In a word - Ukraine is in big trouble... Kiev’s foreign reserves plunged last month by a whopping 23.2 per cent to a paltry $12.6 billion. By the end of the year it will be even messier. Kiev’s gotta pay a $3.1 billion gas bill to Gazprom, or else...The central bank will have to sell more foreign currency to support the hryvnia. And there are MORE hefty gas bills as General Winter advances. Is the austerity-devastated EU lending them at least one euro? Of course not. It’s up to the IMF, who now OWNS Ukraine. Yet there will only be “emergency funding” if Kiev applies that good ol’ “structural adjustment” – as in turning the overwhelming mass of Ukrainians into beggars for life. These are the facts. The rest is rubbish.

A bill that was aimed at curbing the spying programs of the US National Security Agency has been rejected by the Senate. ● The Senate voted down the USA Freedom Act by a vote of 58-42, leaving it two votes shy of the 60 it needed. The legislation would have ended bulk collection of American phone records by the NSA. Republicans, who generally opposed the bill, believe that ending the phone record metadata collection would benefit enemies of the country.

New York Times: Bill to Restrict N.S.A. Data Collection Blocked in Vote by Senate Republicans
RT.com: 'ISIS! 9/11!' NSA reform bill killed in US Senate over terror fears

Thomas Gaist ■ US Defense Department organizing covert operations against "the general public" || The US Defense Department (DOD) is developing domestic espionage and covert operations targeting "the general public" in coordination with the intelligence establishment and police agencies, according to a New York Times report. Taken at face value, the report amounts to an acknowledgment by the leading media organ of the US ruling class that the American government is deploying a vast, forward-deployed counter-insurgency machine to target the US population at large. Coming directly from the horse's mouth, the Times report makes clear that espionage, deception, and covert operations are now primary instruments of the US government's domestic policy and are actively deployed by the military and security agencies against the civilian population.

The US has no plans to humiliate Russia, but instead wants to subdue it, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that no one had ever succeeded in doing so – and never will. ● Speaking at a forum of the All-Russia Peoples' Front in Moscow on Tuesday, the Russian leader said that history was not about to change, and that no one would manage to suppress the country. "Throughout history no one has ever managed to do so toward Russia – and no one ever will," Putin said. Responding to a question about whether America was trying to humiliate Russia, Putin disagreed, saying that the US wanted "to solve their problems at our expense." He said that people in Russia really like the Americans, but it's the US politics that are not accepted so well. "I think America and its people are more liked than disliked by people here [in Russia]. It's the politics of the ruling class [in the US] that is likely negatively viewed by the majority of our citizens," he said. The Russian leader said the US had managed to subordinate its allies to its influence – with such countries "trying to protect foreign national interests on obscure conditions and perspectives."

Russia insists that the United States provide satellite photographs made at the moment Malaysian Boeing-777’s went down, the Russian Federation’s permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Andrey Kelin in an official statement. ● If the Novorussian forces were responsible for the downing of MH17, why would Russia continue, and in an official capacity, request that the US release its satellite imagery taken at the time of the attack? “We keep insisting that the Americans provide their satellite data, as they couldn’t but see what was happening on that day at that place,” Kelin told the Rossiya 24 TV channel. “We also urgently need data of talks between air traffic controllers that can be provided by the Ukrainian side.”

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange reportedly announced the whistleblowing website will soon release a fourth series of classified documents. ● The leak is currently being prepared, Assange told the Lisbon and Estoril Film Festival (LEFFEST) on Sunday, according to teleSUR. He gave no date or further details about the publication. Regarding the contents of the leaks and the release date, he said via teleconference from the London’s Ecuadorean Embassy, “I've delegated that to someone else in the organization.” Assange is still holed up in the South American state’s London embassy. He sought political asylum there in June 2012 to avoid extradition. Swedish authorities want to question Assange over allegations of rape and sexual molestation, although he has not been charged. The Australian activist believes the US government will seek his extradition for publishing thousands of classified diplomatic cables and military secrets if he travels to Sweden. The last Spy Files released by WikiLeaks in 2013 included 250 documents from more than 90 surveillance companies. The leak uncovered the extent of the secret, global mass surveillance industry.