The US State Department is openly using organized crime tactics, including bribery and extortion, in an effort to bend Iran to its will after its usual allies refused to get sucked into a coalition to 'police' the Persian Gulf. [...]

The India-Russia special partnership is strategic. It is growing in new directions, with implications for both China and the United States. The twentieth annual summit between India and Russia on September 4 could have been ignored as a ho-hum affair. [...]

The trade war between the world’s two largest economies entered a new phase on Sunday, as US tariffs targeting Chinese-made products and Beijing’s retaliatory hikes on American imports both kick in. [...]

US Citizenship and Immigration officers can now use fake social media accounts to surveil foreigners seeking visas and citizenship, even after years of US lawmakers blasting foreign rivals for supposedly doing the same. [...]

The Israeli military has reportedly engaged in a cross-border exchange of fire, after an anti-tank missile – said to have come from Lebanon – landed near an Israeli border town. [...]

While Israeli officials have yet to directly confirm that Israel has carried out attacks against Iraq, Iraqi lawmakers claimed Tel Aviv was “absolutely” responsible for a spate of strikes against pro-government Popular Mobilisation Unit militia, adding that Baghdad was preparing to submit its evidence to the UN Security Council. [...]

It is alleged that the phone call, in which Chinese officials invited their US counterparts to resume trade talks, didn’t happen the way Donald Trump described it did. The POTUS has yet to comment on the speculation. [...]

The US-German friendship has taken a nosedive. A recent survey commissioned by Atlantik-Brücke and conducted by the polling firm Civey found that 85 percent of respondents rate relations between the two countries as poor to very poor. [...]

Is the American dream still alive? The deportation of a Palestinian teen and would-be Harvard freshman allegedly over anti-US comments posted by his friends online suggests that the question is not unreasonable. [...]

Ankara is holding talks on purchasing the newest Su-57 jets from Moscow, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Turkey was forced to seek jet fighters elsewhere after the US refused to sell it F-35 warplanes. [...]

Russian mobile operator MTS has teamed up with Chinese tech giant Huawei for a 5G pilot scheme in Moscow and Kronshtadt, where for the first time the super-fast network will cover almost the entire city. The agreement between the two parties was signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia in June, when he met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and took part in the St. [...]

The global expanse of US military bases is well-known, but its actual territorial empire is largely hidden. The true map of America is not taught in our schools. Abby Martin interviews history Professor Daniel Immerwahr about his new book, 'How To Hide An Empire,' where he documents the story of our "Greater United States." [...]

Lebanon has accused Israel of being behind a drone strike on the office of Hezbollah near Beirut on 25 August, followed by another on Palestinian militant positions in eastern Lebanon. [...]

‘The End Times of Western Hegemony’, I wish this were written by Macron although it might as well have been. He said exactly this after the G7 gathering which could be summed up in Shakespeare's words as “much ado about nothing.” [...]

The US Congress has moved forward with legislation to impose sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project in defiance of criticism from Washington's allies in Europe, as the joint venture brings together Russia’s Gazprom, Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall, Austria’s OMV, France’s Engie, and Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell. [...]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Russia for a working visit to hold a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. [...]

A Russian aircraft leasing company has filed a lawsuit in Chicago against Boeing to cancel its purchase of the grounded 737 MAX planes in the first court case of its kind after two deadly air crashes involving the planes. [...]

Trump-bashing is nothing unusual at CNN, but when a guest told Brian Stelter that the president “may be responsible for many more million deaths” than the worst dictators of the 20th Century, even the host was left red-faced. [...]

The European Space Agency’s decision to replace Russian launch vehicles with those made in the US was forced upon Europeans by their big “ally,” a Russian cosmonaut has said, noting that the US was jealous of the cooperation. [...]

Lebanon, Iraq and Iran have declared recent Israeli aggression as an act of war after attacks on Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq over the weekend, promising devastating retaliation if the violence continues. [...]

On Jul. 23, an F-35 went fully visible on popular flight tracking website Flightradar24.com as it performed a mission out of Nevatim airbase. The aircraft could be monitored for about 1 hour as it went “feet wet” (over the sea) north of Gaza then flew northbound to operate near Haifa. [...]

Earlier, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described Donald Trump’s intent to buy Greenland an as “absurd discussion”. The US President responded by announcing that cancellation of his visit to Denmark, which had been slated for early September. [...]