there is a lot of pos…