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This year’s gathering of the BRICS represents the largest group of world leaders traveling to Russia in decades, Al Jazeera reports. The original BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — will be joined by several others interested in discussing global finance.It is widely believed that the group aims to challenge American financial control and replace the dollar with a different currency.“BRICS, which represents countries containing nearly half the world’s population, has been described by some as a potential rival to U.S. global dominance,” writes Kelsey Ables for The Washington Post.Russia and China have already been working...

With less than a month before the crucial BRICS annual summit in Kazan under the Russian presidency, serious informed discussions are raging in Moscow and other Eurasian capitals on what should be at the table in the de-dollarization and alternative payment system front. Earlier this month Andrey Mikhailishin, head of the task force on financial services of the BRICS Business Council, detailed the list of top projects under consideration. They include: A common unit of account - as in The Unit, whose contours were first revealed exclusively by Sputnik. A platform for multilateral settlements and payments in BRICS digital currencies,...

Ken Starr dies from complications of surgery

Former Attorney General William Barr criticized the media on Monday for pushing the "lie" that former President Trump's campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential election. "You decided when Robert Mueller chose not to analyze whether there was criminality on obstruction, you decided, ‘I’m attorney general, I’m going to make the decision,'" Savannah Guthrie asked Barr during an appearance on NBC's "Today" show. She said Barr "acknowledged" in his new book that he believed it was a "phony scandal" and asked why he decided to take the decision upon himself when "the whole point of the counsel was to...

A riot is underway in the Minneapolis metropolitan area, and has already seen rioters injured, police property damaged, and an attempt to hurl a cement block at an officer’s head. The riot started in response to police involved shooting of a man who had an outstanding warrant and was in the process of fleeing from police.As National File reported, a riot is underway in the Minneapolis area. At least four black males jumped on and damaged two abandoned police cars, and another black male attempted to throw a cement block at a police officer, only to be immediately subdued by...

WHO issues new guidelines advising everyone to wear masks everywhere despite admitting they do nothing.. The UK’s deputy chief medical officer warned Wednesday that despite the arrival of COVID vaccines, face masks will still have to be worn “for years” to come. Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said that he expects to see the face coverings become as commonplace as they are in China and other places in the far east. Van-Tam urged that there will be no opportunity to “have a massive party and throw out our masks and hand sanitiser” now that a vaccine is here. Van-Tam also warned that...

A long-dormant commission charged with planning major road construction opted not to advance any projects after a five-year hiatus that ended Friday. The Transportation Projects Commission met for the first time since 2014 on Friday. The commission is charged with advancing planned highway projects to the Legislature and directing the study of others as part of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Major Highway Development program, typically among some of the biggest in the state. “This committee has been un-functioning for several years and we want to have an opportunity for a good group of people to think through transportation issues...

..."this is a do-nothing Congress". ..."Nancy has lost it..."

"There is a time to come and a time to go. This is the right time,for me, to leave politics and return to the justice system."

Over the weekend, the Washington Post’s editorial page editor Fred Hiatt argued that Syria may be “the most surprising of President Obama’s foreign-policy legacies: not just that he presided over a humanitarian and cultural disaster of epochal proportions, but that he soothed the American people into feeling no responsibility for the tragedy.” Hiatt contends that Obama managed to convince the American public that doing nothing was “the smart and moral policy.” The way Obama sees it, the United States causes more problems than it solves, and besides there wasn’t much we could do anyway by backing a bunch of rag-tag...

Chelsea Clinton is opening up about life in the public eye, being a new mother and whether or not she would like to see her own mother become president in a new interview. Clinton, whose mother Hillary is expected to formally announce her presidential campaign this Sunday, said it is time the United States had a female leader. 'One of our core values in this country is that we are the land of equal opportunity, but when equal hasn't yet included gender, there is a fundamental challenge there that, I believe, having our first woman president—whenever that is—will help resolve,'...

During difficult times the community organizer does what he does best. Retreat to the faculty lounge and hide. The White House is no longer the resident to the head of the executive branch but a faculty lounge. The only thing the “do nothing” community organizer does when an enemy attacks America or its allies is to run and hide. The only time he shows his face, is when he has to, somewhat like an adjunct professor passing out assignments to the staff and quickly retreat to the faculty lounge. The isolated pretentious intellectual’s only friend is the teleprompter. Consider his...

Tom Corbett is one of the most unpopular politicians in the country. Now his own party is turning on him. The biggest question in Pennsylvania politics right now isn't whether Gov. Tom Corbett will win reelection. It's whether he'll even get the chance. Beset by legislative failures and bleak poll numbers, the Republican looks like the country's most vulnerable governor heading into the 2014 election. And Republicans are questioning whether they should let Corbett face a near-certain defeat when they could find a ready replacement with a much better chance of winning. Already, speculation among GOP operatives has shifted to...

Speaker John Boehner said he believes the primary goal of President Obama’s second term is to “annihilate the Republican Party.” “Given what we heard yesterday about the president’s vision for his second term, it’s pretty clear to me that he knows he can’t do any of that as long as the House is controlled by Republicans,” Boehner said in a speech Tuesday to The Ripon Society. “So we’re expecting over the next 22 months to be the focus of this administration as they attempt to annihilate the Republican Party. “And let me just tell you, I do believe that is...

If the Tea-Party-led Republicans take over one or both houses of Congress this November, we won’t just see the end of any possible action on climate change or clean energy. They may well force a government shutdown, which will close our national parks, prevent food from being inspected, and stop any government oversight of coal mines or offshore drilling — or clean air and clean water, for that matter. Think Progress has two video interviews with the Senate’s leading government basher. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) sealed his status as the right’s standard-bearer when he brought the Senate to a virtual...

... It seems to me and a lot of other folks that we might label the current bunch of bozos in Congress the Know-Nothing Party because, Democrat or Republican, they have reached a point at which they can be stampeded into voting for the expenditure of huge amounts of money without a clue why or to whom. Now it appears they are getting ready to “stimulate the economy” with a giant, political grab-bag in excess of a trillion dollars. Much like earlier efforts, it is likely to fail while at the same time plunging the nation into deeper and deeper...

Like some current and former U.S. Senators (Obama, Biden & Daschle), Hillary Clinton appears to be in line for a promotion. New Yorkers should rejoice, because it means she will no longer be the steward of the Upstate New York economy. Obama Cabinet When Senator Clinton ran for Senate in 2000, she promised economic revitalization for New Yorkers living north of New York City and its suburbs. She even went so far as to promise 200,000 new jobs for the region. New Yorkers believed her and gave her a chance. Obviously, she did not fulfill her pledge to New Yorkers....

Obama's Afghan Audacity Illinois Senator's Record Of Inaction Leaves Him DiscreditedAs Chairman Of The Subcommittee With NATO Oversight, Obama Has Failed To Hold Any Hearings On Afghanistan: Obama Has Served As Chairman Of The Subcommittee On European Affairs From 2007 - 2008. (U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Website, www.senate.gov, Accessed 7/10/08)The Subcommittee On European Affairs Has Jurisdiction Over The Countries Of Europe As Well As NATO Activities. "Jurisdiction: The subcommittee deals with all matters concerning U.S. relations with the countries on the continent of Europe...and with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union and the Organization for Security and...

Mr. President, tear down that fence! Posted: June 19, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern Mr. President, tear down that fence! I'm not talking about the fence around our borders; they never got around to finishing that. I'm talking about the fence around the White House. Hey, if you're going to lead us to vulnerability, at least lead by example. And those sharpshooters on the roof? They're fine. They look all official and everything, but the new immigration-like policy is: They're not allowed to shoot anyone. And if one of those men in black happen to interfere with someone committing criminal trespass...

LOOK out, Hillary - Bill is off the leash. The gobsmacking interview with Bill Clinton on "Fox News Sunday" is the first episode of reality television starring a former president of the United States. It's why God invented YouTube. Liberals love it, especially the Fox News Channel-bashing. Conservatives think it proves every insulting theory they've ever devised to encompass this gargantuan American personality. In truth, the whole performance defies reason. It was especially odd to hear Clinton complain that "Bush's neocons" faulted him for being "too obsessed with bin Laden." Really? All I ever heard from Bush's neocons - most...