Israeli F-15 jets practicing for an air show for Israel’s Independence Day on April 19, startled residents who assumed the fighter jet activity above the Israeli capital was related to ongoing tensions with Syria just a week after Israel struck a Syrian airbase. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) made no prior announcement of the F-15 drills, which left residents in Tel Aviv struggling for an expl [...]

Former MP George Galloway has called on the US cabinet to impeach Donald Trump, labeling him a “man child” and questioning the American president’s sanity after he promised to launch “smart” missiles at Syria. Trump took to his Twitter account to warn Russia to “get ready” as missiles “will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’” at its ally, Syria. Trump’s comments come [...]

Nigel Farage has turned his back on US President Donald Trump, as the former UKIP chief cautioned Britain against intervening alongside the US in Syria. In an unprecedented break with the Republican leader, Farage said he would not want the UK to join forces with the US against Syrian President Bashar Assad. [...]

UK Prime Minister Theresa May appears ready to get the UK involved in a possible military strike against Syria without seeking the Parliament’s approval, the BBC reports citing “well-placed sources.” May reportedly sees an “urgent” need for a response, according to government insiders. She also appears to believe a military intervention will prevent further chemical incidents in Syr [...]

Washington's latest round of sanctions targeting Russian business will cost the German economy billions of euros, according to estimates revealed by the Russian-German Foreign Trade Chamber (AHK). “The recent sanctions of the US against Russia may cost the German economy billions of euros in years to come,” the report said. [...]

President Donald Trump warned Russia to “get ready” for missile strikes on Syria, in an off-the-cuff response on Wednesday morning to an alleged chemical weapons attack by Syrian government forces. The US leader tweeted: “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’ You shouldn’t be partners wi [...]

Syrian militants will launch an offensive to capture government-held areas, if the US goes ahead with a strike and weakens the Syrian Army’s positions, a rebel commander has said. In a hardly surprising admission, an oft-cited Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander said the possible strike against Syria mulled by US President Donald Trump would play into the hands of militants seeking to topple Syria [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed hope that “common sense” will eventually prevail in the modern world, which is becoming “more chaotic.” The current international situation is very troubling, he added. “The state of world affairs invokes nothing but concerns, the situation in the world is becoming more chaotic,” Putin said on Wednesday during a ceremony to welcome new a [...]

Earlier in the day, the US President took to Twitter to call for Russia to “get ready” for “nice and new and smart” missiles in Syria as a response to the alleged chemical attack in Douma – the tweet was followed by another one, urging Moscow to stop what he described as an “arms race.” After threatening to attack Syria, POTUS scaled back the rhetoric 40 minutes later with his  [...]

While protesters advocating a pay raise for public sector workers in Germany took to the streets for the second day in a row, the move has severely impacted public transport, hospitals and kindergartens. Public transport in several German cities was brought to a halt due to public sector workers' strikes which have gripped the whole county, TheLocal.de reported. [...]

Attack, offer a way out and then... blame it on the on your opponents! At least that's how it went down for Donald Trump today when he decided to take to Twitter in his attempt to intimidate Moscow - only to face-off with the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Sputnik broke down the fiery exchange as it went down on the web. [...]

So, the world is counting the hours to see whether the US and its allies will launch a military strike on Syria. If this war plan goes ahead, the attack will be furious - and the repercussions grave, as Russia sternly warned this week. Indeed, we are talking about the very real danger that any US-led military action against Syria will rapidly escalate into a region-wide, or even world war. [...]

British Prime Minister Theresa May is reportedly not keen on joining the US in its potential strike against Syria. The PM told Donald Trump she will not act until there's more evidence of Syria's culpability, the Times reports. On Monday, US President Donald Trump said that he was "very strongly, very seriously" considering a military option in Syria, promising to make a "major decision" within up [...]

Two ex-British ambassadors questioned claims that Assad is behind a chemical attack that killed dozens of Syrians. Peter Ford and Craig Murray expressed doubt, urging the UK government not to rush into a war without proof. Former British ambassador to Syria Peter Ford, speaking during a heated interview on BBC Radio Scotland, believes that the reported chemical attack in Douma may not have been co [...]

Responding to a threat from US President Donald Trump, who said Russia should prepare for “nice new and smart missiles” launched by America at Syria, Moscow said if the weapons were smart, they would target terrorists. “Smart missiles should fly towards terrorists, not [Syria’s] lawful government, which has spent several years fighting against international terrorism on its territory,” R [...]

Donald Trump warned Russia to "get ready" after Moscow vowed to shoot any missiles fired at Syria down. "They will be coming, nice and new and smart," Trump tweeted. The tweet appears to be an unofficial announcement of the "major decisions" which Trump said Washington would soon be making regarding the alleged chemical attack in Syria. [...]

The Russian military reserves the right to shoot down missiles and destroy launch sites in the event of US aggression against Syria, Moscow's envoy to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin has warned. Zasypkin stressed that “the Russian forces will confront any US aggression on Syria, by intercepting the missiles and striking their launch pads,” al-Manar TV website reported, citing the envoy. [...]

Minutes before warning that Washington was leading the world towards “sad and serious events” in Syria, Russia’s envoy to the UN exchanged pleasantries and even kisses with US envoy Nikki Haley, a video shows. Before the UN Security Council failed on Tuesday to pass three separate resolutions on an alleged chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta, Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, [...]

After its soldiers conducted a massacre against unarmed protesters in Gaza, Israeli leaders should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court, argues Marjorie Cohn. On March 30, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers shot 773 unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza, killing 17 and wounding 1,400. Twenty remain in critical condition. The protesters were marching to demand the internationally ma [...]

From the Archives:  As President Trump faces opposition from his generals to pull U.S. troops from Syria, here's a look back to a similar fix another new president had gotten himself into, as Ray McGovern reported on March 28, 2009. I was wrong. I had been saying that it would be naïve to take too seriously presidential candidate Barack Obama’s rhetoric regarding the need to escalate the war [...]

From the Archive: As Israeli military has killed dozens of unarmed protesters near the border at which they are fenced into Gaza, Israeli leaders may feel they are once again “mowing the grass” as Elizabeth Murray recalls in this updated piece originally published on November 16, 2012. [...]

The EU won't support the Nord Stream 2 project as it attaches great significance to the gas pipelines going through Ukraine in context of diversification of supply routes, that's the message from the head of the European Energy Commission Dominik Ristori. Sputnik discussed this with Justin Dargin, global energy scholar at the University of Oxford. [...]