Unveiling "Plan Rabbit", the Venezuelan president described it as an "extremely good" initiative to provide an alternative source of animal protein, "because rabbits breed like... rabbits."

The scheme - designed to resist the "economic war" Mr Maduro says is being waged by the "empire" - had however suffered teething difficulties. The minister for urban agriculture, Freddy Bernal, had handed out baby rabbits to 15 communities as part of a trial, Mr Maduro recounted to much laughter from assembled ministers. 

"When he returned, surprise! The people had the bunnies with little bows and they were keeping them as pets," he said. 

"The Muslim world suffers from a lack of caliphates," the imam said, noting that this situation allows "heretics" such as Buddhists and those who serve the cow, pig, and donkey, to act 'arrogantly' and authoritatively towards Muslims. According to the imam, Muslim children "are burning" because of the failure of the Muslim world to act.

At the end of his speech, the imam promised to take revenge on heretics and the "soldiers of Satan". This revenge, he said, will include the creation of Islamic caliphates which will follow the ways of Mohammed. It will also include the "redemption" of Jerusalem, Rome, and India, and will crush all those who came out against Islam.

The imam then prayed to Allah to expedite the reestablishment of the caliphates.

President Donald Trump has been a critic of Amazon, tweeting his disdain for coverage from The Washington Post, which is a personal holding of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. But Palihapitiya said he thinks that Facebook and Google face more regulatory risk, given the many retailers that compete with Amazon.

"Amazon is a microscopic portion of global consumption today, so ultimately I think it has more room to grow before it invites regulatory overview," Palihapitiya said. "On the other hand, Facebook and Google effectively are surveillance states. And they have so much personal, private information about so many citizens of so many countries."

He called Jean-Claude Juncker’s plans to hugely expand the powers of the EU without a vote “extremely worrying” and shouted: “Thank God we’re leaving! You’ve learned nothing from Brexit!”

The former Ukip boss, and champion of Brexit, added that Juncker and his colleagues were appointing powerful unelected people in positions of huge power including “a finance minister who intervenes when he feels it necessary” and plans for “a European army with a more aggressive foreign policy.”

“And all this to be done without the consent of the people.” Mr Farage was clearly appalled by Junker’s earlier claim that the EU could appoint pan-European ministers with unprecedented powers without any form of electoral process.

The clause says that WikiLeaks “resembles a non-state hostile intelligence service” and that the US government “should treat it as such.” The intended target might not be Julian Assange, the Australian-born founder of WikiLeaks who has been holed up at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012.

Federal law enforcement, experts say, is likely targeting anyone collaborating with his organization. “You need to show that someone is an agent of a foreign power,” said Deitz, who teaches at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. “It’s possible that Assange has colleagues in this country that they need to focus on,” Deitz said, noting that such action can only be done under court order.

But that's perhaps why few pundits seemed overly shocked when Israeli media late last week began reporting that a Saudi prince made a secret visit to Israel, in spite of the fact that the kingdom does not recognize the Jewish state, and the two sides do not have diplomatic relations.

Last Wednesday (9/6) Israel's state funded Kol Yisrael radio service made cryptic reference to the "secret" yet historic visit while withholding names and specifics. "An emir of the Saudi royal court visited the country secretly in recent days and discussed with senior Israeli officials the idea of advancing regional peace," the station reported. It added further that, "Both the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the issue."

Whether or not it was in fact Crown Prince Salman that himself went to Israel, the timing of the high level delegation's visit is simply impossible to ignore. Simply put, Syria was without a doubt discussed... and shortly thereafter Syria was bombed. Such direct and closer relations among perennial enemies could be a sign of more escalation and desperate measures to come in the region. This is certainly not - as Israeli media reported - a sign of regional peace.

Founded by “9/11 Truther” and former communist Van Jones, Color of Change recently circulated a list of organizational names that it says are in lockstep with “white supremacists.” Color of Change distributed these names to PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express in the hopes that these financial entities will stop doing business with everyone on the list – in other words, a blatant attempt by Color of Change to implement leftist fascism against its political opponents.

“Behind Color of Change’s racism smears are rich white leftists,” writes Daniel Greenfield for FrontPageMag. “Its money comes from George Soros, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, the Ford Foundation and the WK Kellogg Foundation.”

As part of the program, throughout the US, in total nine armored vehicles were exchanged - some being armored pickup trucks, and others being "Mine Resistant Vehicles." MRAPS, as they're known, were originally designed to withstand improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan. The University of Florida was one of the recipients of an armored truck.

Across the country, numerous universities also received guns and ammunition. These include small arms (pistols) and rifles (M-14), as well as assault rifles (M-16). And two universities - Hinds Community College and University of Central Florida - obtained grenade launchers. For scale, the 2014 report states that 930 guns were provided in total to 87 different universities.

Academia is now becoming an even more direct part of the violent controlling arm of the neoliberal state apparatus by enmeshing itself in the military-industrial complex. Nowhere is this more clear than in the continuation of Program 1033, where "money savings" is used as a way of introducing the military to campus, and where administrators oversee the elaboration of a system whereby dissent is quelled by a show of direct force. For what else is an armored vehicle besides a show of force? Bringing the military to campus is providing students an education in living in a police state, and giving them a front-row seat in the classroom of neoliberal politics in the 21st century.

The Henry Jackson Society’s executive director Dr Alan Mendoza said the findings debunked a widespread “narrative of decline” in which Donald Trump’s victory and the Brexit vote are presented as signs of both countries losing their global power.

Dr Mendoza said: “For all the doom and gloom surrounding the implications of Brexit, the reality shines through that the UK remains a leading global power nation, with immense soft and hard power capabilities. The lesson of this report is clear: our future is what we choose to make of it.”

The United States scored 100/100 due to the country’s “vast and overwhelming resources and capabilities, with the means to extend them pervasively in all regions of the world." The other countries were calculated compared to the United States.

Not according to Dr Charles Tyler, a reproductive physiologist and eco-toxicologist, and Deputy Head of Biosciences at the University of Exeter, England. For the past 20 years, Tyler has devoted his research to studying the effects of chemicals that impact the hormonal systems of wildlife, mainly fish. I interviewed him in July and corresponded with him more recently about the Smithsonian article. 

“There are lots of chemicals that are estrogenic, but nothing as exquisitely potent as EE2,” he told me. “If you look at the evidence objectively then it is pretty much overwhelming that this is a key player in the feminization of fish in English rivers — and likely more widely.

“My honest view is that even though I was interviewed by the Smithsonian, the writer of this article did not pay that much attention and had already formulated what she wanted to write and the angle of the story,” he added.

Natural Womanhood understands that it’s not fair to make women on the pill feel responsible for such a dramatic ecologic change, and that is not our goal. Smithsonian.org, however, seems to be covering up for the pharmaceutical industry, with the effect of masking a major problem. It looks like they are trying to change the narrative and make it about many other causes when, in reality, hormonal contraceptives are the main culprit.

Furthermore, Kyodo News has confirmed that branch offices of at least three major state banks - the Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China - in the northeastern border city of Yanji have also banned North Koreans from opening accounts.

Chinese banks have yet to freeze the accounts, meaning that North Koreans can still withdraw money from them - similar to bitcoins held in Chinese exchanges - but they are now prevented from making deposits or remittances, according to the sources quoted by Kyodo. "This is being influenced by international sanctions against North Korea," an employee of one bank said.

The bank restrictions, which the sources said from April were also starting to be put in force in Liaoning Province - the main region of trade between China and North Korea - suggest that China may have become more serious about curbing its nuclear ambitions, something we hinted at last week in "It Looks Like North Korea Is No Longer Playing To The Chinese Script". The restrictions also appear to be intended to help major Chinese banks avoid being hit by sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries.