"One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived," Niccolo Machiavelli wrote. The famed Renaissance-era philosopher's sage words describe to a tee the allegation that Syrian forces attacked the city of Douma, 10km northeast of Damascus, with nerve gas on April 7, 2018. [...]

Scores of corpses are still being dug up from the ruins of Raqqa, one year after its US-backed liberation from IS, but the West is seemingly in no rush to help the community recover. RT takes a look at the city’s plight. Once a prosperous and vibrant place, Raqqa emerged from the 2017 liberation operation with 90 percent of its buildings blasted into ruin. [...]

US President Donald Trump has demanded that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries do more to stop the surge in global gasoline prices. "The OPEC Monopoly must remember that gas prices are up and they are doing little to help. If anything, they are driving prices higher as the United States defends many of their members for very little $’s. [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Half of Americans believe President Donald Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs threatens the country’s economic prosperity and their own personal finances, a Quinnipiac University poll revealed on Monday. "Trump's trade policies are bad for the US economy, voters say 50 — 39 percent and bad for their personal financial situation, voters say 46 — 35 percent," a press re [...]

Ahead of July’s NATO summit, the US President fueled the buzz about the row within the bloc over agreed-upon military spending targets, as he sent his letters of discontent to several European leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel. In response, Germany’s military chief lectured Trump on what alliance means and played down his rebuke. [...]

US President Donald Trump has issued another warning to the EU, threatening to slap the bloc’s automakers with 20 percent tax levies unless trade barriers placed on American corporations are lifted. The warning comes two days after US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that the White House had not made any decision on whether to extend the tariffs which had recently been introduced on other [...]

It’s parallel universe time when US Pentagon chief James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis complains that America’s “moral authority” is being undermined by others – specifically Russian leader Vladimir Putin. This is the ex-Marine general who gained his ruthless reputation from when illegally occupying US troops razed the Iraqi city of Fallujah in the 2004-2005 using “shake and bake” bombardment [...]

Washington's withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council has been met with international condemnation, with even close NATO allies from Europe describing the decision as regrettable. US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley announced the decision to quit the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday, dismissing the international body as a "protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of pol [...]

China can damage US economy in a full-scale trade war if it is willing to take the pain. The threat of a full-scale trade war between the US and China has dominated the news in recent weeks. The countries have exchanged import tariffs on each other's goods, and are threatening further protective steps. [...]

The White House's tough trade practices and sanctions policies may finally backfire on the US, prompting holders of US debt to dump American Treasuries. The move could have a serious impact on the decades-long leadership of the US dollar. Russia and China are dumping their US Treasury debt holdings amid Washington's sanctions and tariff spree. [...]

Wall Street’s control of Washington and the related imperial agenda of the “Pentagon System” were advanced more effectively by the nation’s first Black president than they could have been by stiff and wealthy white Republicans like John McCain or Mitt Romney. The reigning U.S. system of corporate and imperial “inverted totalitarianism” was given a deadly, fake-democratic re-branding.  [...]

As many as eight civilians were killed in the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakah in an airstrike carried out by the US-led international coalition, local media reported citing a local source. "The 'international coalition’ has committed another massacre, which killed eight members of a family in Dib-Haddadj village on the south-east of the Hasakah province," the source said, as quoted by th [...]

The US government is slated to receive one of two batches of Russian-made rocket engines in the second quarter of 2018, according to a leading Russian rocket designer, at nearly the same point when the newly created US Space Force is being established as a new branch of the US armed forces. [...]

It is an epic paradox that President Donald Trump, like previous US presidents, boasts of America’s military supremacy and its vital role as defender of the nation. The Trump administration in its first year in office boosted the annual military budget to $700 billion, up from an already gargantuan average figure of some $600 billion a year. [...]

Turkey will find alternatives after the US Senate's decision to suspend Ankara's participation in the F-35 fighter jet production program, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said, after the US Senate decided to stop the jet deliveries over Ankara's intention to buy S-400s. [...]

These measures will only affect products that have analogues in Russia, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Maxim Oreshkin said. "Because the US continues to apply protective measures in the form of additional import duties on steel and aluminum and refuses to provide compensation for Russia's losses, Russia is using its WTO rights and introducing balancing measures with re [...]

A serious breakup between the US and Canada is unlikely, Canadian journalist and political consultant John Bosnitch told Sputnik, explaining the Trump-Trudeau row and the US president's fight against left-wing globalist clique ruling in Europe and NATO. [...]

Scores of local and foreign activists have called on Washington to end its “colonial occupation” of Puerto Rico, bashing the US President for his lackluster and “insulting” response to last year’s deadly Maria and Irma hurricanes. [...]

US Senators have voted to block the sale of F-35s to Turkey, slamming their NATO ally for plans to buy Russian S-400 missile batteries. Ankara warned of “an alternative” should the deal be called off. The first of the 100 US-made F-35 fighter jets were to be delivered to Turkey on June 21 but now the whole deal might be off as the US Senators voted to kill the sale. [...]

US President Donald Trump's introduction of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the EU will force them to build new trade ties, professor at Aalto University and CUHK, Carl F. Fey, told RT. “US actions will surely push the EU to strengthen trade relationships with other countries such as China. Russia, being a near neighbor could also benefit,” he told RT, adding � [...]

German carmakers may be pushed out of the United States as President Donald Trump wants to stop them from cruising through New York, according to German magazine Wirtschaftswoche. It cited several unnamed European and US diplomats claiming that Trump told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in April he would stick to his trade policy for long enough until no Mercedes-Benz models were rolling do [...]

The US is force-feeding Europe its liquefied natural gas, which is three times more expensive that buying it from Russia, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said after signing a gas-supply contract with Moscow until 2040. While US politicians are accusing Europe of being dependent on Russian gas, they forget that “American liquefied gas is two or three times more expensive than Russian [...]