The US is largely a country of immigrants. That is how this country was built, says US human and labor rights lawyer Dan Kovalik. It would be “un-American” and immoral not to take in more Syrian refugees, he adds. So far, 26 US governors, mostly Republicans, have announced they would block the acceptance of thousands of migrants into their states. [...]

In 1990, Western politicians repeatedly assured Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO wouldn’t expand east of Germany’s borders, but broke that promise less than a decade later, say insider archives from both sides of negotiations following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. [...]

While some estimates of Ukrainian dead vary between 300,000 and 400,000 Ukrainians sources admit to 310,000 deaths and the WSJ estimates between 20,000 and 50,000 have lost one or more limbs. Other estimates are that several hundred thousand are severely wounded. [...]

US policy in Syria should shift from ousting President Bashar Assad to siding with other powers who share a common interest in fighting ISIS, former US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in an interview with CNN. Combating Islamic State (former ISIS/ISIL) is not about making an alliance with Moscow, former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told CNN's Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.” [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A bill will be introduced in the US Congress to strengthen pressure on Russia by imposing sanctions on the country’s foreign debt in addition to increasing existing sanctions on the energy and financial sectors, US Senators Lindsey Graham and Bob Menendez said in a statement. [...]

By trying to bring an end to the Russo-European Nord Stream 2 project, the US is pursuing its own economic interests rather than taking care of Europe's energy security. Washington is seeking to boost sales of its own expensive liquefied natural gas to Europe, thus undermining the Old Continent's competitiveness. [...]

The Ukrainian panhandler known as Vladimir Zelensky is beginning to lose some of his polish and veneer. Western elites still adore him; after all, Zelensky is their creation. However, the Western public is showing signs of doubt. Who in the West voted for this forever war? [...]

Terrorism index shows nine-fold increase since 2000. In 2014, the number of lives lost to terrorism around the world increased by 80 percent, the highest level ever. The majority of such terrorist activity occurred in the largest refugee-producing nations, a Global Terrorism Index (GTI) showed. The GTI, developed by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), comprehensively studies the patterns [...]

Ahead of the US midterms in November, the MSM has talked at length about a Russian hacking threat. Meanwhile, a competition in Las Vegas shows that when it comes to interfering with a US election, even a child can do it. Hosted by technology non-profit R00tz Asylum, the competition was held on the sidelines of the annual Def Con hacking conference in Las Vegas, where children between the ages of [...]

As many as eight civilians were killed in the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakah in an airstrike carried out by the US-led international coalition, local media reported citing a local source. "The 'international coalition’ has committed another massacre, which killed eight members of a family in Dib-Haddadj village on the south-east of the Hasakah province," the source said, as quoted by th [...]

Davyd Arakhamia, leader of the Servant of the People faction in the Ukrainian parliament has spilled some beans about the March 2022 Russo-Ukrainian talks, hinting that it was then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson who brought the negotiations to naught. [...]

As President Recep Erdogan is looking for some political ground to land his feet on, media reports have spun some rather distasteful anti-Russian rhetoric, hoping to salvage Turkey’s political solvency by sullying Moscow’s efforts against terror. We live in a time where deception and misinformation have become so widely institutionalized and standardized that the very concept of propaganda [...]

This week Donald Trump signed the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), allocating $717 billion to the armed forces. The bill will fund the US Department of Defense, authorize a 2.6% military pay raise and increase the number of US troops by 15,600. [...]

China is stepping up cooperation with the Arab world. The recent China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) was aimed at deepening economic and security cooperation between Beijing and Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa within the framework of the One Belt, One Road project, analysts told Sputnik. [...]

“The Worst Days in Gaza” — these are the words of an extraordinary testimony by Lara Elborno, Palestinian journalist, talking directly from Gaza – with video illustrations – showing in a 4-minute video clip a reality that most of the west ignores, or wants to ignore. [...]

Switzerland says it will risk the legal collapse of its trade, security and free travel agreements with the EU, if Brussels cannot stop uncontrolled migration into the country. The government is preparing a law that will impose quotas for incomers, starting from 2017. "If there is really no solution, we would be ready for a suspension of a part or all of the bilateral agreements," said Foreign [...]

Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), voiced on Tuesday his intention to bring Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the backdrop of the United States' recent decision to close the PLO office in Washington over its concerns of the organization's course of action. [...]

The number of unsuccessful deportations from Germany has increased by more than 200 percent, as every second deportable migrant stayed in the country by not appearing for their expulsion appointment. An internal evaluation by the federal police found that, as of the end of May, only 11,100 scheduled deportations had been successful out of a planned 23,900, according to the report by Deutsche Wirt [...]

Economist Richard Wolff discusses how Russia became the top economy in Europe thanks to the spectacular failure of NATO policy, which served to destroy Europe's industry while bolstering Russia's.     [...]

Following the serious violation of Iraq’s sovereignty by Turkish ground troops, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi has accused its neighbor of being a hub for the “majority” of illegal oil smuggled by ISIS terrorists. During a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Abadi stressed the importance of stopping oil smuggling from jihadi-controlled parts of Iraq and Syri [...]

The Russian military's conclusion that the missile that brought down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 contained Ukrainian serial numbers is important information that should be considered in the international probe, analysts told RT. On Monday, the Russian military announced that the serial numbers found on debris of the Buk missile that downed MH17 over eastern Ukraine show it was produced in 198 [...]

Here’s a film about the 1950s – “The World As It Was” – that will tell you a great deal about life in the U.S.A. today, while disabusing anyone of the notion that nostalgia for that mephitic decade is in order, for it was a time when “democracy” tended toward totalitarianism. In doing so, it sowed the bitter fruit that is poisoning us today. Without understanding the long-standing e [...]