US Defense Secretary James Mattis put the military option against North Korea back on the table following President Trump’s Chief Strategist Steve Bannon saying that a military action against Pyongyang is out of the question. “There are strong military consequences if [North Korea] initiates hostilities,” Mattis said at a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and [...]

On Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry accused the US and the UK of supplying toxic agents to terrorists based on evidence found in Aleppo and a Damascus suburb. Sputnik Radio spoke with political scientist Dr. Kevin Barrett about the significance of this discovery and whether it could become a turning point in the Syrian conflict. [...]

Previously obedient European allies of Washington have openly criticized Donald Trump's policy toward North Korea, political commentator Rostislav Ishchenko writes, adding that for the first time since the Second World War "the West" is split over the issue of war and peace. Washington's ramping up of the war of words with Pyongyang hasn't got the backing of the EU, RIA Novosti contributor [...]

Will World War III kick off this week because of the bellicose actions of a buffoonish leader with a dodgy hair-cut and his sinister nuclear-armed warmongering rogue state?  Or, can Donald Trump and the US be deterred? Of course, in State Department-friendly Western media, it’s North Korea and its leadership who are routinely portrayed as the nut jobs. [...]

President Donald Trump ignored important intelligence reports when he decided to attack Syria after he saw pictures of dying children. Seymour M. Hersh investigated the case of the alleged Sarin gas attack. On April 6, United States President Donald Trump authorized an early morning Tomahawk missile strike on Shayrat Air Base in central Syria in retaliation for what he said was a deadly nerve a [...]

An annual gathering of mayors from around the country is calling on Congress to reverse course by moving funding out of the military budget and into human and environmental needs. The U.S. Conference of Mayors on Monday unanimously passed three resolutions opposing deep cuts in social and environmental programs to increase funding for the military. [...]

The US Defense Intelligence Agency has published a glossy new 100 page+ declassified intelligence report called 'Russia Military Power', a rehash of reports which were released during the 1980s called 'Soviet Military Power'. Like its predecessors, 'Russia Military Power' seems designed to ensure a bigger defense budget for the Pentagon. [...]

Moscow has warned the US against taking unilateral action in Syria, as there is no threat from the Syrian military, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. The statement comes after the US accused Syria of preparing for a chemical attack, without giving any evidence.   [...]

The White House's statement regarding Damascus' alleged "preparations" for the use of chemical weapons in Syria has prompted concerns that it could be followed by a series of US strikes on Syrian government forces. Sputnik contributor Andrei Kots explained why these fears are not unfounded. [...]

Most media outlets and politicians often ignore the deadly consequences of US regime change policy, including the rise of Islamic State, according to Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii). “I think that there has been a concerted effort both on the part of some in the media, as well as many in politics, and many in our foreign policy establishment seem to have been advocating for a continua [...]

I’m not the only person to note that if Jesus ever actually showed up in America it would be our “Christians” who would shout him down — if, that is, he talked about peace and the horror of an imperial nation addicted to war. “Blessed are the peacemakers”? No thanks! If you ever want to know what it looks like when a mob in love with far right nationalism and on fire with a lust for [...]

Nobody wins if nuclear weapons are deployed on the Korean Peninsula. “We have to do all we can right now to mobilize the peace movement,” Will Griffin, an organizer of the US-based Stop THAAD in Korea and US Militarism in Asia and Pacific, told Sputnik’s Loud & Clear. “This is unprecedented.” [...]

US military drills and provocations risk destabilizing the Korean peninsula, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations has warned, possibly plunging the region into a nuclear war. Pyongyang also vowed to continue its missile tests whenever it suits the country. [...]

The current march to war in Syria is being justified by claiming that Bashar al Assad used chemical weapons on his people. This video demonstrates evidence that Assad did not have chemical weapons because they were all destroyed in 2014. Major Evidence That Assad Did Not Conduct Chemical Attacks Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard Says The U.S. Government Is Directly Funding ISIS And Al Qaed [...]

The Syrian chemical weapons attack last Tuesday blamed on the Assad regime was “100 percent” a “fabrication,” Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad said in an interview Wednesday with AFP. The embattled Syrian president argued he never ordered the attack on the Idlib province which left some 80 dead, and said western-backed forces were benefitting ISIS terrorists in the area. [...]

Russia appears to have drawn a "red line" by suspending the air safety agreement, which Moscow and Washington reached in October 2015 to prevent aerial accidents in Syria's crowded skies, Director on geopolitical studies at the Brussels-based European Institute for International Relations (IERI) Pierre-Emmanuel Thomann told Sputnik. [...]

The Russian military outlined the threats coming from a new missile defense system the United States is building across the world, explaining that Russia has to deliver an adequate response. Military expert Andrey Golovatyuk pointed out that Russia has reasons to be concerned. [...]

German pensioner Reinhard Dowe has been on hunger strike for five weeks. The 70-year old man doesn't want to pay the obligatory tax on television and radio, which, he believes, contradicts the German Constitution. Dowe has not paid the tax on TV and radio broadcasting (GEZ-Gebühr or Rundfunkbeitrag) for 1.5 years. [...]

When the global military empire takes money from programs that poor people depend on and gives it to rich military contractors - it is a theft and looting of the national budget, says Brian Becker, the National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition. [...]