Speaking at Washington & Lee University, Michael Hayden admitted he didn't care about the Constitution, the Patriot Act or any other law... ------------------------------------------ ...he had a "direct order from the President". FLASHBACK from Feb 2015 Michael Hayden Admits US is Dictatorship /* */ [...]

Russia was widely criticized when it became the first country in the world to register a coronavirus vaccine in August. It was accused of rushing through the approval of the ‘Sputnik V’ formula for political or propaganda gain. Since then the whole development of the vaccine has been dogged by Schadenfreude as the press leapt on signs of impropriety in the data, and Russia has even been acc [...]

The proposed enlargement of BRICS (BRICS Plus) with the inclusion of powerful emerging economies would help fill the void created by US trade protectionism, international analyst Adrian Zelaia told Sputnik. Having analyzed Beijing’s idea to bring Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Nigeria, South Korea, Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam into the BRICS group, consisting of Braz [...]

The original name of the small village has no special meaning or any connotations in German, while the new toponym will better reflect its pronunciation in the local accent. The Austrian village of Fucking (pronounced fooking in Standard German) will change its name to Fugging on 1 January 2021, Mayor Andrea Holzner told the broadcaster Oe24 Thursday. The move to rebrand the village comes [...]

Accusations that Russia interfered in last year's U.S. elections are "lies" used for "domestic American politics," Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. "We said on numerous occasions and I reiterate that we are confident … and know for sure that opinion polls in the United States show that very many people are … friendly towards the Russian Federation, and I'd like to tell these [...]

Side-by-side comparisons of how New York City and Wuhan, China rang in the new year have sparked a heated debate on social media about whether the US should have embraced Beijing’s approach to handling the coronavirus pandemic. Photographs showing empty streets on Times Square, typically a hub of merry-making on New Year’s Eve, spread across social media on Thursday night, with several co [...]

Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage has criticized his ally US President Donald Trump for ordering a missile strike against an airbase in Syria in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack. The MEP warned that many Trump voters will be confused by his retaliation. [...]

Covid-19 jabs are being distributed unevenly between EU member states, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said, pointing to “secret contracts” signed at a “vaccine bazaar” with big pharma by the bloc’s vaccination steering board. “Deliveries are not happening in line with population,” Kurz told a press conference organized at short notice on Friday. He added that the situation [...]

Make no mistake: “Netflix and chill” is now the modern mating call. The art of Netflix and chill is simple and unsubtle. To the uninitiated, the idea is that you hook up in front of an film and perhaps order takeout if you’re lucky. On the surface being young and fun never seemed so easy. Netflix and chill promised to consign excruciating dates and awkward silences to the past. [...]

Similar to tax practices followed within the US, American citizens living abroad must also report their annual income to the Internal Revenue Service, meaning expats are likely to file and pay taxes in two places. Although the agency implements measures to avoid double taxation, tax-filing requirements have still proven a hurdle for expats. Nearly one in four American expats are weighing [...]

Russia is ready to sell its S-400 air defense systems to Turkey, President Vladimir Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). He added the issue was discussed earlier with his Turkish counterpart. [...]

Austria is reeling from a tragedy that saw a 13-year-old girl die after being drugged and gang-raped. Yet a local feminist group seemed more enraged by media reporting the suspects’ nationality and casting a shadow on refugees. A group of activists from the group ‘Alerta Feminista’ broke into the offices of oe24 – the web portal of the Vienna-based daily newspaper Osterreich – lat [...]

Matteo Salivini, leader of Italian opposition Lega Nord party, told Sputnik on Friday that the extension of the European Union's anti-Russian sanctions was "absurd," since the restrictive measures were damaging for the economies of both Italy and the entire 28-member-bloc. [...]

The hasty troop pullout from Afghanistan is now being widely criticized both by Democrats and Republicans, with some believing it would have been more reasonable (and safe) if the administration had transferred the remaining US citizens and weapons out of the country first before withdrawing the troops. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has apparently agreed with the "reality" that the [...]

Deputies in the Czech Republic voted overwhelmingly in favor of a constitutional amendment allowing ordinary citizens to carry arms and use them in case of a public emergency such as terrorism. The Czech parliament has approved a constitutional amendment on security that allows ordinary citizens to take up arms against terrorists. [...]

The health authorities, Big Pharma, the WHO, the Rockefellers, and the Gates foundation are fully aware that the vaccine has resulted in countless deaths and injuries, including blood clots, infertility, brain damage, myocarditis, etc. The mRNA vaccine is “experimental" and unapproved. Since December 2020, it has resulted in a worldwide upward trend in deaths and injuries. Numerous scientif [...]

North Korea's submarine capabilities are being exaggerated by the Pentagon in its eagerness to impose more sanctions against Pyongyang, and even neighboring China. The US military has declared it has evidence that North Korea followed up its recent intercontinental ballistic missile tests with a missile launch from a submarine. [...]

We are at the crossroads of one of the most serious crises in World history. We are living history, yet our understanding of the sequence of events since January 2020 has been blurred. Worldwide, people have been misled both by their governments and the media as to the causes and devastating consequences of the Covid-19 “pandemic”. [...]

Senior Crimean officials have said that despite the attempts of Ukrainian authorities to isolate the peninsular and damage its tourist-oriented economy, the flow of visitors has remained constant with many of them coming from Ukraine. “An attempt to impose a ‘tourist blockade’ of Crimea has drowned in the thousands-strong torrent of Ukrainian citizens who, despite of all propaganda and lengt [...]

The Covid-19 pandemic has shone a light on the differences between health systems across the world. But how have health systems changed over recent decades? Drawing on a new book, Federico Toth highlights five key reform trends that have shaped the delivery of health care during the last thirty years. In the field of health policies, truly radical and pathbreaking reforms are rare events. Eac [...]

Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin said Wednesday that Russia's national currency, the ruble, should be supported because a "big trend toward the de-dollarization" of the country's economy is growing at a steady pace. [...]

Ukraine’s defense minister has decided to raise the specter of one of the European Union’s major concerns – large scale migration – amid American-driven claims that Russia is planning an invasion of his country. Alexey Reznikov, who took charge of Kiev's Defense Ministry in November, warns that up to five million of his country men and women could flee to the EU in the event of a full-s [...]