A couple of weeks ago the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung claimed that Germany was refusing to sign off the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA). The simple reason being the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) regulation which I have written about here. [...]

In an interview discussing Ukraine's plans to cut off gas transit from Russia, an RT news anchor asks whether or not the August 12 vote in Kiev on sanctions against Russia will go through.From the interview:"I think, given the bellicose nature of the Prime Minister Yatsenyuk thus far and the reckless manner in which he is governing, I would certainly expect them to. Really, what Ukraine is doin [...]

A New Jersey woman who worked four jobs, who sometimes "wouldn't sleep for five days," according to a co-worker, died Monday while napping between shifts in her car on the side of the road. Maria Fernandes died in her 2001 Kia Sportage after inhaling carbon monoxide and fumes from an overturned gas container she kept in the car, according to the New York Daily News. [...]

Julian Assange plans to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in the near future, he told a press conference at the embassy's London compound, where he's been holed up for two years. The WikiLeaks founder gave no further details. "I am leaving the embassy soon, but perhaps not for the reasons [reported]," he told journalists, refusing to clarify what his reasons are. [...]

With heavy fighting underway in south-eastern Ukraine, the distribution of humanitarian aid from Russia has started in the city of Lugansk, which is besieged by the Kiev forces. The first 12 points distributing food have already begun working. The minimum offering includes rice, buckwheat and sugar, three canned meats, a packet of tea and 10 liters of water, Novorossiya news agency reports. [...]

More than 200 business people have lent their support to the "Yes Scotland" campaign in an open letter published in The Herald Scotland newspaper, just one day after 130 slammed the idea of secession from the UK. The heads of 200 companies representing about 10 percent of Scotland’s workforce have backed Scottish independence over staying with the UK. Similar to the pro-unity bloc’s letter [...]

War fever is running high again in Official Washington with pols and pundits demanding that President Obama order a major military intervention in Iraq and Syria to stop the violent jihadists of ISIS, a group that got its start with the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, as ex-CIA analyst Paul Pillar recalls. [...]

It is funny that at the talks between the leaders of the Eurasian Customs Union and Ukraine the European troika will be in attendance, whereas the real policy for Kiev is being drawn up in Washington, foreign affairs analyst Srdja Trifkovic told RT. “So far Washington has been playing a game of geopolitical encirclement of Russia which cannot be in the European interest, and which in the long [...]

The U.S. government has grown strangely quiet on the accusation that it was Russia or her allies that brought down the Malaysian airliner with a buck anti-aircraft missile. The little that we have heard from U.S. intelligence is that it has no evidence that Russia was involved. Yet the war propaganda was successful in convincing the American public that it was all Russia's fault. It's hard to b [...]

With America’s government-and-media war hawks back in full flight – preparing to swoop down on Syria as well as Iraq – wiser heads might reflect on the chaos that previous adventures have caused, as Danny Schechter recalls. Sound the bugle! Get the press to march along; we are going to war. Again! Enemies R ‘Us! [...]

The deputy spokesperson for the US Department of State Marie Harf has called restraint on the Ukrainian military's actions in the east for the first time, following a major shelling of Donetsk that left at least 70 civilians dead. “We’ve stressed the importance of showing restraint to minimize casualties among the civilian – the local population,” Harf said. [...]

Beijing is calling on Washington to scale back, or cancel, aerial surveillance of the Chinese mainland, since such a practice represents a security risk and a deterrent to better bilateral relations - otherwise it is ready to take measures. Relations between China and the United States have been increasingly tense since the US shifted its foreign policy focus – together with a beefed up naval [...]

Two Spanish volunteers have joined the fight against Kiev's offensive on eastern Ukraine, speaking out against the actions of the nation's military. They say their main objective is to spread the truth about the conflict. Anhel Davilla-Rivas, 29, and Rafa Munez, 28, arrived in Donetsk two weeks ago to offer their assistance to the residents of eastern Ukraine. [...]

Russian-EU gas talks have progressed, but no solution was reached Friday over Russia and Ukraine's gas standoff. Moscow says their $100 gas discount to Kiev stands, and the EU doesn't want gas negotiations to be used to escalate the Ukraine crisis. The gas situation is ‘critical’ Russia’s Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said after meeting with EU energy chief Gunther Oettinger in Moscow o [...]

Edward Snowden has received a residence permit in Russia, which is valid for three years, starting on August 1, the former NSA contractor's lawyer announced. “On the first of August he received a three-year residence permit,” lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told reporters. [...]

In 2016, the Russian military will start deploying two advanced weapons, the fifth-generation fighter jet PAK FA and the long-range surface-to-air missile systems S-500, chief of the Russian Air Forces said. Lieutenant General Viktor Bondarev gave an outline of his branch's modernization plans, including the build-up of Arctic infrastructure, in a radio interview with the Russian News Service s [...]

The rally in Berlin against federal surveillance gathered thousands of people under the motto "Freedom not fear," who were calling for stricter control of German intelligence agencies. The organizers said about 6,500 demonstrators, a broad coalition of pro-transparency, anti-surveillance and civil rights groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Reporters Without Borders, Digital Cou [...]

With the Obama administration already on the defensive about its threat to jail — or impose harsh fines on — New York Times reporter James Risen for refusing to reveal a confidential source, a Washington Post editorial urges the government to end all legal moves against him. The Post editorial (“The Administration Should Not Press Reporter James Risen to Reveal a Source,” August 22) quo [...]

NATO is reportedly working towards the creation of an expeditionary force composed of 10,000 troops from seven different member states as a result of escalating tensions with Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. According to the Financial Times, the force’s creation will be spearheaded by Britain and involve contributions from Denmark, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway, and the Netherlands. [...]

As much as Iran, Russia, the US and the EU are involved in a sophisticated nuclear/energy ballet, Syria and Ukraine are also two key power play vectors bound to determine much of what happens next in the New Great Game in Eurasia. And both Syria and Ukraine also happen to be energy wars. The Obama administration’s Syria master plan was ‘Assad must go’; regime change would yield a US-su [...]

Divided by mistrust and mutual recriminations, the Russian and Ukrainian leaders will hold rare talks on Tuesday that offer only a slim hope of progress towards ending five months of separatist war in Ukraine. Since Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko last met on June 6 in France, Ukraine has turned the tide of the conflict and largely encircled pro-Russian rebels holding out in two cities in t [...]

LANCE TAPLEY, lance.tapley at gmail.com Investigative reporter for Common Dreams, Tapley just wrote an extensive piece entitled: “The Double Identity of an ‘Anti-Semitic’ Commenter: Smearing a Progressive Website to Support Israel,” which states: “Like many other news websites, Common Dreams has been plagued by inflammatory anti-Semitic comments following its stories. [...]