The celebration of Nazi
Germany's surrender in World War II, one of the most important holidays in
Russia, has taken on a new meaning as Moscow presses on with its efforts to
portray Ukraine's new pro-European leadership as Nazi sympathizers. 
Vietnam is commemorating the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. The
withdrawal of U-S troops from the city marked the end of the Vietnam War
and the more-than-decade-long U.S. involvement in Vietnam. A
military parade took place Thursday in Ho Chi Minh City, which was known as
Saigon before being named after the leader of North Vietnam upon
reunification. Some 6-thousand children, women, veterans and soldiers
marched towards the Presidential Palace reenacting when North Vietnamese
tanks crash through the gates on April 30th in 1975. 
U.S. stocks dropped
Thursday as a spate of downbeat corporate results and mixed economic data
revealed a recent downshift in the U.S. economy, dampening market sentiment. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 195.01 points, or 1.08 percent, to 17,840.52.
The S&P 500 was down 21.34 points, or 1.01 percent, to 2,085.51. The Nasdaq
dropped 82.22 points, or 1.64 percent, to 4,941.42. The slide reversed the bulk
of the month's gains for stocks.
The State Department,
when it was under Hillary's command, had approved of a deal in which the
Canadian mining company Uranium One was sold to the Russian state nuclear
corporation Rosatom. Since uranium is a strategic mineral resource, any sales
of companies to foreign owners must by law be approved by several U.S.
government structures. During the course of the acquisition of Uranium One, the
former owners of the company made vast donations to the Clinton Foundation. )
Radiation
levels remain normal in Russia as wildfires continue to burn in the Chernobyl
exclusion zone, Anna Popova, director of the consumer rights watchdog
Rospotrebnadzor and Russia's chief epidemiologist, told Interfax on Thursday.
Intelligence is the art
and science of evidence-based decision-support. Intelligence is not defined by
its inputs (spies, secrecy, money, risk) but rather by its outputs – tailored
actionable decision-support. In this context, the fastest, least expensive, and
very often the best intelligence is achievable using mostly – and sometime only
– open sources and methods.
If Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad meets the same fate as Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi or Iraq’s Saddam
Hussein, much of Official Washington would rush out to some chic watering hole
to celebrate – one more “bad guy” down, one more “regime change” notch on the
belt. But the day after Damascus falls could mark the beginning of the end for
the American Republic.
North Korea's Kim Jong-Un
ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year, including several who
complained about the young leader's policies, South Korea's intelligence agency
said Wednesday. Those executed included two vice minister-level
officials, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing legislators who attended a
briefing by the National Intelligence Service (NIS).
A
new report released on Tuesday details fraud and waste totaling more than $200
million of uncovered fraud and waste of taxpayer funds in the charter school
sector, but says the total is impossible to know because there is not
sufficient oversight over these schools. It calls on Congress to include
safeguards in legislation being considered to succeed the federal No Child Left
Behind law.
There were signs that President
Barack Obama might rein in the mass militarization of America's police forces
after he won the White House. Policing is primarily a local issue, overseen by
local authorities. But beginning in the late 1960s with President Richard
Nixon, the federal government began instituting policies that gave federal
authorities more power to fight the drug trade, and to lure state and local
policymakers into the anti-crime agenda of the administration in charge.
Russian saber-rattling in Eastern
Europe, homegrown Islamic State fighters in Scandinavia and human traffickers
sending thousands of migrants across the Mediterranean to Italy are three very
different problems facing Europe, but they have produced one result — a push to
strengthen borders through increased homeland security spending.
When Colombian authorities intercepted phone calls between a young woman
and a member of Colombia's most powerful drug cartel, the Urabenos, they heard
the woman offer merchandise with "zero kilometers".But the
23-year-old human trafficker, known by her alias Paola, was not referring to a
car's mileage but to virgin girls she had recruited and groomed to serve as sex
slaves for kingpins of the notorious organised crime network.
In cities across
the United States, marchers took to the streets to show support for protesters
in Baltimore and to complain about police violence in their own towns.On Wednesday night, several hundred
people streamed into Union Square for an "NYC Rise Up & Shut It Down
With Baltimore" rally. Protesters headed west on 17th Street and were met
by New York City Police officers who pushed them back.
The Salafist Islamist groups scattered around the world may disagree
with each other on everything about how to best conduct Jihad, mayhem and
murder; but they all seem to agree that slaughtering Christians is their key to
entering Paradise.They may be identified by different names like Al-Qaeda, Al
Nusra Brigade, Boko Haram, Hamas, Hizbollah, the Daesh or the current Islamic
State or ISIS; but they are all driven and justified by their universal belief
that they are obeying the command of their religion as stated in the Koran.
Only one-in-three Americans knows how many women serve
on the Supreme Court, but 91 percent can identify Martin Luther King Jr., 47
years after his assassination.
