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‘Heavy Burden’: Saudi Arabia Is Damaging US Interests
Washington has long played the role of a "bodyguard" for Saudi Arabia. However, recent events have showed that Riyadh is not supportive of the United States, but rather harming its interests, Ali Al-Ahmed, an expert at the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, said. [...]
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NATO at 70: Sclerotic & bureaucratic zombie should be pensioned off
Seventy is normally considered a ripe old age at which people should be enjoying retirement. The NATO alliance, which meets to celebrate its anniversary in London, should have been pensioned off long ago. The French president, who told the Economist in early November that NATO was “brain dead”, seems determined to jolt the alliance and its members out of their collective coma. [...]
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No Pressure: Why the EU is Fine With Ukraine Violating the Minsk Agreements
The European Union follows the United States when it comes to foreign policy, and isn't using any pressure to make Ukraine implement the terms of the Minsk Agreements despite its claims, a political analyst told RIA Novosti. The European Union isn't using its influence on Kiev when it comes implementing the Minsk Agreement to resolve the conflict in the south-east of the country, the deputy dir [...]
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Senior OPCW official ordered deletion of ‘all traces’ of dissenting report on ‘Douma chemical attack’  – WikiLeaks’ new leak
The leadership of the chemical weapons watchdog took efforts to remove the paper trail of a dissenting report from Douma, Syria which pointed to a possible false flag operation there, leaked documents indicate.  In an internal email published by the transparency website WikiLeaks on Friday, a senior official from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) ordered that the doc [...]
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‘We can’t do it!’ Bavaria sends busload of refugees to Merkel
The head of a Bavarian district has sent a bus with 30 refugees aboard on a 550km trip to Angela Merkel’s Berlin office – fulfilling a threat made in October, when he said he would act if the number of refugees exceeded housing capacity in his area. Peter Dreier, head of the Landshut district in Bavaria, reportedly had an angry phone conversation with Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the [...]
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$1.8 million for a FISH: Japan’s ‘Tuna King’ spares no expense to get 2nd-priciest tuna 🎞️
A Japanese businessman known as the Tuna King really goes to great lengths when it comes to giving sushi lovers the “best” bluefin tuna. This year he paid 193.2mn yen ($1.8mn) for one, the second-highest price on record. It is the second year in a row that Kiyoshi Kimura, who heads a popular sushi restaurant chain, was the most successful bidder at the traditional New Year’s auction at Tokyo [...]
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My Way or the Highway: Washington Must Accept Russian Way of Doing Things
Washington's constant attempts to impose its own vision of an ideal state system on Moscow are a huge mistake. While it might be acceptable to more modest, smaller countries, it is not to be tolerated by such a heavyweight, according to Matt Rojansky, Director of the Kennan Institute. [...]
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Europe caved to US ‘bully’ by ‘selling out’ nuclear deal to avoid new Trump tariffs – Zarif
France, Britain and Germany have betrayed the 2015 nuclear deal after being threatened with US tariffs, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has claimed, noting that Europe has lost the moral high ground. The three European states accused Tehran of non-compliance with the accord after buckling under pressure from the United Sates, Zarif wrote in a tweet, citing a Washington Post report de [...]
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Bernie Sanders’ supporters ‘frustrated with emerging low-wage police state’
There is a real fear among the powers that be not of what Bernie Sanders is, but what he could become, says political analyst Caleb Maupin. Rallies in support of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders have drawn thousands across the US. [...]
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Austrian Chancellor Kurz Threatens to Veto Increased EU Post-Brexit Budget
The budget changes follow after London and Brussels managed to sign off on the Brexit deal and avoid a further delay, withdrawing the United Kingdom from the bloc after 47 years. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has stated that his country would veto the European Union's long-term budget plan for post-Brexit Europe, stressing it should be lowered. [...]
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Leaking Classified Info Not Such a Big Deal (Except When Whistleblowers Do It)
In what some are calling another example of a two-tiered justice system, the Pentagon said Friday that it would not demote Retired General David Petraeus, who was convicted in 2015 of leaking classified information to his biographer and mistress. [...]
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China closes 1st ‘pop-up’ coronavirus hospital, built in 10 days, after last group of recovered patients discharged 🎞️
Authorities in Wuhan have closed the city’s first makeshift hospital after discharging the last batch of 34 recovered coronavirus patients, as the rate of infection in the city has dropped dramatically. Wuhan was the site of the original outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, and the city’s response, building a new hospital in less than two weeks to handle Covid-19 patients, was seen as a moder [...]
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Ex-German media boss admits on live radio the national news agenda is govt controlled
If you really want a lesson in how the Western popular press works, this is it. Without question, Germany is the leading power in Europe. ZDF is its state broadcaster and most popular channel. Together with sister network ARD; German's are obliged to pay €17.98 per month to fund it. [...]
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Trump says oil price war ‘devastating’ for Russia – but it’s Saudis & US shale that stand to suffer most
Plummeting oil prices have sparked another round of predictions about the economic collapse of Russia – this time from US President Donald Trump, who sounded a lot like his predecessor Barack Obama on the subject. The price of crude oil has crashed to $20 this week, due to a one-two punch of Saudi Arabia flooding the market with record output and a sharp drop in global demand owing to the corona [...]
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A Look at Ukraine’s Dark Side
Americans have been carefully shielded from the ugly underbelly of Ukraine’s Maidan uprising in 2014 that overthrew the elected president and installed a U.S.-backed, fiercely anti-Russian regime which has unleashed armed neo-Nazis. But a French documentary has dared to expose this grim reality, as Gilbert Doctorow describes. A new French documentary depicts a long-denied truth – that Ukrai [...]
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With united Europe MIA in its Covid-19 response, worst-hit nations turn to ‘evil’ Russia & China for help
Brussels has all but abandoned them to their fates, so is it any wonder that Italy, Spain and other European countries have turned to Moscow and Beijing for meaningful support in terms of expert advice and medical supplies? When this coronavirus pandemic has passed and the nations of the European Union are counting the cost of decimated populations, shattered public health infrastructures and [...]
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Russia Proposes March Truce In Syria, But No Agreement Has Been Reached
A Syrian military source said the battle for Aleppo, a major prize in a war which has killed a quarter of a million people, would continue in "all directions." World powers pressed Russia on Wednesday to stop bombing around Aleppo in support of a Syrian government offensive to recapture the city and a Western official said Moscow had presented a proposal envisaging a truce in three weeks' time. [...]
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Will they bomb the pandemic to death? Even with the Covid-19 crisis, the US war machine ALWAYS wants more money
Despite the impact Covid-19 has had on the global economy, the US is seeking more funding to counter and confront China in the Pacific, as well as enhancing its military preparedness for scenarios involving nuclear warfare. The coronavirus outbreak has impacted the global economy in a unique and unprecedented fashion unseen since World War II. Around 63 percent of Japanese businesses have projecte [...]
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‘Washington is telling Ankara: NATO will not rescue you in Syria’
By adopting terms for a cessation of hostilities together with Russia, the US showed Turkey it is not going to support Ankara’s efforts to send troops into Syria and NATO won’t come to rescue them later, former US diplomat Jim Jatras told RT. How confident can we be that this new agreement will hold?   [...]
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To feel safe, does the world need more weapons or better healthcare? The coronavirus pandemic proves it’s the latter 🦠
The rapid proliferation of nuclear and conventional weapons post-Cold War indicates that governments continue to think of ‘security’ largely in military terms – but Covid-19 has exposed the fallacies in this way of thinking. Evidently, for world leaders, military power is regarded as a vital instrument of state policy and many countries have amassed huge destructive arsenals in a bid to acqu [...]
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‘Pentagon needs Russia as the next big enemy’ – retired US Air Force officer
The Pentagon is pointing fingers in advance because it is unhappy with having the brakes put on some of the things it wanted to do in Syria, Karen Kwiatkowski, a retired US Air force Lieutenant Colonel, told RT. he relationship between Russia and the US has often been very strained but recently [...]
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Dangerous narcissism: REAL reason Trump ditched Open Skies is dislike for any treaties that don’t bear HIS signature
By announcing its intent to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty, the Trump administration continues its war on legacy arms control agreements, endangering international security. The Trump administration has formally announced its intention to withdraw from the 2002 Open Skies Treaty (OST), a critical multilateral agreement involving 35 states which allows specially equipped reconnaissance aircraf [...]
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