BREAKING WORLDWIDE

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has vetoed a bill that would have allowed the families of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia. The move sets Obama up for a possible first veto override by Congress. Both chambers passed the bill by voice vote. The House sent Obama the bill just before the 15th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. Obama says the bill would “upset longstanding international principles regarding sovereign immunity.” The bill would have given 9/11 families the right to sue in U.S. court for any role that elements of the Saudi government may have played in the attacks. Fifteen of the 19 men who carried out the attacks were Saudi nationals.

What, precisely, is the US military for, and what, precisely, can it do? In practical terms, how powerful is it? On paper, it is formidable, huge, with carrier battle groups, advanced technology, remarkable submarines, satellites, and so on. What does this translate to? Military power does not exist independently, but only in relation to specific circumstances. Comparing technical specifications of the T-14 to those of the M1A2, or Su-34 to F-15, or numbers of this to numbers of that, is an interesting intellectual exercise. It means little without reference to specific circumstances. For example, America is vastly superior militarily to North Korea in every category of arms–but the North has nuclear bombs. It can’t deliver them to the US, but probably can to Seoul. Even without nuclear weapons, it has a large army and large numbers of artillery tubes within range of Seoul. It has an unpredictable government. As Gordon Liddy said, if your responses to provocation are wildly out ...

The September parliamentary elections in Russia resulted in a big win for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The ruling United Russia party gained an absolute majority of seats. All other parties represented in the parliament back the national leader. With the broad support he enjoys at home, the Russian president is becoming more and more popular abroad. For instance, US GOP candidate Donald Trump consistently says kind words for Vladimir V. Putin, who is often demonized by American media. Contrary to all predictions, this stance only fuelled the Trump’s popularity among American voters. According to an August 2016 YouGov / Economist poll, only 27 per cent of registered Republicans have a negative view of the Russian president, compared with 66 per cent two years ago. Eighty-five per cent of Republicans say they view Mr. Putin to be a strong leader, while just 18 per cent of Republicans say the same of Barack Obama. Among voters backing Mr. Trump, the Russian president’s approval ra...

Yahoo has confirmed rumors of a data breach compromising the account information of “at least 500 million user[s]” in what appears to be the largest hack of all time, surpassing the Myspace hack of 2013 . Tech site Recode first reported the hack Thursday morning after being tipped off by “several sources close to the situation.” They predicted an official announcement from the company would be released sometime this week.The statement , posted at 2:28 EST Thursday, speculates the information was stolen by a “state-sponsored actor,” a term used to describe an unidentified person or entity working on behalf of a government to allegedly “gain information about their targets, or access to their targets through trusted relationships with the third party company.” Yahoo’s claim has not been confirmed, but an investigation is underway. According to their press release: “A recent investigation by Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has confirmed that a copy of certain user account information ...

After United Russia's landslide election victory, rumors abound Putin now feels he has a mandate to create a single Ministry for State Security from the FSB (Federal Security Service), the FSO (Federal Protective Service) and the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) The author is a popular and well informed Russian blogger. The Ministry for State Security (MGB) is set to be inaugurated before the Russian presidential elections in 2018, the newspaper Kommersant writes , referring to a confidential source. The new super-agency will be based at the Federal Security Service, which will take back the functions of the Committee for State Security (KGB) of the USSR. It will consist of the Foreign Intelligence Service and most of the units of the Federal Protective Service, which will continue as the Presidential Security Service, responsible for communication and transportation of high officials. The new ministry will not just investigate criminal cases initiated by the Investigative Com...

Modern medical technology has granted doctors the ability to transplant many of the body’s organs, extending the life of people suffering from chronic diseases. But what about replacing all the organs at once along with the body they are in? That’s science fiction right now, but Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero (pictured, top) says he plans to do the first human head transplant next year. This isn’t the first time he’s made this claim, but now he’s got a volunteer lined up and has explained in more detail how he thinks the procedure will go. If this sounds suspicious, there’s good reason. There’s plenty of reason to be skeptical. It’s easy to see the appeal of a head transplant in theory. If it were possible and reasonably safe, you could cure almost any disease, except for neurological ones. You’d be replacing a person’s entire complement of organs, their immune system, their joints, and everything else that causes problems as we age. Canavero’s first volunteer, Valery Spiridon...

The "blame Russia!" narrative is collapsing — again. We knew we were in for a real treat when the United States announced that Russia had bombed a U.N. aid convoy in Syria. What a terrible crime against humanity, timed perfectly to distract from the fact that, for lack of a better term, the U.S. was caught giving air support to ISIS . As always, Russia is guilty until proven deserving of more sanctions. Of course, even a casual news consumer will quickly recognize that the "Russia did it!" narrative is severely lacking. Let's see how Reuters frames this terrible (Russian) crime: Two Russian Sukhoi SU-24 warplanes were in the skies above the aid convoy at the exact time it was struck late on Monday, two U.S. officials told Reuters, citing U.S. intelligence that led them to conclude Russia was to blame. Oh, and look what we have here. The BBC says it was a helicopter attack: But here's the best part of this terrible Russian helicopter/fight...

Bloomberg Politics correspondent  Jennifer Epstein is the bravest, most hard-hitting journalist since William Randolph Hearst; she's a fearless trailblazer who carves massive truth canyons into America's endless plains of bullshit and complacency. Watch her  grill Hillary Clinton without remorse: Are you concerned that this weekend's attack — or, potential incidents in the coming weeks — might be an attempt by ISIS, or ISIS sympathizers, or any other group, maybe Russian, um, to influence the presidential race in some way, and presumably to drive votes to Donald Trump [...]? Experience this historic moment for yourself, compliments of CNN: