If Western sanctions go as far as excluding Russia from the world wide web, the country's own internet is ready, according to the Russian presidential aide on the internet, German Klimenko. "Technically, we are ready for anything now,” he told NTV news channel. However, the shutdown will not be painless, Klimenko added. [...]

It's hard to view the US at this point as anything other than a cautionary tale. It is remarkable how the effects of Covid on the international system mirrors its impact on individuals. Its lethality, in the acute phase, may be lower than we feared, yet there is a risk of sudden catastrophic relapse after a seeming period of recovery, and the long-term effects are of a gravity we can only dread. [...]

Representatives from the US, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and Jordan reportedly met behind closed doors in Washington in January to draw up their new strategy for the Middle East. Ankara is alarmed by reports of about a secret plan to redraw the map of the Middle East and carve up Syria into zones of influence, former Turkish ambassador to France and Libya, Uluc Ozulker, has told Sputnik. [...]

Americans are ditching their US citizenship in droves thanks to an unbearable political atmosphere and the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, new research shows, indicating that both residents and expats are cutting ties in record numbers. More than 5,800 Americans [...]

Three countries agree with Britain that "it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack." President Donald Trump has consistently refused to punish Russia for its attacks on the United States and around the world — but that changed somewhat today. [...]

As soon as Russia’s 'Sputnik V' coronavirus vaccine arrives in Venezuela for clinical trials, it may be used to immunize around 14,400 candidates in the upcoming parliamentary election, the country’s president said on Tuesday. A batch of the world's first registered Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in the Latin American nation later this month, Nicolas Maduro stated in a televised address. He [...]

If Russian natural gas exports to Italy stop, the country will have only 15 days before the emergency situation, according to La Stampa. What is the scale of European dependence on the Russian gas? Can the US replace it? In Italy, the share of Russian gas imports is about 37 percent. [...]

Prime Minister Designate Mustapha Adib announced that he would be stepping down on Saturday, saying Lebanon’s political factions “failed to refuse to politicize the process of forming a government.” Adib was appointed in August, after Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned in the turmoil following the Beirut explosion, which killed nearly 200 people. Prime Minister designate Adib’s s [...]

Moscow won’t leave the provocative acts against Russian diplomats unanswered, the Foreign Ministry said, adding that several countries blindly copied the UK’s “hypocritical” stance on the Skripal case in the absence of evidence. The decision of a number of NATO and other European countries to expel Russian diplomats over the poisoning of the former double-agent Sergei Skripal amounts to a [...]

The US government’s efforts to punish truth-tellers like Chelsea Manning is in part vengeance, but the ultimate goal is to terrify, to ensure there will never be another Manning or Julian Assange. The woman who, as Bradley Manning, revealed some of the stark truths about the high crimes and misdemeanours of the US government which now persecutes her, has attempted to end her life. [...]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched a blistering attack on Benjamin Netanyahu, calling his Israeli counterpart the “leader of a terrorist state” following the deadly shooting of protesters in Gaza. Erdogan made the comments at his party’s congress in southern Turkey. Addressing the event, the president slammed Netanyahu’s criticism of Turkey’s military operation in Syria. [...]

Given the continued disruptions caused by the pandemic and uncertainty about a vaccine, it would behoove the countries of the world to dial down tensions and expand collaborations, writes Vijay Prashad. In mid-October, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its World Economic Outlook report, which offered some dizzying data. For 2020, the IMF estimates that the global Gross Domestic P [...]

The proposal for visa applicants to surrender 5 years of their social-media history will have a "huge impact" on travel to the US and could be "very damaging" for those seeking to come to America, an immigration attorney told RT. [...]

The current administration actively supported the Venezuelan opposition figure, who orchestrated an unsuccessful coup attempt in 2018 and reportedly organised another one in 2019. Washington recognises Guaido as Venezuela's interim president and is pressuring the country with sanctions to force elected president, Nicolas Maduro to resign. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has stated tha [...]

President Donald Trump warned Russia to “get ready” for missile strikes on Syria, in an off-the-cuff response on Wednesday morning to an alleged chemical weapons attack by Syrian government forces. The US leader tweeted: “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’ You shouldn’t be partners wi [...]

The narcissistic businessman has never seen politics as a vocation, and he’s incapable of engaging in the hard slog of politics for the next four years. But can Biden fix the mess that Trump leaves behind? I doubt it. As the US Congress prepares to formally endorse Joe Biden as president on January 6, there is speculation about what the future may hold for Donald Trump, as well as about his [...]

Facebook's misuse of their users' biometric information could potentially amount to billions of dollars in damages after a federal judge greenlighted an Illinois class action suit against the firm’s facial recognition feature. Facebook violated an Illinois state law by improperly using their photo-scanning and facial recognition technologies and storing biometric data without their users' consen [...]

A tacit admission by the US Air Force that the F-35 has failed its main mission has triggered an outpouring of outrage from Americans who think the stealth fighter’s gargantuan budget could have been better spent on other things. Frustration with Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation stealth jet flooded Twitter on Wednesday, after Forbes magazine published a story about how USAF commissionin [...]

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San Marino, a tiny landlocked state, surprised many of its European neighbours when it began easing anti-COVID restrictions in mid-April, several months after it stocked up on Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. It may be one of Europe’s smallest states, but it’s winning the COVID battle thanks to Russia’s vaccine. The country, which has a population of 34,000, has seen coronavirus cas [...]

US, UK, France Strike Syria With Over 100 Missiles in Response to Alleged Chemical Attack. News, Analysis, Multimedia. On April 14, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France launched strikes on a number of targets in Syria in response to an alleged chemical attack in the city of Douma, a Damascus suburb. The US warships Porter, Cook, and Higgins and French and UK Mirage and Tornado fighter [...]

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has found a link connecting mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna, to rare heart conditions following inoculation, and has recommended that these side effects are listed. The EMA published its findings that there is a risk of heart inflammation conditions - myocarditis and pericarditis – following the administration of mRNA Covid vaccines on Friday [...]