World News

Cashing Out: Germany Migrant Bill to Top a Trillion Euros – Academic
About 1.5 million refugees have arrived in Germany since 2015, prompting local authorities to allocate huge sums for migration-related issues. Speaking to Sputnik, Professor Bernd Raffelhuschen from the University of Freiburg specifically focused on the long-term costs of pensions and sickness insurance for migrants. [...]
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Want stability in the Balkans? Then bring back Yugoslavia
The influential US think-tank the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has the Balkans on its conflict prevention list in its recently published 2018 survey.  However the idea, promoted by the CFR, that the US is the country that can help preserve ‘peace and stability‘ needs to be challenged – as it is the US and its closest NATO allies themselves who are actually responsible for many of the [...]
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Erdogan vows to ‘drown’ US-backed Syrian Border Force before it’s born, labels unit ‘terrorist army’
The Turkish president has called US-backed Syrian Border Force using Kurdish fighters a “terrorist army,” vowing to “drown” it before it’s complete. He also added that military preparations against Kurdish-held Afrin are ready. [...]
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Trump administration afraid of competition in international arena – Lavrov
The current administration is afraid of competition in the international arena in a number of directions, and behaves tougher than the Obama administration, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday. "It seems to me that despite President Trump's line during the election campaign, this legacy, unfortunately, has been preserved in the actions of the current US administration, [...]
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US forcing Europe to abandon Russian gas & buy more expensive American LNG – Lavrov
The United States is afraid of fair competition in the energy sector, and is hampering the implementation of the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. [...]
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Ex CIA Analyst: FBI ‘Short-Circuited’ Democracy in 2016 Vote, Not Russia
Russia-gate is more likely turning into FBI-gate, in the aftermath of the official release of strings of unguarded text messages between Peter Strzok, second in command of counterintelligence at the CIA and his loose-lipped girlfriend, FBI lawyer Lisa Page. [...]
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Taking a Stand Against Trump: Merkel Likely to Join Macron at Davos
An appearance by the two together would be seen as a global counterbalance to Trump’s isolationist ‘America first’ political rhetoric. Following a Friday announcement that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has forged a preliminary coalition agreement with center-left Social Democrats (SPD) in Berlin, officials have noted that the leader may travel to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, br [...]
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Haiti and America’s Historic Debt
From the Archive: President Trump says his “tough” language on immigration, which reportedly included decrying “shithole” nations, didn’t apply to Haiti but he appears to know little of America’s debt to Haiti, which Robert Parry described in 2010. In 2010, when announcing emergency help for Haiti after a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake, President Barack Obama noted America’s [...]
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Ahed Tamimi Offers Israelis a Lesson Worthy of Gandhi
Sixteen-year-old Ahed Tamimi may not be what Israelis had in mind when, over many years, they criticised Palestinians for not producing a Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela. Eventually, colonised peoples bring to the fore a figure best suited to challenge the rotten values at the core of the society oppressing them. Ahed is well qualified for the task. [...]
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Between the Null and the Void
Happy cultures are all alike. But this is not a happy culture. Sullen and sour, America seems like a country whose nerves are shot. And, after 16 straight years of war, why wouldn’t the political neurons be frayed? Each day the fear factor is being ratcheted up. New threats are being targeted. New wars being planned. A paralytic dread hangs over the Republic. [...]
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Richest man in history: Amazon’s Bezos earns more in 5 days than most could in 5 lifetimes
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has become the wealthiest person in history and the first to outrank Microsoft’s Bill Gates on the rich list, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Gates was the only one to have made 13-figure fortune. [...]
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Facebook stock plunges on news feed overhaul
Shares in Facebook dropped by more than 4 percent ahead of Friday's opening bell after the CEO announced changes to the platform’s centerpiece news feed, which he said would hit user engagement in the near term. The company is planning to change the filter for its news feed to prioritize what friends and family share, while reducing the amount of non-advertising content from publishers and brand [...]
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Ukrainian currency plunges to new record low
Ukraine’s hryvnia has hit rock bottom, now 34 against the euro. This is the lowest point for the Ukrainian currency ever tracked. The hryvnia has also plunged to a record low against the Russian ruble, trading at 4.99 hryvnia to 10 rubles. The Ukrainian currency is on its hat-trick against the US dollar. One dollar is worth 28.44 hryvnia; the historical record was 30.01 hryvnia in February 2015. [...]
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PetroChina’s biggest refinery doubles Russian pipeline oil intake
Since the new Russia-China oil supply agreement took effect at the start of the year, PetroChina’s largest refinery has almost doubled the amount of Russian pipeline crude oil that it is processing. A senior industry source with direct knowledge of the volumes told Reuters, the 410,000-bpd PetroChina refinery in the northeast port city Dalian will process 260,000 bpd of Russian pipeline crude oi [...]
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Trump cancels UK visit… so much for the ‘special relationship’
Hardly anyone will buy President Donald Trump’s explanation for his abruptly canceled visit to London next month. The real reason, no doubt, was to avoid embarrassing scenes of mass street protests marring his official welcome. Whatever has become of the so-called “special relationship”? [...]
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Speeding car takes flight, plows into 2nd floor of office building (PHOTOS)
By some improbable fluke of physics, a speeding car went airborne and plowed into the second floor of a California office building. The bizarre crash left two people injured. The vehicle became partially wedged in the side of a dental office building after it hit a road divider in the Orange County city of Santa Ana shortly before 5:30am, Sunday. [...]
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‘Shrewd & mature N. Korean leader has won this round’ – Putin on peninsula crisis
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has emerged a winner in the latest crisis around the Korean Peninsula, Russian president Vladimir Putin said. He believes Pyongyang is now trying to defuse tensions. [...]
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Russian Journalists Blow Lid Off Alleged US Terrorist Training Network in Syria
Two Russian Syria-embedded journalists have put together a damning firsthand report on the true purpose of the secrecy-laden US military mission at At-Tanf, southern Syria. The Pentagon was forced to go into full public relations mode late last month amid fresh allegations by the Russian General Staff that US instructors were providing training assistance for some 350 ex-Daesh (ISIS) militant [...]
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Why would Norwegians come? Twitter blows up at Trump’s s***hole slur
Twitter users have pointed out the irony of Donald Trump lamenting immigration from “s***hole countries” wishing to have “more people from places like Norway”: Why would Norwegians immigrate to the United States? Where people are far more likely to be shot, live in poverty, get no healthcare, get no paid parental leave or subsidized daycare, and see fewer women in political power. [...]
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7 times Trump critics called Russia a ‘s***hole’ & worse, and no one cared
Donald Trump’s remarks on “s***hole countries” roused a righteous high-mindedness in his detractors. But a perusal of their own past quotes suggest they are quite capable of similar words – when one particular state is involved. [...]
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Brains over bucks: Putin hints AI may be key to Russia beating US in defense despite budget gap
Advanced weapon systems and lack of necessity for bases in foreign nations are key factors that will allow the Russian military to defend the nation, despite receiving far less funding than their US counterparts, Putin said. [...]
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Relations with the US not ‘most important’ – UK Labour leader
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has questioned the value of Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with the US, suggesting Washington is not actually the UK’s ‘most important ally,’ while criticizing Trump’s ‘endless offensive remarks.’ [...]
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