China has managed to outperform the US and the UK in a German ranking of the world’s most reliable trade partners, compiled from the latest survey of 2,000 German companies by Frankfurt-based Commerzbank. [...]

The Commerce Ministry of China has pledged to create a list of foreign individuals, corporations and institutions that are considered “unreliable” or that violate the interests of Chinese businesses, state media reports. [...]

China’s tariffs targeting $60 billion of American imports have taken effect as part of a tit-for-tat response to Washington’s trade war which saw Beijing slapped with extra levies on $200 billion worth of exports back in May. [...]

Google risks falling under scrutiny again as the US Department of Justice (DOJ) gears up to investigate the IT giant after studying its ads and search policies, new reports say. [...]

Facebook’s lawyer has denied the social media platform invaded American users’ privacy when it allowed their personal data to be slurped up by Cambridge Analytica, claiming they had no privacy to begin with. No crime, no victims? [...]

Frustrated by a legal ban on sharing intelligence with Israeli operatives conducting targeted assassinations against Hezbollah, the NSA crafted a loophole giving them total access even to US citizens' data, leaked documents show. [...]

Malaysia has accepted the Dutch report that a ‘Russian-made’ missile shot down its civilian airliner MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, but has yet to see evidence it was fired by Russia, said Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. [...]

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu beamed as he showed off a new, Donald Trump-signed US State Department map which redraws Israel’s border to include the Golan Heights – an occupied territory annexed from Syria. [...]

The Pentagon is trying to artificially limit the use of Russian launch vehicles on the international market, Roscosmos said, adding that the ban will negatively affect the whole industry of commercial space launches. [...]

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doubled down on vilification of Сhinese telecoms giant Huawei as “an instrument of government” suggesting that the company was a national security threat by acting as an agent for Beijing. [...]

In a report that views Russia through the same cracked lens as Washington’s old ideological foe, the Soviet Union, the RAND Corporation reveals that its worst enemy for gaining global dominance is not Russia but the US. [...]

Anti-establishment forces had major gains in the EU elections because voters are tired of parties refusing to challenge Brussels, analysts told RT, saying the results also show that migration is still a top issue. Euroskeptic parties made considerable gains in the European Parliament elections, leaving the bloc’s establishment parties badly battered and searching for answers. [...]

Lebanon's Defence Minister Elias Bou Saab has warned that the Lebanese Air Force will strike Israel's Ben Gurion airport in the event of a military conflict between the two states, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing Hezbollah's al-Manar news site. [...]

While the European Parliament elections are approaching with stakes being high, German MEP and former chairman of the National Democratic Party (NPD) Udo Voigt has spoken about the party's plans for the next legislative term, as well as its priorities and concerns. [...]

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Beijing will take all necessary measures to defend the rights and interests of Chinese companies. Sputnik talked about Huawei’s lawsuit against the US government with Andrew Leung, an independent China strategist based in Hong Kong. [...]

Renewed trade war fears are breathing life into the gold market, according to Phil Streible, senior market analyst at RJO Futures, who also pointed to growing investor fears over the possibility of a rate cut. “Potentially down the road, if equities slow down, and if the global economy slows down enough, you might see the Fed cut rates, that’s what’s breathing life right now into that gol [...]

A growing number of former Apple devotees in China have started switching from iPhones to domestic Huawei smartphones as trade and technology tensions escalate between Washington and Beijing. The South China Morning Post reported that consumers were spurred by a rising “nationalist sentiment” to support the Chinese tech giant which has been blacklisted by the US. [...]

US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus has warned Turkey about the “very negative consequences” their acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile defense systems will have if it goes ahead. The purchase of the surface-to-air missile defence systems will seriously affect the defence relations of the United States and NATO with Turkey, she said. [...]

Despite the trade war against China and numerous import tariffs imposed on a number of countries, the US trade deficit hit a 10-year high of $621 billion last year, the US Commerce Department reported. [...]

According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's Il-96-400 passenger airliner will allow Russian planes to win back the country's domestic air transportation market. [...]

The US has underestimated the consequences of the attack on Chinese telecom giant Huawei as it sends a strong signal for the rest of the world to avoid dealing with such an unstable partner, professor Richard Wolff believes. [...]

The US government's indictment of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange on 17 additional charges under the Espionage Act has shocked and horrified journalists who are calling it an unprecedented attack on press freedom. [...]