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. [...]

Russia’s permanent mission to NATO has prepared a report summing up complicated relations between the alliance and Moscow over the last 25 years, which differs substantially from what the report calls NATO’s simplified “black and white” picture. The ‘Russia-NATO: facts and myths’ report investigates in detail the difference between NATO’s declared efforts to maintain peace and sec [...]

The Ukrainian crisis is about Ukraine, but not about Central or Western Europe, says Jonathan Steele, Guardian international affairs columnist. But NATO needs to justify its existence and sell arms, that's why a demonetization of Russia is taking place. On Monday, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter claimed America will provide more aircraft, weapons and soldiers to NATO’s rapid reaction force [...]

European companies now have the opportunity to settle trading accounts in Chinese yuan. The Bank of China in Frankfurt has become the first to operate European yuan clearing. Trading costs will be cut as there will be no dollar exchange first. More than 10 German regional and international banks including Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, DZ Bank AG, and Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen Girozentrale, hav [...]

Electric car producer Tesla Motors has adapted battery technology for household and business applications. The wall-mounted batteries will make solar power more accessible and throttle grid consumption to diminish loads and bills. [...]

In a diverse field of competitors made up of pop stars, technology gurus, visionaries and politicians - and at a time when US-Russia relations have hit rock bottom - President Putin has emerged victorious in Time magazine - 2015 reader poll. Among the 100 most influential people in the world, as hand selected by the editors of TIME, the Russian leader proved his rock-star credentials by edging [...]

Investigations into the downing of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine are still inconclusive or incomplete a year on from the tragedy. However, this has not stopped the West and their media from apportioning blames, without facts and figures to back up their claims. The search for justice for the families of those killed on MH17 continues. CrossTalking with Ray McGovern, Alexander Mercouris, and Pa [...]

Austrians have launched a petition to quit the EU, arguing that the nation will be better off economically if it leaves the union. To force the national parliament to consider the initiative activists need to have gathered 100,000 signatures by July 1. The petition was started by a retired 66-year-old translator, Inge Rauscher, who has collected enough signatures to launch an official campaign. [...]

European leaders know that the US wants to get them to spend money on military equipment which will be purchased from the US, says Brian Becker of the anti-war Answer Coalition. But Europe knows the dangers from the experience of two world wars, he added. Several senior American officials say Russia is the greatest threat to their country's national security. [...]

Sustainable development, global security and efforts to diffuse ongoing conflicts, many of which have resulted in explosive global refugee crises, top the agenda of the 70th anniversary UN General Assembly session that has begun its work in New York. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) speech marathon will see more than 160 leaders in attendance at the 70th anniversary. [...]

The question many people ask: How come hundreds of West Europeans came to fight for the self-proclaimed republics in Eastern Ukraine? In fact, the defense of Donbass became the first major volunteer war in Europe since the Spanish Civil War. Then the internationalist brigades (briogadistas) composed of the British, French and Polish leftists, coupled with military professionals from the Soviet [...]

A top NATO European commander’s exaggerated comments on the Ukrainian conflict are ‘dangerous propaganda,’ and put the West at risk of losing credibility, sources in the German Chancellor’s Office told Der Spiegel. General Philip Breedlove made [...]

California lawmakers took a step forward in protecting citizens who record or photograph the actions of police - but do not obstruct their duties - from reprisals by law enforcement, passing legislation out of committee. [...]

Paratroopers of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Vincenza, Italy, have arrived in western Ukraine to provide training for Ukrainian government troops. The announcement came on US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt's twitter account. The diplomat posted pictures of the US paratroopers marching through the airport in the western Ukrainian city of Lvov. [...]

Using ground troops in Syria is out of the question, the Russian president said in an interview with Rossiya 1 TV. Russia’s air operation has been thoroughly prepared and is aimed merely at aiding the Syrian Army’s offensive, he said. “Whatever happens, we’re not going to do this [ground operation] and our Syrian friends are well aware of it,” President Vladimir Putin said in an inter [...]

To the befuddlement of Euro critics, Russian inspectors have arrived in the UK to oversee a mass NATO training exercise taking place in Scotland. Despite current tensions between the West and Russia, the team from the Russian National Nuclear Threat Reduction Center is permitted to visit the country to observe military activities as part of a reciprocal agreement contained in the 2011 version o [...]

Transparent effort to demonize sound money and gold standard. A video purportedly released by Al Hayat, said to be the Islamic State’s media center, extols the gold standard and Austrian economics. Video has been removed! The video, featuring a perfect English voice over, denounces the Federal Reserve: …as history repeated itself, one of the great forms of corruption that the earth cam [...]

Calls are increasing for the prosecution of George W. Bush administration officials tied to the CIA torture program. On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch called on Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor who would investigate the crimes detailed in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the program. On Monday, The New York Times editori [...]

The NSA is implementing a huge migration to custom-designed cloud architecture it says will revolutionize internal security and protect against further leaks by data analysts with unfettered access to classified information. Put simply, the NSA hopes to keep future Edward Snowdens out by employing a cloud file storage system it built from scratch. [...]

It's almost eighteen months since the people of Crimea voted overwhelmingly in a democratic referendum to join the Russian Federation. President Putin visited Crimea, an event that was greeted with an unexpected Western media reaction. Think back to March 2014, when the Crimean referendum took place. [...]

Trust between police and public is falling as more questionable use of lethal force and brutal treatment of suspects hits the news. Officers are also concerned over the ferocity of attacks against them. August's death toll paints a worrying picture. No US government agency tracks the number of civilians killed by the police. [...]

The US military needs to remain engaged around the world against both rival states and non-state actors, while nurturing regional allies and promoting American values, declares the Pentagon’s new National Military Strategy 2015. That the United States is “the world’s strongest nation, enjoying unique advantages in technology, energy, alliances and partnerships, and demographics,” is the [...]