As most in the former USSR celebrated the 69th Victory Day over Nazi Germany today, the US-backed government in Kiev (which took power after the February coup) decided to launch one of its bloodiest military operations thus far, this time against the anti-coup protesters Mariupol, eastern Ukraine. [...]

While the United States has warned against buying Chinese routers due to surveillance concerns, a new book about the Edward Snowden revelations states America has been intercepting and tinkering with routers intended for foreign customers. [...]

Washington finally found its new bogeyman: Osama Bin Putin. Russia's celebrations of the 69th anniversary of the defeat of fascism in World War II come just days after Ukrainian neo-fascists enacted an appalling Odessa massacre. For those who know their history, the graphic symbolism speaks for itself. [...]

The US Strategic Command, the agency responsible for country'€™s nuclear arsenal, will hold large-scale war games this week that will include 10 B-52 Stratofortresses and up to six B-2 Spirit bombers, along with other military and government agencies. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber built to carry nuclear weapons. [...]

About 400 elite mercenaries from the notorious US private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater) are taking part in the Ukrainian military operation against anti-government protesters in southeastern regions of the country, German media reports. [...]

While the Obama administration insists that supporting Ukrainian Presidential elections are vital to national interests, some members of the US political elite are questioning the costs of getting involved. During a two hour House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, the US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland shared her assessment of the US role in Ukraine's crisis and the upcoming presiden [...]

While Cliven Bundy supporters praised the armed individuals who came to the defense of the Nevada rancher in his land rights dispute with the federal government, the FBI is now investigating them for possible criminal offenses. The armed standoff between the Bureau of Land Management and Bundy – who has refused to pay $1 million in animal grazing fees the government claims he’s owned since the [...]

Vermont will become the first state to enact a law requiring labels on foods with genetically modified ingredients after the governor signed the bill into law on Thursday afternoon. The bill will go into effect in July 2016. "I am proud of Vermont for being the first state in the nation to ensure that Vermonters will know what is in their food. [...]

The IMF has approved a $17 billion loan to Ukraine. The first $3.2 billion tranche has arrived on Wednesday. It’s essential to identify the conditions attached to this Mafia-style “loan.” Nothing remotely similar to reviving the Ukrainian economy is in play. The scheme is inextricably linked to the IMF’s notorious, one-size-fits-all “structural adjustment” policy, known to hundreds of [...]

A failure to properly grasp US interests in Ukraine has made Obama susceptible to hawks seeking confrontation with Russia despite the greater geopolitical goals that Moscow and Washington share, former CIA and State Dept. employee Larry Johnson told RT. Johnson belongs to a group of former US intelligence agents who are attempting to get Obama to change course and defuse the ongoing crisis in Ukra [...]

Events in Ukraine have become worrisome, because there is some kind of truth blockade occurring, and the information people are receiving is all warped somehow, and nobody knows who is telling the truth and who is not. Men and women around the Earth can’t tell what is propaganda and what is reality anymore because powerful people are manipulating what’s being reported over the air – nobody i [...]

Kiev'€™s military offensive into the east and south of Ukraine has all but ensured the failure of the Geneva agreement, setting the stage for a Russian response as NATO deploys troops to the region. As the bloody military crackdown continues in predominately Russian-speaking areas of the country, the deteriorating situation in Ukraine has given rise to appalling inter-ethnic violence. [...]

Despite clear evidence that the pro-Kiev radicals set Odessa's House of Trade Unions ablaze on Friday killing dozens, the mainstream media is being ambiguous about the causes of the tragedy.  On Friday, Ukraine’s eastern town of Odessa saw brutal street battles between pro-autonomy activists and nationalist radicals which left 46 people dead. [...]

Numerous US agents are helping the coup-appointed government in Ukraine to "€œfight organized crime"€ in the south east of the country, the German newspaper Bild revealed. According to the daily, the CIA and FBI are advising the government in Kiev on how to deal with the ‘fight against organized crime’ and stop the violence in the country’s restive eastern regions. [...]

"All that glitters is not gold; all that shivers is not gold" Mythology has it that Midas, the king of Phrygia, was able to turn everything he touched into gold -- "the Midas Touch".  According to Aristotle, the legendary figure died of starvation as a result of his greed to transmute everything from its natural substance to gold. [...]

Vermont lawmakers have passed legislation that requires food made with genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, to be labeled as such. The law, the first of its kind in the US, must now get approval from Gov. Peter Shumlin, who has supported the bill. [...]

The Russian Foreign Minister says the US should take responsibility for those whom they put in power instead issuing ultimatums to Moscow. "Before giving us ultimatums, demanding that we fulfill demands within two or three days with the threat of sanctions, we would urgently call on our American partners to fully accept responsibility for those who they brought to power,” said Lavrov during a pr [...]

A California-based surveillance vendor that sells access to license plate databases and the devices that indiscriminately collect that information has been reportedly cashing checks from the Internal Revenue Service and other federal offices. [...]

While the Geneva framework agreement seems to be an attempt to de-escalate tensions over Ukraine, it’s a question to what degree the US and the West are really genuine in this agreement, geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser told RT. The US and the EU are still mulling more sanctions against Moscow. [...]

Some of Europe'€™s biggest companies like UK'€™s BP and Germany's BASF have told their governments economic sanctions against Russia would hurt them badly. The warning comes as Russia, the US, Ukraine and the EU are discussing the crisis in Geneva Thursday. [...]

United States President Barack Obama said Thursday afternoon that his administration is prepared to take further action against Russia if an agreement reached earlier in the day in Geneva concerning the crisis in Ukraine fails to materialize. [...]

There is no doubt that the US has been meddling with the internal politics of Ukraine and continues to do so, though this time it has miscalculated, former MI5 agent, Annie Machon, told RT. It’s very interesting timing. The heads of the major Western intelligence agencies tend to have their diaries fairly well locked down for months in advance, so for him to suddenly have made this trip shows ei [...]