The US Justice Department cautioned local courts that it is unconstitutional to jail someone for not paying fines without determining whether they are able to pay, and warned against using court fees to generate revenue for cities. The warnings came as part of an effort to reform court practices that “perpetuate poverty and result in unnecessary deprivations of liberty,” the Justice Depar [...]

Stability used to define Germany's political system. But the refugee crisis has fundamentally changed the country's party landscape. The rise of the fringe has eroded the traditional centers of power. Seven or eight months ago, Germany was a different country than it is today. [...]

A four-year-old Asian boy who mispronounced “cucumber” as “cooker bomb” was recommended for a de-radicalisation programme by staff at a UK nursery, the boy’s family has said. According to the child’s mother, who has not been named, workers at the [...]

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, whose novel Time of the Octopus provided the basis for the upcoming movie “Snowden” shot by Oliver Stone, spoke to RT about the unexpected challenges filmmakers encountered in the US. Simply called Snowden, the biographical thriller directed by Oliver Stone tells the story of the US National Security Agency whistleblow [...]

Patients in need of a kidney transplant have up to now been required to find a nearly-perfect match as the immune system tends to reject most transplanted organs. However, a recent study suggests that with a new approach transplants can come from any donor. The study showed that patients whose immune system was technically incompatible with the kidney transplant they received were more likely t [...]

Getting a good night's sleep may not actually be very good for you after all. A new study has found that people who sleep more than eight hours or less than four hours a night face a higher risk of dying from heart disease. Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology collected information from 400,000 Taiwanese adults, [...]

Mercedes-Benz has congratulated BMW on their centenary with a friendly advertisement and a less benevolent hint. BMW received a “Happy 100th birthday!” message from its long-time domestic rival Mercedes-Benz in a cool little video posted on Facebook. /* */ The video’s opening showed the signature BMW grille, but in the next five seconds it became clear how [...]

Rejoice, coffee-lovers! Drinking six cups of your favorite fluid each day could cut the risk of developing multiple sclerosis by 30 percent, a new study suggests. Scientists have been saying for some time now that they’re finding more evidence of coffee being good for health. [...]

According to latest research conducted by Russian state-owned agency VTSIOM the share of Russians who express willingness to vote for Putin in the nearest presidential polls is the largest in four years. “Seventy-four percent of Russian citizens say that they are ready to vote for Vladimir Putin at the nearest presidential elections, due in the beginning of 2018. [...]

Pope Francis has urged the people of Latin America to stand up to the world's capitalist system and change the world economic order by creating a “truly communitarian economy” based on distribution of goods among all. [...]

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann has blamed Germany's open door policy as well as a lack of cooperation between EU member states on the refugee crisis and has said that Austria will no longer be a ‘distribution hub’ for refugees. [...]

The FBI wants the encryption keys to the iPhone, yet has a poor track record since September 11, 2001 of protecting Constitutional rights. After an inexplicable and terrible crime was committed in December, leaving 14 dead and 22 injured in California, the public was informed that an act of terror had been committed. We were told that the culprits were a San Bernardino County Health Department [...]

Jean Bricmont, the author of 'Humanitarian Imperialism', a study of how the idea of human rights has been used to justify Western imperialism, finds it troubling that the Western powers engaged in 'humanitarian interventions' abroad have the gall to tell their own populations to 'welcome the refugees' when things go awry. [...]

One user described it as "a revolutionary tool for change in our society." Another called it "badass" and Barry Cooper from NeverGetBusted.com who is a former decorated police detective called it "the new 911 but safer." Other users described it as “straight out of some cyberpunk fiction” and one user said “I would definitely use this before calling a cop!”  The accolades keep coming a [...]

Some 13 percent of all migrants who officially entered Germany in 2015 never turned up at the accommodation provided for them, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported Thursday. The news comes as Berlin tightens laws on asylum seekers. The newspaper’s report is based on Germany’s Federal Interior [...]

Governments worldwide in 2015 capitalized on supposed national security threats to trample over human rights. That's Amnesty International's assessment of global human rights in its latest report. "Your rights are in jeopardy: they are being treated with utter contempt by many governments around [...]

Capitalism is falling out favor with Britons, while the popularity of socialism is on the rise, a new YouGov survey has revealed. The survey found that a small majority of British people preferred socialism, with 36 percent responding that they held a favorable view of the ideology, compared with 32 percent who said that they viewed it negatively. [...]

The European Union cannot handle another year of the refugee crisis, the prime minister of Denmark said on Friday, stressing that the burden cannot be the responsibility of just a few countries. “We need to find solutions that work. [...]

The European Commission says going back to internal border controls on a long-term basis is likely to cost €18 billion. This is just the direct cost and excludes possible secondary effects. “If a process is set in motion putting at risk the depth of economic integration, including the proper functioning of economic and monetary union, the medium-term indirect costs may be dramatically highe [...]