On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) held a session aimed at assessing the progress Israel made during its third Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a UN-backed process designed to assess the human rights record of a state and make recommendations for improvement.  In the course of the struggle between the Israelis and Palestinians, the UN has repeatedly accused Israel of not respecting hum [...]

A new report shows Angela Merkel's government has approved a record breaking €25 billion ($30.9 billion) worth of weapons sales since taking power in 2014, angering political rivals as well as the German public. [...]

There is nothing to be gained from carrying out the bidding of the US in Syria, and right now Turkey and the Kurds alike are learning this the hard way, independent political analyst Dan Glazebrook told RT. Turkey officially launched a military operation against Kurdish-held enclaves in Syria called operation ‘Olive Branch’ on Saturday, comprising airstrikes and a ground offensive. [...]

New York City is suing eight companies that make or distribute prescription opioids for their role in the ongoing opioid crisis. The suits aim to recover $500 million for current and future costs combating the epidemic. Mayor Bill de Blasio said opioids killed more people in the city in recent years than car crashes and homicides. [...]

Hundreds of people flocked to the streets in Switzerland to protest the visit of US President Donald Trump to the Alpine town of Davos, where he is set to deliver a speech at the World Economic Forum. [...]

The US has no business in Afghanistan but it loves war and could be there for another 17 years, killing hundreds of thousands more people, according to Lew Rockwell, chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. The US State Department confirmed Tuesday that several Americans were among the victims in Saturday's attack on a hotel in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where 22 people died in the overnight si [...]

Former US vice president Joe Biden boasted that he had a word to say in another state’s internal affairs, admitting to have pressured the Ukrainian government into sacking a prosecutor general in just a few hours. [...]

The latest spat between Washington and Moscow over how reports of chemical weapon attacks in Syria should be investigated seems to be just an episode in which US political necessities trump transparency in policy-making. [...]

The Russian military has delivered new units of its state-of-the-art S-400 anti-aircraft systems to Syria. The weapons have assumed combat duty in Russian army compounds in the country. Videos provided by the country's Defense Ministry show the arrival of four of the systems. [...]

Israeli pilots are taking a stand against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mission to expel tens of thousands of African migrants from the country, publicly declaring they will not “deport refugees to their death.” [...]

The FBI agent who investigated the Trump-Russia collusion claim sent a “jaw-dropping” text message suggesting that there was nothing to it, according to a Wisconsin senator who chairs the Homeland Security Committee. Peter Strzok, formerly the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, sent a text to his mistress, FBI attorney Lisa Page, on May 19, 2017 – just two [...]

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pointed the finger at Syrian President Bashar Assad for the reported chemical incident in East Ghouta, while ultimately blaming Russia for it, regardless of who actually committed the attack. [...]

DAVOS (Sputnik) - Reports on disagreements between Russia and India in the area of defense industry cooperation are based on speculation and the two states maintain strong ties in defense cooperation and are developing a partnership on transfers of technology, Mobashar Jawed Akbar, Indian minister of state for external affairs, told Sputnik. [...]

According to designers, unlike Space X's Falcon 9, the KORONA is not just a rocket, but a spacecraft, capable of takeoff and landing, with its development effectively opening the path to interplanetary flights with crew onboard. [...]

With mounting problems at home, the UK Establishment is stepping up its campaign to divert our attention on to non-existent dangers from abroad. The so-called 'Russian threat,' is not only good for the arms industry, and defense budgets, but for politicians who have no answers to the very real threats the British public face in their daily lives. [...]

The United States and its NATO allies are facing an existential threat. But the threat has nothing to do with Russia, China, or any other external “enemy” for that matter. The West’s own worst enemy is itself. Or more precisely, the intellectual bankruptcy of its political and military leaders and their dominant public discourse. [...]

The UK Army chief is deploying one of Britain’s most well-tested military tactics – begging for money by using Russia to scare the public and government into action. To quote analyst Mark Galeotti, “Russia is being weaponised.” [...]

The newly-adopted Ukrainian law on ‘restoring sovereignty over the Donetsk and Lugansk regions’ shows that Kiev is determined to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine by force, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The law grants Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko “unlimited powers to silence dissent, similar to those of a dictator,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. [...]

World’s richest 1% bagged 82% of global wealth in 2017, while poorest half got nothing – Oxfam The inequality crisis is worsening, according to a new study by global charity Oxfam, which found that the world’s richest 42 people own the same amount of wealth as the poorest 50 percent worldwide. [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump does not have the authority to keep military forces in Syria after Daesh is defeated, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ben Cardin said in a statement on Thursday in reaction to a speech given by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. [...]

To some David Icke is a charismatic rebel fighting against the unseen powers which rule the world. To others he is a dubious figure deserving of scorn and ridicule. But whatever you may think of him, David is one of the world’s most prominent conspiracy theorists and has a global following to match. His controversial claims include that the world is run by a secret cabal of alien lizards who [...]

George Soros has lamented that the European Union is on the verge of collapse while Russia is becoming “a resurgent nationalist power.” Hungarian-American tycoon George Soros, who runs the $26 billion Soros Fund Management and chairs the global board of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), made the remarks while speaking to the Financial Times. [...]