China has sold $3 billion of sovereign dollar bonds. This is only the third such move by Beijing in the last 14 years, and the first involving bonds with a 30-year maturity. China sold $1.5 billion of five-year bonds at 3.25 percent, $1 billion of 10-year bonds at 3.5 percent, and $500 million of 30-year bonds at four percent, the Finance Ministry said on Friday, as quoted by Reuters. [...]

The WikiLeaks ‘Vault 7’ data dump allegedly detailing CIA hacking tactics has again thrown the privacy of electronic devices into focus. One viral video showing an Amazon Echo refusing to confirm a link to the US spy agency is summing up people’s fears. [...]

Ukraine pursues the same policy against its own people that cost Georgia to lose territory after then-leader Mikhail Saakashvili’s war on Ossetia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, warning Kiev not to go down the same road. The Ukrainian authorities are not just leading the situation into a deadlock, they are pursuing an anti-state and anti-national policy,” the Russian leader said, speak [...]

With the conflict in Syria now passing its March 15th sixth anniversary, we are obliged to cast a harsh light on the moral sickness of regime change that continues to plague Western capitals, without which it would not have gone on so long at such enormous cost. [...]

The Saudi tale of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's accidental death in a 'fistfight' resembles a poorly hatched Plan B to salvage the record arms deals with the US, while shifting the blame on underlings, political analysts told RT. "It does not add up! I mean who did they have at the consulate – Mike Tyson?" Richard Becker from the anti-war ANSWER Coalition noted, after Saudi Arabia admitted [...]

The proposed enlargement of BRICS (BRICS Plus) with the inclusion of powerful emerging economies would help fill the void created by US trade protectionism, international analyst Adrian Zelaia told Sputnik. Having analyzed Beijing’s idea to bring Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Nigeria, South Korea, Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam into the BRICS group, consisting of Braz [...]

Last week’s stock market nosedive signaled more pain ahead, culminating in a financial catastrophe if the growing economic bubble bursts, says Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital. [...]

At a news conference in the Turkish capital, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared to suggest the end of Bashar Assad’s presidency was no longer a prerequisite for a way out of the Syrian crisis, in a U-turn from Washington’s long-held policy. “I think the ... longer term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people,” said Tillerson at a joint conference with Tu [...]

The volume of trade between Russia and Germany has been growing and reached US$39 billion in the first eight months of 2018, according to documents prepared by the Kremlin’s press service. “In January-August 2018, Russian-German trade increased by 24 percent (adding $7.5 billion) compared with the same period in 2017,” the document says, detailing that “Russian exports to Germany rose by 3 [...]

The circumstances of the alleged chemical attack against the Khan Sheikhun settlement remain unknown, with many experts preferring not to hurry with a final verdict. However, it didn't prevent the US from launching missile attacks on Syria "in response." Funnily enough, at that same moment when US President Donald Trump violated the "Western values," he received a standing ovation from Europe [...]

The US serviceman killed in an insider attack in Kabul is identified as Brent Taylor, a mayor from Utah. While shocking to some back at home, this is only the latest such incident in a war that even top brass now call unwinnable. [...]

Russia’s brazen confidence in its victory in propping up Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s once-failing regime grows day by day, as evidenced by Moscow’s latest oil deals with the Syrian government. Sputnik news reports that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin visited Damascus in November to get the ball rolling on the fossil fuel deals. [...]

Kronen Zeitung earlier reported that a former colonel of the Austrian Armed Forces had been detained on suspicion of spying for Russia for 20 years. Meanwhile, Austrian newspaper Die Presse reported that the suspect in the espionage scandal had already confessed to committing the crime. [...]

As concern surrounds Donald Trump’s decision on a key climate deal, one Republican Congressman believes God will “take care of” the global rise in temperature attributed to emissions. [...]

After a 500 year-long struggle for recognition of its status as a European power, Russia has positioned itself as a pivot to the East to develop Greater Eurasia, Glenn Diesen, a professor at the Higher School of Economics, told Sputnik, adding that this may spell the end of the Western-centric geo-economic infrastructure. [...]

Russian Navy warships launched missiles from the Mediterranean Sea at Daesh targets in the eastern Syrian province of Hama, killing militants and destroying the group's command posts and large caches of weapons, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday. [...]

Earlier, Moscow rejected US Navy complaints about a Russian Su-27 intercepting a US Navy EP-3 spy plane in an "unsafe manner." US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert has accused Russia of acting "recklessly in international airspace" over the Black Sea and called on Moscow to "cease its unsafe, irresponsible, and aggressive behavior" in a tweet Thursday morning. [...]

Exclusive: A founding Russia-gate myth is that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies agreed that Russia hacked into and distributed Democratic emails, a falsehood that The New York Times has belatedly retracted, reports Robert Parry. The New York Times has finally admitted that one of the favorite Russia-gate canards – that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies concurred on the assessment of Russian [...]

The continued fall of FAANG stocks – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google – on Monday left the blue-chip basket of equities down almost $730 billion after a six-week sustained decline, stoking investor fears of the US technology sector entering a bear market. [...]