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. [...]

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has revealed a National Defense Strategy (NDS) shifting the focus from international terrorism to America’s old geopolitical rivals, Russia and China. But should these really be its priorities? [...]

The US government shut down at midnight Friday, the 18th such event in modern US history. RT takes a look at previous instances of congressional stalemate that brought the country to a standstill. A shutdown occurs when Congress can’t agree on a spending bill. It results in the temporary suspension of “non-essential” civil services. [...]

America's global approval rating has plunged to its lowest point in a decade, according to a new Gallup poll, with Germany and China ahead on the world stage. A thousand adults, aged 15 years or older across more than 130 countries, were questioned between March and November 2017. [...]

Russia has accused the US of fueling the conflict in Ukraine after the ultra-nationalist Ukrainian Azov battalion was spotted wielding American-made TOW anti-tank weaponry, according to Moscow’s envoy to the OSCE. Russia is concerned that the US is encouraging Kiev to solve the Donbass conflict with force by supplying it with “defensive” heavy weaponry. [...]

Ukraine’s President Poroshenko has praised the US and Canada for approving lethal arms supplies, while Moscow says it subverts the peace process. By including Ukraine on the list of countries approved for lethal weapons sales, Canada has become a side in a bloody civil war, undermining a shaky peace process, a senior Russian senator said, as Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko applauded the m [...]

US President Donald Trump has signed into law $700 billion in funding to the Pentagon, which includes a pay raise for troops and funding for a number of pet projects. It also breaks the ceiling set by the 2011 law on budget caps. Congress sent the final version of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to Trump at the end of November, and he ceremonially signed the bill Tuesday. T [...]

Rudyard Kipling once wrote that “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” The poet was referring to his experiences in India and Britain, but the line could increasingly apply to modern Europe. [...]

An all-female team of researchers and environmentalists board a yacht and head for the Caribbean. The 14 women come from all over the world and from a variety of backgrounds: there are marine scientists, biologists, geographers, filmmakers, artists, photographers, sailors, travellers and educators. United in their love of the ocean and the shared commitment to protect it from manmade polluti [...]

The 2015 migration crisis sparked an intense debate about the security situation in Austria, which is still acute in the country. Earlier in January, Austrian interior minister Herbert Kickl said that the government is going to tighten its asylum policy, citing the increased crime rate among asylum seekers last year as a reason for the decision. [...]

About 1.5 million refugees have arrived in Germany since 2015, prompting local authorities to allocate huge sums for migration-related issues. Speaking to Sputnik, Professor Bernd Raffelhuschen from the University of Freiburg specifically focused on the long-term costs of pensions and sickness insurance for migrants. [...]

The influential US think-tank the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has the Balkans on its conflict prevention list in its recently published 2018 survey.  However the idea, promoted by the CFR, that the US is the country that can help preserve ‘peace and stability‘ needs to be challenged – as it is the US and its closest NATO allies themselves who are actually responsible for many of the [...]

The Turkish president has called US-backed Syrian Border Force using Kurdish fighters a “terrorist army,” vowing to “drown” it before it’s complete. He also added that military preparations against Kurdish-held Afrin are ready. [...]