Though Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton emerged from a ninety-minute meeting on Tuesday night reaffirming their shared commitment to defeat Donald Trump in the fall, the senator continued to withhold his endorsement of Clinton while the former secretary of state remained mum on Sanders' repeated calls for a progressive transformation of the Democratic Party's agenda and the primary process.The m [...]

While civilians who still live on the Turkish-Syrian border suffer from Islamic State attacks and blame Turkish army inaction, so-called moderate rebels of the Free Syrian Army, fighting side-by-side with Islamist extremists, openly admit Ankara’s support. [...]

The West is playing into the Islamophobic narrative blaming Islam for all the recent attacks, while the real cause is political radicalization, said political analyst Catherine Shakdam. Europe opened up its borders to radicals and faces terror, she added. [...]

On the surface, the battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders looks like a deep rift, one that threatens to splinter the Democratic Party. But viewed in the sweep of history, it is evidence of something far more positive for the party’s base and beyond: not a rift but a shift—the first tremors of a profound ideological realignment from which a transformative new politics could emerge. [...]

Everybody knew that the awful day would come when the Queen of Chaos, the Empress of Ineptitude, would become the Democratic Party’s “presumptive” nominee. It did last Tuesday. Wall Streeters, Cold Warriors, “humanitarian” interveners, Zionist settler supporters, and other assorted miscreants can now rejoice! [...]

Despite a vow to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by 2017, President Barack Obama this week veered the opposite direction, widening the U.S. military's role in the entrenched, 15-years-long conflict.   [...]

The Associated Press’ early crowning of Hillary Clinton as the “presumptive” Democratic presidential nominee thrust a news organization into the middle of the political process with a story that suddenly, and without enough explanation, emerged from the mysterious methods of today’s journalism.   [...]

"The Bernie campaign didn't get this far by deferring to the powerful, and there's no good reason to start now," says Norman Solomon of RootsAction The Democratic elite may be lining up behind Hillary Clinton, but for those who have been galvanized by Bernie Sanders' populist campaign, the call for a political revolution burns brightly still. [...]

The U.S. system of politics and public policy is in disarray awash with elites trying to manipulate the public and the public drifting away from any factual grounding, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar explains. Christopher Preble has given us some interesting thoughts about foreign policy elites and the U.S. public and how the interplay of the two figures into bad foreign policy. [...]

Now, you won’t hear mainstream American politicos and intellectuals acknowledge that the United States has never actually been a democracy. You won’t see them noting that popular self-rule was the … [...]

Years ago, over many beers in a D.C. bar, a congressional aide colorfully described the House of Representatives, where he worked. It's "435 heads up 435 asses," he said. I thought of that person yesterday, while reading the analyses of Hillary Clinton's victories Tuesday night. [...]

After an hour-long meeting with President Barack Obama on Thursday afternoon, Bernie Sanders spoke briefly to reporters outside the White House pledging that his campaign will continue the "political revolution" and encouraged his supporters not to give up on the key issues that have raised their political passions.Just minutes later, the Hillary Clinton campaign released a video of Obama offering [...]

The debate about whether to Remain in or Leave the European Union has been spiced up by Lord Howell of Guildford, who in his own words "decided to add some salt and pepper to the Brexit meal." Speaking at an In-Out debate, organized by the University of Kent, Lord Howell told the assembled audience of politicians, [...]

While criticizing Israeli policy, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice has nonetheless promised to provide a large military aid package to the Middle Eastern nation. Speaking at the American Jewish Committee Global Forum on Monday, Rice spoke of the necessity of a peaceful two-state solution. [...]

Andreas Maurer, chairman of the Die Linke party branch in the town of Quakenbrück in Lower Saxony, became the first German politician to publicly advocate recognizing Crimea as a part of Russia. Maurer, who recently returned from his trip to the Crimean Peninsula, told Sputnik that because [...]

The Austrian and Hungarian Governments are in a diplomatic row over thousands of migrants in Austria that Vienna says should be returned to Hungary under EU rules, which the Budapest administration is refusing to accept. Under the Dublin agreement, migrants arriving within the Schengen area — the zone in Europe where all countries remove internal borders — must be processed in the country o [...]

Siberian scientists have created an artificial heart they claim will be up to five times cheaper than its western alternatives. Doctors hope to test the first implants on animals this autumn. The new artificial heart design created by a team of cardiologists from the Novosibirsk State Research Institute of Circulation Pathology was unveiled at a medical forum in Novosibirsk on Thursday. [...]

The Bernie Sanders campaign and progressives across the nation expressed mixtures of frustration and contempt Monday night after major news outlets—following declarations by the Associated Press and NBC News—ignored the explicit instructions about how primary delegates should be tallied and declared that Hillary Clinton has won the nomination of the Democratic Party. [...]

Germany has no alterative than to reconcile itself with NATO's strategy, experts say, commenting on Berlin's plans to include Russia in its top ten major threats list. However, it is unlikely that NATO will use Germany as a 'battering ram' against Russia, they say. [...]

Over the past 10 years US companies have invested $5.8 billion in commercial real estate in Russia, the biggest among other foreign investors, according to consulting company Knight Frank. Overall foreign investments to Russian commercial real estate over the past 10 years have reached $15.9 billion. US companies account for 36.5 percent of the total sum. [...]

The Head of the Crimean regional German national-cultural autonomy of Crimea, Yury Hempel, criticized the new defense doctrine of the German authorities in which Russia is viewed as a global threat. Earlier, German newspaper Die Welt, citing governmental sources, reported that Germany's new defense doctrine, which is currently in the final stage of its preparation, will view Russia as one of th [...]

Addressing International Media Forum "New Era of Journalism: Farewell to Mainstream", Julian Assange said that about 80 percent of the US National Security Agency budget is privatized. He also said that Google is engaged with the US White House and Hillary Clinton's elections campaign. Google has power to control information flow, he added. [...]