As Joe Biden leads the pack of candidates for Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, the New York Times has decided to describe accusations about his son’s shady dealings in Ukraine as a politically motivated Trump hit job. [...]

Since at least 1945, the United States has only fought stupid wars.  Some have been stupider than others, but, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, Democrats and Republicans have supported them all.  If Trump does get an Iran War going, count on bipartisan support for it too, though, for sheer stupidity, it would rival and perhaps even exceed the Kennedy-Johnson-Nixon war against Vietnam. More [...]

Situation in Syria has improved after Russia had started its air campiagn, president Assad told SANA. "The situation in Syria has improved since the beginning of the Russian operation against terrorists," Bashar al-Assad said. "And now I can say that the [Syrian] army is making advancement on every front." [...]

Earlier this week, Facebook-owned WhatsApp announced it had rushed to patch up a security hole in its messaging service, which it believed had been exploited by the Israeli-owned NSO Group. [...]

David Icke, a former footballer and sports broadcaster, Icke has been known since the 1990s as a professional conspiracy theorist, calling himself a "full time investigator into who and what is really controlling the world." He is the author of over 20 books and numerous DVDs, and has lectured in over 25 countries, speaking for up to 10 hours to audiences that cut across the political spectrum. [...]

Doctors Without Borders is challenging the Pentagon over the findings of internal probes into the bombing of a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz on October 3, saying the military's conclusions offer "more questions than answers" and that claims of "human error" simply don't correspond to the available facts. [...]

The Commerce Ministry of China has pledged to create a list of foreign individuals, corporations and institutions that are considered “unreliable” or that violate the interests of Chinese businesses, state media reports. [...]

Moscow and Delhi are seeking to bypass US sanctions by using the rupee and the ruble in facilitating military deals, according to Indian daily, the Economic Times. The paper reports that US sanctions are hampering $2 billion in defense deals between Russia and India, as payments are getting stuck. [...]

Turkey’s leadership, including President Erdogan and his family, is involved in illegal oil trade with Islamic State militants, says the Russian Defense Ministry, stressing that Turkey is the final destination for oil smuggled from Syria and Iraq. The Russian Defense Ministry held a major briefing on new findings concerning IS funding in Moscow on Wednesday. [...]

It was the Spanish philosopher, poet and novelist, George Santayana (1863-1952), who warned us all: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". [...]

Scores of corpses are still being dug up from the ruins of Raqqa, one year after its US-backed liberation from IS, but the West is seemingly in no rush to help the community recover. RT takes a look at the city’s plight. Once a prosperous and vibrant place, Raqqa emerged from the 2017 liberation operation with 90 percent of its buildings blasted into ruin. [...]

A little-known US senator named Barack Obama said in 2002: “I don’t oppose all wars. […] What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. […] A war based not on reason but on passion.” Americans were angry after 9/11 and President George Bush Jr chose to channel their anger not against Saudi Arabia (most of the Al-Qaida terrorists involved came from there), but aga [...]

The leader of the world’s container port rankings, Yangshan Port, works around the clock to secure its top position and boost China’s trade connections. RTD’s new film offers a glimpse inside the massive facility. [...]

Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s Republic of Chechnya, switched his car for bicycle to check the preparations for Grozny’s upcoming 200th birthday, and said he rode 40 kilometers around “the most beautiful city in the world.” 40 kilometers on the road or more… this is what the wheels of my bicycle made in Grozny,” Kadyrov told his followers on Russian VK (VKontakte) social network. [...]

France's mainstream political parties were scrambling for a way to stop the rise of the far-right National Front (FN) on Monday after it emerged with an historic first-round lead in regional elections. Boosted by fears over the Islamic State attacks that killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13, by record unemployment and worries about immigration, Marine Le Pen's party secured 27.7 percent of the [...]

Earlier, key European powers Germany, France and the UK appeared to snub Washington’s requests for them to join a US-led mission against “Iranian aggression” in the Persian Gulf, with the three countries signaling support for a European-led security effort to “protect” commercial vessels operating in the region instead. [...]

Jihadists in Syria pose a direct threat to Russia, Putin has told a defense meeting in Moscow, adding that any targets threatening the country's military there should be destroyed. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said Islamic State’s influence in Syria continues to expand. [...]

Earlier, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described Donald Trump’s intent to buy Greenland an as “absurd discussion”. The US President responded by announcing that cancellation of his visit to Denmark, which had been slated for early September. [...]

Greece has signed its first major privatization deal granting control of over a dozen regional airports to a German company. The agreement is part of international creditors’ demands to privatize state assets to secure €86 billion in bailout funds for Athens. The €1.23 billion contract gives a 40-year lease to the Frankfurt airport operator Fraport. [...]

The psychological condition known as Stockholm Syndrome, in which hostages irrationally sympathize with their captors, could well be applied to European leaders when it comes to US bullying. [...]

The Western powers were forced to admit that the Assad government enjoys some popular support in Syria. They had to change their position once Russia moved in militarily and altered the dynamic in Syria, Brian Becker from the anti-war Answer Coalition told RT. [...]

The Saudi oil facility was reportedly protected by two Patriot systems, but despite that, it was crippled in a combined missile-drone attack on 14 September. A source in the Russian Defence Ministry linked their failure to the system's "low efficiency". [...]