Lebanon cannot stand on its feet anymore. It is overwhelmed, frightened and broke. It stands at the frontline, facing Islamic State (IS, formerly known as ISIS/ISIL) in the east and north, hostile Israel in the south and the deep blue sea in the west. One and a half million (mostly Syrian) refugees are dispersed all over its tiny territory. [...]

Speaking to RT, firebrand President Rodrigo Duterte spewed vitriol at the US for seeing the Philippines as "a vassal state," revealing that he has sets his hopes on reaching out to Moscow and Beijing instead. "America is not the Philippines and the Philippines is not America. It ain't that way anymore, and I refuse to dovetail under American foreign policy," Duterte proclaimed in a candid intervie [...]

Everybody knows what the pro-Hillary line this electoral season is; it is the same old story, modified to meet the challenge of the Sanders campaign. It comes down to this: because she is more “moderate” than Bernie, she is more electable; and because she is a levelheaded “progressive” who knows how to get things done – unlike Bernie [...]

Israeli strikes on Damascus suburbs put a civilian aircraft in serious danger and forced it to divert to Russia’s Khmeimim airbase as the Syrian air defense was activated to repel the attack, the Russian military said. An Airbus A320 flying from Tehran to the Syrian capital was forced to make an emergency landing following an Israeli missile attack, the Russian Defense Ministry said. It added th [...]

Trump and Clinton may be the two most hated front runners in history, dueling symbols of a duopoly in decay. To paraphrase a great American poet of the 1980s, this is not our beautiful house. We get a tiny breather in the political calendar this week, and it’s a useful moment to take half a step back from the most chaotic and disordered presidential campaign in living memory [...]

Despite its apparent limitations, the new radar system can potentially be used in conjunction with other radar systems to strip enemy stealth aircraft of the very capabilities that give the latter their edge. It appears that stealth aircraft, one of the most potent tools in the NATO countries’ arsenal, may become not-so-potent in the near future as a new radar system developed by Russia’s Alma [...]

The U.S. government doesn’t want to admit that its heady “unipolar” days are over with Russia no longer the doormat of the 1990s, but Washington’s arrogance risks war, even nuclear annihilation, explains Gilbert Doctorow. In Moscow, the preparations for the May 9th Victory Day parade began in the middle of the final week of April. [...]

The impossible has happened and the world we knew has stopped turning around. But what world order will emerge after the coronavirus pandemic is over – socialism for the rich, disaster capitalism or something completely new? These days I sometimes catch myself wishing to get the virus – in this way, at least the debilitating uncertainty would be over. [...]

French Energy Minister Segolene Royal said she is examining legal means to ban the import of shale gas from the United States. According to media reports, she told lawmakers in the National Assembly that France should prohibit fracked gas imports within its borders due to a ban on hydraulic fracking introduced for environmental reasons. [...]

Venezuela’s prosecutors have summoned Juan Guaido over his role in the “attempted coup d’etat,” as well as in alleged assassination attempts. Guaido is the main figure in US-backed efforts to oust President Nicolas Maduro. The move was announced by Attorney General Tarek William Saab on Tuesday in a televised speech. The official described Guaido as “one of the main perpetrators” of a [...]

Federal officials have threatened to shut down the Washington, DC Metrorail over myriad safety issues, such as electrical fires. While Metro plans a year-long “safety surge” of repairs and calls for dedicated funding, area residents are bracing for pain. [...]

Russian Helicopters and their Mexican partner – the Craft Avia Center announced plans to form a partnership to market the Ansat multi-purpose helicopter in Mexico several years back, with the Mexican side opening a service center earlier this year. The global economic slowdown and coronavirus pandemic has not held Mexico back from taking delivery of its first Ansat helicopter, Jose de V [...]

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the two most unpopular presidential candidates in recent American history. Therefore, the pre-election struggle will be no short of a deadly battle of words between the two politicians hoping to make the other one look worse. Last week, Clinton said that Trump is not qualified enough to be a president. [...]

The global death toll from the pandemic is nearing 280,000, with the United States and Great Britain topping the list of the worst-hit countries. At the same time, China has reported a plunge in new cases of the infection and no fatalities from the virus over the last several weeks. There are over 4,000,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus globally, according to Johns Hopkins Universit [...]

Former US senator and co-chairman of a 9/11 inquiry Bob Graham told German television that redacted US documents reveal a network of Saudi support for the al-Qaeda terrorists who carried out the attack which reaches as far as the Kingdom's government. [...]

A Florida Senator spectacularly claimed he’s got intelligence proving China is obstructing the West’s search for a Covid-19 cure – He shouldn’t be shy to let the world see the “evidence,” Beijing’s diplomats swiftly quipped. Rick Scott, who sits on the Senate’s Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, pulled no punches when talking China on the BBC on Sunday. Apart from bei [...]

The Central Bank of Russia became the world's leading purchaser of gold when it bought 356,000 ounces of the precious metal in February, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). China took second place; its Central Bank purchased about 320,000 ounces of gold in February, according [...]

Production disruptions caused by the Covid-19 outbreak could cost the global economy twice as much as a hypothetical global military conflict, according to figures cited in a recent research by the McKinsey Global Institute. In a report headlined ‘Risk, resilience, and rebalancing in global value chains’, the analysts of US-based consulting firm McKinsey evaluated various risks of a manuf [...]

In a huge win for internet freedom, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was within its jurisdiction to enact sweeping net neutrality regulations last year.That means the internet will remain a public service classified under Title II of the Communications Act—upholding the FCC's power to ensure that all carriers, including mobile an [...]

The Phase 3 trial of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca has been paused, reportedly due to a suspected ‘serious adverse reaction’ by one of the participants in the UK. AstraZeneca only said that its “standard review process triggered a pause to vaccination to allow review of safety data,” according to a statement by a company spokesperson on Tue [...]

The House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday, where FBI Director James Comey is scheduled to testify regarding his decision to recommend that Hillary Clinton not be charged for her use of a private email server for government business while she was Secretary of State. [...]

After months of campaign promises to help ordinary Americans, President Donald Trump’s first 100 days have revealed that his true policy priorities are benefitting corporations and the wealthiest few at the expense of everyone else. His actions and those of his administration have been characterized by broken promises, gross conflicts of interest, and a stark erosion of transparency, ethics, and [...]