The European Union urgently requires financial injections to stay afloat and survive the coronavirus epidemic currently ravaging the continent, the European commissioner for economy, Paolo Gentiloni, has warned. A whopping €1.5 trillion ($ 1.63 trillion) could be needed to “deal with this crisis,” Gentiloni told Der Spiegel ahead of the EU leaders summit on the crisis sparked by the outbreak [...]

In January 2020 members of the Iraqi parliament said the country was mulling the purchase of advanced Russian S-400 missile systems amid concerns that Washington might stop supporting Iraq and providing it with modern air defence armaments. The Parliamentary Security and Defence Committee of Iraq submitted a detailed study requesting the purchase of Russian long-range, surface-to-air S-400 missile [...]

The novel coronavirus may have first passed to humans somewhere in southern China months before the outbreak in the city of Wuhan, a new study found, cutting against widely held theories about the origins of the pandemic. Mapping a “network” of coronavirus genomes and tracing mutations over time, a team of researchers led by a Cambridge University geneticist determined the first Covid-19 infec [...]

Donald Trump’s claim that he received a positive letter from Kim Jong Un is false, Pyongyang has said, urging the US president to refrain from using his relations with the North Korean leader for “selfish purposes.” During his briefing on Saturday, Trump boasted that he had “recently” received a written message from Kim. “It was a nice note. I think we’re doing fine,” he said, insi [...]

An earlier ABC News report stated that US intelligence officials had warned the military and White House about the spread of a coronavirus outbreak in China as far back as late November 2019, with the Pentagon denying the "product/assessment" existed. US intelligence agencies warned Israel of the threat of a coronavirus outbreak in China as far back as in November 2019, Israeli Channel 12 [...]

Russian Helicopters and their Mexican partner – the Craft Avia Center announced plans to form a partnership to market the Ansat multi-purpose helicopter in Mexico several years back, with the Mexican side opening a service center earlier this year. The global economic slowdown and coronavirus pandemic has not held Mexico back from taking delivery of its first Ansat helicopter, Jose de V [...]

Having bragged repeatedly of America’s energy independence, President Trump must confront the harsh realities of a global oil market no longer able to sustain inefficient US oil producers as he prepares to negotiate with the G20. The global economy struggles to adapt to the one-two punch of reduced oil demand brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian-Saudi Arabian price war, which h [...]

The initial human volunteers have been selected to test a Russian vaccine against the deadly new coronavirus in trials set to begin in late June. The project's chief developer is leading by example by taking his place among them. Work on the biological preparation began in February at the Vector Institute, Russia’s leading virology and biotechnology research center. It's based in Novosibirsk, th [...]

Since Saturday, 2,186 more people in Russia have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the nationwide total to 15,770, according to the emergency team in charge of managing the country's response to the deadly infection. The fresh figure drastically ups the curve, as only 1,667 new cases were recorded across the country the day before. [...]

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied oil exporters led by Russia are reportedly set to hold an urgent meeting on Sunday to clinch a last-minute agreement to save the oil market from further tumbling. The virtual meeting is scheduled for 4pm GMT, the Azerbaijan Energy Ministry confirmed to Russian media. The same time frame was reported earlier by Bloomberg. [...]

While the coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on global trade, cargo volume between Russia and its biggest trading partner, China, is growing, according to the Russian consul general in Harbin, Vladimir Oschepkov. “According to our estimates, the volume of cargo transportation between our countries is gradually increasing,” the diplomat told RIA Novosti. [...]

Saudi Arabia, a major strategic ally of the US, has been at the centre of an oil output cut dispute with Russia that unleashed a price war and sent already-volatile crude prices to their 18-year lows. American senators from oil-producing states reproached the Saudi ambassador in a heated phone call and threatened to rethink diplomatic relations with the kingdom, according to their accounts of the [...]

BERGAMO, Italy - Russian military personnel and Italian military nuclear, biological and chemical experts have jointly disinfected nursing homes in three settlements in Italy's Lombardy region, the Russian Defence Ministry announced on Saturday. "Russian military experts, together with the military personnel of the radiation, chemical and biological protection unit of the Italian armed forces disi [...]

Three antiviral drugs that can be used to treat COVID-19 were developed in Russia in conjunction with scholars from the Russian Academy of Sciences; the academy's vice president and head of the biomedical sciences unit Vladimir Chekhonin said. The leading academician stated that the antiviral drug triazavirin was created several years ago at the Institute of Organic Synthesis at the Urals branch o [...]

Lina Rubino, vice-secretary general of the Italian Supreme Court, has thanked doctors from Russia and other countries for their help in combating the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in a video message shown at the virtual edition of the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum. “We, Italians, are already experiencing international solidarity. As you may know, Italy is currently enjoying the help of R [...]

US military intelligence tried to raise the alarm about the coronavirus epidemic in China when it was still embryonic in November, inside sources claim – raising questions of what they knew and who ignored, or squashed the report. Not only had the coronavirus epidemic begun spiraling out of control in Wuhan by November 2019, but military analysts were already warning it “could be a cataclysmic [...]

The US, ‘the greatest country in the world,’ just can’t admit that China succeeded in dealing with the Covid-19 threat while America has failed. Instead of learning from China, it’s suffering the world’s worst epidemic disaster. The US, ‘the greatest country in the world,’ just can’t admit that China succeeded in dealing with the Covid-19 threat while America has failed. Instead of [...]

The OPCW has issued its first report explicitly blaming Syria’s government for chemical attacks on civilians, pointing to three incidents in 2017 and saying there’re “reasonable grounds” to believe the air force was responsible. “Attacks of such a strategic nature would have only taken place on the basis of orders from the higher authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic military command,� [...]

The United States government has revealed its contempt for human compassion and global solidarity by refusing to lift draconian sanctions on Iran and Venezuela during the Covid-19 crisis, director Oliver Stone has argued. Iran has suffered immensely from the virus, Stone noted in an op-ed published by the New York Daily News, but due to US sanctions the Islamic Republic is “reportedly the only c [...]

The US Treasury Department has slapped fresh sanctions on Iran, accusing several Iranian firms of aiding terrorism. Meanwhile, Tehran and the UN have called for the easing of sanctions amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The Treasury sanctioned 15 individuals and five companies on Thursday, accusing them of supporting and acting “on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force,” conside [...]

The INSTEX trading mechanism was previously created by European countries to bypass unilateral restrictions, imposed against the Islamic Republic by Washington, as the US threatened to hit those trading with Tehran via secondary sanctions. Iran, however, has repeatedly criticised INSTEX for not functioning properly. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have officially confirmed conclud [...]

A military cargo plane carrying medical supplies to help the US combat the coronavirus outbreak has taken off from an airbase in Russia, after President Trump accepted an offer of assistance from Vladimir Putin. “The plane with masks and medical equipment on board left for the United States,” the Russian Defense Ministry announced in a brief statement early on Wednesday. [...]