RT’s special reports about the humanitarian crisis in the Iraqi city of Mosul has netted the network its sixth International Emmy Awards nomination, earning recognition for a story that went largely ignored in western media. The finalists for the Emmy in the News category, announced on Monday, included RT’s #MosulSOS, a series of reports and a social media campaign aimed at highlighting the pl [...]
The American military has fought in dozens of conflicts, but the US has only declared war five times in its history. A new bipartisan bill in Congress aims to curb this trend by making it illegal for the president to take the country into war without authorization by Congress, as mandated by the US Constitution. [...]
Lockheed Martin’s F-35, the most expensive aircraft in history, "is almost like an invisible fighter," in the words of US President Donald Trump; however, a new report indicates an Israeli version of the warplane showed up on a publicly accessible flight tracker on the web. The jet was detected by flight tracking site Flightradar24.com flying north along the Israeli coast after taking off from [...]
A far-reaching US Defense Department multi-project initiative to “train and equip” personnel around the world for the fight against terrorism (to the tune of billions) has failed to improve the capabilities of local fighters in more than half of its projects, according to a federal watchdog. [...]
Problems have been plaguing the new class of US destroyers, with the first ship in the series also having faced technical issues during early testing. The Zumwalt-class destroyer USS Michael Monsoor has been forced to return to the shipyard after one of its Rolls-Royce MT30 marine gas turbine engines suffered irreparable damage during acceptance trials, Rear Adm. William Galinis said in an [...]
The UK is to offer asylum to members of the White Helmets, a Syria-based volunteer rescue group which operates in areas controlled by jihadists. The move has prompted dire warnings about who exactly Britain might be admitting. [...]
The pullout of the White Helmets from Syria, carried out by Israel on the US' and Canada’s request, reveals “true colors and hypocrisy” of the controversial group, showing who actually controls it, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. The rescue operation, which emerged Sunday, “speaks for itself” and clearly shows who exactly the group serves, the ministry said in a statement on Monday, ca [...]
US NATO ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison has accused Moscow of trying to "flip Turkey" and other US allies and "destabilize" the alliance amid Ankara's plans to purchase the S-400 air defense system. Speaking to Sputnik, Turkish military and political observers said that although the US envoy's logic may be convoluted, it's not entirely incorrect. [...]
The bodies of more than 1,200 civilians, mostly women and children, were discovered in mass graves in Raqqa, Syria. The total number of corpses still rotting there is unknown, as relatives continue searching for their loved ones. The Raqqa Reconstruction Committee has been working for more than six months to deal with and dig up the human cost of the city’s ‘liberation.’ [...]
Until Tuesday, the two officials could have started a war without additional authorization. Israeli members of Parliament have revised earlier legislation that allowed the prime minister and minister of defense to make a decision together to start a war, according to the press service of the Knesset, Israel's parliamentary body. [...]
NATO has nothing to do with European defense, it is just a tool of intimidation and a money-making machine for the US' bloated and corrupt military-industrial complex, geopolitical analyst Jon Hellevig told Sputnik, arguing that the latest summit has not indicated any real rift among NATO members – they just don't want to fork out. [...]
The Western-made weapons surrendered by armed groups in Deraa are “material evidence of gross interference” in Syria, according to Russian Foreign ministry. The Syrian province was under militant control for years. "Enormous number of Western-produced modern weapons and equipment was handed over by reconciled militants to the Syrian army," spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, during her weekly n [...]
Donald Trump’s policy of pressuring European countries on issues like defense spending, Russia cooperation or trade will ultimately end NATO, Willy Wimmer, Germany’s former State Secretary for Defense, told RT. Commenting on the outcome of this week’s NATO summit in Brussels, during which the US president criticized European members of the alliance of spending too little on defense and berat [...]
"One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived," Niccolo Machiavelli wrote. The famed Renaissance-era philosopher's sage words describe to a tee the allegation that Syrian forces attacked the city of Douma, 10km northeast of Damascus, with nerve gas on April 7, 2018. [...]
Toilet seat covers that cost $10,000? Coffee mugs for $1,200 apiece? No wonder NATO countries aren’t too keen to follow US military spending benchmarks. Even the Pentagon is looking for better deals and 3D printing for savings. While President Donald Trump browbeats NATO allies into increasing their military spending, the US Department of Defense is spending untold amounts of taxpayer money on c [...]
Scores of corpses are still being dug up from the ruins of Raqqa, one year after its US-backed liberation from IS, but the West is seemingly in no rush to help the community recover. RT takes a look at the city’s plight. Once a prosperous and vibrant place, Raqqa emerged from the 2017 liberation operation with 90 percent of its buildings blasted into ruin. [...]
The Syrian Army has gotten its hands on another huge cache of weapons and ammunition, including US-made TOW anti-tank missile systems, chemical warfare, minesweeping and communications equipment and even armored vehicles. Some of the supplies appear to be brand new, as if militants did not get the chance to use them against government forces. [...]
Ahead of July’s NATO summit, the US President fueled the buzz about the row within the bloc over agreed-upon military spending targets, as he sent his letters of discontent to several European leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel. In response, Germany’s military chief lectured Trump on what alliance means and played down his rebuke. [...]
As many as eight civilians were killed in the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakah in an airstrike carried out by the US-led international coalition, local media reported citing a local source. "The 'international coalition’ has committed another massacre, which killed eight members of a family in Dib-Haddadj village on the south-east of the Hasakah province," the source said, as quoted by th [...]
It is an epic paradox that President Donald Trump, like previous US presidents, boasts of America’s military supremacy and its vital role as defender of the nation. The Trump administration in its first year in office boosted the annual military budget to $700 billion, up from an already gargantuan average figure of some $600 billion a year. [...]
A Russian military contractor, specializing in electronic warfare, will use information gained from dissecting a US Tomahawk cruise missile, used during an attack on Syria, to boost the capabilities of its own equipment. The missile, delivered to Russia after the tri-party night attack on Syrian government targets by the US, the UK and France in April, is of particular interest to KRET, a leading [...]
Between globalization and nearly 20 years of constant warfare, the industrial part of the US military-industrial complex is not looking so good, putting future wars at risk, according to a new Pentagon report. The Annual Industrial Capabilities report, published by the Pentagon’s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, warns that reliance on foreign-sourced materials combined with [...]