The US dollar’s status as the world’s major reserve currency, which it held for decades, could come under threat, according to Anne Korin from the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. “Major movers” such as Russia, China, and the European Union have a strong “motivation to de-dollarize,” Korin, the co-director at the energy and security think tank, told CNBC. [...]

The yet-unconfirmed move would mark yet another blow to the framework of confidence building measures that were put in place in the immediate aftermath of the cold war. US President Donald Trump has moved to pull the United States out of the 1992 Treaty on Open Skies, one of the most comprehensive international agreements on transparency of military activities, according to the Wall Street Journal [...]

China has now more millionaires and unicorns than the US and the tech sector may be the next sphere where Beijing can leave Washington behind, investor Dan Collins told Max Keiser. Most people would assume that the number one city in the world to host tech start-ups is San Francisco, but Beijing was recently ranked as the world’s unicorn capital [...]

Maria Butina, a Russian gun activist who spent months in a US jail for failing to properly register as a foreign agent, has landed in Moscow. Her case sparked outcry in Russia and accusations of “prosecutorial overreach.” She has arrived in Sheremetyevo airport after a long flight from Miami, Florida on Saturday. [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian Defense Ministry published satellite intelligence images proving that oil from Syria was sent abroad under the guard of US servicemen before and after the defeat of the Daesh terrorists, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Saturday. [...]

The United States maintains nearly three dozen military bases in Germany, with troops stationed in the country since the end of the Second World War, and long after the end of the Cold War and the withdrawal of Soviet/Russian troops from the country in the early 1990s. [...]

Two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers and other military aircraft have touched down in South Africa. The planes covered over 11 thousand kilometers to get there, staying in the air for more than 13 hours.  The two Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers landed at Waterkloof air force base in Tshwane on Wednesday. Russian Il-62 and An-124 military transport planes have also touched down. [...]

President Trump has been defending his purported withdrawal of US troops from Syria as a triumphant move to “bring our soldiers home”. He says it’s about delivering on his 2016 election promise to “end endless wars”. This is just trite electioneering from Trump. Already it is being admitted this week that the Pentagon is not actually bringing US troops home from Syria. Most of them are b [...]

Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in the Russian city of Sochi to discuss an array of issues, with the situation in Syria and the Turkish military operation there expected to be the main topic of their conversation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that foreign forces that are currently deployed in Syria unlawfully must leave its territory. He added that Turkey shares this vis [...]

China has been developing Kenya’s rail service as part of the Belt and Road Initiative to connect Asia, Europe and Africa. The railway is Kenya’s largest infrastructure project since its independence. The so-called Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project was launched in 2017. Trains operating on a daily schedule between the port city of Mombasa to Nairobi have already moved up to two million [...]

US forces that crossed into Iraq after pulling out from Syria can only use its territory for transit and do not have permission to stay, the Iraqi military said on Tuesday. Hundreds of military vehicles carrying American troops crossed into the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq in a long convoy on Monday. [...]

A new survey from consultancy McKinsey & Co has found that a majority of banks globally may not be economically viable because their returns on equity aren’t keeping pace with costs. The study looked at 1,000 banks in developed and emerging countries and found that just over a third had made a return on capital of just 1.6 percent over the past three years. This compares to returns of j [...]

US President Donald Trump has authorized $4.5 million in aid to the so-called Syrian Civil Defense (SCD), aka “White Helmets,” calling their work “important and highly valued.” The group’s critics point to its terrorist ties. “Over the course of the 8-year conflict in Syria, the SCD has rescued more than 115,000 people, including many ethnic and religious minorities,” the White House [...]

Russia defends Iran, backs Bashar Assad in Syria and criticizes Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Vladimir Putin’s upcoming visit to Riyadh would seem a risky balancing act – but is instead a pragmatic move rooted in mutual interest. Putin arrives in Saudi Arabia on Monday, his second visit to the country after his 2007 trip. [...]

The timing is not merely coincidental. The shambolic policymaking of the Trump administration has thrown the Middle East into further chaos, while countries are increasingly viewing Russia as a source of stability. The high respect afforded to Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit this week to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates speaks of a new geopolitical reality in the region. [...]

Earlier, two-time Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton intimated that 2020 Democratic contender Tulsi Gabbard and former Green Party candidate Jill Stein were “Russian assets.” [...]

The statement comes in response to the imposition of tariffs by the United States on a record $7.5 billion worth of EU goods, after the WTO ruled that EU nations gave illegal state aid to Airbus. [...]

2020 candidate Tulsi Gabbard is trending on Twitter, after the Hawaiian lawmaker scorched Hillary Clinton with a devastating put-down. Nevertheless, Hillary fans still maintain Tulsi’s popularity is the work of ‘Russian bots’. Gabbard unloaded on Clinton on Friday, after the failed 2016 presidential contender suggested that “the Russians” were “grooming” her to run as a third-party c [...]

Further turning away from the greenback, Russia is eyeing the yuan and the euro as currencies for Eurobonds next year, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has said on the sidelines of an IMF and World Bank meeting. Answering journalists’ questions about the impact of US sanctions on the Russian sovereign debt market, Siluanov said that Moscow will consider the issue as it has been creating t [...]

President Trump’s decision to pull troops out of northern Syria sent the mainstream media into a full-blown meltdown, Redacted Tonight’s Lee Camp said, slamming their hawkish coverage as mindless and deceitful. [...]

After the recent Israeli attacks against Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, the Middle East has found itself in the midst of undeclared war. Almost everyone in Lebanon appears to agree. “This time Israel went too far. In just two days, it bombed three countries,” I am told by a local UN staffer based in Beirut. [...]

The United States intends to deprive Russia of its right to the Northern Sea Route (NSR) which lies in Arctic waters and within Russia’s Exclusive Economic Zone. That’s according to media reports, saying Washington believes that the NSR should be open to the entire world community, and not only to Russia. [...]