Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s first telephone conversation indicates a new chapter will be opened in US-Russia relations, as, by reaching out to Moscow, the US leader has shown he’s capable of overriding internal opposition, Daniel McAdams told RT. [...]

Democratic 2020 hopeful Bernie Sanders called the government of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu “racist” during a CNN town hall. Another blue candidate, Beto O’Rourke, used similar wording to blast the Israeli leader. [...]

President Trump is getting a crash course on the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers as federal courts knock down his temporary immigration ban aimed at seven mostly Muslim countries, reports Marjorie Cohn. On Jan. 27, President Trump made good on his campaign promise to institute a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. Trump’s executive order (“EO”) is titled “Protecting the Nation F [...]

Earlier, speaking at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, US Vice President Mike Pence boasted about "renewed American leadership on the world stage," while talking up sanctions against Russia, tough tariffs against China, 'confrontation' with Iran, and US intentions to withdraw from the INF Treaty. [...]

The government in Vienna is working on amendments to Austrian laws that would allow troops to be sent to other European countries to help them "protect their borders" from illegal migrants and refugees, the Austrian defense minister has said. [...]

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has proposed calling a snap election after the country's Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Starche resigned after what he called "political assassination." [...]

German Minister for Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel, who is in Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, says that Germany fears a new arms race in Europe. “We are concerned that a new spiral of the arms race may emerge in Europe,” he said, as cited by TASS. “It’s too early to say how and in what direction we could advance to prevent this.” [...]

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doubled down on vilification of Сhinese telecoms giant Huawei as “an instrument of government” suggesting that the company was a national security threat by acting as an agent for Beijing. [...]

The number of Americans seeking citizenship in New Zealand jumped by 70 percent in the three months following the election of President Donald Trump from the same time period last year, according to immigration records. Since Trump’s election, 170 Americans without a family connection to New Zealand have put in applications for a grant of citizenship to the island nation, versus 100 dur [...]

Malaysia is “unhappy” about the findings of the Dutch-led inquiry into the MH17 crash, which pointed the finger at Russia even before the probe began, the country’s PM said, noting that there was more politics than fact-finding. [...]

Ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community, calls within the EU for a so-called "two-speed Europe" are becoming more vocal. Sputnik Italy spoke with Italian economist Pasquale Lucio Scandizzo about who stands to benefit from such a model. [...]

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif previously noted that the EU mechanism for bilateral transactions with Tehran bypassing US sanctions could include other interested countries, such as Russia and Turkey. [...]

The complex Obamacare system struggled to gain popularity, but now that Republicans are moving to replace it with a less generous program, many medical professionals are irate, reports Dennis J Bernstein. By Dennis J Bernstein President Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan are twisting congressional arms to get enough votes to push through repeal of the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a [...]

The rise of cryptocurrency has sparked intense debate on its role in central banking systems, as well as economic viability in monetary supply chains. [...]

In a serious setback to the promise of an impending peace process in Syria the United States have hit a Syrian airbase alleged to have carried out a chemical attack on a rebel held town, without any proper investigation of the incident. Only a day before the US strike, international donors in Brussels, as well as Syrian and Western politicians and experts in London were discussing ways of� [...]

US President Donald Trump has stated that he is “the chosen one" to take on Beijing and that his life would be easier if he had not mounted a trade war with China. The remark came during one of Trump’s trademark “helicopter” press conferences, outside the White House on Wednesday. Fielding questions on a range of topics, the president touched on the tariff war with China that he launched i [...]

Imagine that you lead the US deep state, and you are observing the real-time flow of Western technology, industry and next-generation skills to the East with alarm. How will you reverse this trend with one master stroke and temporarily staunch the decline of Pax Americana?   [...]

The US State Department is openly using organized crime tactics, including bribery and extortion, in an effort to bend Iran to its will after its usual allies refused to get sucked into a coalition to 'police' the Persian Gulf. [...]

The US launched a military strike on a Syrian government airbase in response to a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians. CNN's Athena Jones details the events leading up to the decision. Trump "No living being should suffer from such a nightmare." - I don't get it - he's speaking about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, right? Evidence Debunks OPCW Claim on Syrian 'Chemic [...]

Now that US military aid to Kiev has been weaponized in the rapidly heating civil war in Washington itself, it would be the perfect time to confront the fact that US meddling was primarily responsible for the chaos in Ukraine. [...]

America’s neocons are back pounding the war drums, urging President Trump to escalate U.S. military attacks inside Syria even if that means hitting Russian targets and risking a new world war, reports Robert Parry. The U.S. mainstream media’s near universal demonization of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin – along with similar hatred directed toward Ira [...]

A casual aerobatics flyover, another butchered cover of the Russian anthem and faux Russian road police – the United Arab Emirates have gone royally over-the-top to make Russian President Vladimir Putin feel comfortable. [...]