The freezing of Venezuelan gold by the Bank of England is a signal to all countries out of step with US interests to withdraw their money, according to economist and co-founder of Democracy at Work, Professor Richard Wolff. [...]

The member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs claims that Brussels needs to restore strong dialogue and cooperation with Moscow as the anti-Russia sanctions lost any economic reasoning and turned into a mere political instrument. [...]

The Trump administration is openly engaging in a blatant effort to overthrow the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. It’s a campaign aimed at regime change, and it’s being publicly promoted as an opportunity to steal Venezuelan oil for the benefit of U.S. corporations. They’re not even pretending. But this is not some insane Twitter thought spewed by Trump after guzzling down gallo [...]

Crimea’s reunification with Russia is an “organic” process, Serbian movie director, Emir Kusturica, told journalists in Yalta, saying, that those living on the Peninsula do not need approval from abroad to build their lives as part of Russia. [...]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party now lags behind its main competitors, who have united in the hope of putting an end to the ten-year rule of the right-wing party, for the first time since the election campaign started, according to polls done by the Channel 13 and the Channel 12 broadcasters. [...]

The US Department of Defense declined to comment on reports of Ukraine selling military technology to North Korea. The US Department of Defense declined to comment on reports of Ukraine selling military technology to North Korea and referred to the Intelligence Community to respond, Department spokesman Col. Rob Manning said during a press briefing. [...]

Senators Rand Paul and Tom Udall have introduced a bill to end the ruinously expensive conflict in Afghanistan, declaring ‘victory’ in the longest war in US history after 18 years, some $6 trillion and over 100,000 dead. [...]

Amid expectations of the US launching investigations into China’s alleged theft of American intellectual property as well as unfair trade practices, Beijing appears unmoved by the imminent probe while US businesses fear reprisals in case the row unintentionally escalates. Washington is expected to soon announce investigations into how China tackles copyright protection, protectionism and mark [...]

One of the newest Russian airports, Platov International Airport in the city of Rostov-on-Don, has received the highest mark from the UK-based ranking organization Skytrax, becoming the first five-star Russian airport. Getting five stars from Skytrax is considered the most prestigious international award for airports and airlines. After a recent audit of the terminal, the organization added Platov [...]

Speaking at the BRICS summit this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin deplored the “low political culture” of American leaders. "It is difficult to dialogue with such people," said Putin, adding: "You can do nothing about it." Less diplomatically, what the Russian president was lamenting is this: the incorrigible stupidity of US leaders. [...]

US President Donald Trump reportedly proposed that North Korea transfer all its nuclear weapons to the US, a denuclearization template borrowed from Libya before the NATO intervention and brutal murder of its leader. [...]

Everything the CIA does is deniable. It’s part of its Congressional mandate. Congress doesn’t want to be held accountable for the criminal things the CIA does. The only time something the CIA does become public knowledge – other than the rare accident or whistle blower – is when Congress or the President think it’s helpful for psychological warfare reasons to let the American people know [...]

Our children’s generation is going to have to reduce their carbon emissions by 90 percent if we want to avoid being the first species in history to document its own extinction. [...]

Moscow has perfect counter-measures in response to US plans to install THAAD air defense systems closer to the Russian territory in South Korea on the pretext of Pyongyang's threat, a military expert told Sputnik, naming the Iskander and Kalibr missiles. [...]

US cyber officials are attempting to put the squeeze on their European allies, saying they will have to reassess their ability to share information with them if they use Huawei in their 5G networks. [...]

One of the oldest people on the planet, Appaz Iliyev from the Russian republic of Ingushetia, has got his sight back thanks to a successful surgery. One of the oldest people on the planet, 121-year-old Appaz Iliyev from the Russian republic of Ingushetia, has got his sight back thanks to a successful surgery. Born in 1896, the man still works daily in his garden in the North Caucasus mountains. [...]

More than US$30 billion were illegally diverted from Venezuela in two months, the country’s communications and information minister has revealed, accusing the US of orchestrating the operation. [...]

Russian tanker Christophe de Margerie has brought the first batch of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Yamal to the United Kingdom. London had to urgently turn to Russian gas targeted by US sanctions due to supply outages. [...]

A growing number of former Apple devotees in China have started switching from iPhones to domestic Huawei smartphones as trade and technology tensions escalate between Washington and Beijing. The South China Morning Post reported that consumers were spurred by a rising “nationalist sentiment” to support the Chinese tech giant which has been blacklisted by the US. [...]

A passenger jet with over 160 on board slid off the runway in the Turkish city of Trabzon Saturday night and was left precariously perched atop a cliff edge, saved only by the freezing mud. "All 162 passengers, 2 pilots and 4 cabin crew have been disembarked safely from the aircraft. There has been no loss of life or injury to anyone on-board," [...]

Iran’s envoy to the United Nations has called on the international community to end “unlawful destabilizing measures” by the US, declaring that while Iran does not seek war, it “reserves the right to counter any hostile act. [...]

George Soros has lamented that the European Union is on the verge of collapse while Russia is becoming “a resurgent nationalist power.” Hungarian-American tycoon George Soros, who runs the $26 billion Soros Fund Management and chairs the global board of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), made the remarks while speaking to the Financial Times. [...]