Speculation published by CNN that US President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence might be assassinated on Inauguration Day is highly irresponsible, former US government officials told Sputnik. [...]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has asked governments and regulators to tighten the screws on digital companies such as his own, and slap them with sanctions if they refuse to abide by rules on privacy, political or harmful content. [...]

Britain’s Supreme Court has ruled Parliament has the right to vote on Article 50 before it is triggered by the prime minister. The decision marks a serious blow for the Conservative government, which had sought to bypass the legislature. [...]

Retirees are heading out of state to these spots. It’s the land of enchantment — for retirees. Data released by United Van Lines — which tracked customers’ state-to-state migration patterns in 2018 — found that New Mexico was the No. 1 state where retirees moved. More than four in 10 (43%) moves to New Mexico were related to retirement, the moving company found, and nearly six in 10 p [...]

Sanctions against Russia have failed to alter the Kremlin’s policies and actually increased popular support for Vladimir Putin. Now, there are growing calls for a change of tack. Like a lake reliant on multiple affluents, the individual headlines eventually morph into a whole. [...]

Net gold purchases by central banks hit a six-year high in the first quarter of 2019, with Russia securing the leading position, as nations seek diversification of their assets and less dependence on the greenback. [...]

President Trump’s chaotic first two weeks have seen senior aides reverse his most promising plans for restoring realism to U.S. foreign policy, especially regarding Russia and the Mideast, reports Daniel Lazare. Well, that didn’t take long, did it? The Trump administration hadn’t even reached its two-week mark when it surrendered a major portion of its independence and fell in behind the [...]

The Trump administration wants to redefine the poverty level, which would kick hundreds of thousands with marginal incomes off welfare, while simultaneously reducing poverty rates in America. [...]

China has become the world’s largest producer of solar energy, according to a new report from the country’s energy administration. The most populous nation on Earth nearly doubled their capacity for solar power in 2016, but they still have a very low per-capita rate for solar power use. [...]

Facebook’s lawyer has denied the social media platform invaded American users’ privacy when it allowed their personal data to be slurped up by Cambridge Analytica, claiming they had no privacy to begin with. No crime, no victims? [...]

I sometimes wonder what Путин must make of the Western media obsession with him. Do his ears burn each day with all the new articles, broadcasts, social media mentions – the myriad voices, guided by the Western political and media establishments, speculating, characterizing, creating – “Putin”? [...]

The top US diplomat has landed in New Delhi, aiming to pressure the Indian government into rejecting Russian S-400 air defense systems and China’s Huawei mobile tech in favor of “better” military and trade deals with Washington. [...]

Huawei is spearheading the quantum communication technology in a bid to build "unhackable" networks. Cyber security experts have discussed whether the tech giant's efforts would make US eavesdropping techniques, once described by Edward Snowden, obsolete. [...]

The orange-tinted freakshow that is Donald Trump should be removed from the White House and sent to some filthy, rat-infested dungeon with a sentence of Life Without Twitter. The same goes for the rest of his racist, eco-cidal, arch-plutocratic, and shockingly Christian Fascist administration. They should be forced to work sunup to sundown in a solar panel-making work camp in the Arizona desert. [...]

Donald Trump made it a banner promise of his presidency to stop the US being abused as the world’s “piggybank” – but not all foreign powers seem to be cowed into submission by his assertive style of foreign economic policy. [...]

Maine resident Garry Godfrey spent nine years on a transplant list, waiting for a new kidney. Then he was abruptly bumped off because of a hospital policy that forbids transplants for smokers of medical marijuana. [...]

Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein reportedly signed a will around 48 hours before he was found dead in his cell on August 10, according to court papers obtained by the New York Post. [...]

China’s Foreign Minister warned that an armed conflict with North Korea may break out “at any moment,” urging Washington and Pyongyang to tone down their hawkish rhetoric and realize the price to pay for both sides if a new Korean War were to start. [...]

A chief author of US President Donald Trump’s still under-wraps Middle East peace plan, Jason Greenblatt, will leave his post in government after the contentious deal is unveiled – though it’s unclear why. [...]

The president of Austria has raised quite a few eyebrows after stating that there may come a day when all women are asked to wear headscarves out of solidarity, citing discrimination faced by Muslims in the country. [...]

The United States kicked Turkey off its F-35 program after Ankara opted to buy the Russian S-400 air defense system. Experts believe that Turkey may now look to buy its military aircraft from Russia. The Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Mustafa Şentop, said earlier this week that Turkey may buy Su-35 and Su-57 fighter jets on favorable terms after the US kicked it off its F-35 st [...]

Trump’s overall strategy to try and break up the EU reflects his preferred way of doing business: to deal with individual states so they can be more easily manipulated, says political writer and journalist Dan Glazebrook. [...]