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 [...]

A draft of an economic and security deal between the People's Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Iran previously leaked by The New York Times is continuing to reverberate in the international media. Iranian political analyst Mahan Abedin has explained the fuss over the accords and shed light on Iran's strategic shift towards the East. The 18-page Persian-language document envis [...]

A German MP is calling on her government to provide medical assistance to the "seriously ill" WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying that Berlin spared no effort when it came to Russian opposition figure, Alexey Navalny. Berlin should not be supporting the US-orchestrated attack "on journalists, on press freedom and on democracy," said Heike Haensel, the deputy head of the Left Party's pa [...]

Aleksandar Vucic's reaction to Donald Trump's announcement that Belgrade will move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem next July made some people wonder if the news had come as a surprise to the Serbian leader. Vucic visited Washington this week to sign a US-brokered deal with Avdullah Hoti, prime minister of the breakaway Serbian region of Kosovo. The agreement was touted as a great diplomatic succe [...]

The new report comes on the heels of predictions by market analysts and hedge funds that the US dollar could lose over a third of its value against the euro and slide against other currencies in the coming months owing to poor US economic performance and ballooning debt in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. The world is “on the cusp” of a new era marked by instability, disorder and t [...]

Nearly 130 Austrians have been stunned to receive $1,200 cheques signed by none other than US President Donald Trump. Washington’s sudden generosity appears to be a result of a mistake in its Covid-19 relief package system. Citizens of the small Alpine nation, located thousands of miles away from America, were baffled by the envelopes containing what was described as economic relief money from t [...]

Ultimatums are usually considered to be imperious and impolite. But in the case of China’s latest demand on the European Union, one can view Beijing’s approach as apt and just right. Foreign Minister Wang Yi left his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian in no doubt in a phone call this week about the current international tensions and what needs to be done. [...]

The world's first anti-COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V was registered in Russia on 11 August, following several rounds of clinical trials and has now been made available to the public across the country. More than a dozen countries have now expressed interest in obtaining the vaccine. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which funded the development of Sputnik V, announced on Wednesday [...]

The Phase 3 trial of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca has been paused, reportedly due to a suspected ‘serious adverse reaction’ by one of the participants in the UK. AstraZeneca only said that its “standard review process triggered a pause to vaccination to allow review of safety data,” according to a statement by a company spokesperson on Tue [...]

As soon as Russia’s 'Sputnik V' coronavirus vaccine arrives in Venezuela for clinical trials, it may be used to immunize around 14,400 candidates in the upcoming parliamentary election, the country’s president said on Tuesday. A batch of the world's first registered Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in the Latin American nation later this month, Nicolas Maduro stated in a televised address. He [...]

The Arctic Palladium project which involves development of several platinum-group metal deposits on Russia’s Taimyr Peninsula is nearing completion. It is expected to turn Russia into the world’s top producer of platinum metals. The platinum-group metals (PGMs) is a group of six metals: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum. They have similar physical and chemical p [...]