Vladimir Putin is defending Russian interests, and is not the devil the US media make him out to be, the CNN's founding CEO wrote. Arguing using historical facts and personal experience, Reese Schonfeld expressed a belief that Russia is not the enemy. The Russian president “may not be a nice man, but he certainly is not the devil that we are making him,” Reese Schonfeld wrote in his Huffing [...]

Anti-TTIP activists have submitted a 3 million-signature petition to the European Commission in London and Brussels in a bid to halt secret trade negotiations between the EU, US and Canada. The petition, believed to be one of the largest ever compiled, calls for an immediate end to Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. [...]

A study polling American and emigrant adults found that 35 percent would consider leaving the US, according to TransferWise, an international money transfer company. The most popular reason for wanting to leave was to seek a better quality of life. Despite the results of the survey, 59 percent said it was home. Another 58 percent said romantic and family ties were important reasons for staying [...]

A hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz has been hit and partially destroyed in an overnight “aerial attack” that killed at least 12 Medecins Sans Frontieres staff. NATO has admitted a US airstrike may have caused accidental “collateral damage.” In a brief statement released by the White House, President Obama has extended his “deepest condolences” to the victims of the “tragic in [...]

A single day of warfare in eastern Ukraine drains the nation's ailing economy of millions of euros, the Ukrainian president told German media. Poroshenko is asking for money and arms, but so far no European state has agreed to supply weapons to Kiev. The military crackdown in the eastern regions of Ukraine, which has already claimed the lives of at least 5,300 people, is ruining Ukraine’s eco [...]

Major American media organizations diligently parrot what US officials want the public to know about global affairs, historian Noam Chomsky told RT. To US leaders, any news outlet that “does not repeat the US propaganda system is intolerable,” he said. The culpability of the West – namely the United States – for world affairs, such as the Ukrainian conflict or tensions with Iran, is ano [...]

As the BRICS/SCO summits wrap up in Russia, RT looks back at the issues dominating three days of meetings with a launch of $100bn reserve currency pool, high hopes about the New Development Bank and the possible impact of Iran deal on oil among them. About 10,000 visitors gathered at the two events, the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summits which took place in the Russia [...]

The Pentagon is reportedly reviewing and updating its contingency plans for a war with Russia for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, with a defense official telling US media that Russia's “actions” prompted the assessment. “Given the security environment, given the actions of Russia, it has become apparent that we need to make sure to update the plans that we have in r [...]

The whole point of Islamic State’s tactic of hiding in mosques and using human shields is to try to make Russia look bad hoping the military would make an error, says Doctor Max Abrahms of Northeastern University in Boston. John Wight, a writer and political analyst, shared his opinion on what the Western media hopes to achieve by further speculation on the campaign. [...]

The Russian city of Zhukovsky in the Moscow region is hosting one of the world's biggest air shows - MAKS 2015. Major aircraft manufacturers, including Airbus and Boeing are attending with billion dollar deals on the line. Airbus' Vice President for Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Chris Buckley is speaking on the importance of cooperation with Russia despite sanctions. [...]

The war was no mere mistake: The Bush administration wanted a war and concocted the intelligence. "Mistakes were made" just doesn't get at the truth about how America was coerced into the disastrous war in Iraq,and the horrific consequences that are still unfolding. [...]

The hryvnia lost 34 percent against the US dollar after the head of the central bank signaled it can no longer support the currency with regular interventions and will allow greater fluctuations. The hyrvnia hit a historic low of 24.5 per 1 USD. “Get used to market volatility," National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Governor Valery Gontareva told reporters in Kiev on Thursday. [...]

A "game changer" protein that promotes the body's immunity to cancer has been discovered by scientists, offering fresh hope the often deadly disease will be conquered in years to come. Researchers at Imperial College London discovered a “completely unknown” molecule, proven to improve the body’s immune system to fight off chronic illnesses. [...]

The US and its allies would like to see Russia’s military operations in Syria go horribly wrong as Russia’s success heralds a crushing defeat for Western regime-change machinations. It would also signal the balance of power shifting away from US hegemony. Last week, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter darkly predicted that Russia would suffer blowback from its intervention in Syria with act [...]

Much commentary about Russia is hyperbolic and infused with emotive exaggeration. By contrast, Vladimir Putin's 13th annual Q&A was an extremely calm and assured affair. So that’s a baker’s dozen for Putin: Thirteen years of a unique question and answer marathon which has no comparison that I know of in the rest of the world.   [...]

The US Department of Defense will work on compensating the families of the victims killed in a deadly American airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. The strike “mistakenly” killed 22 [...]

Ukraine currently is a poor, uncontrollable and insolvent nation, which suits US interests but poses a colossal problem to Russia, the head of the Russian Presidential Administration has said. “Russia is interested in Ukraine being a friendly, independent state that is capable of providing for itself. Today’s situation causes a great concern on our part. [...]

A third of higher income Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, even when they earn $75,000 a year because they would rather spend money on eating out and experiences than save money for retirement, according to a new survey. In a poll of 519 households earning $75,000 or more, nearly a third of them live paycheck-to-paycheck, at least some of the time, SunTrust Bank found. [...]

Seeing their colleagues and patients die was a horrifying shock, according to survivors of the deadly air raid on a hospital in Afghanistan. The tragedy, medical staff said, simply cannot be dismissed as “collateral damage” from a botched airstrike. Recalling the tense minutes of continuous airstrikes which hit the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, NGO staff said that the d [...]

The British establishment is breathing a collective sigh of relief. The people of Scotland have chosen Westminster rule over political sovereignty, and the Union remains intact. Scotland’s pro-independence campaigners, bent on separatism and self-determination, claimed they had the momentum to realize an independent Scottish state. But they were mistaken. [...]

A UN report has condemned the United States for violating the terms of an international anti-torture treaty. The panel took Washington to task for police brutality, military interrogations, and capital punishment protocols. Released by the UN Committee Against Torture, the report took issue with the excessive use of force by law enforcement and accused the US police force of racial profiling. T [...]

The US is partially responsible for Ukraine’s indiscriminate use of cluster bombs in the country’s east, US Senator John McCain told Russia’s Sputnik news agency. According to McCain, it is due to the US failing to send Kiev other arms. “I think that if we had provided them with the weapons they need, they wouldn’t have felt they had to use cluster bombs. [...]