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. [...]

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. [...]

American “mainstream” journalists who want to keep their paychecks flowing and their status afloat know they must report current events in a way that respects the taboo status of the nation’s underlying inequality and oppression structures and its savage and relentless imperial criminality. Those topics are understood as off limits, as beyond the narrow parameters of acceptable and polite di [...]

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 [...]

President Trump’s calls for reorienting American foreign policy look to be disintegrating in his first two weeks in office as he embraces the neoconservative hostilities toward Iran and Russia, as Andrew The Trump Administration’s goal of de-escalating tensions with Russia is meeting stiff resistance in Eastern Europe where many reject the notion that a diplomatic solution can be reached ov [...]

President Trump is getting a crash course on the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers as federal courts knock down his temporary immigration ban aimed at seven mostly Muslim countries, reports Marjorie Cohn. On Jan. 27, President Trump made good on his campaign promise to institute a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. Trump’s executive order (“EO”) is titled “Protecting the Nation F [...]

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. [...]

US President Donald Trump received the lowest approval rating — and highest disapproval rating — for a new president in recent history, according to a survey released Friday. The poll, from CNN, showed that a 53% majority said they disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job two weeks into office [...]

The major takeaway from the US Presidential election, and from the events which have shaped the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s Presidency - both his actions and the reactions of his opponents - is that America is tired. It is not difficult to see why since the US has for decades been behaving in a way that was guaranteed eventually to exhaust it. [...]

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 Department of Homeland Security has said it will stop flagging travelers from the countries under the Trump administration’s travel ban, following a federal judge’s ruling to suspend the executive order. A spokesperson for Homeland Security said in a statement on Saturday that the decision was made in order to comply with a Friday ruling by a federal judge, adding that the department wi [...]

A new variety news show hosted by Jesse Ventura captures “the feeling of freedom” in confronting government and corporate power run amok. The former Minnesota governor, pro wrestler and New York Times bestselling author invites you to “come along for the ride.” “What you will hear from me is opinions, not agendas,” says Ventura. “I look forward to holding our government accountabl [...]

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. [...]