Bill Gates told CNN's Fareed Zakaria on Sunday that China did a lot of things right at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak and now is not time to discuss their mistakes. Gates called it a "distraction" to blame them and focus on the "incorrect and unfair things" said about them. ZAKARIA: You've been making this case for international cooperation very powerfully and in my mind persuasively [...]

By this point, photos of tiny houses are everywhere. I’d be surprised if you haven’t seen at least one pint-size abode that made you pause to imagine how simple your life might be if you lived in such an efficient little space. I’ve done more than my fair share of imagining, having watched Kirsten Dirksen’s We the Tiny House People documentary and leafed through Lloyd Kahn’s alternati [...]

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has long believed the Russian-hosted 2018 World Cup would be the best ever and his stance has not changed as the tournament unfolds. “Since [a] couple of years I was saying that this would be the best World Cup ever; today I can say it with even more conviction because I lived it and you lived it. It is the best World Cup ever,” Infantino said in the opening rem [...]

The murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police has forced the American people to take a long, hard look at their country and what it stands for. The rest of the world is looking too. It is not a pretty picture. The image of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, prompting a plaintive cry for help (“I can’t breathe”) before dyi [...]

Days before this talk, journalist Naomi Klein was on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, looking at the catastrophic results of BP's risky pursuit of oil. Our societies have become addicted to extreme risk in finding new energy, new financial instruments and more ... and too often, we're left to clean up a mess afterward. Klein's question: What's the backup plan? In her latest work, Naomi Kle [...]

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has warned the United States not to interfere with the completion of the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, stressing that Europe has the right to choose its own energy sources. “Sanctions between partners are definitely the wrong way to go,” Maas said during a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, addi [...]

President Obama admits the rise of Islamic State was never properly addressed by the U.S. intelligence. Vice-President of the States puts all the blame on America’s allies, saying it were they who funded jihadists. Terrorists threaten direct attacks on American soil. Is the U.S. ready to respond with more than just airstrikes? Was it really unaware of the growing threat? [...]

Since the launch on August 11 of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Gamaleya Center scientists, Russia has seen immense interest and expressions of hope from many countries and has received requests for 1 billion doses of the vaccine. However, it has also faced criticism and questions from some Western countries and companies, especially those developing their own vaccines—oft [...]

The global talks known as COP21 ended Saturday with nearly 200 countries agreeing to a carbon emissions-slashing deal (pdf).  But climate campaigners are saying that the agreement doesn't go far enough, and that the real work is just beginning. [...]

If you have ever wondered why Syrian jihadists, or so-called ‘moderate opposition’, got support from the woke liberal West, a recent leak by Anonymous reveals it’s because Western governments funded this propaganda. In the end, it is the sheer childishness of the propaganda which amazes me most, not that our rulers lie about other countries – I have always known that. But somehow ther [...]

Britain is not in a rush to strike Syria, says Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, as it is revealed the Royal Air Force (RAF) has not struck an Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) target in the country for 11 days. [...]

The tensions between Washington and Beijing have been escalating amid the US continuing its military operations in the disputed South China Sea, developing ties with Taiwan and accusing China of allegedly being responsible for the global coronavirus pandemic. Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged People's Liberation Army servicemen to "maintain a state of high alert" and "put all (their) [...]

Turkish officers on the Syrian border have communicated with Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, Turkey's Cumhuriyet daily reported, citing an investigation by the Ankara Chief Prosecutor's office which allegedly eavesdropped on their phone calls. [...]

The announcement on Monday that the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine was 90% effective injected rocket fuel into the stock market and hope into hearts everywhere. But the vaccine’s cold-storage requirements present huge problems. Immediately after the announcement, politicians began falling over themselves to hand fat checks over to the Big Pharma giants, hoping that the news would inspire hop [...]

Kosovo is often cited by liberal interventionists as NATO’s success story and now a reason for attacking Syria. However, the ongoing lawlessness in the country shows nothing could be further from the truth. In 1999, NATO bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days, culminating in the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from the Serbian province of Kosovo. [...]

Washington’s desperate attempts to stop the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany resemble mafia methods, senior German parliament member, Klaus Ernst, told RT, calling on the EU to fight back. “Their actions resemble those of a mafia,” Ernst told RT Deutsch on Wednesday, speaking about the renewed threats of US sanctions against the European companies [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been on fire lately – he not only managed to push through a Russian strategy in the Middle East, but also made both the United States and Saudi Arabia finally accept his point of view on finding a peaceful solution in Syria, French journalist Eric Verhaeghe wrote for Atlantico. [...]

Covid-19 vaccines created using public funds should not be used to fuel obscene private profits, a senior Oxfam official told RT, amid growing concern that poor nations can’t afford to inoculate their populations. An alarming report authored by Oxfam International in collaboration with a group of other human rights organizations warned that only one in 10 people in poor countries are set to rece [...]

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro lashed out against European Digital Economy & Society Commissioner Gunther Oettinger’s criticism of the recent changes to Poland’s legislation. Earlier, Oettinger had criticized a new law signed by Polish President Andrzej Duda that tightens government control over the media. [...]

The United States has sold more than a million barrels of Iranian fuel seized under its sanctions program last year, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing the US Department of Justice. The seizures were part of Washington’s economic sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program, and the US’ designation of a number of Iranian groups as terrorists. The US government under President Donald Tru [...]

Some of the key conclusions of the Dutch Safety Board’s final report on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash were ‘unsubstantiated and inaccurate,’ Russia’s aviation agency said in a letter to its counterpart in the Netherlands, citing new research. [...]

Turks have taken to the streets in Istanbul, Ankara, Adana, and other cities to protest against Joe Biden recognising the events of 1915 as an Armenian genocide. The demonstrators called upon the Turkish authorities to end the US military's use of the Incirlik Air Base and Kurecik Radar Station in southern Turkey. "I believe that the time has come to return the bases provided by Turkey t [...]