Looks like Donald Trump took a page from Hillary Clinton's book and chickened out. The presumptive GOP presidential nominee said Friday afternoon that he would not debate Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, despite having said one day prior that he'd "love to debate Bernie." [...]

Last month, WikiLeaks published the evidence and testimony provided by an Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) whistleblower who revealed that the watchdog appeared to have wilfully ignored data that the Syrian government did not stage a chemical attack in Douma, Syria in April 2018 in order to fit a convenient narrative. [...]

'We need a foreign policy based on building coalitions... [not] perpetual warfare in the Middle East' Bernie Sanders responded to Hillary Clinton's foreign policy speech on Thursday with a hit at her credentials, including her involvement in the Iraq War and so-called "regime change" in Libya. [...]

The US government has dropped all charges against Max Blumenthal, after arresting the journalist over a dubious 5-month-old warrant. But the Grayzone editor says the case is far from closed. Blumenthal was detained for nearly two days after police raided his Washington, DC home in October. The month-old warrant for his arrest listed the journalist as “armed and dangerous,” and police carrying [...]

MPs who support remaining in the European Union may use their majority in Parliament to sidestep the public altogether and vote to keep Britain in the EU’s single market, meaning free movement of people, goods and services would stay despite a ‘Brexit’. A number of pro-‘Remain’ MPs have suggested using their 257 person majority to vote to keep the UK within the European Economic Area [...]

Arguing that corporations essentially operate “outside of national rules of laws and societal codes of conduct”, the AI expert suggested that the AI “is not the bit that makes that happen, the bits that make that happen are already in place”. While the image of a malevolent artificial intelligence bent on exterminating mankind is an age-old trope in science fiction, one AI expert has argue [...]

Despite the abundance of scientific studies documenting the rapid and dangerous decline of pollinator populations, state and federal lawmakers have yet to pass any meaningful protections for bees.The reason, according to the findings of a new investigation, is that pesticide giants such as Bayer, Monsanto, and Syngenta have deployed an aggressive lobbying campaign to dilute and suppress attempts t [...]

The US says that Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was plotting “imminent and sinister” attacks against its diplomats and military personnel. But when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was pressed for evidence of this, he gave none. Soleimani, commander of the Iranian military’s Quds Force, was assassinated in a drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq, on Friday. [...]

According to statements made at last weekend’s summit in Warsaw, NATO regards Russia as a bigger threat than ISIS. Of course, that's ludicrous but when you scratch beneath the surface, the use of these falsehoods makes perverted sense. [...]

BEIRUT (Sputnik) - Clashes between Lebanese anti-government protesters and law enforcement resumed near the parliament building in the capital Beirut on Saturday, with police resorting to tear gas and water cannons, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene. [...]

Island living isn’t as expensive as it sounds, and in some cases, you can have the whole island to yourself! Not every island in the world has a tropical climate. Some are far more quaint and brisk with rocky shores and even fresh water. Regardless of the kind of island you see yourself living on, there is something for everybody right here in the states. Here are just 10 US islands where proper [...]

A hospital built specifically to treat those infected with coronavirus is set to open in Wuhan, China. Astonishingly, the large medical facility was constructed in less than two weeks. The 25,000-square-meter Huoshenshan Hospital, one of two new facilities commissioned in response to the coronavirus outbreak, is scheduled to begin operations on Monday. The hospital is something of a marvel of en [...]

A Dublin court has sent three former senior banking executives to jail for committing "sham transactions" in an effort to deceive customers and shareholders during the 2008 financial crisis."The trio will be among the first senior bankers globally to be jailed for their role in the collapse of a bank during the crisis," as Reuters reports. [...]

Global stock markets hit bear territory this week, with oil prices experiencing their biggest plunge since the 1991 Gulf War. Boom Bust is joined by Professor Richard Wolff of the Economic Update to discuss the ongoing oil crisis. He explains that the US, which wanted "energy independence," decided 10-20 years ago to go into the fracking business simply because it was profitable. [...]

In the face of a "war of a thousand cuts" unleashed by Islamists does the West truly have any viable alternative to cooperation with Putin's Russia? Vladimir Putin is certainly one of a kind, writes G. Murphy Donovan, a former American intelligence officer, in his opinion piece for US conservative daily The American Thinker. [Elite_video_player id="6"] [...]

Russia’s research center of virology and biotechnology, known as the Vector Institute, is testing multiple different vaccine prototypes against Covid-19 in a race to find a cure for the virus behind a global pandemic. This week, it “began immunogenicity studies in sensitive laboratory animals... of all developed vaccine prototypes,” said consumer watchdog agency Rospotrebnadzor in a state [...]

Russia’s air raids in Syria, launched from Iranian territory this week, were received by Washington with a mixture of consternation and disappointment. Understandably, too. It marks a breakthrough in Russia’s standing in the Middle East. Russia is working closely in a quartet that includes Iran, Iraq and Syria. [...]

While the European Union has failed to provide coordinated assistance to Italy in time to prevent the virus, Russia has filled in and dispatched military health workers, virologists and equipment to help the country handle the pandemic. A video went viral of an Italian man replacing a European Union flag with a Russian one, in a gesture of gratitude to Moscow for helping combat the corona [...]

Viktor Medvedchuk, Representative of Ukraine in the Minsk contact group, claimed that the Crimea is part of Russia and it will not return under control of the Kiev authorities. Medvedchuk explained during his interview with the Radio Liberty, that de facto ‘it [Crimea] belongs to Russia. Do not expect that the peninsula will be returned to Ukraine’. He also pointed out that the Kiev authoritie [...]

BERGAMO, Italy - Russian military personnel and Italian military nuclear, biological and chemical experts have jointly disinfected nursing homes in three settlements in Italy's Lombardy region, the Russian Defence Ministry announced on Saturday. "Russian military experts, together with the military personnel of the radiation, chemical and biological protection unit of the Italian armed forces disi [...]

Vladimir Putin and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe have worked out a statement on the prospects of joint Russian-Japanese economic activities in the South Kuril Islands as the Russian leader arrived in Japan for what’s seen as a breakthrough visit. [...]

Austrians will soon be able to walk with no restrictions and gather in groups of 10, as coronavirus measures will be gradually lifted starting next month. The easing of the self-isolation measures was announced by Health Minister Rudolf Anschober, who said that the spread of the novel coronavirus remains quite slow and the forecast for the upcoming month looks “very good.” He also said that th [...]