Senior Crimean officials have said that despite the attempts of Ukrainian authorities to isolate the peninsular and damage its tourist-oriented economy, the flow of visitors has remained constant with many of them coming from Ukraine. “An attempt to impose a ‘tourist blockade’ of Crimea has drowned in the thousands-strong torrent of Ukrainian citizens who, despite of all propaganda and lengt [...]

The National Endowment for Democracy, a soft-power group mostly known for splashing government dollars on pro-US influence campaigns overseas to enforce regime change, has endorsed protests against police brutality at home. In a statement on Friday, the NED came out in support of the protests against the police killing of unarmed black man George Floyd, which, while originally peaceful, spiralled [...]

Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin said Wednesday that Russia's national currency, the ruble, should be supported because a "big trend toward the de-dollarization" of the country's economy is growing at a steady pace. [...]

Lebanon's government stepped down on Monday night in the aftermath of a deadly blast that shattered the country's capital on 4 August and claimed the lives of more than 200 people. International observers have discussed whether the Diab cabinet’s resignation will help fix the situation and what forces could take the reins. The tragedy reignited nationwide anti-government protests, with [...]

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea if Pyongyang does not stop its nuclear and missile tests. In fact, the US missile defense system is incapable of shooting down North Korean missiles, according to American expert on nuclear weapons Joe Cirincione. [...]

The Arctic Palladium project which involves development of several platinum-group metal deposits on Russia’s Taimyr Peninsula is nearing completion. It is expected to turn Russia into the world’s top producer of platinum metals. The platinum-group metals (PGMs) is a group of six metals: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum. They have similar physical and chemical p [...]

A Norwegian delegation comprising 11 Norwegian politicians and businessmen has underlined the necessity of signing an agreement on cooperation with Crimea after a week-long visit to the peninsula. A Norwegian delegation has expressed its willingness to cooperate with Crimea and establish friendly relations with the Russian region after paying an official visit to the peninsula, member of the Crim [...]

According to reports, 2019 was big on UFO sightings across the United States, with New York reportedly registering a 52 per cent surge in reports, triggering heightened media attention focused on the controversial and fascinating phenomenon. Skygazers have reported a huge increase in sightings of alleged unidentified flying objects in New York State, according to the National UFO Reportin [...]

Most TV ads market global suicide and we’re programmed not to see it. A profit-driven system begets media that endlessly justifies consumption and fuels the slow-motion destruction of our humanity. Lee Camp reveals the US support for an Indonesian genocide. Then Natalie McGill joins Lee to discuss how churches are exploiting Hurricane Harvey for government funding, and Naomi Karavani explains [...]

The US State Department has warned the Turkish government of “potential serious consequences” to the two nations’ security relationship should reports of Ankara testing the Russian S-400 air defense systems prove true. “If confirmed, we would condemn in the strongest terms the S-400 test missile launch as incompatible with Turkey’s responsibilities as a NATO ally and strategic partn [...]

A new documentary broadcast by Arte TV Channel has revealed that the average human IQ is gradually decreasing. The authors explain this trend by the hazardous impact of the chemicals in our environment. Anthropologist Edward Dutton, however, is confident that the negative trend has been triggered by much more unwelcome factors. [...]

Given the uncertainties of Donald Trump's actions as he faces a White House exit, the possible declassification of certain documents has the former CIA director sweating. Former CIA Director John Brennan is apparently so worried that Donald Trump might release certain classified intelligence that he suggested this week that Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet remove Trump via the 25th ame [...]

The question whether Western leaders promised the Soviet Union that NATO would not expand east has been debated for years. Newly declassified papers prove what many Western officials and scholars have denied: A promise was broken. [...]

The US Department of Justice has expanded rules governing executions to permit a wider rage of methods, including firing squads and electrocution, as five federal inmates are set to face the death penalty before Inauguration Day. The amended rule was entered into the Federal Register on Friday, permitting the government “greater flexibility” to carry out capital punishment using any metho [...]

An appearance by the two together would be seen as a global counterbalance to Trump’s isolationist ‘America first’ political rhetoric. Following a Friday announcement that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has forged a preliminary coalition agreement with center-left Social Democrats (SPD) in Berlin, officials have noted that the leader may travel to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, br [...]

VIENNA - The experience of administration of Russian vaccines against COVID-19 is raising a great interest in Austria even though the countries are not currently engaged in specific negotiations, Russian ambassador Dmitry Lyubinsky said, praising the efficacy of the Russian vaccines. "There are currently no negotiations on exact plans related to the potential use of the Sputnik V vaccine in [...]

The US has no business in Afghanistan but it loves war and could be there for another 17 years, killing hundreds of thousands more people, according to Lew Rockwell, chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. The US State Department confirmed Tuesday that several Americans were among the victims in Saturday's attack on a hotel in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where 22 people died in the overnight si [...]

Austria launched its vaccination effort in December, offering citizens inoculations with Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, or AstraZeneca. Certain Austrian firms are also negotiating with Russia on Sputnik V production, according to the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, one of the vaccine's promoters abroad. Austria's top infectologist, Professor Florian Thalhammer, believes that the ef [...]

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has stated that the United States should take concrete steps to prove the end of support for Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), rather than rhetoric. [...]

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is investigating reports of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine causing Guillain-Barre syndrome, as the pharmaceutical company remains embroiled in controversy over the jab’s link to blood clotting. In a meeting this week, the European Medicines Agency’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) revealed that it was “assessing reports” of [...]

Perpetual war is leading to a host of societal ills, yet debates on war and peace are almost entirely absent from public discourse, Robert Wing and Coleen Rowley observe. Last October marked the 16th anniversary of our unending war – or military occupation – in Afghanistan, the longest conflict on foreign soil in U.S. history. [...]

As the US runs out of concrete resources to sell, bankers have had to get clever - whether this means repackaging assets already sold six times over or inventing new ways to cash in on items once considered intangible. By the time Americans realized that the promised ‘trickle-down’ theory of neoliberal economics was in fact more of a speedy trickle-up, the government had all but destroyed [...]