FBI Director James Comey has warned that absolute privacy does not exist in the US, noting that a judge can compel anyone to testify about their communications – and even their memories. There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America," Comey told a cybersecurity conference in Boston on Wednesday, while speaking about the rise of encryption since whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed Na [...]

Austria will massively expand coronavirus testing in the coming days to locate and isolate infected people and avoid an Italian-like overload of its health system, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has said. The Alpine republic with a population of 8.8 million has tested around 28,400 people so far with nearly 4,900 cases and 28 deaths confirmed, Reuters reported. It was one of the first European countrie [...]

In the last few days, both Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement exchanged threats, reviving the specter of another Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Even the Western mainstream media admits the root cause of the tension could be Mr. Trump’s threats to garbage the nuclear agreement with Iran, Hezbollah’s longtime supporter. [...]

Lina Rubino, vice-secretary general of the Italian Supreme Court, has thanked doctors from Russia and other countries for their help in combating the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in a video message shown at the virtual edition of the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum. “We, Italians, are already experiencing international solidarity. As you may know, Italy is currently enjoying the help of R [...]

The Pentagon will aid in investigating reports that at least 33 civilian died near the Syrian town of Raqqa during a US-led coalition airstrike, officials said on Wednesday, following accusations from both local media and monitoring groups based abroad. [...]

Chinese scientists have found that Europe and America’s East Coast have been infected by some of the most aggressive Covid-19 strains, as they discovered dozens of virus mutations. These destroy a host’s cells faster than others. The ability of the novel coronavirus to mutate has been previously vastly underestimated, a team from China’s Zhejiang University, led by Professor Li Lanjuan, says [...]

It sounds like something out of The Simpsons, a church that suddenly turns into a pub. Yes it is true - after every weekly holy mass service on a Sunday, the local church in a small town in Belgium, called Brielen, converts into a pub so that the parishioners can enjoy a glass of wine or beer with one another. [...]

The head of Wuhan’s virology institute has debunked the evolving US ‘Wuhan virus’ theory, saying Covid-19 couldn’t have artificially leaked. She said her lab didn’t have the first virus samples until as late as the end of 2019. Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) director Wang Yanyi described the theory – that Covid-19 was a creature of her laboratory – as “pure fabrication.” She e [...]

Members of Congress are split on the question of whether President Donald Trump's ordered Tomahawk missile strikes against a Syrian airbase were in accordance with US law. Lines drawn on the issue did not follow the pattern of partisanship often seen in Washington, DC. The US airstrikes on the Shayrat Air Base in Homs, Syria, on Thursday evening prompted Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) to take t [...]

Videos obtained by RT show areas around Beirut’s port reduced to rubble and ruins after explosions near the city’s docks destroyed nearby buildings and blew out windows more than 10 kilometers away. Free-lance journalist Owen Holdaway sent videos from Beirut Thursday evening showing the aftermath of the blasts. "A large part of the area has been completely devastated," Holdaway said in a video [...]

Russia’s brazen confidence in its victory in propping up Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s once-failing regime grows day by day, as evidenced by Moscow’s latest oil deals with the Syrian government. Sputnik news reports that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin visited Damascus in November to get the ball rolling on the fossil fuel deals. [...]

Israeli authorities escalated demolitions in occupied East Jerusalem in August, knocking 51 Palestinian buildings and displacing 85 people, many of whom were children, a Palestinian rights group said. The demolition of homes, which Israel says were built without proper permits, have been conducted in an "unprecedented manner" in the past month, Palestinian rights group, Wadi Hilweh Information [...]

This could be the most uncomfortable State Department press briefing moment yet. During a press conference about US President Donald Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East, AFP journalist Dave Clark asked a department official why the US criticizes the Iranian elections and its record on democracy, but not Saudi Arabia. [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The United Kingdom’s chief of defence intelligence, Lt. Gen. Jim Hockenhull, has warned that Russia’s nuclear-powered Burevestnik (NATO name Skyfall) cruise missiles could remain in the atmosphere for multiple years if necessary and could pose a threat at any moment. "Moscow is testing a sub-sonic nuclear-powered cruise missile system which has global reach and woul [...]

Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has lashed out against the EU, saying that the bloc's policies had brought Ukraine "to its knees," and turned it into a raw material colony. Speaking to Sputnik, Ukrainian political analyst Alexander Okhrimenko said that it was surprising that Kiev expected anything different from the Europeans. [...]

On Tuesday, it was reported that Turkey had deployed its S-400 air defense systems to the northern city of Samsun near the Black Sea, probably for testing, with Ankara making no official statement on the matter. The US State Department has expressed alarm over reports about possible tests by Turkey of its Russian-made S-400 missile systems. [...]

A report by the Institute of International Finance (IIF) in the US has revealed that global debt levels have surged to US$217 trillion in the first quarter of 2017. This is 327 percent of the world's annual economic output (GDP). [...]

Washington’s crackdown on Huawei has been in place since May 2019, when the US Department of Commerce blacklisted the Chinese tech giant, accusing the company of cooperating with China's intelligence services, allegations that both Beijing and the firm vehemently reject. Several top Brazilian telecom companies have rejected an American Embassy invitation to meet a US official who earlie [...]

White House officials have been sending mixed signals regarding President Trump's stance on the new Russia sanctions bill. Political scientist Sergei Sudakov says Washington's uncertainty makes sense, since the bill puts the US and Europe on the path to a major trade war.   [...]

LONDON – The UK judge presiding over the case of the Venezuelan gold in the Bank of England urged the legal team representing Venezuela's self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido to find “better excuses” for its failure to comply with a UK court order to pay for the legal costs of the appeal it lost in October. This is according to a statement by Venezuela Central Bank (BCV) lawyers, w [...]

The Russian government is taking steps to reduce the value of transactions using the American currency in the country, according to Economic Development Minister Maksim Oreshkin. “There is a big trend toward the de-dollarization of the Russian economy.  [...]

A wide-ranging anti-coronavirus vaccination campaign began in Moscow on Saturday, with thousands signing up for shots online, in the Russian capital. Frontline workers were given first priority, as previous indicated. Those wishing to participate have to sign up online before receiving their initial dose of Sputnik V at one of the city’s 70 specialist clinics. The vaccine consists of two se [...]