The tensions between Washington and Beijing have been escalating amid the US continuing its military operations in the disputed South China Sea, developing ties with Taiwan and accusing China of allegedly being responsible for the global coronavirus pandemic. Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged People's Liberation Army servicemen to "maintain a state of high alert" and "put all (their) [...]

Iran will become free to sell and buy weapons starting Sunday as the UN arms embargo will be terminated under the 2015 nuclear deal despite the active resistance from the United States, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday. "This 10-year oppressive embargo will be lifted on Sunday, 18 October, with people’s resistance and the efforts of our country's diplomats, despite 4 yea [...]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that the European Union had adopted the US style of threatening and punishing states with sanctions. "People who are responsible for the Western foreign policy and do not understand the need for mutually respectful dialogue, we probably have to suspend dialogue with them for a while. Especially since [President of the European Commissio [...]

British television host Piers Morgan, known for brash commentary and his support for the US President, earlier in the pandemic savaged the POTUS’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, opening his Daily Mail column with the headline "SHUT THE F*** UP, PRESIDENT TRUMP." British broadcaster Piers Morgan, previously an outspoken champion of Donald Trump, has exclaimed in his typically brusqu [...]

Five years ago Russia became involved in the Syrian civil war, prompting an abrupt U-turn in the situation on the ground and ending the spread of Islamist terrorism in the country. Middle East expert Ghassan Kadi and Syrian journalist Basma Qaddour have taken a look at the Russo-Syrian strategic partnership's achievements and plans. On 30 September 2015, Russia started an air operation ag [...]

According to the hacktivist collective, the files provide, for the first time, “a detailed map” on the British intelligence services’ clandestine operations in Syria to fund, arm and provide a sanitized, publicly acceptable media voice to an array of opposition militants and jihadists seeking to topple the Assad government. Anonymous, the international hacking group behind the 2018 [...]

On Tuesday, it was reported that Turkey had deployed its S-400 air defense systems to the northern city of Samsun near the Black Sea, probably for testing, with Ankara making no official statement on the matter. The US State Department has expressed alarm over reports about possible tests by Turkey of its Russian-made S-400 missile systems. [...]

The Russian Navy has successfully test-fired an ultra-fast Zircon anti-ship missile from its most advanced frigate in the far north. The state-of-the-art projectile hit a mock target after travelling 450km within minutes. The Admiral Gorshkov, the navy’s most advanced guided-missile frigate, set off for the White Sea on Tuesday – an inlet within the Barents Sea – with the Zircon missile on b [...]

BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, his son and his sister plan to get the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Maduro said in an address broadcast on Twitter. Maduro said on Sunday that his son Nicolas Ernesto Maduro Guerra and his sister Maria Teresa Maduro were going to participate in the clinical trials of the Russian coronavirus vaccine. "When mass vaccina [...]

Russian opposition figure Navalny, who has been discharged from the Charité hospital in Berlin where he was treated after an alleged poisoning, claimed in an interview with Der Spiegel that Putin "was behind the crime". But some analysts pour scorn on the suggestion that the Russian president ordered the political figure to be poisoned. Claims that the Russian leadership could be behind [...]

Russia has delivered the first batch of its Covid-19 vaccine to Venezuela, making it the first Latin American nation to participate in Sputnik V’s clinical trial. “We are the first country from the Western Hemisphere which will start the Phase III trial of this vaccine against Covid-19,” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro tweeted, expressing his gratitude to Russia. [...]

The French president is showing signs that he’s willing to follow the path first forged by General De Gaulle, who kicked US forces out of France and pulled the country out of NATO to preserve sovereignty and independence. It was a remarkable statement from a modern European leader. During a visit to Lithuania this week, French President Emmanuel Macron said, “We, some countries more than [...]

Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic’s incorporation into the Federal Republic of Germany, with the event becoming a key landmark in ending the Cold War. The West’s triumphalist attitude after East and West Germany were reunified was a major mistake for which the world is continuing to pay, Gregor Gysi, president of the Party of the European Left, and [...]

A top US State Department official has praised Germany for strengthening regulations on Chinese company Huawei. However, Berlin decided against caving into pressure and banning the company outright, reports say. A tour by Keith Krach, US undersecretary of state for economic affairs, is part of repeated attempts by the US to discourage European countries from collaborating with Huawei in the r [...]

In mid-September, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that Berlin does not rule out freezing the Nord Stream 2 project over the alleged poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Olga Petersen, a member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, told the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda that the increasing pressure on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project started before the sit [...]

26 people, comprising 19 air cadets and seven flight crew, were killed after the Antonov AN-26 military transport plane they were traveling in slammed into the ground outside an air base about 420 km east of Kiev on Friday night. One cadet survived the crash. CCTV camera footage captured the final seconds of the flight of the An-26 aircraft which crashed in Kharkiv region, eastern Ukraine [...]

Prime Minister Designate Mustapha Adib announced that he would be stepping down on Saturday, saying Lebanon’s political factions “failed to refuse to politicize the process of forming a government.” Adib was appointed in August, after Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned in the turmoil following the Beirut explosion, which killed nearly 200 people. Prime Minister designate Adib’s s [...]

Although Moscow’s calls to discuss close encounters with the US and its NATO bloc have fallen on deaf ears, it will train troops to make sure these frequent mid-air incidents don’t get out of hand, a top Russian general has said. Russian armed forces have registered “almost 30 NATO strategic aircraft quite close to our borders” over the last month, Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russi [...]

Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a top-level conference on joint global development of a Covid-19 vaccine. He also offered UN staff a dose of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine for free. The UN General Assembly, held in a coronavirus-appropriate virtual format, kicked off on Tuesday. Putin delivered a speech during its morning session, largely focusing o [...]

The World Health Organization expects Europe to see a rise in the daily number of Covid-19 deaths in October and November, the head of the body's European branch told AFP. Cases in Europe have risen sharply in recent weeks, especially in Spain and France. More than 51,000 new cases were reported on Friday alone in the 55 countries monitored by WHO Europe, which is more than the highest peak in Ap [...]

The EU has a stated goal of promoting prosperity and stability in the Middle East and North Africa. However, its efforts to secure Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements with its southern neighbours have so far had limited success. Luigi Scazzieri writes that with Covid-19 likely to generate a significant economic fallout in the region, it is time for the EU to make a more ambitious offer. [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The United Kingdom’s chief of defence intelligence, Lt. Gen. Jim Hockenhull, has warned that Russia’s nuclear-powered Burevestnik (NATO name Skyfall) cruise missiles could remain in the atmosphere for multiple years if necessary and could pose a threat at any moment. "Moscow is testing a sub-sonic nuclear-powered cruise missile system which has global reach and woul [...]