The year-on-year surge in US sovereign debt has totaled $1.37 trillion, the latest data released by the US Treasury Department shows. The national debt reportedly rose to $21,863,635,176,724.12 as of December 20 of the current year compared to $20,492,874,492,282.58 on December 25, 2017. [...]

From abolishing most government in favor of free markets and personal responsibility to ending foreign wars and pardoning whistleblowers, three Libertarian Party presidential candidates presented their vision for the US in a debate hosted by RT America. Marc Feldman, Kevin McCormick, and Darryl Perry faced each other before RT America’s 360-degree camera, in a debate moderated by Watching The [...]

Crimea dramatically broke off from Ukraine and rejoined Russia in March 2014 following a peninsula-wide referendum, a month after a Western-backed coup rocked Kiev and overthrew Ukraine's democratically elected government. [...]

Recent revelations that expose how the U.S. government retaliates against national security whistleblowers show why it was necessary for Edward Snowden to go public with his mass surveillance leaks, author Mark Hertsgaard said in an interview with Democracy Now! on Monday. One day after high-ranking Department of Defense official John Crane exposed the Pentagon's legacy of retaliation against w [...]

The five-meter-high avalanche descended near Peak Sentis on the Schwagalp Pass as a result of heavy snowfall; the search for the missing is underway, according to Swiss German daily Tagblatt. An avalanche hit the restaurant of the Hotel Santis in Schwagalp in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden in eastern Switzerland on Thursday, according to media reports. [...]

More information is needed for an open discussion on the most important issues of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which has only been discussed behind closed doors, said Petter Slaatrem Titland, activist and chair at Attac, Norway. A leaked exchange of testy e-mails between US and EU officials shows signs of growing disagreements, with the two sides locked in secreti [...]

The Establishment Tulsi Gabbard smears have already begun, and they are bogus… The Jimmy Dore Show is a hilarious and irreverent take on news, politics and culture featuring Jimmy Dore, a professional stand up comedian, author and podcaster. With over 5 million downloads on iTunes, the show is also broadcast on KPFK stations throughout the country. It is part of the Young Turks Network-- th [...]

The field of artificial intelligence has been a boom market almost from its beginning 60 years ago with the brilliant but doomed British mathematician Alan Turing. One branch of AI believes that a computer will one day duplicate how the human brain works, once the technical difficulties are worked out. Turing was more clever than that. [...]

Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech sent mixed messages about where the president stands on foreign policy, analysts told RT, as his anti-intervention views clash with his threats against Iran and Venezuela. [...]

Years ago, over many beers in a D.C. bar, a congressional aide colorfully described the House of Representatives, where he worked. It's "435 heads up 435 asses," he said. I thought of that person yesterday, while reading the analyses of Hillary Clinton's victories Tuesday night. [...]

In an address to the Federal Assembly on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin touched upon a spate of pressing international issues related to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. [...]

Information continues to come in about the Brexit vote. A member of the British Army said that 90% of the lads in his unit voted to leave. They voted exit because they do not believe they should be involved in Washingtons wars. He said that his unit agreed [...]

The United States is acting as "a market without a brain" as it responds to prices and increases its oil output to record highs, Bob Dudley, the chief executive officer of the UK multinational BP Group, said Tuesday. [...]

The crisis of confidence in EU institutions and calls across the continent for referendums on membership in the bloc are the demonstration of a boomerang effect – a result of Western politicians' push to destabilize sovereign states from North Africa and the Middle East to Eastern Europe. That's according to Russian philosopher Vladimir Lepekhin. [...]

The Russian parliament has furthered a bill, which seeks to legalize growth of plants that can be used to produce opioids. The measure is meant to ensure that Russia has a steady supply of raw materials for producing painkillers. [...]

Russian political analyst Victor Sumsky has commented to Sputnik on the recent avoidance of the Southeast Asian Nations to make any direct reference to their territorial dispute with China over the South China Sea by saying that they have refused to 'commit suicide' despite US pressure and have 'demonstrated their wisdom.' [...]

The Venezuela coup attempt is not going well at all and Washington's global allies may soon regret rushing to recognise Juan Guaido as the legitimate interim president of Venezuela, French journalist and geopolitical analyst Gilbert Mercier told Sputnik. [...]

Near-zero interest rates are forcing investors to look for higher yields, and that could come from Russian corporate bonds, even though they are difficult to get under Western sanctions. Russian issuers were practically ousted from the world’s financial markets in early 2014 when European and US sanctions were introduced. [...]

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed the US decision to label Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a “terrorist organization” for allegedly financing and promoting terrorism in the region. [...]

The major U.S. news media has consistently slanted its coverage of the Syrian conflict to back neocon desires for more U.S. military intervention in support of “regime change,” Gareth Porter wrote for FAIR. Coverage of the breakdown of the partial ceasefire in Syria illustrated the main way corporate news media distort public understanding of a major foreign policy story. [...]

A young Russian woman visited an ice skating rink wearing nothing but a swimsuit, stunning everyone with this brave and uncommon act, as well as her lean physique. [...]

The media has had a field day commenting on Donald Trump's words about cooperation with Russia against ISIS, labeling him a 'Kremlin agent' and a danger to the Western security order. But what about Hillary Clinton and her foundation's ties to the Saudis? If Trump is 'Moscow's man', does that make Clinton the candidate of Middle Eastern sheikdoms? [...]