A record number of Russians say they are happy, a new survey reveals, with family, good health, and a good job making them feel that way. “The level of happiness among the Russians, based on subjective impression, stands at 86 percent,” state-run pollster VTSIOM said on Thursday. [...]

Amid the mounting refugee crisis caused by “NATO’s non-stop campaign of overseas military misadventures”, Europeans are becoming “increasingly wary of multiculturalism, neo-liberal reforms, austerity measures - and now, it seems, even NATO itself,” according to American writer and journalist Robert Bridge. [...]

September 10th 2001 Secretary of Defense of the USA declared war on the Pentagon bureaucracy over an alleged $2.3 trillion in unaccounted for funds on expenses. The next day 9/11 happened and the previous day's headlines were over-shadowed by the start of the Bush administration's modern-day crusade the "War on Terror," supported by the mythical "Coalition of the Willing" in search of "Weapons [...]

The US military’s F-35 Lightning II stealth aircraft have a problem with spare parts, and it’s keeping the planes out of the sky, according to a new report by a government watchdog. "F-35 aircraft were unable to fly nearly 30% of the May-November 2018 time period due to spare parts shortages," according to an April report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). [...]

The brittle insecurity of the Saudi rulers will have been shattered even more this past week, with Washington’s political establishment openly calling into question the historic alliance between the two countries. Saudi Arabia was denounced in the main editorial pages of both the New York Times and the Washington Post – the US’ two leading newspapers – for its “dangerous sectarian pol [...]

The US government's indictment of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange on 17 additional charges under the Espionage Act has shocked and horrified journalists who are calling it an unprecedented attack on press freedom. [...]

The strains on Europe from neocon-devised policies of “regime change” in Syria and Ukraine are resurfacing historical divisions and reviving old animosities among European states, including a war of words between Angela Merkel’s Germany and Poland’s new right-wing government, as Gilbert Doctorow explains. [...]

Iran dismisses Washington's calls to "talk" as a waste of time since Tehran is fighting for true economic autonomy and independence from the Western-led dollar diktat, says Pye Ian, an American economic analyst and private equity executive, explaining why US efforts to confuse and scare the Islamic Republic don't work. [...]

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. [...]

Italy’s Deputy PM Matteo Salvini has said that an investigation into a “Ukrainian group’s” plot to kill him was what led to a major seizure of weapons, including an air-to-air missile and neo-Nazi memorabilia, by police this week. [...]

Since March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition has been bombing Yemen after Houthi rebels toppled its government. According to political analyst Catherine Shakdam, the international community turns a blind eye on Riyadh's war crimes in Yemen. At least 20 people, including rescue workers and an ambulance [...]

The US erodes global security and seeks “absolute superiority,” but Beijing won’t follow the “beaten track” of big powers in seeking hegemony, focusing instead on having a “world-class” army, says a new Chinese military document. [...]

Conservative activists have spent a generation building up their movement — and the Donald is ruining it all. If there’s one thing that Donald Trump has done for the leaders of the conservative movement, the Christian Right and the Republican party it’s that he’s teaching them a necessary lesson in reality: [...]

If the iconography and tone of Hong Kong protests and the support from US diplomats weren’t enough, Washington’s words of concern sure seem to suggest that the months-long demonstrations amount to a ‘color revolution.’ [...]

By carving Kosovo out of Yugoslavia Washington sowed a whirlwind for Europe to reap: Kosovo has turned into a de facto "mafia state," American author Justin Raimondo writes, citing German intelligence agency BND. Libya, Syria, Iraq and Kosovo have become grotesque monuments to Washington's [...]

Russian mobile operator MTS has teamed up with Chinese tech giant Huawei for a 5G pilot scheme in Moscow and Kronshtadt, where for the first time the super-fast network will cover almost the entire city. The agreement between the two parties was signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia in June, when he met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and took part in the St. [...]

The head of Austria's government says the EU's border agency Frontex should send asylum seekers entering the EU via Greece back to Turkey. Austria has also requested €600 million from the EU to cover extra costs for accepting more refugees. "Frontex must pick up the people fleeing to Greece. [...]

With just days left before the elections in Israel, the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a long meeting with President Vladimir Putin at the Russian leader's Sochi residence. The main reasons behind the Israeli’s PM visit this time around are “to minimise the Iranian role in the region, put pressure on Iran to limit its logistic (financial and military) support to Palestinian [...]

In an angry tirade Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Washington of causing the bloodbath in Syria by not recognizing as terrorists the Kurdish forces fighting against Islamic State in the region. Bringing a new level of pressure to bear on its NATO ally, the Turkish president questioned Washington’s commitment as a fellow coalition member. [...]

Russia began trial production of the next-generation mobile air defense system earlier this year, and plans to start mass production of the system in the second half of next year. The operational effectiveness of Russia’s S-500 air and missile defense system “greatly exceeds any active air defense system in the world,” China’s Sina news portal has suggested. [...]

On June 28, 2009, when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, democratically elected Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown by a military coup. The United Nations, the European Union, and the Organization of American States condemned the coup, and on July 5, Honduras was suspended from the OAS. [...]

Maria Butina, a Russian gun activist who spent months in a US jail for failing to properly register as a foreign agent, has landed in Moscow. Her case sparked outcry in Russia and accusations of “prosecutorial overreach.” She has arrived in Sheremetyevo airport after a long flight from Miami, Florida on Saturday. [...]