The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force has begun practicing the deployment of medium-range Dongfeng (DF) missiles capable of reaching strategic US and Japanese bases near China, the latest iteration of Beijing’s war game-preparations for an armed conflict in the South and East China Seas. [...]

Riding on the coattails of far-right victories in the U.S. and U.K., France's Marine Le Pen officially launched her bid for president on Sunday with a speech and manifesto full of populist talking points and anti-immigrant fervor."The impossible has suddenly become possible...Other countries have shown us the way," the head of the Front National (NF) party declared in Lyon, pointing to the surpris [...]

Russia disagrees with a remark recently made by US President Donald Trump’s that branded Iran as “the number one terrorist state,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, citing partnership between Moscow and Tehran. “We do not agree with the definition,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. [...]

The Trump administration condemns Iran as somehow responsible for a Yemeni rebel group’s attack on a Saudi warship, but ignores the Saudi-inflicted bloodbath on the Yemeni people, as Gareth Porter explained to The long-running U.S.-backed Saudi war against a Yemeni rebel group has led to mass hunger and civilian slaughter — suffering comparable to the humanitarian crisis of Aleppo in Syria [...]

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. [...]

The only way for US President Donald Trump to liberate Raqqa, the de facto capital of Daesh (ISIS/ISIL), from terrorists, is to join forces with Russia and Damascus on the ground, Russian military expert Ivan Konovalov told Radio Sputnik. [...]

This week, the situation in southeastern Ukraine took a turn for the worse, with clashes intensifying between Kiev forces and Donetsk People's Republic militia. Concerned by the situation, Opposition Bloc Rada lawmaker Vadim Novinsky reminded President Petro Poroshenko of his 2014 election campaign pledge to end the war in the Donbass. [...]

Speaking to Sputnik, Neve Gordon, visiting Professor of Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees Donald Trump's presidency as carte blanche for Tel Aviv to act in the occupied territories. [...]

Both Beijing and Washington are by no means interested in unleashing an all-out trade war, experts believe. Beijing and Washington are exchanging signals and testing waters before starting a serious dialogue about the future of bilateral relations, Russian expert Nikita Maslennikov told Sputnik. [...]

The US shares responsibility for the ongoing migrant crisis, according to Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern. Speaking on the sidelines of an EU summit in Malta, he stated that American “interventions” are in part to blame for the refugee flows. [...]

The Russian Black Sea Fleet categorically denied claims by Kiev that a Ukrainian military transport plane came under fire from Russian drilling platforms in the Black Sea on Wednesday. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said earlier on Wednesday that a Ukrainian An-26 transport plane came under small arms fire from two Russian drilling platforms while flying near the Odessa gas field in the Bl [...]

The deputy speaker of the Russian State Duma says the US Congress is “transfixed on war and destruction,” after it issued an order to evaluate the ‘survivability’ of Russian and Chinese leaders in the event of a nuclear exchange. [...]

EU citizens are the most taxed in the world, they see inflation eating their savings; they are unhappy, Luc Rivet, Editor in Chief, Le Peuple magazine, told RT. Mischael Modrikamen, Belgian lawyer & ‘People's Party’ leader, also contributed his thoughts. [...]

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister says its troops are slowly advancing on rebel positions. He claims, however, that the steps were provoked by actions from anti-Kiev forces. “As of today, despite everything, meter by meter, step by step, whenever possible our boys have been advancing,” Igor Pavlovsky told the Ukrainian media on Wednesday.   [...]

If President Trump is talking about safe zones in Syria and the surrounding region, does he not know that there are already safe areas and camps run by the UNHCR in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, says foreign affairs commentator, Jonathan Steele. [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin's interference is necessary because "international organizations know what is happening in Mexico, but do nothing," the author of a Spanish-language petition urging Putin to intervene in Mexico's internal affairs to solve the country's corruption problem told Sputnik Mundo. [...]

US mainstream media outlets, pundits and officials have pulled out all the stops in attempting to smear Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who traveled to Syria earlier this month and then had the courage to criticize the US's policy of funding and arming terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda on national television. [...]

Sanctions against Russia have failed to alter the Kremlin’s policies and actually increased popular support for Vladimir Putin. Now, there are growing calls for a change of tack. Like a lake reliant on multiple affluents, the individual headlines eventually morph into a whole. [...]

Thom talks Trump, trade, and trickle-down economics with economist Richard Wolff. Later on in the program, Thom talks with Alex Lawson of Social Security Works and Jessica Jackson Sloan of #cut50 about Trump’s pick of Steve Bannon to serve as chief White House strategist, how Democrats can win over working-class voters, and whether Trump could actually stage a fascist takeover of our democracy. [...]

An online petition to prevent US President Donald Trump making an official state visit to the UK has generated enough signatures to warrant it being considered for debate in parliament. [...]