On Tuesday the Pentagon denied that it attempted to cover up a study from 2015 indicating potential savings in noncombat administrative programs of $125 billion. Through recommendations based on a back-office waste evaluation, the Defense Department hopes to save $7.9 billion in the next five years. [...]

First known US coronavirus deaths occurred far earlier than previously thought. Up until recently, the first COVID-19 death in the US was thought to have occurred in Washington state on Feb. 29. But autopsies have revealed two earlier coronavirus deaths in California, one on Feb. 6 and the other on Feb. 17, the AP reports. The San Francisco Chronicle calls it "a stunning discovery" that radically [...]

Marine Le Pen’s loss of EU Parliament immunity is going to help her get elected: French people and other Europeans see it as a plot by the establishment to silence her, it shows the EU Parliament is undemocratic, says David Coburn, UKIP MEP. [...]

It's hard to view the US at this point as anything other than a cautionary tale. It is remarkable how the effects of Covid on the international system mirrors its impact on individuals. Its lethality, in the acute phase, may be lower than we feared, yet there is a risk of sudden catastrophic relapse after a seeming period of recovery, and the long-term effects are of a gravity we can only dread. [...]

With Russia’s hopes for détente with President Trump dashed by his missile strike on Syria, the Kremlin looks askance at visiting Secretary of State Tillerson who it feels played the Colin Powell role for his boss, says Gilbert Doctorow. Secretary of State Tillerson Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow was supposed to prepare the way for a Trump-Putin summit either as a self- [...]

Americans are ditching their US citizenship in droves thanks to an unbearable political atmosphere and the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, new research shows, indicating that both residents and expats are cutting ties in record numbers. More than 5,800 Americans [...]

Here’s hoping there's rent control in China: Employees at a factory that manufactures apparel for Ivanka Trump’s clothing business earn just $62 each week, for 60 hours of work, it has been revealed. There are 80 workers at the plant, which produces clothing for Ivanka Trump’s eponymous brand as well as for Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, The Washington Post reported. [...]

As soon as Russia’s 'Sputnik V' coronavirus vaccine arrives in Venezuela for clinical trials, it may be used to immunize around 14,400 candidates in the upcoming parliamentary election, the country’s president said on Tuesday. A batch of the world's first registered Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in the Latin American nation later this month, Nicolas Maduro stated in a televised address. He [...]

I’m not the only person to note that if Jesus ever actually showed up in America it would be our “Christians” who would shout him down — if, that is, he talked about peace and the horror of an imperial nation addicted to war. “Blessed are the peacemakers”? No thanks! If you ever want to know what it looks like when a mob in love with far right nationalism and on fire with a lust for [...]

Prime Minister Designate Mustapha Adib announced that he would be stepping down on Saturday, saying Lebanon’s political factions “failed to refuse to politicize the process of forming a government.” Adib was appointed in August, after Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned in the turmoil following the Beirut explosion, which killed nearly 200 people. Prime Minister designate Adib’s s [...]

The CNN news channel has never had any "big proof" to back their stories about the Trump campaign's alleged ties with Russia. Finally, you can hear it from a CNN employee: caught on a hidden camera CNN producer John Bonifield admitted that the news channel had been circulating the "Russia story" not because it's true but because it sells. CNN Producer 'Fesses Up: Russia Narrative 'Bullsh* [...]

The US government’s efforts to punish truth-tellers like Chelsea Manning is in part vengeance, but the ultimate goal is to terrify, to ensure there will never be another Manning or Julian Assange. The woman who, as Bradley Manning, revealed some of the stark truths about the high crimes and misdemeanours of the US government which now persecutes her, has attempted to end her life. [...]

The US Federal Aviation Authority is investigating why a passenger jet made a potentially disastrous landing approach towards a taxiway containing four other planes at San Francisco International Airport. Details are emerging about an apparent near-miss at San Francisco International Airport on Friday, in which a flight arriving from Toronto reportedly mistook a taxiway for a runway. [...]

Given the continued disruptions caused by the pandemic and uncertainty about a vaccine, it would behoove the countries of the world to dial down tensions and expand collaborations, writes Vijay Prashad. In mid-October, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its World Economic Outlook report, which offered some dizzying data. For 2020, the IMF estimates that the global Gross Domestic P [...]

New penalties against Moscow proposed by US lawmakers violate international law and officials in Brussels should consider countermeasures, the German economy minister said on Monday. "We consider this as being against international law, plain and simple,"Brigitte Zypries told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain. [...]

The current administration actively supported the Venezuelan opposition figure, who orchestrated an unsuccessful coup attempt in 2018 and reportedly organised another one in 2019. Washington recognises Guaido as Venezuela's interim president and is pressuring the country with sanctions to force elected president, Nicolas Maduro to resign. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has stated tha [...]

Seeking to demonize Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Western media has apparently ended up inadvertently imbuing his image with almost godlike properties, effectively transforming the persona of a capable head of state into some kind of mythical omnipotent figure. Earlier in August Netflix released a film called Icarus – a ‘documentary’ about what Western media has called the ‘Ru [...]

The narcissistic businessman has never seen politics as a vocation, and he’s incapable of engaging in the hard slog of politics for the next four years. But can Biden fix the mess that Trump leaves behind? I doubt it. As the US Congress prepares to formally endorse Joe Biden as president on January 6, there is speculation about what the future may hold for Donald Trump, as well as about his [...]

The US had to step back from its policy of regime change in Syria after multiple failures, as the jihadists they allegedly hoped to use as a proxy began posing a threat, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General, Sheikh Naim Kassem, argued in an interview to RT. [...]

A tacit admission by the US Air Force that the F-35 has failed its main mission has triggered an outpouring of outrage from Americans who think the stealth fighter’s gargantuan budget could have been better spent on other things. Frustration with Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation stealth jet flooded Twitter on Wednesday, after Forbes magazine published a story about how USAF commissionin [...]

The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman commented Monday on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement comparing Crimea's reunification with Russia to the German reunification. Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented Monday on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement comparing Crimea's reunification with Russia to the German reunification, joking that it might [...]

San Marino, a tiny landlocked state, surprised many of its European neighbours when it began easing anti-COVID restrictions in mid-April, several months after it stocked up on Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. It may be one of Europe’s smallest states, but it’s winning the COVID battle thanks to Russia’s vaccine. The country, which has a population of 34,000, has seen coronavirus cas [...]