Counter measures will be taken by US troops in case they “feel threatened” by Syrian or Russian air forces, according to a senior US military official. The warning comes in the wake of a recent incident with Syrian warplanes attacking areas close to US Special Forces. [...]

The drop in oil prices is likely to be short-lived, veteran stock broker Peter Schiff told RT, since the deflation of the whole US debt bubble and crash of the dollar will make the prices of oil and other commodities bounce up. Decline in demand for oil due to the coronavirus epidemic, further reinforced by the demise of the OPEC+ production cuts agreement, has crashed the US and world markets, se [...]

Controversial Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders of the Freedom Party has published a manifesto calling for an end to accepting refugees and immigration from Islamic nations, closing all mosques and banning the Koran, as well as for the Netherlands to leave the European Union. [...]

Detained US ex-soldiers said they were tasked with securing an airfield in Venezuela in order to put President Nicolas Maduro on a plane after toppling him. The men were charged with plotting a coup against the government. Venezuelan state TV has aired new interrogation tapes of the two former US Green Berets charged with participating in failed plot to oust Maduro. [...]

Angela Merkel's CDU party is working on a policy paper that advocates a tougher stance towards Russia. Commenting on the issue, former State Secretary of the German Ministry of Defense Willy Wimmer told Sputnik that Merkel's politics have completely moved away from the foundations that it had in the past. [...]

The main takeaway from Russia’s ‘national vote’ on a series of amendments to the constitution is one a lot of people won't want to hear: Most Russians want the country to plow its own furrow, regardless of what outsiders think. In the end, the margin was huge. Exit polls suggested around 70 percent of voters had said ‘yes’ to 206 amendments to their constitution, with close to 30 percent [...]

Some are mystified by the longevity of the Red Hot Chili Peppers – 34 years old and still going strong, despite continual drug addiction issues and repeated near breakups – but those wishing to maximize their own lifespans should consider upping their daily chili pepper dosage, a US scientific study suggests. [...]

Amazon’s new fitness tracker ‘Halo’ takes technological intrusion to new levels, scanning the user’s body and tracking the emotions in their voice. Even mainstream media coverage says the tech’s privacy implications are troubling. Like most fitness trackers, the retail behemoth’s new wearable Halo monitors cardio activity, motion and sleep. Unlike most trackers, it also records bo [...]

Russia, Iran and Turkey have announced they will establish a trilateral mechanism to support the ceasefire in Syria. In a joint statement issued at the end of talks in Astana, they said the Syrian opposition should take part in Geneva peace talks on the issue. [...]

A German MP is calling on her government to provide medical assistance to the "seriously ill" WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying that Berlin spared no effort when it came to Russian opposition figure, Alexey Navalny. Berlin should not be supporting the US-orchestrated attack "on journalists, on press freedom and on democracy," said Heike Haensel, the deputy head of the Left Party's pa [...]

The video shows a passenger train making its first journey through the city of Aleppo for the first time in four and a half years. The war had left the railway service disrupted. However, as the city is returning to normal life, the train carried its first passengers through the newly liberated Aleppo. [...]

Assange exposed Western hypocrisy and discovered “too much truth,” so his trial became a form of “revenge,” journalist and filmmaker John Pilger told RT’s Going Underground. The main part of the extradition trial of Julian Assange came to a conclusion this week, and a decision is now expected to be announced in early January. Pilger, a long-time supporter of the WikiLeaks founder, c [...]

US President Donald Trump received the lowest approval rating — and highest disapproval rating — for a new president in recent history, according to a survey released Friday. The poll, from CNN, showed that a 53% majority said they disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job two weeks into office [...]

More than 50 percent of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) operating in Europe’s top-five economic powerhouses fear they will have to close in 12 months as they’re struggling to stay afloat amid the coronavirus crisis. The pandemic has pushed down the revenues of more than 70 percent of European companies, according to the results of the McKinsey survey of over 2,200 SMEs in five Eu [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on the ratification of the agreement with Ankara on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline. The lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, ratified the agreement on January 20, while the upper house, the Federation Council, ratified the document on February 1. [...]

President Donald Trump’s US government has on Sunday withdrawn from an international treaty that allows countries to monitor military hardware build-ups from afar, accusing Moscow – without evidence – of breaking its terms. The Open Skies Treaty was first considered by the US and the Soviet Union in the 1950s as a possible way to increase transparency around troop movements and the depl [...]

As Democrats compete to become the new War Party – pushing for a dangerous confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia – some constituents are objecting, as Mike Madden did in a letter to Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Dear Senator Klobuchar, I write with concern over statements you have made recently regarding Russia. These statements have been made both at home and abroad, and they involve two issues; t [...]

The Trump administration has long been critical of the EU, especially Germany, over their support for the transnational pipeline project, which will boost the capacity of Russia to sell natural gas to Europe. Washington insists that the EU must instead buy more expensive LNG from the US or other countries. The European Commission has condemned the US plans to expand the sanctions on Nord [...]

People living in the United States have entered into one of the most dangerous periods of the 21st century. Donald Trump, the president, is not only a twisted caricature of every variation of economic, political, educational, and social fundamentalism, he is the apogee of an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian culture committed to destroying free speech, civil rights, women’s reproductive [...]

Schwarzenegger issued a video message to his followers speaking on the recent events at the US Capitol, where at least five people died in the chaos, including a female Air Force veteran and a police officer. Arnold Schwarzenegger has once again slammed US President Donald Trump, saying he will be remembered as the "worst president ever". [...]

The Wall Street Journal has dialed up the paranoia over former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn's so-called 'Russia ties' over his failure to disclose an 'interaction' he had with a Russian-British national at a security conference in 2014. But as social media users, including a Russian senator, point out, WSJ's case is extremely weak. [...]

Austria is to order a million doses of Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, one month after a successful phone call between Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the Kremlin. It will be the third EU country to receive the formula. The news came from the chancellor himself, who revealed that Vienna and Moscow are engaged in talks, and said a deal should be agreed soon. On Tuesday, Kurz explained th [...]