A spate of atrocities over the past week suggests that the Erdogan regime in Turkey is desperately trying to goad Washington into a wider Syrian war. Who’s giving the orders here? The evidence points to Washington losing control over its regional underlings. That in turn makes the situation all the more volatile and dangerous. [...]

Former European Union and US Agency for International Development (USAID) advisor Paolo von Schirach said that the agreement between the United States and Russia to effect cessation of hostilities in Syria confirms that Moscow has emerged as the real power there. [...]

Between 3,000 and 5,000 so-called ‘foreign fighters’ – EU citizens trained in Islamic state terror camps - have returned to Europe and pose a “completely new challenge,” according the continent’s top police chief. “Europe is currently facing the highest terror threat in more than in a decade,” Rob Wainwright, Europol’s director, told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung daily, war [...]

Repeat after me: “The Russian military is much weaker than many think, with lots of outdated, dilapidated commie era equipment.” And: “The Russian military is a major threat to us so we need to spend more on our military and renew Trident.” [...]

Perhaps proving Egypt is “ruled by lunatics,” as the child’s defense lawyer put it, a four-year-old boy has been sentenced to life in prison on multiple counts of murder for crimes allegedly committed when he was just two years old.   [...]

While Russia has presented a draft resolution to the United Nations asking all parties to respect Syria’s right to sovereignty, the United States and France have criticized the move as a mere distraction. This is unsurprising given that the US and France are both currently violating Syria’s sovereignty. [...]

The risk that the multi-sided Syrian war could spark World War III continues as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and U.S. neocons seek an invasion that could kill Russian troops — and possibly escalate the Syrian crisis into a nuclear showdown, amazingly to protect Al Qaeda terrorists, reports Robert Parry. When President Barack Obama took questions from reporters on Tuesday, [...]

The European Union cannot handle another year of the refugee crisis, the prime minister of Denmark said on Friday, stressing that the burden cannot be the responsibility of just a few countries. “We need to find solutions that work. [...]

The chief Dutch prosecutor investigating the downing of flight MH17, in Ukraine in July 2014, has reportedly told victims’ families that experts hope to gather evidence on the type of missile and spot it was fired from “by the second half of the year.” [...]

China has signed a contract to buy 24 Sukhoi Su-35 multipurpose fighter jets from Russia, becoming the first foreign buyer of the advanced warplane, according to manufacturer Rostec. The deal, estimated to be worth $2 billion, is a significant boost to Russia’s arms exports. [...]

President Obama has a bee in his bonnet about Putin and he keeps denying the reality, Professor Stephen F. Cohen, who wrote The Nation article ‘The Obama administration recklessly escalates confrontation with Russia’, told RT’s Ed Schultz. [...]

The Western powers don’t care about Syria, they don’t care about Lebanon; those countries are expendable. The goal is to destroy the modernizing countries in the region, political writer Diana Johnstone tells RT. Five years ago a day of rage was proclaimed in Libya with anti-government protesters pouring onto the streets across the country. [...]

A protest by French farmers has taken place in Paris. Large crowds gathered to decry the low prices of agricultural produce. Prices are being driven down by the sanctions exchange with Russia, which has caused domestic produce to flood the French market. [...]

Instead of being happy the Americans seem to be in a sort of melancholy stage. They are upset the Russians and the Syrian government are working together and are able to push back the terrorists, says Brian Becker, of the anti-war ANSWER coalition. Speaking at the US-ASEAN summit in [...]

Talking to journalists gathered at the Pentagon, the US command has blamed “brutal dictatorship” for the human suffering in Syria, claiming that the Russian op has only caused further “tremendous damage” – yet again offering no proof to back the assertions. “Let’s be clear: the human suffering on the ground [in Syria] is the result of the Assad regime’s brutal dictatorship,”  [...]

The host of RT's InTheNow show asked the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman some tough questions during a 26-minute interview. Anissa Naouai wanted to know if Russian media are following a narrative from the Kremlin to counter BBC and CNN [...]

Russo-Syrian military actions on the ground indicate that Syria is not heading toward a "quagmire" or a low-intensity guerrilla war, but rather to a clear military outcome, former British intelligence (MI6) official Alastair Crooke notes. [...]

A Syrian military source said the battle for Aleppo, a major prize in a war which has killed a quarter of a million people, would continue in "all directions." World powers pressed Russia on Wednesday to stop bombing around Aleppo in support of a Syrian government offensive to recapture the city and a Western official said Moscow had presented a proposal envisaging a truce in three weeks' time. [...]

BEIRUT -- Late in the night on Feb. 2, the news hit: "all communication and supply line[s]" between Turkey and Aleppo had been severed, according to a Elijah Magnier, a renowned Arab war correspondent with Alrai Media Group. It seems to be so: the Syrian army and allied militias, backed by Hezbollah and Russian air power, took control of a tendril of territory that cuts off Aleppo-based rebels fro [...]

The dramatic success of the Syrian Army's operation to liberate Aleppo province and to surround the jihadist-held section of the key city of Aleppo has left Washington scrambling to find ways to "delay or derail" the operation "and avoid the impending collapse of US policy in Syria," writes independent US journalist Mike Whitney. [...]

NATO keeps backing Turkey, one of its members, despite its aid to the Islamic State and other jihadists fighting Syria’s secular government — and even though Turkey’s erratic President Erdogan may be leading NATO into a risky showdown with Syria’s Russian allies, writes Jonathan Marshall. [...]

The European Commission says going back to internal border controls on a long-term basis is likely to cost €18 billion. This is just the direct cost and excludes possible secondary effects. “If a process is set in motion putting at risk the depth of economic integration, including the proper functioning of economic and monetary union, the medium-term indirect costs may be dramatically highe [...]