Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has lashed out against the EU, saying that the bloc's policies had brought Ukraine "to its knees," and turned it into a raw material colony. Speaking to Sputnik, Ukrainian political analyst Alexander Okhrimenko said that it was surprising that Kiev expected anything different from the Europeans. [...]

Ecuador traded Julian Assange for a loan from the International Monetary Fund, which can only be handed out with the approval of Washington, John Shipton, the WikiLeaks co-founder’s father, has said. [...]

A report by the Institute of International Finance (IIF) in the US has revealed that global debt levels have surged to US$217 trillion in the first quarter of 2017. This is 327 percent of the world's annual economic output (GDP). [...]

The Russian economy has enjoyed increased Chinese investment as Western sanctions have pushed Beijing closer to Moscow, according to a report released by the US Department of Defense. Despite the 136-page document dedicated to China's armed forces and Washington's concerns over Beijing's growing clout, including its economic strength, the US military did not forget to mention Russia, with which Ch [...]

White House officials have been sending mixed signals regarding President Trump's stance on the new Russia sanctions bill. Political scientist Sergei Sudakov says Washington's uncertainty makes sense, since the bill puts the US and Europe on the path to a major trade war.   [...]

US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus has warned Turkey about the “very negative consequences” their acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile defense systems will have if it goes ahead. The purchase of the surface-to-air missile defence systems will seriously affect the defence relations of the United States and NATO with Turkey, she said. [...]

The Russian government is taking steps to reduce the value of transactions using the American currency in the country, according to Economic Development Minister Maksim Oreshkin. “There is a big trend toward the de-dollarization of the Russian economy.  [...]

As tensions with Iran threaten to spill over into war, the big question is who has sway over President Donald Trump, his hawkish advisers or a cautious Fox News host, and the answer might make all the difference. [...]

The skyrocketing price of Bitcoin in recent years is likely to undergo the economic bubble like Tulip mania in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century, says expert Zhou Wuying, Economic Information Daily reported on Aug. 14. [...]

The Pentagon is actively contemplating the use of nuclear weapons to win wars that need not be fought in the first place. As expected, opposition to the US nuclear doctrine is almost non-existent in the mainstream media. [...]

The Russian Ministry of Defense has released aerial images which they say show US Army special forces equipment north of the town of Deir er-Zor, where ISIS militants are deployed. US Army special units provide free passage for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) through the battle formations of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists, the ministry said in a statement.   [...]

Deutsche’s net income also dropped by over 40 percent to €231 million in the second quarter, year-on-year - the lender is predicted to report a full-year loss for 2019. Deutsche shares fell 2.4 percent in response to the results. [...]

U.S. politicians often lecture other nations about their flawed governance as if American democracy is the gold standard, but anti-democratic measures like gerrymandering belie that self-image, says ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. An old fear about Islamist political parties entering government is that once in power, even if they had gained their position through democratic means, they would sub [...]

The US military has tested a ground-launched cruise missile with a range of over 500km, the Pentagon confirmed. Such weapons were banned under the INF arms control treaty, which the US exited this month. [...]

It looks that the Israeli “demonstration of power” during the recent visit of Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has turned into a total failure. On October 16, Shoigu arrived Israel for meetings with Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The sides were reportedly set to discuss the situation in the region, including Syria, the fight a [...]

The US-German friendship has taken a nosedive. A recent survey commissioned by Atlantik-Brücke and conducted by the polling firm Civey found that 85 percent of respondents rate relations between the two countries as poor to very poor. [...]

After Trump recognized Wednesday that Jerusalem was Israel’s capital, the situation appeared on edge all across Europe, France being no exception. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators took to the streets in Paris on Saturday to decry the scheduled visit of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is set to meet President Macron on Sunday, as well as Trump’s now historic words. [...]

Benny Gantz, whose centrist bloc narrowly defeated Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in a snap election, says he is forming a government that will exclude the current prime minister – signaling the end of Bibi’s era may be near. [...]

More and more Americans are speculating that there may be something behind the Kushner family’s deepening business ties with Israel, especially given that Jared Kushner's father-in-law made the controversial decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, provoking condemnation among the world's Muslims and violent rage among Palestinians. [...]

The US-made fifth-generation F-35 warplane reportedly continues to face a raft of mechanical issues, although it has been developed for several decades with a budget of over $1 trillion. The German radar-maker Hensoldt has claimed that it managed to track two US stealth fighter jets F-35 from a pony farm for almost 100 miles (about 150 kilometres) during an air show, the website C4ISRNet reports. [...]

From the Archive: President Trump says his “tough” language on immigration, which reportedly included decrying “shithole” nations, didn’t apply to Haiti but he appears to know little of America’s debt to Haiti, which Robert Parry described in 2010. In 2010, when announcing emergency help for Haiti after a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake, President Barack Obama noted America’s [...]

You may think that when a nation buys US weapons, it gets the tools to scare away or kill its enemies. But according to a US official, Humvees and Patriot missiles have a secret ingredient that the competition lacks: friendship. [...]