The Australian taxpayer will foot the bill for a $85 million (AUS$125 mn) Growler fighter jet that burst into flames on the runway due to an engine fault. The US Navy will not reimburse Australia for the “dud” warplane. [...]

US defense companies are currently enjoying a massive surge in profits in the wake of severe global crises that US foreign policy – with the full backing and blessing of the US punditry class - has itself precipitated. It’s pretty much guaranteed that your breakfast will be ruined when the very first line you read in the morning newspaper is a bold-type, bald-faced lie that goes: [...]

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is going to be completed despite the latest US sanctions, former US diplomat Jim Jatras told RT, adding that the last-ditch attempt to derail its launch is a gesture of despair by Washington. [...]

Kiev's attempts to avoid paying back its $3 billion debt to Moscow could end in the country defaulting on its foreign debt. Why didn't Kiev's Western benefactors side with Kiev in the IMF decision on the debt? Sputnik takes a look. On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund board recognized Kiev's outstanding $3 billion debt to Moscow as sovereign, a status Kiev had fiercely contested. [...]

As part of its strategic goal of building a nationwide high-speed rail network, Beijing plans to invest about 800 billion yuan (US$114.36 billion) on the expansion of the country's railways in 2020. According to China’s Ministry of Transport (MOT), 1.8 trillion yuan might be spent on roads and waterways, and about 90 billion yuan on civil aviation. The country will strive to cover 98 percent of [...]

Iran is moving forward to get rid of the US dollar as a means of payment, independent researcher Timothy Alexander Guzman points out, adding that Washington has obviously shot itself in the foot by imposing sanctions on Moscow and Tehran. [...]

France, Britain and Germany have betrayed the 2015 nuclear deal after being threatened with US tariffs, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has claimed, noting that Europe has lost the moral high ground. The three European states accused Tehran of non-compliance with the accord after buckling under pressure from the United Sates, Zarif wrote in a tweet, citing a Washington Post report de [...]

As part of Russia’s anti-terror campaign in Syria, the Kremlin has deployed sophisticated air defense systems to protect its aircraft. According to the Pentagon, those units have effectively grounded US aircraft. [...]

The budget changes follow after London and Brussels managed to sign off on the Brexit deal and avoid a further delay, withdrawing the United Kingdom from the bloc after 47 years. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has stated that his country would veto the European Union's long-term budget plan for post-Brexit Europe, stressing it should be lowered. [...]

President Barack Obama took to the stage last week to announce the latest initiative in his crusade to make it more difficult for Americans to purchase firearms. He even shed some tears for American children killed in mass shootings. But there is a blatant hypocrisy in Obama’s position on domestic gun control given that he has bombed more countries during his time in office than any president [...]

Abby Martin Breaks the Set on the NYPD's iPhone Campaign, Resisting the War Tax, Injustice for Torture Victims, and a Former Marine's Views on Empire. On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby Martin remarks on the NYPD's recent efforts in promoting the Apple iPhone's new security features, even though phone hackers can easily override the phones new fingerprint scanner. Abby then talks to Ed H [...]

In the Soviet Union’s declining years, there was a half-deferential, half-derisive moniker for the feeble leaders in their 70s who preceded Gorbachev: the ‘Kremlin elders’. Thirty-something years later, the United States looks set to elect its own septuagenarian to run the White House. [...]

Exclusive: In Official Washington’s propaganda world, the U.S. government and its “allies” are always standing for what’s right and good and the “enemies” are the epitome of evil doing the vilest things. But some emails to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton depicted a far different reality... To justify U.S. “regime changes,” the U.S. government has routinely spread rumors and m [...]

Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has dropped out of the 2020 presidential race to endorse her ideological opposite, establishment darling Joe Biden. It's political suicide – for her, and for the idea of a progressive Democrat. Gabbard's decision to bow out on Thursday may have made sense from an electoral perspective – with just two delegates from her native American Samoa, she wasn't exactl [...]

President Obama said in his State of the Union address last night: “Now, what is true — and the reason that a lot of Americans feel anxious — is that the economy has been changing in profound ways, changes that started long before the Great Recession hit; changes that have not let up. [...]

The amount of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US is growing so rapidly that the country has a potential to become the new epicenter of the pandemic, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) has said on Tuesday. WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris was asked whether the US could become the new epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic. “We are now seeing a very large acceleration in [...]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Time magazine’s “person of the year” in 2015, is facing her biggest political crisis as her welcoming of Mideast refugees has troubled and angered many Europeans, raising the possibility that Merkel’s days as the Continent’s undisputed leader may be numbered, writes Gilbert Doctorow. The online edition of Bloomberg News carried a lead story entitled � [...]

Michigan residents and local businesses are furious over a new rule, purportedly aimed at stopping the spread of coronavirus, which bars them from buying and selling seeds – now deemed a “non-essential” item. Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced in a public address that “essential” businesses such as grocery stores will be restricted in what they are allowed to offer to their customers. [...]

See his pieces covering the situation in Oregon for The Raw Story, which reports: “Arun Gupta was on his way to cover the community meeting when he was told the road was closed due to a crash — and law enforcement officers told him alternate routes might take hours to reach the meeting in Grant County. Gupta soon learned rumors of what happened — here’s his account from Harney County:” [...]