America,s National Security Agency has spied on German chancellors and their offices for more than 10 years, a new WikiLeaks report says. The three leaked NSA intercepts indicate that the US targeted 125 phone numbers of top German officials. The National Security Agency’s (NSA) intercepts published on Wednesday show that Washington has been tapping the phones of the political offices of the [...]

The Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia in partnership with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has agreed to invest $10 billion into Russian projects. It is the largest foreign investment in Russia. "We have reached final agreements and are announcing the creation of a partnership with the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia, under which PIF will invest $10 billion into projects on R [...]

The heads of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk Republics in eastern Ukraine have asked the United Nations Security Council to establish an international tribunal to investigate and prosecute those responsible for waging civil war in Donbass. “Donetsk People’s Republic [DNR] and Lugansk [LNR] People’s Republic are addressing the UN Security Council with a plea to establish an interna [...]

European countries should free themselves from US political dominance and the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bolivian President Evo Morales told RT. In his interview with RT’s Spanish-language channel in Brussels, Morales said he is “very sorry that, instead of freeing themselves from the shackles of the North American Empire, some countries continue to live in its submi [...]

The OSCE has warned that a growing presence of heavy weaponry on the government controlled side of Donbass territory has put Ukrainian security forces in violation of the terms of the demarcation line, according to OSCE Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug. “We can highlight that the security situation has gotten worse in the Donbass over the past few weeks,” Hug said at a briefing in Mariupo [...]

A man claiming to be a Ukrainian major general and former assistant to the country's defense minister has announced he is now working with the forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. "I am Ukrainian Armed Forces Major General Aleksandr Kolomiyets. [...]

Over 260,000 Austrians have signed a petition calling for the EU exit for the country, and now the Austrian parliament must discuss a referendum on the issue. Overall, the 261,159 people who signed the petition represent 4.12 percent of the electorate. The petition was most popular in the regions of Lower Austria (where 5.18 percent of potential voters signed it) and in Carinthia (4.85 percent) [...]

WikiLeaks has published secret "core text" related to the controversial trade agreement currently being negotiated behind closed doors between the US, EU and 23 other countries. Big corporations look to be the biggest winners in the deal. Leaked documents of TiSA (Trade in Services Agreement) negotiations reveal that the treaty is looking to undermine “governments involved in the treaty” by [...]

Ukrainian nuclear inspectors have measured a significant increase in radiation in the Chernobyl exclusion zone caused by heavy wildfires raging in close proximity to the crippled nuclear power station. Air near the desolated settlement of Polesskoye in the Chernobyl zone is contaminated with the radioactive element cesium-137. [...]

Around 500 protesters gathered outside the US embassy in Kiev to hold an anti-war and anti-US rally on Wednesday. The demonstrators held banners reading "USA - the world's evil" and "Shame - USA" as well as "Yankees, leave Ukraine." One banner also read "Blood of the children of Donbass is on Obama's hands". Several protesters held pictures of destroyed houses and children killed during the confli [...]

The Bank of England (BoE) has warned the Greek debt crisis is a threat to UK financial stability and could trigger wider problems on financial markets. In its twice-yearly Financial Stability Report published Wednesday, the BoE claimed the risks associated with Greece had “worsened” and that the situation “remains fluid.” [...]

Chancellor Angela Merkel was not the only NSA target in the German government, as WikiLeaks has released a new tranche of documents containing a list of the phone numbers of German ministers and officials whose privacy was breached by the US spy agency. Sixty-nine high-ranking members of the German government, including the economy and finance ministers, as well as Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabrie [...]

The United States now the world's second-largest Spanish-speaking community, after Mexico, according to the latest study by the Instituto Cervantes. A total of 41 million native Spanish speakers live in the US, and there are also 11.6 million other bilingual speakers. In Colombia and Spain, there are 48 and 46 million native Spanish and bilingual speakers, respectively. [...]

The head of the State Duma"s Foreign Relations Committee has proposed reciprocating Canada's latest anti-Russian move by introducing sanctions similar to embargo of agricultural products from EU introduced about a year ago. “We should not pretend that nothing is happening and we should develop a complex of reciprocal measures aimed at Canada,” MP Aleksey Pushkov (United Russia) stated at Tu [...]

The Ukrainian president has named an entirely new, wildly different figure for the number of Russian troops allegedly in Ukraine: over 20 times higher than he claimed earlier this month. In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Ukraine’s [...]

France and Germany seem to have a servile attitude towards the US and its foreign policy which has to do with their "anti-terrorism" collection capabilities. They felt they had not to upset the collection arrangements says former CIA officer Ray McGovern. The latest documents published by WikiLeaks suggest that America's snooping activities in France are far more extensive than previously thoug [...]

Pope Francis has made an unexpected request for his upcoming trip to Bolivia – he wants to chew coca leaves, the natural source of cocaine, according to a government official. Bolivia says it will “await the Holy Father” with the "sacred" leaves. Culture Minister Marko Machicao told state broadcasters that the Bolivian government “offered [the Pope] coca tea or something for the altitud [...]

Washington has resumed military aid to the Bahraini government. The move was criticized by human rights groups, which say it takes place "in the absence of any real or meaningful political reforms" and amid numerous human rights abuses. “The administration has decided to lift the holds on security assistance to the Bahrain Defense Force and National Guard that were implemented following Bahra [...]

Greece may take EU institutions to court to stop its creditors from pushing the country out of the Euro-zone. Athens' bailout expires Tuesday and a default could mean it is exiled by Brussels. “We are taking advice and will certainly consider an injunction at the European Court of Justice. [...]

As ISIS and ISIS-style terror erupts across the globe, Western governments are busy making plans to establish a rapid reaction force in Eastern Europe to ‘contain Russia’, thus qualifying them for an annual ‘you couldn’t make it up’ award. It calls to mind one of Britain’s worst military defeats, suffered at the hands of the Japanese, when 100,000 troops and sailors were marched int [...]

Austrians have launched a petition to quit the EU, arguing that the nation will be better off economically if it leaves the union. To force the national parliament to consider the initiative activists need to have gathered 100,000 signatures by July 1. The petition was started by a retired 66-year-old translator, Inge Rauscher, who has collected enough signatures to launch an official campaign. [...]

Again Athens finds itself at loggerheads with its creditors, particularly the IMF. The Greeks appear to be willing to do only enough to stay in the Eurozone, while the rest of Europe is willing to offer it just enough support to stay afloat – all awhile making the Greek economy almost impossible to grow. Is the Euro a failure? CrossTalking with Mitch Feierstein, Stephen Haseler, and Scheheraz [...]