The devaluation of its currency opens up new possibilities for the Russian economy, says Birgit Hansl, World Bank lead economist for Russia. “For the first time in decades, “Made in Russia” might have a chance to become again a global trademark. [...]

A Russian fighter jet was forced to enter Turkish airspace in early October while performing an evasive maneuver against a surface-to-air missile system, the commander of Russia’s Air Force said. “Our fighter jet was on a combat mission in Northern Syria in very dense cloud conditions.  [...]

An EU panel on Ukraine has slammed Kiev’s investigation into the May 2014 violence in Ukraine’s southern city of Odessa, saying it lacks independence. It also added there's evidence that police were complicit in the disorder. [...]

For the third year in a row, Forbes has ranked the Russian President as the most powerful person in the world, putting Vladimir Putin above Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Barack Obama. “Putin continues to prove he’s one of the few men in the world powerful enough to do what he wants,” the magazine said. [...]

Until recently, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was considered to be the most powerful politician in Europe. But now, her approach to the refugee crisis has her under fire at home and in Brussels. Can she survive? For almost three quarters of an hour, it was as though there was no refugee crisis in Germany. [...]

To be part of the European Union means you have to shed your national identity and be part of everybody. It is no longer acceptable to be yourself. This agenda serves the 1 percent and Washington, Paul Craig Roberts told RT in an interview.   [...]

Let's remind ourselves to one of the classic Putin moments, exemplifying his leadership skills. Once the richest man in Russia, the aluminum magnate suffered the indignity of a dressing down from Putin broadcast on state TV (05/06/2009) "You made thousands of people hostages to your ambitions, to your professionalism, and, maybe, simply to your greed," Putin announced. "Where is business's socia [...]

Facing a record influx of refugees, the Austrian government has proposed measures toughening requirements for asylum seekers and reunification with their families. The UN refugee agency has denounced the move, saying it will lead to more suffering. [...]

Russian and US air forces have staged joint drills to practice air safety measures in the skies over Syria, according to the Russian General Staff, which also reported that its military has begun to coordinate with Syria’s moderate opposition forces. In the course of the drills, both the air crews and ground services of Russian and US forces drilled procedures aimed at avoiding problems in ca [...]

"United We Fall" A film by Bryan Law and Dan Dicks is a documentary about the North American Union that is being developed right now between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. For years this topic has been debated in the news and in political circles as being a possible future for North America. In recent years, the mood has shifted and a rift is developing between those who want a Deeply In [...]

Russia, what a nerve they have! How dare of them to move their country so close to out military bases. Those bad Russians should not get away with that! The US needs to cancel Healthcare, Social Security and increase the debt ceiling to have all the budget to chase the Russians to the moon. Then... there will be piece on earth! [...]

Germany now is somewhere at the edge of anarchy and sliding towards civil war, or to become a banana republic without any government, says Hansjoerg Mueller of the Alternative for Germany party. Bavarian official Peter Dreier called German Chancellor Angela Merkel to tell her personally that if Germany welcomes a million refugees, his town of Landshut will only take in around 1,800. [...]

An independent investigation by journalists featured in the New York Times on Sunday offers an in-depth look at the way American corporations have used the inclusion of "arbitration clauses" within consumer contracts to strategically circumvent judicial review of their behavior and immunize themselves from class action lawsuits –"realistically the only tool citizens have to fight illegal or dec [...]

A German government-sanctioned special investigation has exposed a "clear breach" of intelligence-sharing agreements—including illegal surveillance of European authorities—between the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and its German counterpart, known as the BND. [...]

In a move that critics says fulfills long-held warnings of "mission creep" and amount to throwing "gasoline on a fire," the Obama administration on Friday announced that U.S. ground troops will now be deployed inside Syria. In strategic leaks to various media outlets, the Pentagon made clear the president's plan to send approximately 50 Special Operations soldiers inside the war-torn country. R [...]

A small German village containing just 102 residents and with almost no infrastructure will have to accommodate as many as 750 asylum seekers after a decision by the regional authorities. Villagers fear the area will be unable to cope with the burden. [...]

A study, to appear in the Fall 2014 issue of the academic journal Perspectives on Politics, finds that the U.S. is no democracy, but instead an oligarchy, meaning profoundly corrupt, so that the answer to the study’s opening question, "Who governs? Who really rules?" To put it short: The United States is no democracy, but actually an oligarchy. [...]

I first came to the conclusion that the U.S. is a dictatorship in 2002, when I found proof that George W. Bush was lying to claim that he possessed proof that Saddam Hussein was rebuilding his WMD (weapons of mass destruction) stockpiles, and when the U.S. and UK ’news’ media hid this crucial fact that their heads-of-state were lying. [...]

The Russian Defense Ministry has denied media reports its aircraft hit hospitals in Syria, saying the medical facilities mentioned by Western media don’t actually exist. The Defense Ministry has checked the data presented in recent media reports, which blamed Russian aviation for hitting several hospitals in Syria, Major-General Igor Konashenkov, the ministry spokesman said in a press briefin [...]

Official Washington’s neocon-dominated “group think” on Syria is that everything is the fault of President Assad and Russian President Putin, but the actual history shows many missed opportunities for peace because of the U.S. obsession with dictating “regime change” in country after country, as Jonathan Marshall explains. [...]

Sending some 50 US advisers to Syria illegally to train the so-called ‘moderate rebels’ looks like a calculated move. If, or when, someone gets hurt, the US will have a pretext for boots on the ground, believes retired US Air Force Lieutenant Col Karen Kwiatkowski. Does this deployment mean Americans will be putting themselves in the direct line of fire in Syria? [...]

Hundreds of people have taken to the streets of Sicily protesting against Trident Juncture 2015, the largest military maneuvers in more than a decade, which NATO claims are designed to adapt the alliance to “emerging security challenges.”   [...]