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. [...]

Despite two deadly crashes in five months the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing insisted on the airworthiness of the 737 Max. It wasn't until the rest of the world grounded the plane that the US finally conceded. [...]

Commenting on the recent US media reports that nearly two-thirds of US Navy's strike fighters can't fly due to undergoing maintenance and that there is a lack of funds available to fix them, Russian defense analysts explain what might be behind such reports. [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova mocked on Friday US National Security Adviser John Bolton's tweet that threatened those who "destroy democracy" in Venezuela with "consequences", implying it was the United States itself that jeopardized Venezuelan democratic institutions. [...]

NATO needs to change its mission and the NATO-Russian Council should be revitalized, said former Pentagon official, Michael Maloof. Defense analyst, Ivan Eland, said Russia would like to know it is not facing a hostile alliance right on its borders. [...]

Last week, US trade authorities published a preliminary list of EU products which could face additional duties in retaliation to EU subsidies to Airbus. The EU, in turn, stated on Tuesday that it will release on Wednesday a list of products that might face new duties over US state subsidies to aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing. [...]

The number of civilian casualties from airstrikes by the US-led coalition in the Iraqi city of Mosul exceeds the numbers reported by the media during the operation to retake Aleppo by Syrian and Russian forces, the London-based Airwars monitoring group has said. [...]

Despite a defense budget bigger than the next 7 countries combined, the US says Russia is pulling ahead in a new arms race, and the Pentagon has no choice but to rely on its nuclear deterrent. But how sincere are they being? [...]

The Syrian Army says its air defenses have shot down one Israeli warplane and hit a second after four planes breached Syrian airspace and attacked government troops near Palmyra Friday morning. The Israeli military has denied the claims. Syrian military officials and observers told Sputnik that the incident sends an important message to Israel. [...]

The Chinese military is winning the conventional missile arms race, particularly for anti-ship missiles, and US commanders are frantically trying to come up with alternative strategies before US aircraft carriers become obsolete. [...]

A recent deadly airstrike on a boat in the Red Sea carrying Somali refugees was likely a war crime, Human Rights Watch said. The strike off the Yemeni coast is believed to have been carried out by the Saudi-led coalition. [...]

Russia's deputy defense minister has offered new details on the new hyper sonic missile announced by President Putin in a recent speech to lawmakers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_w_0zUs9ac [...]

In democracies, the demos, the people, rule; not social or economic elites. This was the understanding of philosophers in Athens twenty-five centuries ago, and it remained the consensus view well into the modern era. The received wisdom was that, like anarchy, democracy is a theoretical possibility that can be instructive to reflect upon, but not an ideal that anyone of sound mind would actuall [...]

S-400 anti-air missile systems will begin to arrive in Turkey in two months, says the head of Russian state defense corporation Rostec, despite Washington warning Ankara that the deal could threaten their partnership. [...]

Theresa May would fire Britain’s nuclear weapons as a ‘first strike’ if necessary, the Defence Secretary has said. Michael Fallon said the Prime Minister was prepared to launch Trident in “the most extreme circumstances”, even if Britain itself was not under nuclear attack. The statement came as the Conservatives continued to exploit Labour divisions on the retention of the Trident deter [...]

Iran is right. The way to save the international nuclear accord on Iran is for all parties to honor it and to implement normal trading relations. That would also permit de-escalation of dangerous war tensions in the Gulf. [...]

RT wishes to make a formal complaint in relation to the Reuters article headlined “U.S. increasingly convinced that Russia hacked French election: sources.” Despite the severity of the accusations levied against RT in the report, via statements made by anonymous and thus unaccountable “U.S. officials,” namely, that RT has spread “fake news” in its coverage of the French election, Re [...]

Malaysia can’t accept the conclusions of the Dutch-led probe into the downing of flight MH17, as the probe didn’t seem interested in establishing the truth about the tragedy, the country’s prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has said. [...]

A tectonic geopolitical shift happened in Astana, Kazakhstan, only a few days ago, and yet barely a ripple registered in Atlanticist circles. At the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), founded in 2001, both India and Pakistan were admitted as full members, alongside Russia, China and four Central Asian “stans” (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan). [...]

Almost three-quarters of a century ago on August 9, 1945, the United States dropped a 22-kiloton plutonium bomb called the “Fat Man” on Nagasaki. The total destruction of that city, and the instant incineration of 40,000 mostly civilian people, occurred just three days after the destruction of Hiroshima by a 15-kiloton uranium bomb, which instantly killed 70,000. This criminal one-two punch by [...]

The Republican healthcare proposal amounts to a tax cut for the rich, and the US economy would benefit far more from establishing single-payer healthcare, according to Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in America. The 86-year-old Nebraskan is the chief executive of investing house Berkshire Hathaway and has a net worth of $75.6 billion, according to Forbes. He is the world’s second-riche [...]

Lebanon has accused Israel of being behind a drone strike on the office of Hezbollah near Beirut on 25 August, followed by another on Palestinian militant positions in eastern Lebanon. [...]