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. [...]

The grandiose construction of the century has been completed; the world’s longest sea bridge connecting Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau will be opened this year. The chief engineer and the inspiration behind the project, 43-year-old Zhang Jinwen told Sputnik about how they started designing the bridge 18 years ago, the difficulties that the engineers had encountered in building one of the world’s [...]

ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Ergodan reaffirmed on Monday Ankara’s determination to purchase Russian S-400 Triumf air defense systems despite the new US sanctions against Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport. [...]

The Russian Foreign Ministry has commented on the mass protests of Palestinians on the Israeli-Gaza border called the Great March of Return that has lead to more than 1,000 being injured. Russia considers that the indiscriminate use of force against the civilian population on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip to be unacceptable and calls upon Palestinians and Israelis to refrain from st [...]

Relatives of the Skripals are worried that Sergei and Yulia are being held in Britain against their will, and the daughter is not allowed to express her real feelings even in a telephone conversation with her cousin. The former intelligence agent’s cousin, 65-year-old Natalia Pestova, who lives in Siberia, has spoken out amid reports that the father and daughter could be granted political asylum [...]

The Turkish government has clashed with the US and other NATO members on a number of occasions in the past few years, raising questions over the country's membership of the military bloc and its future relations with the West. [...]

The White Helmets, which claim to be an impartial NGO, saving civilians in war-torn Syria, have repeatedly been busted using false videos of their daily rescue operations. The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, has published several clips and pictures, showing the alleged aftermath of the chemical attack in the city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta. [...]

US Defense Secretary James Mattis has not ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes against Syria in response to an alleged chemical attack in the militant-held town of Douma. Speaking with reports on Monday, Mattis said he wouldn't "rule out anything right now" after being asked if the US was mulling strikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad. [...]

Two Israeli F-15 fighters targeted Syria’s T-4 airbase in Homs province, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday. The jets fired eight guided missiles, but five of them were shot down before they hit the airfield. In a statement on Monday, the Russian military said: “Two Israeli Air Force F-15 jets fired eight guided missiles at the T-4 airfield.” [...]

Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said the country is considering an option of payments for oil in national currencies, in particular with Turkey and Iran. According to him, both countries are interested but there is also a matter of conversion of currencies and their further use. [...]

It would be illogical for the Syrian government, which previously seems to have acted strategically, to suddenly launch a chemical attack on Douma amid its successful recapturing of territory, experts told RT. [...]

The US was the only country in the world to oppose a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for war crimes, at the 29th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), held from 15 June to 3 July 2015. The US voted against “ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of international law in” the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). [...]

The UK government is busy covering up traces in the case of the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, the Russian Embassy in London said Sunday. On its official Twitter account the embassy commented on a recent report in The Sunday Times that the father and daughter may move to the US under new identities. [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US military policymakers and their political allies continue to block President Donald Trump’s repeatedly expressed desire to withdraw all US troops currently operating in Syria, analysts told Sputnik. Last week, Trump revealed that the United States would soon withdraw from Syria, however, there was no confirmation from the president's administration or the Pentagon. [...]

The US should, but likely won’t, pull out of Syria soon, independent journalist Eva Bartlett told RT’s Lee Camp. She added that you have to be “brain-dead” to believe the myths used by the US to justify the conflict. [...]

Nikki Haley has erupted in another fiery Russophobic rant, warning that Russia will “never be America’s friend.” Moscow can try to behave “like a regular country,” but the US will “slap them when we need to,” Haley said. [...]

An episode of Abby Martin’s Empire Files, featuring journalist Max Blumenthal and spotlighting rising militarism in Israel, has been blocked by YouTube in 28 countries, including Israel and the UK, for violating “local laws.” “Just notified by YouTube that Abby Martin’s interview with Max Blumenthal has been blocked from being viewed in 28 countries (including Israel) to ‘comply with l [...]

Sergei Skripal’s niece has written a letter to Theresa May after the UK abruptly denied her an entry visa to visit relatives, who are recovering from alleged poisoning by a military grade nerve agent, Victoria Skripal told Ruptly. Shocked by the British authorities’ refusal to grant her a visa to visit relatives recovering from the March 4 attack in Salisbury, Viktoria Skripal told RT’s Rupt [...]

With the largest joint U.S.-Israeli air defense exercise ever conducted having recently concluded, which involved over 2,500 American service personnel, and in the midst of heightened Israeli involvement in the Syrian war, we find ourselves asking... Are US troops ready to fight and to die for America’s Israel's defense? [...]

The price of the traditional safe haven gold increased on Monday after Beijing introduced retaliatory measures against American goods coming to China. After falling in the past three trading sessions, the yellow metal surged over $8 per troy ounce to $1,335. [...]

With secrecy surrounding the condition of poisoned double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Russian bloggers noticed that somebody logged in to Yulia Skripal's social media page when she was reportedly in critical condition. [...]