Where is the increasingly vituperative spat between Turkey and The Netherlands (and other EU countries) going to lead? Why is this political fall-out between fellow NATO members happening at this precise moment? First, a quick recap of the events.   [...]

The number of civilian casualties from airstrikes by the US-led coalition in the Iraqi city of Mosul exceeds the numbers reported by the media during the operation to retake Aleppo by Syrian and Russian forces, the London-based Airwars monitoring group has said. [...]

In war-torn Syria, 2016 was the worst year on record for the upcoming generation, with at least 652 child deaths, UNICEF said on Sunday. The agency released a report two days prior to the sixth anniversary of a popular uprising in Damascus that escalated into an armed rebellion and resulted in a full-blown civil war, now in its sixth year. [...]

Referring to ongoing peace talks on Syria co-sponsored by Russia, President Vladimir Putin said the negotiations marked the beginning of “rebuilding” this war-torn country, as well as other conflict zones in the Middle East region. Already several rounds of talks have been held in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana between the Syrian government and opponents, under the auspices of Russia an [...]

On Monday, US President Donald Trump gave the CIA the green light to conduct drone strikes against suspected militants, according to the Wall Street Journal. This new authority is a shift from a policy under former President Barack Obama that limited the CIA’s ability to engage in paramilitary activity, and may very well strain relations between the agency and the Pentagon.   [...]

Washington has boosted its military presence in Syria to ostensibly help local forces fight against Daesh, but former US diplomat and Senate adviser James Jatras told Radio Sputnik that the Pentagon's latest deployment could see the United States get bogged down in Syria. "Frankly, I don't like it. I don't think it's a good idea. As much as anybody else I would like to see Daesh and other te [...]

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. [...]

Watching Washington attack one sovereign state after another since the collapse of the Soviet Union prompts the question: Are we Americans behaving out of some inherent aggression, or is this just old-fashioned empire building by a global superpower? [...]

NATO needs to change its mission and the NATO-Russian Council should be revitalized, said former Pentagon official, Michael Maloof. Defense analyst, Ivan Eland, said Russia would like to know it is not facing a hostile alliance right on its borders. [...]

A Gallup poll has revealed that citizens of four NATO nations would sooner count on Russia to defend them rather than the United States, Bloomberg reported on Friday, reflecting the changing perceptions of the US's role in global security. Between October and December 2016, WIN/Gallup International asked around a thousand people in 66 countries who would be their go-to ally if attacked. [...]

Moscow’s envoy to NATO has said the bloc’s recent moves and future plans aimed at boosting its military presence near Russian borders have no justification and have only served to heighten tensions. “In essence, by its preparations along our borders NATO tries to impose on us a confrontational agenda that has nothing to do with real needs in the security sphere,” Aleksandr Grushko said [...]

The Syrian troops in Daesh-besieged Deir ez-Zor have significantly improved their positions thanks to Russian airstrikes, the Russian General Staff said. Russian Aerospace Forces' Tu-22M3 aircraft have carried out 36 sorties, during which they destroyed 34 terrorist facilities near the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, chief of the Russian General Staff Main Operational [...]

Commenting on the recent US media reports that nearly two-thirds of US Navy's strike fighters can't fly due to undergoing maintenance and that there is a lack of funds available to fix them, Russian defense analysts explain what might be behind such reports. [...]

Russian jets have not carried out any airstrikes on the Syrian city of Idlib, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman has said, accusing the Western media of spreading false stories. “The warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces have not conducted a single airstrike against the city of Idlib yesterday, or last week, or even since the beginning of 2017,” the ministry’s spokesman, Major Gener [...]

Nearly two-thirds of the US Navy’s fleet of Super Hornet and F/A-18 jet fighters are not airworthy. The aircraft are grounded awaiting parts or maintenance as part of a lack of funding for repairs that has left over half of the Navy’s aircraft on the ground. Money problems have also led to a growing backlog of aircraft that need repairs, and for three years almost every carrier has taken [...]

US military hardware, including M1A2 Abrams battle tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, have arrived in the northern Estonian town of Tapa as part of continued US efforts to counter the alleged Russian threat.   [...]

Russia’s top federal investigative agency has begun a criminal case into the deaths of civilians in Donetsk that were reportedly the result of shelling by Ukrainian government forces on February 1-3. According to Investigative Committee acting chief spokesman Svetlana Petrenko, a criminal case has been launched into the use of illegal methods of warfare. [...]

President Trump’s chaotic first two weeks have seen senior aides reverse his most promising plans for restoring realism to U.S. foreign policy, especially regarding Russia and the Mideast, reports Daniel Lazare. Well, that didn’t take long, did it? The Trump administration hadn’t even reached its two-week mark when it surrendered a major portion of its independence and fell in behind the [...]

Donald Trump has stated that although the US strongly supports NATO, it wants all members to make their full contributions to the alliance. His comments were made during a speech at the US Central Command in Florida. [...]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that the situation on the contact line in eastern Ukraine is causing concern. The security situation on the line of contact in eastern Ukraine is causing concern and the work on the Ukrainian settlement should continue, including within the 'Normandy Four' format, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday. [...]

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has cut short a working visit to Germany following an unprecedented escalation of the conflict in Donbass where Ukrainian forces have violated the fragile ceasefire almost 2,000 times over the past 24 hours alone. Briefing reporters ahead of her meeting with Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the hard-won truce in eastern Ukraine was no [...]

Yuri Usachov is no stranger to space travel, with four spaceflights, seven spacewalks and 553 days in orbit under his belt. He's also well-versed in person-to-person diplomacy, spending three of his missions interacting with foreign astronauts. Speaking to Radio Baltkom, Usachov revealed how the world's conflicts might be brought to a peaceful end. [...]