Russia is updating its navigation rules for a contingency involving another nation’s warships attempting to sail along the Northern Sea Route. Such a passage would require prior notification from the Defense Ministry. [...]

President Donald Trump’s appointment of John Bolton as his national security adviser is his most dangerous move yet, argues Marjorie Cohn. Nothing Donald Trump has done since his inauguration 14 months ago is more dangerous – to the United States, and indeed, to the world – than his selection of John Bolton for National Security Adviser. It is not surprising the president would feel most co [...]

Russia enjoys a record-low number of inmates, thanks to “humanization” of the penal code, deputy chief of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) has said, adding that the number of jailed people is expected to shrink further. Over the past few years, the number of inmates in Russia has dropped by nearly 250,000, the FSIN deputy head, Valeriy Maksimenko, told journalists on Friday. [...]

From the Archive: As Israeli military has killed dozens of unarmed protesters near the border at which they are fenced into Gaza, Israeli leaders may feel they are once again “mowing the grass” as Elizabeth Murray recalls in this updated piece originally published on November 16, 2012. [...]

Award-winning author and host of “On Contact” Chris Hedges joins Rick Sanchez to discuss the anti-BDS legislation sweeping the US, an effort to protect Israel’s public image by muzzling the Boycott, Divestment & Sanction (BDS) movement, which seeks to put economic pressure on Israel and bring attention to the plight of the Palestinians. Hedges says “Israel can no longer control its [...]

Former CIA director and Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo boasted about killing “a couple hundred Russians” in Syria, saying the move was one of the Trump administration’s key actions to counter Moscow, triggering a social media storm. "The list of actions that this administration has taken — I'm happy to walk through each of them," Outgoing CIA Chief Mike Pompeo said on April 1 [...]

The hackers that have allegedly stolen gigabytes of so-far-unknown and potentially sensational information about the 9/11 attacks have urged governments and individuals to come and get what they have. They tease that the most hard-hitting part of the documents, which they estimate at $2 million, would eventually "bury" the deep state. [...]

After allegations of a chemical attack in Syria, Western fighter jets were soon revving their engines, ready to unleash a “humanitarian intervention.” Chemical weapons inspectors were on their way to the Syrian town of Douma to investigate whether an attack had actually happened, but cruise missiles and tornado jets can go extremely fast, and embarrassingly arrived a whole day before the in [...]

Despite years of Western sanctions, Russia will become the world’s fifth-largest economy as early as next year, surpassing Germany and the UK, multinational bank Standard Chartered said in its long-term growth forecasts. [...]

Iran recently announced it is dropping the US dollar in foreign trade. Just as Iraq did shortly before it was invaded by the US, or Libya planned to before it was bombed by NATO-led allies. Lee Camp is starting to see a pattern. The US is gearing up to abandon the Iran nuclear deal, which has all but killed Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, because it's not restrictive eno [...]

The freezing of Venezuelan gold by the Bank of England is a signal to all countries out of step with US interests to withdraw their money, according to economist and co-founder of Democracy at Work, Professor Richard Wolff. [...]

The Syrian Army, backed by the wider coalition of government forces, has made sweeping gains in Damascus in recent months, liberating the entire East Ghouta region via operation Damascus Steel, and recovering chunks of territory in south Damascus, where the Daesh* terror organization maintains a presence. [...]

The Trump administration is openly engaging in a blatant effort to overthrow the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. It’s a campaign aimed at regime change, and it’s being publicly promoted as an opportunity to steal Venezuelan oil for the benefit of U.S. corporations. They’re not even pretending. But this is not some insane Twitter thought spewed by Trump after guzzling down gallo [...]

Israel Defense Forces have enough bullets for everyone, a senior lawmaker party said, according to local media. At least 60 Palestinians, including children, were killed by Israeli gunfire on Monday during protests. Avi Dichter, a senior member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, made the controversial comment when speaking to Hadashot TV news on Monday afternoon. [...]

Overwhelmed by the city’s growing homeless population, which has increased by 12 percent in just two years, and facing an increase in complaints from neighborhoods about encampments, the Los Angeles City Council has declared a “shelter crisis.” The measure was adopted by the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday in a 14-0 vote. [...]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party now lags behind its main competitors, who have united in the hope of putting an end to the ten-year rule of the right-wing party, for the first time since the election campaign started, according to polls done by the Channel 13 and the Channel 12 broadcasters. [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to approve legislation making the ruble the main currency of exchange at all Russian seaports by next year, according to the Kremlin website. To protect the interests of stevedoring companies with foreign currency obligations, the government was instructed to set a transition period before switching to ruble settlements. [...]

Apparently being unable to find any footage of the US Air Force strikes against Islamic State’s oil infrastructure, PBS NewsHour spliced Russian Defense Ministry’s video into their report – but it did not go unnoticed. he PBS report last week used two objective control videos made by Russian drones while Sukhoi bombers based at Khmeimim airfield in Latakia bombed out an oil storage facili [...]

Senators Rand Paul and Tom Udall have introduced a bill to end the ruinously expensive conflict in Afghanistan, declaring ‘victory’ in the longest war in US history after 18 years, some $6 trillion and over 100,000 dead. [...]

The global economy is facing a threat of a spiraling protectionist measures that can lead to a devastating crisis, Vladimir Putin warned. Nations must find a way to prevent this and establish rules on how the economy should work. The Russian president spoke out against the growing trend of using unilateral restrictions to achieve economic advantage, as he addressed guests of the St. Petersburg Int [...]

Oakland California is suing Monsanto for contaminating the city’s storm water with toxic polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), threatening the region's ecosystem. “Agrochemical giant Monsanto knowingly contaminated Oakland’s storm water and the San Francisco Bay with a highly toxic chemical for decades, a new lawsuit filed by the California city claims. Oakland wants the company to pay for the [...]

One of the newest Russian airports, Platov International Airport in the city of Rostov-on-Don, has received the highest mark from the UK-based ranking organization Skytrax, becoming the first five-star Russian airport. Getting five stars from Skytrax is considered the most prestigious international award for airports and airlines. After a recent audit of the terminal, the organization added Platov [...]