The US still supports the Kosovo project even though it has failed and brought great instability to the region making many Kosovan extremists join ISIS and come back now to destabilize nearby Macedonia, says International affairs commentator Marko Gasic. Anti-government protests are back on the streets of Macedonia’s capital, Skopje. [...]

John Kerry's Sochi meetings with Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov hardly dissolved years of mistrust between Washington and the Kremlin. However, they probably signaled the end of Ukraine’s period as a global cause célèbre. In 1968, at an art exhibition in Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, the celebrated artist Andy Warhol was the star attraction. [...]

Kerry's trip to Sochi to meet FM Lavrov and President Putin demonstrates that the US is now aware that sanctions they imposed on Russia have failed and they are looking for a way out of the row, says Marcus Papadopoulos, editor of Politics First Magazine. In the past US Secretary of State John Kerry used harsh words to describe Russia's stance on Ukraine. How does he feel now meeting President [...]

Lawmakers in the United States Senate have thrown a wrench in a plan that would have given President Barack Obama "fast track" authority to advance a 12-nation trade deal between the US and Pacific Ring partners. In a 52-45 vote on Tuesday afternoon, the Senate opposed moving forward for now on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. [...]

During talks in Sochi, the Russian foreign minister presented his US counterpart with a Victory Day t-shirt and baskets of potatoes and tomatoes. Looks like an answer to Kerry's giving him Idaho potatoes in 2014. Sergey Lavrov and John Kerry met in the Southern Russian city to discuss international and bilateral relations. [...]

Beijing has voiced "strong opposition" to a US Department of Defense (DoD) report which accused China's military of being a threat and lacking transparency. It also urged the US to abandon its Cold War mentality and stop jeopardizing bilateral relations. The USreport, published on Friday, criticized the actions of China's military in the disputed South China Sea – particularly the rapid const [...]

The Obama administration appears to be spinning the Ukraine crisis out of control and doing serious damage to trans-Atlantic relations all at once. Tensions between Europe and the U.S. over how to address the year-old crisis in Ukraine have simmered just out of sight since the elected president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted last February 22. [...]

The NSA has reportedly sought the help of Germany's intelligence agency in spying on Munich-based Siemens over the company's suspected business with Russian intelligence, Bild am Sonntag newspaper revealed. Siemens has denied any connection with Russia. The revelation came from an unknown US intelligence source speaking to Germany’s Bild am Sonntag, and is the latest report in a spy scandal i [...]

Washington is losing its weight in the international arena and this makes it target Russia and Venezuela, as well as attempt to curtail China’s growth, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro told RT's Spanish-language channel in an exclusive interview. In March, the US declared Venezuela a threat to its national security which is usually the first step in starting a US sanctions program. [...]

Before the dust has had a chance to settle on the report detailing the American Psychologists Association's complicity in the CIA torture program, the psychologist found to have violated the ethics code now appears to be helping the FBI do the same thing. In late April, a 60-page report entitled 'All the President’s Psychologists' pointed to Susan Brandon as the White House architect behind t [...]

Barack Obama's decision to play political games with the 70th anniversary of Victory Day was probably intended as a snub to Vladimir Putin. However, it's actually an outrageous insult to the Russian people. I remember my first Russian May 9th very well. For the simple reason that following a rather raucous Saturday night, I plain forgot about it. [...]

The collection of telephone metadata by US intelligence services "exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized," a federal appeals court has ruled in a major blow to the National Security Agency. On Thursday, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said the American Civil Liberties Union can sue the director of national intelligence over the NSA’s bulk collection program, reversin [...]

From Afghanistan to Yemen we are told we must fight terrorism over there to keep us safe here at home. The historical record tells us a very different story. Washington’s so-called war on terror has only created and motivated more violent extremists and destroyed states. As a result of failed wars, terrorism flourishes around the world. CrossTalking with Phyllis Bennis, Bruce Fein, and James [...]

Despite US policy banning federal officials from doing business with kidnappers, particularly terrorists, a government source told the Associated Press the FBI has for years negotiated and paid ransoms to kidnappers both domestically and internationally. The government source said the FBI used a secret exemption begun under the Bush Administration which allowed the bureau to use money to engage [...]

The fragile state Iraq is now in is directly linked to the US-led invasion of 2003, which happened without a US Security Council mandate, Kofi Annan, who was UN Secretary General between 1997 and 2006, told RT. “You cannot disassociate the situation in Iraq today from the US intervention of 2003. [...]

Citing an anti-Russia policy brief, US lawmakers approved $200 million for providing "lethal weapons of a defensive nature" to the Ukrainian government as part of the $600 billion Pentagon budget proposal for the fiscal year 2016. The House Armed Services Committee passed its proposal for the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with a bipartisan vote of 60 to 2, in what Defense News [...]

The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments on lethal injections for the first time in nearly a decade, following a botched execution in Oklahoma and amid a nationwide shortage of the drugs used in the procedure. On Wednesday, the state of Oklahoma and lawyers for three death row inmates there presented their arguments to the Supreme Court, where the nine justices appeared to be sharply split bet [...]

Texas Governor Greg Abbott told state troopers to monitor a US military training exercise, codenamed Jade Helm 15, after locals showed concern that the looming maneuvers actually look more like an "exercise in the imposition of martial law." The large-scale operation involves elite teams from four branches of the military, including the SEALs and Green Berets, and is set to kick off in seven st [...]

The Department of Defense has asked Congress to allow Russian rocket engines to be used until 2022, in order to keep the country's space program going. The US is partly dependent on the Russian technology for launching its satellites into orbit. General John Hyten, head of the US Air Force Space Command, spoke about extending the use of Russian engines to journalists on Tuesday, TASS reported. [...]

Amnesty International has accused Washington of "sweeping under the carpet" a December Senate report that the CIA tortured militants using the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" during the post 9/11 War on Terror. Naureen Shah, a researcher for Amnesty, accused the Obama administration of ignoring the painstaking five year investigation, which culminated in the Senate Report. [...]

Iran's supreme leader says the United States has created the “myth” of nuclear weapons to paint Tehran as a “source of threat.” The tough rhetoric comes days before nuclear talks are set to resume in Vienna. "They created the myth of nuclear weapons so they could say the Islamic Republic is a source of threat,” Khamenei said in a televised address to a hall of several hundred military [...]

US President Barack Obama has admitted he was "surprised" that Moscow held back resumption of S-300 supplies to Iran for so long. Some Israeli officials are reportedly saying the prospect of derailing the Iran nuclear talks is now zero. After President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban on S-300 supply to Iran last Monday, Obama made his first official comment on Friday. [...]