Washington officials are reportedly demanding that Turkey “destroy or return” its Russian-made S-400 air defense systems to get back in the good books and rejoin the F-35 fighter program – but Ankara has no intention of complying. [...]

Professional journalists are losing touch with the moral code that once galvanized the profession, a new study shows. But what truth-slinger wouldn’t be having an existential crisis in an industry where facts no longer matter? Ideology, speed, and novelty have nudged veracity and honor out of the way at the ethical core of the journalist’s trade. ​ [...]

Ousted Bolivian President Evo Morales said he has “zero doubt” that a mechanical failure that occurred on a helicopter he was traveling on last month was an “assassination attempt” and no accident. [...]

When Italy asked the world to help restore Venice after the worst flood in decades, some Russians didn’t waste time – donating one million euros in less than a day, the Italian ambassador to Russia has revealed. Italy's Pasquale Terracciano said that donations were made by “wealthy” individuals whose identities were not named. [...]

Thousands of supporters of deposed Bolivian President Evo Morales gathered in La Paz to demand the resignation of self-declared “interim” leader Jeanine Anez, where they squared off with riot police in hectic street clashes. Flying national and indigenous flags and chanting pro-Morales slogans, the protest march met a forceful police response in Bolivia's administrative capital on Wednesday, f [...]

The White House has long sought to take counter-measures against the Turkish-Russian deal and now it is reportedly clinging to a new chance to put a spoke in the wheel. US President Trump has offered his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan a set of economic inducements for better US-Turkey relations, according to The Washington Post. [...]

A disturbing video shows a woman being surrounded and beaten by masked protesters in Hong Kong. The unsettling footage comes as authorities struggle to clamp down on worsening violence in the semi-autonomous city. The assault was reportedly sparked by a political disagreement between the woman and a group of armed demonstrators. Video of the attack shows the woman trying to walk away, only to be t [...]

Swedish eco-activist Greta Thunberg has managed to find a ride across the Atlantic with a pair of sailing YouTubers. Once again, the activist will make her journey on a yacht far beyond the means of the ordinary working Joe. After hitching a ride from Europe to New York aboard a €4 million racing yacht in August, Thunberg embarked on a whirlwind tour of climate change summits and street-level pr [...]

Bolivian President Evo Morales was “ripped away from his people by greed,” former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters said in a message of support to the exiled leader, ousted in a coup and forced to seek asylum in Mexico. [...]

The exit of Lebanon PM Saad Hariri brings more unrest in a turbulent region, a loss of an ally to the US, as troops withdraw from Syria, there’s conflict with Iran and issues with Saudi Arabia. Trump needs a new pal in the region. [...]

On 29 September, General Nick Carter, chief of UK Defence Staff made an incendiary speech to the Cliveden Literary Festival. A number of his comments sparked widespread outcry – not least his suggestion the distinction between conflict and peace no longer existed, and Britain was effectively “at war”. [...]

The cottage industry of ‘experts’ predicting the inevitable demise of Russia for years is ignoring the hard evidence of progress such as the infrastructure projects that the West is unable or unwilling to undertake itself. [...]

Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the symbols of the Cold War, Europe remains divided because it chose confrontation over a common future, Willy Wimmer, Germany’s former State Secretary for Defense believes. [...]

President Trump has applauded the latest jobs report and its positive effect on stock markets as critics unleashed on him for his failed promise to tame the US government spending spree that pushed the national debt over $23tn. [...]

Aiming to win back public confidence in the Boeing 737 MAX, major US airliners are reportedly planning to hold demonstration flights with senior company officials, but not real passengers, on board to prove the model is safe. [...]

Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden – who, back in the good old Obama administration days, lobbied for the arming of ‘moderate’ rebels in Syria – slammed Trump for downgrading the US military to an oilfield occupation force. “Leaving troops behind like [Trump’s] doing now – he says that what he wants to do is we’re going to occupy the oil fields and we’re going to take [...]

As Prime Minister Boris Johnson gears up for a snap election, his government made a surprise U-turn on shale gas extraction, citing public concerns and technological limits on predicting the impact of fracking on the environment. [...]

BEIRUT (Sputnik) - Lebanese banks resumed operations after a two-week break amid mass anti-government protests that broke out all over the country, a Sputnik correspondent reported from Beirut on Friday. The reopening of the banks was accompanied by long lines of people who wanted to get cash and make transactions and transfers. [...]

On Sunday President Trump announced that Baghdadi had been killed during the US-raid in Idlib. The number one terrorist was reportedly under the Pentagon's surveillance for quite some time before the conditions were ripe to eliminate him. The leader of the Daesh* terrorist group Abu Bakr Baghdadi was "the brainchild of the United States", and his elimination has not yet been confirmed, Russian For [...]

This comes amid US President Trump's announcement that the signing site of the 'phase one' trade deal with China would be announced 'soon'. A World Trade Organization’s arbitrator ruled Friday that China could impose $3.6 billion worth of tariffs on US goods over its unfair anti-dumping practices. [...]

Last month, WikiLeaks published the evidence and testimony provided by an Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) whistleblower who revealed that the watchdog appeared to have wilfully ignored data that the Syrian government did not stage a chemical attack in Douma, Syria in April 2018 in order to fit a convenient narrative. [...]

You may think that when a nation buys US weapons, it gets the tools to scare away or kill its enemies. But according to a US official, Humvees and Patriot missiles have a secret ingredient that the competition lacks: friendship. [...]