There is much the ancient world can still teach us, and one of the key lessons today is that mass migration - motivated by war, societal collapse, and poverty - is capable of destroying even the mightiest of empires. At the height of its power, the Roman Empire was so vast and omnipotent that it was run on the basis of the dictum: "Roma locuta est. Causa finita est" (Rome has spoken. The cause [...]

Nearly one in every hundred people on Earth today has been forced to flee their home in search of safety elsewhere. The vast majority are running from entirely man-made disasters that have unfolded under the watch of an increasingly lethargic UN Security Council. According to the UN’s own High Commissioner for Refugees nearly ten million people have been displaced by the conflict in Syria, wh [...]

In the latest atrocity in Yemen, Saudi warplanes bombed a residential area, killing at least 65 people. Most of the victims are reported to be civilians from the Salah district of Taiz, Yemen's third largest city. The apparent war crime committed has tragically become an almost daily occurrence during five months of relentless aerial bombardment of Yemen by a Western-backed coalition of foreign [...]

Parliament should not vote on military action against Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria until the Chilcot Inquiry’s report into the 2003 invasion of Iraq has been published, a senior Tory MP has warned David Cameron. David Davis MP, a vocal opponent of intervention, said the report should be published urgently in light of calls for extending airstrikes from Iraq into Syria. [...]

The US Air Force said its F-22 Raptor stealth fighters will be sent to Europe to show “commitment to the security and stability” of its allies. The Air Force Secretary tied the move to the US’ “approach to Russia,” linking it to the crisis in Ukraine. The deployment, slated to occur “very soon,” was described as part of the “European Reassurance Initiative,” Air Force Secretar [...]

Washington's refusal to declassify documents that could inform the UK probe into the 2003 invasion of Iraq is a major scandal in London. Yet the State Department spokesman says he has never heard of the Chilcot Inquiry. Convened in 2009, the British probe into the Iraq War was named after its chairman, Sir John Chilcot. [...]

Kiev has been deploying anti-personnel mines in Donbass in breach of Ukraine’s own laws as well as international treaties, claims a former high-ranking Ukrainian officer and chief of the engineering service, who refused to obey the “illegal” and “inhumane” order. In February 2014 Vadim Yatsulyak served as chief of the engineering service of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, before bei [...]

Calls are increasing for the prosecution of George W. Bush administration officials tied to the CIA torture program. On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch called on Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor who would investigate the crimes detailed in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the program. On Monday, The New York Times editori [...]

An Israeli ex-IDF soldier fighting alongside rebels in eastern Ukraine has told the Jerusalem Post that she is battling against “pro-Nazi activists” who torture and murder civilians and soldiers alike. Ina Levitan, 37, a Tel Aviv resident who was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, said she has been in the conflict zone near the city of Lugansk since late 2014. [...]

The US didn’t interfere with the rise of anti-government jihadist groups in Syria that finally degenerated into Islamic State, claims the former head of America’s Defense Intelligence Agency, backing a secret 2012 memo predicting their rise. An interview with retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), given to Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan, [...]

The US and Turkey have come to a tentative agreement in Syria, whereby Ankara is opening its territories to American troops in an attempt to defeat terror. Or is it that terror needs military backing to depose Syrian President Bashar Assad? It is difficult to tell these days. America's neocons simply will not tolerate peace to drive the global narrative! [...]

Deputy head of the Federation Council’s committee for foreign affairs has said an international court must look into all US wars, in particular the Vietnam campaign that killed thousands of civilians and caused significant damage to many innocent people. Russian senator urges international tribunal into US-Vietnam war Deputy head of the Federation Council’s committee for foreign affairs ha [...]

We express our deepest condolences to the relatives of all 283 passengers and 15 crewmembers – victims of the dreadful tragedy, the downing of MH17 one year ago. We condemn the destruction of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 by unidentified individuals and confirm our position in favor of the inevitability of punishment for having committed this criminal act once the investigation is complet [...]

The leader of the Ukrainian far-right group Right Sector has called on the National Guard, army and security forces to stop obeying Kiev's orders amid the ongoing standoff between their armed nationalists and police in western Ukraine. “Nobody can take away our right to a last fight,” Yarosh wrote on his Facebook page, calling the Ukrainian government “traitors.” [...]

With debris of Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 still covering the crash site in eastern Ukraine, the investigation of the July 17, 2014 tragedy is surrounded by secrecy. RT talked to international experts and the victims’ families, still waiting for answers. He was a good man, a good brother. He promised to take me one day on board of his plane... He wanted to take me to Europe, but instead I br [...]

The crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 has been used to enforce sanctions against Russia and is fundamental to Washington's efforts to break the Russia-Europe relationship, Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant secretary of the US Treasury, tells RT. It's been a year since the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine, which claimed the lives of all 298 people onboard. [...]

It has been a year since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 tragically crashed in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers on board. Probes into disaster have been sluggish and secretive, fueling speculation concerning who brought down the plane and why. The Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 left Amsterdam at 12:14 local time and was heading to Kuala Lumpur with 283 passengers and 15 crew members on [...]

News Corp Australia has obtained a previously unknown video allegedly taken minutes after Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was downed in Ukraine exactly one year ago. The voices cited by the transcript of the full footage claim a warplane shot down the Boeing. The four-minute clip posted by News Corp Australia is an extract from what is claimed to be a longer 17-minute video, which allegedly depi [...]

Ukraine's civil war has spread to the western side of the tragic country. Not that you'd know it if you rely on the western mainstream media for your news. Experienced ‘Russia watchers’ know that most Russia/Ukraine ‘beat’ hacks are to journalism what Keanu Reeves is to acting. [...]

Collapsing narratives and more worrying signs. Political infighting and violence continue to engulf the Kiev regime. Europe calls on Poroshenko to honor the Minsk agreement, while the Pentagon says it wants to escalate its presence in Ukraine. CrossTalking with Mary Dejevsky, Daniel McAdams and Anthony Salvia. [...]

The US’s leading professional psychologists’ organization helped justify CIA and Pentagon torture programs, a new 542-page report shows. The psychologists involved later profited from torture-related contracts. The report, concluded this month, examined the involvement of the American Psychological Association (APA) in the validation of the so-called program of enhanced interrogation, under [...]

Ukrainian Right Sector militants, blocked in on the outskirts of Mukachevo after deadly clashes with police, are refusing to lay down their arms without their leader's orders. Civilians in the area have been evacuated, as negotiations so far have failed. SWAT police and special units of the National Guard, as well as Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) agents have secured the area and blockaded [...]