The financial situation in the world has become so unstable that a new wave of defaults and bankruptcies will soon emerge, says William White, the chairman of the OECD's review committee and former chief economist of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). [...]

Early U.S. presidents warned that foreign entanglements could endanger the Republic, but it turns out that modern U.S. interventions are hazardous to the rest of the world as well, achieving neither democracy nor human rights, while spreading chaos and death, a tragic turn addressed by ex-CIA official Graham E. Fuller. [...]

The independent senator from Vermont says the economic system is rigged against working-class Americans. He’s right. The electoral political system is a subsidiary of those who rule the economy. Which is why Bernie Sanders never stood a chance. The political system was rigged against him. [...]

German tabloid Bild has accused starving residents of the Syrian town of Madaya of being “actors.” But RT's correspondent believes some media simply dislike what people suffering from malnutrition had to say about rebels selling off government aid. Last week RT’s Murad Gazdiev accompanied the Red Cross and the UN convoy that brought food to the besieged Syrian town of Madaya, some 44km no [...]

As a new poll out Thursday shows Bernie Sanders practically tied with Hillary Clinton in Iowa, the Vermont senator's campaign is reporting a surge of donations in response to the former Secretary of State's "panic attacks" earlier this week. "As of now, we are at about $1.4 million raised since yesterday when the panic attacks by the Clinton campaign began," said Sanders spokesman Michael Brigg [...]

Finnish women have offered lone refugee boys €20 for sex, a Helsinki-based tabloid wrote on Friday. Elderly Finnish women are believed to have offered lone migrant teens money for having sex with them, Inta-Sanomat wrote. [...]

According to Seymour Hersh, one of America’s best-known investigative journalists, the US recognizes Russia’s military success in Syria. Russians have acted in a very professional manner and managed to strengthen the Syrian Army, while US policy in the region has remained inconsistent [...]

Vladimir Putin's first big interview of the year was with Germany's leading newspaper Bild. Nikolaus Blome, Bild's deputy editor-in-chief who spoke to the Russian president, told Deutsche Welle that he was "happy with the result" and shared what impressed him the most. "Although I was aware of that, I was still surprised by how well [Putin] speaks German and understands the subtleties of the la [...]

The Hill reports in “Obama, Democrats at odds before State of the Union address” that “a group of House Democrats on Monday held a press conference introducing the State of the Union … by condemning the TPP, a mammoth trade deal among 12 Pacific Rim countries that would encompass as much as 40 percent of the world’s economy.” [...]

The grip that neocons and liberal interventionists have on Official Washington’s opinion circles is now so strong that “realists” who once provided an important counterbalance have been almost banished from foreign policy debates, a dangerous dilemma that James W Carden explores. In a widely remarked upon article for the online version of Foreign Policy last week, Harvard’s Stephen Walt [...]

The Kremlin has found a new ally in the Kurds during its anti-terrorist campaign in Syria. They are effective in pushing Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) and other terrorist groups out of key areas in Syria, French political journalist Olivier d’Auzon wrote for Le Huffington Post. Turkey's decision to shoot down a Russian Su-24 bomber in November made Moscow furious; in turn, the Kremlin decided to support [...]

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. [...]

With the latest polls showing US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders leading rival Hillary Clinton only weeks before the first two primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire, many Americans are contemplating the real possibility of having a socialist president in the White House. But even if Sanders wins the election, the United States will not have a socialist president. Why not? Because [...]

UNITED NATIONS - The West continues its strong political and military support to one of its longstanding allies in the Middle East – Saudi Arabia –- despite withering criticism of the kingdom’s battlefield excesses in the ongoing war in neighboring Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition has been accused of using banned cluster bombs, bombing civilian targets and destroying hospitals – either by acci [...]

After the incidents of sexual assault in Cologne, Germany on New Year’s Eve committed by Muslim refugees against German women, feminist apologetic have acquired renewed vigor in the European debate. Pundits and politicians assure the public that refugee males now storming the gates of Europe from the Middle East, Northern Africa and Central Asia will be required to learn that Western women ar [...]

Teachers and students at one New Jersey school said they hit the jackpot with one of their teachers who’s been with the school for more than 20 years. As CBS2’s Hazel Sanchez reported, they call her Granny and she’s been named the oldest living and working teacher in the United States. At 102 years old, Agnes Zhelesnik certainly doesn’t act her age. “I feel like, maybe 95,” she s [...]

The Titanic we all know as the Global economy appears to be moving along at full speed. But signs of sea ice are dead ahead. Is the economy moving? The Baltic Dry Index has hit a new low. The Baltic Dry Index is the assessment of the price of moving all of the globes major raw materials by sea, including commodities like coal, grain, and iron ore. Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge reports “ Last wee [...]

After the shock of the New Year’s Eve assaults, and the subsequent backlash, some migrants are trying to teach refugees about the challenges of life in Germany and about mutual tolerance. Skinny-dipping, gay relationships and parenting all form part of Magdi Gohary’s crash-course introduction to a strange new home [...]

Journalists have noticed how much current political campaigns are trading on fear. As observed in a recent article in the Washington Post, “Most of the Republican presidential contenders and their allies are now waging campaigns focused on fear—bombarding voters with ominous television spots that warn of national security threats and amping up their alarming rhetoric on the stump.” [...]

he best thing about Thursday night’s Republican presidential primary debate, the sixth of twelve currently on the schedule for 2016, is that it means we are halfway to having no more Republican primary debates. Viewers who suffered through the entire two and a half hours of the event last night were presented with a smorgasbord of soaring demagoguery, sneering ad hominem attacks, and occasion [...]

President Obama said in his State of the Union address last night: “Now, what is true — and the reason that a lot of Americans feel anxious — is that the economy has been changing in profound ways, changes that started long before the Great Recession hit; changes that have not let up. [...]

This week we’re here at MIT in Cambridge, MA to interview world renowned linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, someone who’s authored over 100 books on everything to war to propaganda. I wanted to get his take on democracy and elections in the context of American empire. [...]