Austria has announced that it would back out of a UN pact on international cooperation on migration, arguing that the document is inadequate for managing global migration flows and could undermine Austria's sovereignty. [...]

European countries have vowed to maintain “effective financial channels” and to keep trading with Tehran after the US announced that the EU is not among those spared from its sweeping sanctions against Iran. [...]

ST PETERSBURG (Sputnik) - The Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) supports the government’s decision not to sign the UN global migration pact dealing with the rights of refugees and migrants and expects other countries to follow, Roman Haider, the FPO’s foreign policy spokesman, told Sputnik. [...]

Earlier, Hungary introduced psychological tests for migrants demanding asylum on the basis of persecution for having non-standard sexual orientations. Such tests were later ruled out by the European Court of Justice. [...]

The US is slapping far-reaching sanctions on Venezuela in its bid to re-assert hemispheric dominance over what National Security Advisor Bolton dubbed a “Troika of tyranny” in a groan-worthy throwback to Bush’s “axis of evil.” [...]

Cuba's new president Miguel Diaz-Canel is starting his official three-day visit to Russia on November 1. Moscow and Havana have been re-establishing trade ties, a tradition going back to Soviet times. [...]

The US Missile Defense Agency has been practicing shooting down a land-based medium-range ballistic missile, just as Washington prepares for its withdrawal from the cornerstone INF nuclear non-proliferation agreement. [...]

The Afghanistan war cannot be won militarily and peace will only be achieved through a political resolution with the Taliban, the newly-appointed American general in charge of US and NATO operations has conceded. [...]

Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro tweeted that he intends to transfer the Brazilian Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as a part of fulfilling his election campaign promises. Brazil will become the third country after the United States and Guatemala to move its embassy to Jerusalem, Associated Press reported. In a tweet published on Thursday, Bolsonaro said: “Israel is a sovereign state, [...]

Washington has been putting external pressure on EU states over the Russian-European Nord Stream 2 project and repeatedly threatened to impose sanctions on the involved entities. The US cites security and energy independence reasons, while promoting more expensive US LNG. [...]

Portugal’s foreign minister also accused the European Union of leaving them in a state of “limbo” and exposed to the economic shocks of a no-deal Brexit. Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva has hit out at the EU for not allowing member states to secure their own bespoke, bilateral trade deals with Britain while Brexit negotiations have been faltering. [...]

About 20 politicians, businesspeople and public figures from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are planning to attend the Fifth Yalta International Economic Forum next spring, notwithstanding the countries' poor relations with Moscow and their governments' stubborn refusal to recognize the peninsula's status as part of Russia. [...]

The Open Skies Treaty covers most NATO member states as well as Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden and Finland. As a rule, flights of Russia and NATO member states are conducted on a reciprocal basis. The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has revealed in August that the US would not obligate any funds to implement the Open Skies Treaty until penalties ar [...]

Political correctness takes down top interviewer Megyn Kelly, and she didn't even see it coming... because she did nothing wrong. The Kremlin went on record reporting its interest in offering NBC host Megyn Kelly a job working for the Russian media. Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov mused about this situation, praising Mrs. Kelly for her interviewing skills but suggesting she might [...]

Europe is now facing the disastrous prospect of American missiles being reinstalled across its territory as they were in the 1980s. The Trump administration’s declared scrapping of a crucial arms control treaty is putting the world on notice of a nuclear war, sooner or later. [...]

The UK's Middle East minister seems unfazed by civilian suffering in Yemen, saying that ending Britain's arms sales to Saudi Arabia won't help, but that the probe into the Khashoggi death may influence Britain's support of Riyadh. When Alistair Burt responded to calls from the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, and the Oxford Research Group for the UK to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the minister [...]

Venice's iconic piazzas are covered in water, not pigeons, as three-quarters of the city is submerged following a storm that brought strong winds, rose water levels, and toppled trees. Water levels rose more than five feet (156cm / 61.4 inches), with photos showing locals and tourists wading their way through it. [...]

Utah state employees will get some relief from insane prescription drug prices, with their insurer’s offer to fund their travel costs to Mexico and to throw in $500 cash, because it's still cheaper than buying the drugs in the US. The unusual offer is being presented by PEHP, which insures 160,000 state employees and their family members. [...]

Several top officials have issued thinly veiled – and outright blunt – ‘warnings’ about war over the past week. While the beating of war drums worldwide remains just hot air for now, many messengers seem a bit too eager about it. War between US and China just 10-15 years away [...]

The Russian economy is currently in good shape, posting its first state budget surplus after years of deficit, according to a report published by the German outlet Welt. This “paradox” may have something to do with the new dynamics of the country’s currency, the ruble, and growing oil prices. [...]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed this week to reveal the “naked truth” about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi; however, in fact, he didn't uncover anything extraordinary, but why? It is significant that the day before Erdogan’s much-hyped speech to Turkish parliamentarians, President Donald Trump dispatched his CIA chief to Turkey to “investigate” the evidence [...]

Good financial results shown by Russian companies may facilitate the return of foreign investment to the country, Moody's senior vice president Kristin Lindow told Sputnik news agency. “…Recent strong corporate profits quite naturally can result in repatriation of profits by foreign investors. Also, the cleanup that the CBR (Central Bank of Russia) has done in the banking system has significan [...]