The Syrian Army launched on June 3 a large-scale offensive to liberate the city of Raqqa, the de-facto capital of the Daesh caliphate. Retired Syrian Major General Sabet Muhammad told the Russian newspaper Izvestia that the operation started from the town of Isriya, in Hama province, nearly 140 km to the west from Raqqa. [...]

Although Washington already has its plate full trying to dissuade Turkey from buying S-400 air defenses, it is also “urging” India against buying the Russian missile system just ahead of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit. [...]

On the surface, the battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders looks like a deep rift, one that threatens to splinter the Democratic Party. But viewed in the sweep of history, it is evidence of something far more positive for the party’s base and beyond: not a rift but a shift—the first tremors of a profound ideological realignment from which a transformative new politics could emerge. [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia's Sukhoi Su-57 (also known as the PAK FA and the T-50) fifth-generation jet fighter now has an export permit, and the Russian government is reportedly reviewing documents to officially rename the aircraft from its T-50 internal designation to Su-57, according to a source in the Russian aviation industry. [...]

The legislative assembly of the Italian province of Tuscany has unanimously backed a resolution urging the lifting of the EU’s sanctions against Russia, following in the footsteps of several of the country’s other regions. The vote at Tuscany’s Regional Council, where the majority is held by the ruling Democratic party, took place on Wednesday. [...]

The US military has marketed its new $1.5 trillion fifth-generation fighter's stealth capabilities as one of its main features, along with its advanced avionics and sensor systems. [...]

After releasing nearly 20,000 emails from the US Democratic National Committee, WikiLeaks has dumped audio recordings from the organization. The new release includes 29 voice messages pulled from the emails of high-ranking DNC officials, totaling 14 minutes. What's in the WikiLeaks DNC Recording hey have a history of corruption’: Clinton Cash documentary author Peter Schwei [...]

A recent test of a US missile banned by the INF risks backfiring on global security, Vladimir Putin warned. The Russian president said it shows Washington was not interested in the now scrapped landmark accord for quite some time. [...]

Some anti-war Americans see hope in Donald Trump’s aversion to neocon interventionism but the peace mantras of campaigns often turn into war policies in office, observes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. A common observation about the role of foreign policy in the current presidential race is that Donald Trump’s candidacy is profiting from a lack of appetite among much of the electorate for co [...]

The India-Russia special partnership is strategic. It is growing in new directions, with implications for both China and the United States. The twentieth annual summit between India and Russia on September 4 could have been ignored as a ho-hum affair. [...]

With President Obama’s May 27 visit to Hiroshima, reporters, columnists and editors generally adhered to the official story that “the atomic bomb…ultimately spared more Japanese civilians from a final invasion,” as Kaimay Yuen Terry wrote for the Minneapolis StarTribune, or that, “Without it, more Japanese would have died in a US assault on the islands, as would have tens of thousands of [...]

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Nitze, armed with surface-to-air and Tomahawk cruise missiles, was redeployed off the northeast coast of Saudi Arabia, as part of the US effort to “plug the holes” in its ally’s air defenses. [...]

All of Ukraine's major creditors, from the World Bank to the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development, the European Investment Bank, and Germany's KfW Development Bank, are concerned about Kiev's inability to successfully absorb the funds that have been allocated to the country, a World Bank official working in Ukraine told local media. [...]

An unlikely road meeting of US and Syrian troops was captured in northern Syria as the American vehicles were retreating from the Kurdish-held town of Kobani, while the Syrians rushed to protect it from the Turkish-led offensive. Getting American and Syrian government forces into a single image is quite a difficult task despite the protracted – and illegal – US military presence in the war-tor [...]

Anti-war advocates are launching an 11th-hour bid to stop U.S. Congress from approving a $1.15 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia in its fight against Houthi rebels in Yemen, which was announced earlier this month.Chief among them are the activist group CODEPINK and U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), [...]

Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden – who, back in the good old Obama administration days, lobbied for the arming of ‘moderate’ rebels in Syria – slammed Trump for downgrading the US military to an oilfield occupation force. “Leaving troops behind like [Trump’s] doing now – he says that what he wants to do is we’re going to occupy the oil fields and we’re going to take [...]

The Hungarian billionaire appeared to have a fascination with not just fostering but creating anti-Putin opposition forces inside of Russia in a bid to destabilize the country. The recent DC Leaks document dump of over 2,500 documents from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations illustrates a disturbing trend by the billionaire of using his wealth and influence to sow chaos across the world in a [...]

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara will not abandon the Russian S-400 air defence systems in order to buy American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a statement that Ankara may insist that the US leave Incirlik air base if Washington goes ahead with the sanctions it has threatened in response to Turkey's purchase [...]

German intelligence has accused Russia of systematically undermining relations between Europe and the US, German Spiegel Online magazine wrote, citing a new report prepared jointly by the Federal Intelligence Service and the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. [...]

Chelsea Manning is being subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, constituting torture by the US government over her refusal to testify against whistleblower website WikiLeaks, a top United Nations official has said. UN special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer accused the government of torturing Manning in a November letter, which was just released on Tuesday. In the letter, Melzer [...]

Delanda est Cathargo ("Carthage must be destroyed") are words that come down to us from ancient history. It is said they were spoken by the famed Roman statesman and orator Cato the Elder at the end of his speeches. They remain relevant today in the case of Trump, Russia and a Washington establishment that is intent on destroying both. [...]

Central banks around the world will continue printing money as long as it’s necessary, says legendary investor Jim Rogers, calling it “madness.” He talks to RT’s Boom Bust about the state of the global economy and what could be over the horizon. Never before in world history have interest rates been so low, Rogers says. The US’ central bank, the Fed, increased its balance sheet by over 5 [...]