United States

Submitted by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog,

President Putin has accused the CIA of infiltrating Russia’s intelligence agency and paying Russian spies to hand over top-secret intelligence to the U.S. government. Two senior cybersecurity specialists working for Russia’s spy agency, the FSB, have been arrested and detained by the Kremlin on charges of “breaking their oath” by disclosing State secrets to the CIA. Foreignpolicy.com reports: Sergei Mikhailov, allegedly detained at a board meeting last December, and his deputy, Dmitry Dokuchaev, were arrested by the Kremlin on Jan. 27 for treason and illegal hacking.

U.S. Army and NATO Generals have warned that the planet is teetering on the brink of World War 3 between the U.S. and Russia.  In a recent interview for Time magazine, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev echoed recent warnings by military chiefs, saying that the tensions between NATO and Russia indicate that a nuclear war is “imminent”. “More troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers are being brought to Europe. NATO and Russian forces and weapons that used to be deployed at a distance are now placed closer to each other, as if to shoot point-blank.

Iran is planning to ditch the use of the American currency after US President Donald Trump issued a travel ban on seven countries, including the Islamic Republic The Central Bank of Iran is seeking to replace the dollar with a new common foreign currency or use a basket of currencies in all official financial and foreign exchange reports. The move had already been in the offing but appears to have been expedited after Washington included Iran in a list of seven nations that are banned from entering the United States.

Seemingly following the proposals of Bill Clinton (and Ron Paul), The Washington Post reports that a leaked document shows the Trump administration is planning to crackdown on current, and would-be, immigrants who are likely to require public assistance.

After Bill Clinton received a standing ovation for suggesting crackdown on immigrant welfare...

"We are a nation of immigrants.. but we are a nation of laws"