The Chinese robotic probe Chang'e 4 has landed on the dark side of the moon, becoming the first manmade craft to alight on the unexplored surface, according to reports from Chinese state media. [...]

Gold has reached a more than six-month peak rising above $1,300 as investors rushed to seek refuge in the metals after iPhone maker downgraded its revenue forecast and amid fears of a global economic slowdown. The precious metal futures climbed in a second straight session on Thursday after US stocks saw the worst start of the year in more than a decade. [...]

Germany’s major rightwing party, the AfD, threatens to push for a so-called ‘Dexit’ if the EU doesn’t restore its members’ national sovereignty and takes no action against “Islamization of Europe” within the next five years. [...]

NBC News has given endless war and ‘destructive’ intelligence agencies a free pass, all while fixating on around-the-clock Trump hysteria, a veteran national security reporter wrote in a biting farewell message to his colleagues. [...]

Wealth inequality is becoming one of the fastest growing problems facing the US. As the nation gets richer, who benefits? Richard Wolff helps break down all the different facets as he and Bart dissect why people are finding it harder and harder to afford the basic needs of life. Wealth inequality can also extend to nations; Hilary Fordwich breaks down the situation as certain countries grow while [...]

Donald Trump has told Benjamin Netanyahu that the US is paying billions of dollars a year for Israeli security, and that Tel Aviv should not be worried about losing its influence in the region after US troops withdraw from Syria. [...]

Vladimir Putin unveiled that Russia had developed a new type of weapon that flies faster than the speed of sound and looks like a “fireball” in March 2018. Less than a week before the start of 2019, information about its successful test launch was released. [...]

The test of the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle took place on 26 December, when it reached a speed of Mach 27 and successfully struck a target 6,000 kilometres away. The Zvezda TV channel, the official media outlet of the Russian Defence Ministry, has published a new video of the test launch of the hypersonic missile Avangard, depicting it from the launch command centre. [...]

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's lawyer and a former NYC mayor, insisted that the media is allowed to publish hacked classified information for the purpose of informing the public. He drew parallels with the case of Hillary Clinton, who WikiLeaks claim received questions for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primary debate with Bernie Sanders. [...]

Crimea dramatically broke off from Ukraine and rejoined Russia in March 2014 following a peninsula-wide referendum, a month after a Western-backed coup rocked Kiev and overthrew Ukraine's democratically elected government. [...]

On 31 December, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) detained Paul Whelan, accusing him of espionage and launching a criminal case against him. US State Secretary Mike Pompeo said the US demands the immediate return of the detained Paul Whelan and seeks an explanation of why he was arrested. [...]

Rejecting the trade deal, which has been blasted for favoring big corporations, was an election campaign pledge by US President Donald Trump and he announced the projected move on his first day in office. [...]

As a rising number of critics accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of moving political goalposts to avoid ongoing corruption charges, observers in Tel Aviv note that ‘Bibi’ and his Likud party are on track to win the April elections by a slim margin. [...]

The same hackers that released episodes of a yet-to-be-aired Netflix series and hacked major networks such as ABC, NBC, and HBO say that 10 gigabytes of highly-confidential material they stole from a law firm could shed more light on the biggest terror act in American history. [...]

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit that alleged Google’s nonconsensual use of facial recognition technology violated users’ privacy rights, allowing the tech giant to continue to scan and store their biometric data. [...]

Stocks in emerging markets have had a rough year but are tipped for a turnaround, according to Morgan Stanley, which predicts stable growth in those economies in 2019. [...]

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange did nothing wrong by publishing Hillary Clinton’s campaign emails, just like the US mainstream media wasn’t punished for publishing the Pentagon Papers, ex-NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani said. [...]

As the death of Jamal Khashoggi continues to cause international outrage, new footage has emerged purporting to show the journalist’s killers carrying body parts in suitcases into the house of the Saudi consul general in Istanbul. [...]

Christmas celebrations have literally radiated out across Syria and western media was curiously silent in the face of such displays of unity and solidarity among Syria's diverse peoples. [...]

Source: Bogdan Khmelnytskyi / iStock A record number of Americans are forecast to travel to other countries this year, buoyed by a strong dollar and a surging economy. Last year, the number of U.S. visits overseas rose by 9.1% from the previous year to 38.3 million, according to data from U.S. Department of Commerce, International […] [...]

The past year was full of events that inevitably split the global geopolitical space into two camps: those who still support using US currency as a universal financial tool, and those who are turning their back on the greenback. Global tensions caused by economic sanctions and trade conflicts triggered by Washington have forced targeted countries to take a fresh look at alternative payment systems [...]

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated in recent months amid a growing number of US Navy "freedom of navigation" missions in the South China Sea and Chinese efforts to beef up its military presence in territories over which several Asian powers have overlapping claims. [...]