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 [...]

This week US relations with Saudi Arabia cool down, while heating up with Russia and Iran. Is the US considering a sweeping change to foreign policy? Saudi King Salman chose not to attend a joint US-Gulf State meeting this week set to deal with the possibility of giving Gulf States a missile defense system to ward off a nuclear-powered Iran. [...]

Washington is considering a Russian proposal of direct military talks regarding the situation in Syria, US Secretary of State John Kerry said as his spokesman struggled to explain the setbacks to US efforts against Islamic State militants in the region. Reporters grilled deputy State Department spokesman Mark Toner over revelations that only a handful of US-trained “moderate Syrian rebels” [...]

Pope Francis has congratulated both the US and Cuba on restoring relations, as the Vatican together with Canada were confirmed to have played a significant role in the talks which broke 50 years of cold. The Vatican said that it was a key player in negotiations between the two countries, “resulting in solutions acceptable to both parties.” [...]

Rogue investors who ignored the negative hype about Russia, are smiling from ear to ear after the ruble gained about 6 percent this week. The ruble surged 6 percent this past week, opening Monday at 56.55 and closing at 53.5 on the Moscow Exchange on Friday. In the last month alone, the ruble has appreciated by more than 20 percent. [...]

Citizenfour must have been a maddening documentary to film. Its subject is pervasive global surveillance, an enveloping digital act that spreads without visibility, so its scenes unfold in courtrooms, hearing chambers and hotels. Yet the virtuosity of Laura Poitras, its director and architect, makes its 114 minutes crackle with the nervous energy of revelation. [...]

Award-winning Serbian director and musician Emir Kusturica believes that when Washington eventually starts World War III, RT will become one of its first and primary targets, being an extremely powerful weapon challenging US state propaganda. In an article published by the Serbian daily Politika, Kusturica has aligned RT with Russia’s most powerful weapons, specifically the SS-18, an intercon [...]

The crisis and chaos engulfing the Middle East and Ukraine is evidence of US imperial decline, as Washington learns the harsh lesson that no empire lasts forever. In the wake of the Vietnam War - the end of which was marked by news footage of US personnel and a select few Vietnamese collaborators being evacuated from the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon in 1975 - the United States entered a pro [...]

The internet browser Mozilla is teaming up with Tor to give internet users greater security online. The new Polaris project is designed to combat internet censorship and make NSA like intrusion's a thing of the past. Edward Snowden’s revelations concerning the extent of the National Security Agency’s spying on the general public, hit computer and internet enthusiasts hard. A poll conducted [...]

The Ukrainian issue has intensified the tension that existed between the West and Russia: now, another Cold War is possibly lurking on the horizon. Are we to witness another stand-off - or will it be averted? The relations between Russia and the West seem to be stuck at dead-end, so is there hope common ground will emerge between the two? We ask these questions to the man who prides himself on [...]

Collapsing narratives and more worrying signs. Political infighting and violence continue to engulf the Kiev regime. Europe calls on Poroshenko to honor the Minsk agreement, while the Pentagon says it wants to escalate its presence in Ukraine. CrossTalking with Mary Dejevsky, Daniel McAdams and Anthony Salvia. [...]

Talk about quick on the draw. No sooner had Russian planes taken off to bomb ISIS terrorists and their associates in Syria, claims made by the West’s anti-Russia lobby started to flood in – only to be repeated in much of the western mainstream media. Russia wasn‘t really targeting ISIS but “moderate rebels” and its strikes killed scores of innocent civilians (unlike US strikes during [...]

The longest US occupation has done nothing for the Afghans; there’s no security in the country and President Obama is passing the problem on to the next administration, Sara Flounders, of the International Action Centre told RT. President Obama said Thursday the military presence in Afghanistan will be extended beyond 2016. [...]

The Russian and Chinese Navies are to hold a joint exercise in the Mediterranean Sea in mid-May, a first in that part of the world. A total of nine warships from the two countries are to participate, Beijing said. "The aim is to deepen both countries' friendly and practical cooperation, and increase our navies' ability to jointly deal with maritime security threats," [...]

As a country with few socio-economic and political problems Ukraine has turned into a failed state torn by civil war and sectarian violence, with a lack of constitutional order and a destroyed economy, foreign affairs expert Nebojsa Malic told RT. Malic added that there has been a lot of talk about financial assistance for Ukraine but none of that has actually materialized. [...]

Europe, which the EU is supposed to represent, is fighting a double war that could ravage it beyond recognition – against Greece within its own borders, and against Russia in Ukraine. An exhibition in Rome could not – inadvertently – be more graphic in defining the zeitgeist: “The Age of Anxiety – from Commodus to Diocletian.” Well, Roman emperors could barely imagine it would get m [...]

The Dow Jones industrial average suffered its worst loss in five years after the market plunged into a correction on Friday. Stock markets around the world lost value amid concerns over the global economy. The Dow plunged nearly 531 points ‒ 3.1 percent ‒ to close the day at 16,459.75. [...]

Retired General Waldemar Skrzypczak, an influential figure in the Polish military, says he withdraws all words of support for Ukraine due to the country's sliding towards nationalism. Earlier he advocated supplying heavy weapons to Kiev. The angry U-turn in attitudes towards the Ukrainian government was published on Friday in the Gazeta Prawna newspaper. [...]

Russia is to renew production of the Tu-160 "Blackjack" supersonic strategic bomber and missile carrier, according to defense minister, Sergey Shoigu. “Today it is already necessary to solve the task of not only maintaining and modernizing long-range aviation, we must also produce the Tu-160 missile carrier,” Shoigu said during a visit to the Kazan Aviation Plant, as cited by Sputnik news a [...]

During talks in Sochi, the Russian foreign minister presented his US counterpart with a Victory Day t-shirt and baskets of potatoes and tomatoes. Looks like an answer to Kerry's giving him Idaho potatoes in 2014. Sergey Lavrov and John Kerry met in the Southern Russian city to discuss international and bilateral relations. [...]

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has called for Russians and Germans to unite and called good relations between the two nations “priceless capital” in a newspaper interview. “History teaches us that when Germans and Russians walk hand in hand both nations and all Europeans benefit. [...]