President Donald Trump could end up starting a war – either a civil war at home or an international one with China. Such is this president’s demagogic knack for wriggling out of responsibility for problems. Blame others and to hell with consequences. Let’s start from the premise that America’s grim experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has Trump’s ownership written all over it. Trum [...]

The novel coronavirus may have first passed to humans somewhere in southern China months before the outbreak in the city of Wuhan, a new study found, cutting against widely held theories about the origins of the pandemic. Mapping a “network” of coronavirus genomes and tracing mutations over time, a team of researchers led by a Cambridge University geneticist determined the first Covid-19 infec [...]

Peru is being “cautious” in not disclosing the flight path of a plane loaded with Covid-19 testing kits, its disease response chief has said, with the US accused of “confiscating” supplies meant for other nations. Pilar Mazzetti, who leads Peru’s operational center for Covid-19 response, told Reuters that a plane carrying masks and 300,000 testing kits is due to arrive in the country fro [...]

Three antiviral drugs that can be used to treat COVID-19 were developed in Russia in conjunction with scholars from the Russian Academy of Sciences; the academy's vice president and head of the biomedical sciences unit Vladimir Chekhonin said. The leading academician stated that the antiviral drug triazavirin was created several years ago at the Institute of Organic Synthesis at the Urals branch o [...]

Despite the impact Covid-19 has had on the global economy, the US is seeking more funding to counter and confront China in the Pacific, as well as enhancing its military preparedness for scenarios involving nuclear warfare. The coronavirus outbreak has impacted the global economy in a unique and unprecedented fashion unseen since World War II. Around 63 percent of Japanese businesses have projecte [...]

US military intelligence tried to raise the alarm about the coronavirus epidemic in China when it was still embryonic in November, inside sources claim – raising questions of what they knew and who ignored, or squashed the report. Not only had the coronavirus epidemic begun spiraling out of control in Wuhan by November 2019, but military analysts were already warning it “could be a cataclysmic [...]

China may have managed to contain the coronavirus at home, but it's not over the hump yet. There's danger of a return of the deadly disease as the number of infected travelers entering the country reaches record levels. The Chinese authorities have done huge work since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in Wuhan in late December. The blow was hard as 3,248 have died and 80,967 were infected, but for [...]

Western countries are in lockdown due to Covid-19, but if leaders, their advisers, and the political class in general had paid attention to what was going on in China at the turn of the year, the crisis might have been averted. Imagine you’re a passenger on a ship. You’d expect, wouldn’t you, that the captain and his officers keep a very good look-out for dangers ahead? You’d expect them t [...]

The Trump administration’s initial justification for the 3 January strike that killed Iran’s Soleimani was the threat of “imminent” attacks against American interests. That rationale proved shaky over the past two weeks, with government officials contradicting one another and even themselves. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that the assassination of Qassem Soleimani was part of [...]

The Chinese navy is now in possession of the largest missile destroyer in Asia and the second-largest in the world, following the commission of the Type 055 destroyer Nanchang on Sunday. The Nanchang officially joined the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in a Sunday ceremony in Shandong’s port city of Qingdao, Xinhua News Agency reported. The advanced warship completed its final testing la [...]

The trend is not limited to the US - in February polling revealed the average German holds Russia and China in higher regard than the US, with which their government is allied. Washington outlet Voice of America (VoA) has reported the Pentagon is “concerned” by rising sympathy for Russia among US citizens, in particular those serving in the military. [...]

US tariffs meant to boost the US economy by eliminating “unfair” trade practices, primarily by China, actually took a toll on manufacturing sector jobs and hiked prices, a study by the US Federal Reserve Board has concluded. The Fed has become the latest body to stress the damaging consequences of “unprecedented” punitive tariffs unleashed by US President Donald Trump on China and other tr [...]

India is upbeat following talks in the US, where political and defensive initiatives were laid out amid a climate of tension between the US and China. But can Washington be trusted to live up to its end of the bargain? Judging by Washington’s dismal track record for trashing treaties and agreements, it’s hard to imagine that American diplomats have much work to do these days. As many countries [...]

The growing rivalry between the world’s two largest economies, the US and China, is at risk of becoming a ‘financial war,’ a former Chinese finance minister says. RT’s Keiser Report discusses the possibility of a trade war turning into financial one, with Stacy Herbert saying that America is an empire of debt, ran by derivatives. Max Keiser agrees, saying that: “The only way to keep this [...]

President Donald Trump has approved legislation backing Hong Kong’s ‘pro-democracy’ protest movement, disregarding Beijing’s repeated warnings for Washington to mind its own business and stop meddling in China's internal affairs. Dubbed the 'Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,' the bill blazed through both houses of Congress earlier this month with virtually unanimous consent from la [...]

The US dollar’s status as the world’s major reserve currency, which it held for decades, could come under threat, according to Anne Korin from the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. “Major movers” such as Russia, China, and the European Union have a strong “motivation to de-dollarize,” Korin, the co-director at the energy and security think tank, told CNBC. [...]

Russia began trial production of the next-generation mobile air defense system earlier this year, and plans to start mass production of the system in the second half of next year. The operational effectiveness of Russia’s S-500 air and missile defense system “greatly exceeds any active air defense system in the world,” China’s Sina news portal has suggested. [...]

A missile-attack warning system that Moscow is helping Beijing put together will drastically increase China’s defense capabilities, President Vladimir Putin said, noting that only Russia and the US currently have such technology. [...]

Chinese trade negotiators suddenly changed their plans on Friday, cancelling a visit to meet US farmers after they wrapped up trade talks in Washington this week. The Chinese delegation has changed its travel schedule heading back to China earlier than planned, according to Nicole Rolf, the Montana Farm Bureau Federation’s director of national affairs. [...]

An explosive essay calling out the lack of legitimate expertise about Iran ought to be a wake-up call for the US foreign policy field. Yet the same problem also affects Washington’s analysis of Russia, China and many other places. Imagine a field of study in which less than a third of the experts had related doctorates, half of them could not read, speak or write the language required, and just [...]

American opponents of readmitting Moscow to the former G8 fail to understand the consequences. Two years ago, I asked, “Will Russia Leave the West?” The world’s largest territorial country—sprawling from its major European city St. Petersburg to its vast Far Eastern territories and long border with China—Russia cannot, of course, depart the West geographically. [...]

The India-Russia special partnership is strategic. It is growing in new directions, with implications for both China and the United States. The twentieth annual summit between India and Russia on September 4 could have been ignored as a ho-hum affair. [...]