Afghanistan

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis to be secretary of defense, according to people familiar with the decision, nominating a former senior military officer who led operations across the Middle East to run the Pentagon less than four years after he hung up his uniform.

Blood-curdling proposals for the persecution of Muslims played a central role in Trump’s election campaign. At one moment, he promised to stop all Muslims from entering the US, though this was later changed to “extreme vetting”. The use of torture by water-boarding was approved and applauded, and Hillary Clinton was pilloried for not speaking of “radical Islamic terrorism”.

President-elect Donald Trump’s authoritarian style and personality, which attracted an overwhelmingly authoritarian following, is manifesting itself in the selection of his national security team. The appointment of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as the national security adviser is particularly worrisome because of the general’s lack of experience in strategic policy and his controversial stewardship as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Sahra Wagenknecht: We have been successfully running the Bundestag campaign for more than a year now. The Left is now highr in all surveys than in 2013, despite the strength of the AfD. The climate in the faction has also improved. There is a relationship of trust between Dietmar Bartsch and myself, we work well together. This is the prerequisite for a successful election campaign.

Launched under George W. Bush in 2002, drone warfare is part of the explosion of American militarism aimed at establishing US global hegemony. That drone strikes constitute war crimes under international law has not slowed their pace. Far from it. The British human rights organization, Reprieve, currently estimates the “US has used drones to execute without trial some 4,700 people––that we know of.”

"It has been said more than once that this evil [terrorism] can be defeated only through polled effort of all world countries. Russia has offered that and is offering it to all of its partners," Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai international discussion club. "Colossal damage requires a long-term and all-round program, a kind of the Marshall Plan to revive

According to some very recent official Syrian sources, last April over 5,000 jihadists entered from the Turkish border, heading for Idlib and Aleppo. They include an undefined – albeit considerable - number of Uyghurs coming from the Chinese Xinjiang. Allegedly the technical and operational support to this new jihad was provided by the Turkish services and special

By Peter Koenig Globalisation is the demise of humanity. That being said, if we want peace, solidarity, harmonious cohabitation, justice and equality – we have to defeat globalisation. And to be able to defeat it, countries who strive to take back autonomy and sovereignty may want to move away from the oppressive fist of the west.

There were only a few days left for the 25th anniversary of the independence of Uzbekistan, but now, concern is more prevalent over Tashkent than celebrations. The latest news on the health condition of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who was admitted hospital on Aug. 29, is filled with the term “critical.”

By Jeffrey Sachs, Syria’s civil war is the most dangerous and destructive crisis on the planet. Since early 2011, hundreds of thousands have died; around ten million Syrians have been displaced; Europe has been convulsed with Islamic State (ISIS) terror and the political fallout of refugees; and the United States and its NATO allies have more than once come perilously