Political dissident and noted US scholar Noam Chomsky is warning that the Republican Party may be “the most dangerous organization in human history.” The world-renowned author, philosopher, and social critic told DemocracyNow’s Amy Goodman about his concerns on the state of the American right wing and the 2016 election. [...]

Angela Merkel isn’t having a good year. In trying to deal with the refugee crisis plaguing Europe in a manner that pleases and appeases everyone, the German chancellor has sacrificed Europe to the whims of an increasingly despotic Turkish leader. [...]

Russia will restore a missile attack warning station near Crimea’s Sevastopol to counter increasing NATO activity in the Black Sea, Izvestia daily reported, quoting a source in the Russian defense industry. The source told reporters that the installation will be based on the Soviet-era Dnepr station (NATO code name Hen House), but that it would be thoroughly modernized. [...]

$20 million over the next two fiscal years will be made available in the form of grants to unspecified people in Europe who will presumable carry stories that are more in line with US policy, Jim Jatras, former US diplomat, told RT.   [...]

Mark the date. Saturday May 14, 2016, the day the music died and a song contest whose well-intentioned original aim of national harmony has become the latest front in the Western elite’s obsessional and relentless new Cold War against Russia. A blatantly political song by Ukraine - which should not have been allowed in the contest in the first place as it clearly broke the European Broadcasti [...]

The FBI is in possession of 80,000 files detailing possible support for the 9/11 hijackers received from a Saudi family, a new report states, while a former 9/11 Commission member says there is a strong link between the Saudis and the terrorist attacks. The FBI files are related to an investigation of a Saudi family living in Sarasota, Florida that “suddenly vanished” about two weeks before [...]

From abolishing most government in favor of free markets and personal responsibility to ending foreign wars and pardoning whistleblowers, three Libertarian Party presidential candidates presented their vision for the US in a debate hosted by RT America. Marc Feldman, Kevin McCormick, and Darryl Perry faced each other before RT America’s 360-degree camera, in a debate moderated by Watching The [...]

German companies are stepping up their efforts to bypass Western anti-Russian sanctions since Russian remains one of the most lucrative markets in Europe. In order to operate under sanctions, German companies open their own production in and invest in factories in Russia. [...]

French political analyst Thierry Meyssan ponders the intricacies and contradictions of US foreign policy, and suggests that despite inconsistencies, Washington has been generally successful in focusing on the promotion of two overarching goals: creating a cordon between Europe and Russia [...]

India's defense minister expressed that India is not interested in acquiring US F-16 fighter aircraft despite aggressive lobbying by Lockheed Martin. In what can be seen as a sharp denial to the US, India has dismissed a proposal made by Lockheed Martin Corp to build F-16 fighter jets in India. [...]

Work on the fourth and final power line to deliver electricity from mainland Russia to the Crimean peninsula has been completed. President Putin oversaw the launch of the energy bridge by video link from the Black Sea resort of Sochi. [...]

Germany, the fourth-largest economy in the world and a leader in renewable energy, produced so much energy this weekend from its solar, wind, hydro, and biomass plants that power prices went into negative territory for several hours. Consumers were being paid to use energy. [...]

Hillary Clinton continues to lose ground to Donald Trump in national polling, as the latest survey from Reuters/Ipsos shows the two candidates running neck-and-neck. The poll released Wednesday found 41 percent of likely voters supported Democratic frontrunner Clinton, and 40 percent backed Trump, with 19 percent not decided on either yet. [...]

Russia’s human rights ombudsman, Tatyana Moskalkova, has invited international observers to Crimea so that they can personally see the republic’s peaceful integration into the Russian Federation and the local population’s massive support for this. Moskalkova made the statement ahead of a conference on human rights observation during the process of Crimea and Sevastopol’s accession into [...]

Governments, NGOs and journalists across the globe have condemned a leak of personal data of more than 4,000 media staff, accused by pro-Kiev activists of “collaborating with terrorists” for their reporting from war-torn eastern Ukraine. The names on the list include people working for respectable outlets, such as news agencies AFP, AP and Reuters, broadcasters BBC, CNN, CCTV, Deutsche Well [...]

In an extraordinary act of culture and courage, a Russian orchestra performed in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra recently liberated from the Islamic State, but Western media mocked the event, notes Gilbert Doctorow. Even those with a limited knowledge of Russia may be credited with having heard of St. Petersburg being called the Venice of the North. [...]

While the U.S. expands spending on wars and “regime changes” – and slashes its budget for science and infrastructure – China is making different choices, now rapidly closing the gap on scientific innovation, writes John V. Walsh. The headline reads, “The Rapid Rise of a Research Nation: China’s economic boom is mirrored by its similarly meteoric rise in high quality science.” [...]

Hillary Clinton wants the American voters to be very afraid of Donald Trump, but there is reason to fear as well what a neoconservative/neoliberal Clinton presidency would mean for the world, writes Robert Parry. For centuries hereditary monarchy was the dominant way to select national leaders, evolving into an intricate system that sustained itself through power and propaganda even as its ideo [...]

We have some fairly odd opinions. Cultural differences exist across borders, and because monoliths are mostly fantasies, often within them, too. That said, America, in particular, is culturally perplexing, and even confounding, to a lot of the rest of the world. I am not, as Americans are wont to do, laboring under the delusion that people in other places spend all that much time thinking about us [...]

A study suggests that proximity to trees and other plants decreases mortality rates from cancer and respiratory disease. Many of us plant trees, shrubs, and other plants around our homes to beautify our surroundings. A recent study published in Environmental Health Perspectives reveals that [...]

Concerned about the rise of right-wing extremism and how it has preyed on the fears of working people across the world, labor leaders from nearly a dozen countries met in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to declare the need for a "global New Deal" to fight these forces. "Too many politicians in the U.S. and Europe are exploiting our differences and inciting hate and division," said Richard Trumka, [...]

The West’s propaganda war against Russia filters events there through a prism of cynicism and contempt, but that misses the human component of a country still remembering the deep personal scars of World War II, as Gilbert Doctorow reflects. I will open with full disclosure: I am generally not enthusiastic about crowds or going with the flow. [...]