WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A bill will be introduced in the US Congress to strengthen pressure on Russia by imposing sanctions on the country’s foreign debt in addition to increasing existing sanctions on the energy and financial sectors, US Senators Lindsey Graham and Bob Menendez said in a statement. [...]

RT’s Keiser Report remembers the media hysteria of 2014, when many Western news outlets claimed Russia wouldn't survive the introduction of international sanctions and the ruble crisis that followed. Max and Stacy also discuss a claim by the IMF’s former representative in Russia that there “will never be a debt crisis”with the country’s current economic team in charge, which is the wor [...]

Over a half of Russian women under 35 claim they would have romantic relations with a foreigner but almost 70 percent of them name “the ability to leave Russia” as the most attractive part of such affairs, a new poll has found. 57 percent of respondents said they are currently ready for an affair with a foreigner. The proportion is even higher for the age group between 18 and 23 years – 78 [...]

The majority of Germans support Nord Stream 2, a poll revealed Monday. It also showed that most dismissed Donald Trump’s negative comments on the pipeline as a tactic to promote US liquefied gas in Europe. Two thirds of respondents support the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline because it would help provide Germany with a more reliable supply of natural gas, according to the the Forsa poll, which [...]

The UK is to offer asylum to members of the White Helmets, a Syria-based volunteer rescue group which operates in areas controlled by jihadists. The move has prompted dire warnings about who exactly Britain might be admitting. [...]

Switzerland’s financial regulator has accused Rothschild Bank AG and its trust subsidiary of violating anti-money laundering law in relation to 1MDB, the troubled Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. According to the regulator, both Rothschild Bank AG and Rothschild Trust AG failed to check where assets from a client came from. [...]

The number of unsuccessful deportations from Germany has increased by more than 200 percent, as every second deportable migrant stayed in the country by not appearing for their expulsion appointment. An internal evaluation by the federal police found that, as of the end of May, only 11,100 scheduled deportations had been successful out of a planned 23,900, according to the report by Deutsche Wirt [...]

The pullout of the White Helmets from Syria, carried out by Israel on the US' and Canada’s request, reveals “true colors and hypocrisy” of the controversial group, showing who actually controls it, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. The rescue operation, which emerged Sunday, “speaks for itself” and clearly shows who exactly the group serves, the ministry said in a statement on Monday, ca [...]

The United States welcomes the recent evacuation from Syria of members of the White Helmets non-governmental organization (NGO) and their family members, the US State Department said in a press release. "The United States welcomes the safe evacuation of more than 400 members of the Syrian Civil Defense, otherwise known as the White Helmets, and their families from southwest Syria. [...]

US NATO ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison has accused Moscow of trying to "flip Turkey" and other US allies and "destabilize" the alliance amid Ankara's plans to purchase the S-400 air defense system. Speaking to Sputnik, Turkish military and political observers said that although the US envoy's logic may be convoluted, it's not entirely incorrect. [...]

With the Syrian Army on the brink of defeating militants concentrated near the Golan Heights, Damascus is close to wrapping up its campaign to free southern Syria. Under a recently signed deal, rebels who refuse reintegration will be evacuated to areas in northern Syria, with the Syrian Army deploying units to pre-2011 positions along the Golan. [...]

The EU's new plan to create refugee camps in North Africa is unlikely to ever work, as it's never considered the situation on the ground – something that Europe helped create when it intervened in Libya, experts warn. Years of unending migrant influx have apparently stretched both the capacity and hospitality of some European nations to the limit. While the new Italian Euroskeptic government has [...]

The first 50 families of Boers, descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa, could soon be moving to Russia to escape rising violence against farmers. Some 15,000 Boers want to leave South Africa and become farmers in Russia. The Schlebusch family from South Africa’s Bloemfontein is going to be among first 50 Boer families to settle in Russia’s southwest. Like many other Boers, they are seek [...]

China cuts US investments by 92 percent this year amid escalating trade war. The US market saw a significant plunge in investment from China in the first five months of the year amid a growing trade row between the world's two largest economies. [...]

American aircraft giant Boeing will spend billions of dollars in the next 30 years on direct purchases in Russia. According to Kravchenko, Russian titanium will be mainly used for the production of the B777 and B787 Dreamliner. The Boeing 777 is a long-range wide-body twin-engine jet airliner. It is the world’s largest twinjet and has a typical seating capacity of 314 to 396 passengers. [...]

Russia has commenced work on the Soyuz-5 rocket, expected to become an ultra-heavy vehicle for future space exploration missions, Roscosmos head has announced. A number of Russia’s flagship research and development centers began working on Soyuz-5 project, Roscosmos’ Director-General Dmitry Rogozin said on Twitter. [...]

US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked Israel to evacuate the members of the controversial Western-backed White Helmets group from Syria, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed. "President Trump and also Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, as well as others, requested us to help take out from Syria hundreds of White Helmets members,” Netanyahu said in a video [...]

The bodies of more than 1,200 civilians, mostly women and children, were discovered in mass graves in Raqqa, Syria. The total number of corpses still rotting there is unknown, as relatives continue searching for their loved ones. The Raqqa Reconstruction Committee has been working for more than six months to deal with and dig up the human cost of the city’s ‘liberation.’ [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Netherlands de facto dropping charges against Ukraine over the latter’s failure to close airspace over the zone of military conflict in Eastern Ukraine is a "blatant fact," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. "It is a blatant fact that the Netherlands has actually cleared Kiev of charges for not closing the airspace over the area of military actions in the Easter [...]

In a historic bilateral summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin met his US counterpart Donald Trump in the Finnish capital. In an interview with Sputnik, Dr. Denis Rancourt, a civil rights advocate and social theorist, provided his insight into the importance of the meeting. [...]

The US-led coalition’s military intervention in Syria is under increasing levels of scrutiny, with critics arguing that the coalition has no mandate to conduct military operations in the Arab Republic as it doesn’t have Damascus’ approval to do so. [...]

On Monday, Israel further tightened its blockade on Gaza, preventing gas and fuel deliveries through its only commercial crossing. According to reports, no fuel will enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing until Sunday as Israel responds to "continued terror attempts" by Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist political organization and militant group, according to Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieb [...]