The United States government has revealed its contempt for human compassion and global solidarity by refusing to lift draconian sanctions on Iran and Venezuela during the Covid-19 crisis, director Oliver Stone has argued. Iran has suffered immensely from the virus, Stone noted in an op-ed published by the New York Daily News, but due to US sanctions the Islamic Republic is “reportedly the only c [...]

It is highly unlikely that Washington would manage to convince its European allies as well as Russia and China to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal, RIA Novosti contributors Vladimir Ardaev and Igor Gashkov noted, adding that the unilateral reintroduction of the sanctions regime may leave the US further isolated. [...]

In January 2020 members of the Iraqi parliament said the country was mulling the purchase of advanced Russian S-400 missile systems amid concerns that Washington might stop supporting Iraq and providing it with modern air defence armaments. The Parliamentary Security and Defence Committee of Iraq submitted a detailed study requesting the purchase of Russian long-range, surface-to-air S-400 missile [...]

A remarkable video has surfaced on the Russian section of YouTube, depicting a Russian Aerospace Forces Su-30SM fighter jet as it approaches and nearly flies into the cargo hold of an Il-76 delivering humanitarian supplies to Syria. [...]

Earlier this week, the US Navy's Pacific Fleet announced that all of its submarines in the area were at sea to conduct operations in support of "a free and open" region "amidst the pandemic caused by the coronavirus". The Times has quoted unnamed US defence sources as saying that the Pentagon may lose a sea war with China if one breaks out in the Indo-Pacific region amid the increasing tensions be [...]

Russia will deliver liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the US, Kommersant daily reports. The reason for the deal is the sharp rise in gas prices on the east coast of the US. An LNG tanker belonging to French energy company Engie is now shipping from the British port of Isle of Grain to an American terminal, Everett, located near Boston. [...]

Trump ally-turned-whisteblower John Bolton spent 17 months in the president's administration. Widely described as tough-nosed foreign policy hawk, Bolton insists that President Trump was acting in his personal interests and not in the best interest of the United States. John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, offered a brutal review of his former employer's preside [...]

Rudyard Kipling once wrote that “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” The poet was referring to his experiences in India and Britain, but the line could increasingly apply to modern Europe. [...]

During a recent meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi US President Donald Trump suggested that most American servicemen will be "leaving [the country] shortly" but failed to give a definitive timeline. Several groups within Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU) have threatened to attack US positions in the country should its leadership not negotiate a withdrawal of its tr [...]

Pyongyang has warned third parties against fueling tensions and interfering in the inter-Korean reconciliation process, claiming it is making a “great effort” to reunify the peninsula against the backdrop of US nuclear threat. “We will courageously smash all of the challenges of the nation’s desire for reunification,” the government statement carried by KCNA reads. [...]

The ongoing spread of the coronavirus epidemic has also triggered vast epidemics of ideological viruses which were laying dormant in our societies: fake news, paranoiac conspiracy theories, explosions of racism. The well-grounded medical need for quarantines found an echo in the ideological pressure to establish clear borders and to quarantine enemies that pose a threat to our identity. Bu [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Washington confirmed its commitment to take back the heavy weapons it had supplied to Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria but did not set a time frame for the process, a US official told Turkish media following a high-level meeting in Ankara. [...]

A top US State Department official has praised Germany for strengthening regulations on Chinese company Huawei. However, Berlin decided against caving into pressure and banning the company outright, reports say. A tour by Keith Krach, US undersecretary of state for economic affairs, is part of repeated attempts by the US to discourage European countries from collaborating with Huawei in the r [...]

Stephen Hawking is backing a group of campaigners in bringing Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to the High Court over a new policy which they claim will lead to the privatization of the NHS. The acclaimed physicist is joining campaigners in challenging the health secretary over his introduction of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), partnership organizations between hospitals, care organizations an [...]

A number of recent reports suggest that the financial risk from climate change could be much greater than previously anticipated, and that entire asset classes could come under fire as temperatures continue to rise. Trillions of dollars of market value could go up in smoke due to climate change. The damage hits the global economy in multiple ways. The first is the most obvious. Physical da [...]

Americans have a remarkable tolerance for child slaughter, especially the mass murders of the children of others. This emotional indifference manifested itself vividly after the disclosure of the My Lai Massacre, when dozens of Vietnamese infants and children were killed by the men of Charlie Company, their tiny corpses stacked in ditches. After the trial of Lt. William Calley, more than 70 percen [...]

After trials on two groups of volunteers, Russia’s Gamaleya Research Centre announced it has created the first vaccine against COVID-19. According to Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, the first batch of the drug, known as "Sputnik-V", will be produced in 2 weeks and delivered for voluntary vaccination in Russian hospitals. The vaccine is a two-component treatment based on the human ad [...]

Prior to the 2016 presidential election, if one were to ask what single act could seal a new Cold War with Russia, align liberals and progressives with the operational core of the American military-industrial-surveillance complex, expose the preponderance of left-activism as an offshoot of Democratic Party operations and consign most of what remained to personal invective against an empirically da [...]

Edward Snowden took to Twitter on Thursday to urge President Donald Trump to grant clemency to Julian Assange, prioritizing the WikiLeaks co-founder's case over even his own quest for a pardon on espionage charges. "Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency during your time in office, please: Free Julian Assange," Snowden tweeted. "You alone can save his life." [...]

European and Chinese officials are firing shots across America’s bow over plans by the Trump administration to impose protectionist tariffs on its steel and aluminum imports. A trade war looms as a result. President Donald Trump is expected to set tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum this week. [...]

Iconic Hollywood actor and outspoken Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined the chorus of condemnation against Donald Trump, blasting the president over the Capitol Hill violence and sending him a Terminator-esque message. Speaking to Bild newspaper, Schwarzenegger expressed his frustration with ongoing events in the US, accusing Trump of stirring up the unrest with his actions. The acto [...]

To cries of condemnation from the House of Commons, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn demanded concrete evidence of Russian involvement in the poisoning of Skripal before taking action against Moscow, calling for cooperation and diplomacy instead. His views are supported by the Russian Embassy - and academics with expertise in chemical weapons. [...]