China denied a request from the US Navy’s USS Wasp F-35 carrier to make a port call in Hong Kong amid trade tensions between the superpowers and Beijing’s recent decision to recall an admiral from participating in the International Seapower Symposium in Rhode Island. [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has filed charges against an Austria-based securities dealer and CEO for allegedly violating US laws linked to security-based swaps funded with bitcoins, the agency said in a press release. [...]

Police officers in the US have used a suspect’s face to open up his iPhone X and look for evidence of a crime for the first time ever. A man in Columbus, Ohio, complied with a police request to unlock his phone after federal investigators obtained a search warrant to go through the device on August 10, Forbes reports. [...]

Factors including income, culture and religious orientation are all now less important in the overall search for a partner, according to a new study on online dating. Men and women seeking partners on dating websites and more recently via mobile applications have become more tolerant. [...]

The oil debate has been particularly intense lately given President Donald Trump’s threatening with sanctions against countries that would continue buying Iranian oil. The issue has met a barrage of criticism across the world. Kuwait has for the first time in 25 years halted its crude oil exports to the US, according to statistics published by the US Department of Energy. [...]

US Navy aircraft carrier deployment rates around the world are at their lowest point in 25 years, USNI News recently reported, as the service copes with maintenance costs that have accrued over the 17-year War on Terror. Just 15 percent of the Navy's carriers have been operationally deployed at a given point in 2018, USNI News calculated in a recent analysis. [...]

A photo of a MiG-31 interceptor jet carrying a huge missile has sparked speculation that Russia has revived an old project involving an air-launched anti-satellite weapon system. MiG-31 is a superfast Mach-3 fighter jet which recently acquired fame as the platform for the hypersonic Kinzhal missile. [...]

Crude prices will likely reach $100 per barrel for the first time since 2014, and OPEC has no leverage to prevent such a scenario, an analyst has warned. “Nobody wants to get caught short, full in the knowledge that more Iranian barrels are poised to be removed from the market,” Stephen Brennock, oil analyst at PVM Oil Associates, said in a research note published on Monday, as quoted by CNBC. [...]

A fiery speech by an Iranian representative, responding to Saudi accusations at the UN General Assembly, blamed terrorist activity around the globe on Riyadh – and even quoted Hillary Clinton to back that up. Accusing Iran of supporting terrorism was a “strange and outlandish claim” by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir the Iranian representative said. [...]

The US has lost its credibility since Donald Trump unleashed a global trade war, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, slamming Washington for sanctioning Turkey and trying to isolate Iran. “The US has embarked on a false path of solving political problems not through negotiations, but through the language of blackmail and threats,” Erdogan told the Turkish parliament on Monday. [...]

Many outside the US watched Thursday’s hearing with open-mouthed revulsion at the bad faith, lack of due process and inhumanity on display. Dysfunction in the biggest Western democracy sets a poor example to the rest of the globe. The present does not own the monopoly on ugly scenes in Congress - the McCarthy interviews are on tape, after all. [...]

In the conflict-torn Donbass region, medical evacuation teams play a vital role in saving the lives of those wounded by shelling. On alert 24/7, and responding to calls in the most dangerous areas, the doctors risk everything to save people’s lives regardless of what side of the conflict they are on. RT Doc film crew joins one of the teams to witness what they deal with on a daily basis and hear [...]

Trump’s threats of war, sanctions and promises to make America great again could be dismissed as the ranting of an eccentric politician. But this isn’t all about Trump. What he advocates is representative of much of the US elite. [...]

The United States has no right to tell European companies who they can trade and develop economic relations with, according to the Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. “We cannot accept that the US decided the regions with which European companies can or cannot do business,” Michel said in an interview with Belgian French-language broadcaster RTBF shortly after meeting with Iranian President [...]

A hypersonic anti-aircraft missile with a range of over 300km will be part of the arsenal of the Su-57, Russia’s most-advanced multipurpose fighter jet. The weapon is meant to take out high-value targets with impunity. The Su-57 is Russia’s first 5th-generation aircraft, designed to be a formidable threat to major air powers such as the US. [...]

The media have been quick to label the departure of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ally Volker Kauder as the latest in a series of “blows” to the chancellor. But Merkel shows no signs of being blown away just yet. [...]

US President Donald Trump left the UN Security Council session he was chairing before it was over, leaving Nikki Haley in charge and sparking speculation about his whereabouts among the press. Around quarter after noon on Wednesday, after roughly two hours of speeches and declarations, Trump left the Security Council chambers with his security detail, letting his UN envoy Haley take over. [...]

In a speech to the United Nations Security Council, President Trump blamed China for meddling in US elections. On Twitter, the #resistance is furious he didn’t name the old boogeyman: Russia. [...]

The Pentagon will remove four batteries of PAC-3 Patriot missiles from three Middle-Eastern countries, according to the Wall Street Journal. The report said the missiles are needed elsewhere to counter China and Russia. [...]

Over the weekend, the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a report highlighting the most popular first names for baby boys and girls in England and Wales in 2017 using birth registration data. According to the UK Office for National Statistics, Muhammad became one of the top-10 most popular names for baby boys in London and several other large British cities last year. [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia may supply Syria with other defense equipment in addition to the S-300 air defense system to ensure the safety of its troops following the downing of a Russian Il-20 plane last week, Viktor Bondarev, the chairman of the Russian parliament's upper house Defense and Security Committee, said on Monday. [...]

Before being cut from almost all means of communication with the outside world in March, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who remains in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, has shared his outlook on threats the humanity faces in connection with AI development and data protection. [...]