WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US government is ending sanctions waivers for Iranian oil importers to provoke a violent insurrection or establish a casus belli for an external invasion, former UK Ambassador Peter Ford told Sputnik. [...]

The arrival of Russian military planes in Venezuela in March 2019 spurred harsh criticism from the US, who has accused Moscow of destabilising the situation in the Latin American state, currently engulfed in a political crisis. Russia, for its part, has recalled that its planes arrived under a bilateral agreement with Caracas. [...]

A young Russian woman visited an ice skating rink wearing nothing but a swimsuit, stunning everyone with this brave and uncommon act, as well as her lean physique. [...]

It took several teams of doctors, three organs, and a 16-hour surgery at a Moscow hospital to give a second chance at life to a nine-year-old boy who suffers from a genetic disease. [...]

This is going to get very ugly. Germany is openly defying US President Trump's demands to spend more on its NATO budget. Already the American ambassador to the country is crying foul, prompting German calls for his expulsion. Of all the countries in the European Union, it is Germany that's been mostly on the receiving end of Trump's wrath since he entered the White House. In two years, the bilater [...]

Israel has the full arsenal needed to take on Hezbollah in Lebanon and eliminate the Iranian threat in Syria, the outgoing IDF Northern Command chief boasted, warning Damascus against using S-300s to protect its sovereignty. [...]

The Israeli elections on 9 April resulted in the victory of Benjamin Netanyahu, who was officially appointed as the country's prime minister on 17 April. Speaking to Sputnik, Israeli publicist Avigdor Eskin shared his opinion on what to expect from the Netanyahu cabinet in the near future. [...]

The research vessel, which belongs to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, is fitted with advanced scanning equipment and is carrying an unmanned submarine capable of operating hundreds of meters below the ocean surface. [...]

Retirees are heading out of state to these spots. It’s the land of enchantment — for retirees. Data released by United Van Lines — which tracked customers’ state-to-state migration patterns in 2018 — found that New Mexico was the No. 1 state where retirees moved. More than four in 10 (43%) moves to New Mexico were related to retirement, the moving company found, and nearly six in 10 p [...]

There are suggestions that the US and China may now sign a trade agreement in May. However, it seems unlikely that this will be the great victory over China that Trump promised, as recent events indicate. [...]

The fact that German investments in Russia hit a ten-year record high in 2018 shows that the pressure Washington has exerted on Europe failed to discourage German businesses from returning to the Russian market, analysts believe. [...]

Vladimir Putin and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un will meet in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East, on April 25. It will be the first meeting of the two heads of state. [...]

Democratic 2020 hopeful Bernie Sanders called the government of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu “racist” during a CNN town hall. Another blue candidate, Beto O’Rourke, used similar wording to blast the Israeli leader. [...]

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will name a settlement in the Golan Heights after Donald Trump, in a show of gratitude for the US president's decision to recognize the region as Israeli territory. [...]

KOMO's Eric Johnson explores the impact the drug and homelessness problem is having on the city and possible solutions in this documentary titled, "Seattle is Dying." "Let me ask you something. What if Seattle is dying and we don't even know it?" Johnson asks in the introduction. "This story is about a wave of seething anger that is now boiling over into outrage. [...]

KRASNODAR, RUSSIA – Volodymyr Zelensky’s victory in Sunday’s Ukrainian Presidential election marks the moment when the Western populist wave comes to the post-Soviet space. [...]

A new education and leisure center is expected to open in Crimea’s largest city, Sevastopol by 2023. It will cover a territory of 18.3 hectares on Cape Crystal between Karantinnaya and Artillery bays. Planning includes an opera and ballet theater, an arts academy, a residential complex for employees, a cinema and concert hall, as well as a park and museum devoted to the defenders of Sevastopo [...]

After three weeks of flashy and outrageous campaigning, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky and incumbent president Petro Poroshenko are facing off in a battle for the country’s top job. [...]

The US-European united transatlantic front on sanctions took a hit this week, with Brussels warning that it would retaliate if Washington moved forward with plans to impose a sanctions regime on foreign investments in Cuba which threatened European companies. [...]

Hundreds of Yemenis have become victims of reckless arms sales by the US and its allies to Saudi Arabia, whose coalition has indiscriminately used Western weapons in its 3-year bombing campaign, Amnesty International has warned. [...]

Beijing has inked cooperation deals on its multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with 17 Arab countries, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the results of a joint Sino-Arab forum. [...]

The statement follows a warning by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem that Damascus hasn't ruled out a military solution to the Golan Heights issue, which came to the fore in late March when US President Trump recognised Israel's sovereignty over the Golan. [...]