In a special report, RT America examines the origins, power and expansion of the terrorist group known as the Islamic State (IS, formerly known as ISIS). RT’s Ben Swann delves into the roots of the organization while Ameera David explains how the group amasses the millions of dollars it requires to operate. Finally, Manuel Rapalo explores how the Iraqi army fell apart despite benefiting [...]

A global group of professionals, scientists and environmentalists – the Monsanto Tribunal – are preparing a trial for the GMO seed giant in The Hague. They say the crowdfunded action, determined to charge Monsanto with “ecocide,” is more than a symbolic move. The Monsanto Tribunal’s goal is to research and evaluate all of the allegations made against Monsanto in connection to all the [...]

Days before this talk, journalist Naomi Klein was on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, looking at the catastrophic results of BP's risky pursuit of oil. Our societies have become addicted to extreme risk in finding new energy, new financial instruments and more ... and too often, we're left to clean up a mess afterward. Klein's question: What's the backup plan? In her latest work, Naomi Kle [...]

As the U.S. military continues its war against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL), the Air Force is reportedly dropping so many bombs that it is struggling to find more. "We're in the business of killing terrorists and business is good," Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said in statement quoted by USA Today on Thursday.   [...]

"If we are not able to give hospitals in war zones some calmness and peace, I wonder how we should can continue as a community in the world." From the United States to the United Arab Emirates, every country backing the Saudi Arabia-led military campaign against Yemen "bears responsibility" for Wednesday's bombing of a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in southern Yemen, [...]

Iran has evidence of illegal oil trade between Turkey and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) – and is ready to deliver the information to Ankara and the public, a state official said. Tehran has gathered photos and video footage of oil trucks entering Turkey. “If the government of Turkey is not informed of Daesh [derogatory term for IS] oil trade in the country, we are ready to put the [...]

Vladimir Putin's annual parliamentary address, roughly equivalent to America's ‘State of the Union,’ was heavy on talk of fighting terror. However, his proposals for organic agriculture reform may prove a lasting legacy. How quickly times change. In late September, Recep Tayyip Erdogan ventured to Moscow for the inauguration of the city’s new Grand Mosque. [...]

Switzerland says it will risk the legal collapse of its trade, security and free travel agreements with the EU, if Brussels cannot stop uncontrolled migration into the country. The government is preparing a law that will impose quotas for incomers, starting from 2017. "If there is really no solution, we would be ready for a suspension of a part or all of the bilateral agreements," said Foreign [...]

The Iraqi government has demanded that Ankara withdraw the more than 100 Turkish forces that entered Iraq with tanks and artillery for alleged “training” of troops near Islamic State-occupied Mosul. Baghdad stressed the unsanctioned move was a breach of its sovereignty. The Iraqi foreign ministry said in a statement early on Saturday that the Turkish troops were acting in violation of the c [...]

Iraq has not requested that any country send ground troops into its territory and will regard any such move as a “hostile act,” the country’s prime minister, Haider Al-Abadi, said in view of a US decision to deploy special forces in the country. Iraq “will consider any country sending ground combat forces a hostile act and will deal with it on this basis,” Al-Abadi said in a stateme [...]

Moscow carried out the first successful flight test of its new anti-satellite missile last month, becoming just the second nation to arm its military with space warfare weapons. Russia's direct ascent anti-satellite missile, known as Nudol, was successfully tested on November 18, according to defense officials familiar with reports of the test. [...]

Russian aviation has conducted 431 sorties and hit 1,458 terrorist targets in seven Syrian provinces over the past week, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday. "Over the past week (from November 26 to December 4), Russian aviation has carried out 431 sorties from the Hmeymim airbase and conducted pinpoint strikes on 1,458 terrorist targets in the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia, Hama, Ho [...]

The Syrian army liberated a number of key areas in the coastal northwestern Syrian province of Latakia, with Russia's aerial assistance, military sources told Iranian media on Friday. The Russian Aerospace Forces have been carrying out airstrikes against terrorist targets across eight Syrian provinces, including Latakia, at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad, since September 30. [...]

US President Barack Obama has maintained that the redeployment of 300 military “advisers” into Iraq is not a return to combat operations. But according to Kurdish fighters, US soldiers have been involved in a covert ground war for months. In June, President Obama announced a major shift in strategy. To combat Daesh, also known as ISIL/The Islamic State, the US would redeploy 300 "military a [...]

America’s much-touted fifth generation F-35 fighter jet is so bad it would be a sitting duck even for Russia’s MiG-21, designed back in the 1950s, famed US aerospace engineer Pierre Sprey told Russian media on Friday. “The F-35 is so bad it is absolutely hopeless when pitted against modern aircraft. [...]

The world's first anti-aging drug, Metformin, could be ready as soon as 2016. A recent revolutionary breakthrough in medicine could raise the life expectancy of humans to 120; next year an anti-aging pill will undergo human trials. Late onset Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, both progressive neurodegenerative diseases which affect the elderly — would reportedly become a thing of the past, if scie [...]

A little-known US senator named Barack Obama said in 2002: “I don’t oppose all wars. […] What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. […] A war based not on reason but on passion.” Americans were angry after 9/11 and President George Bush Jr chose to channel their anger not against Saudi Arabia (most of the Al-Qaida terrorists involved came from there), but aga [...]

A new war will not increase the prospects of peace in Syria, nor will the British people be safer from terrorism.' Amid warnings that "new war will not increase the prospects of peace," the UK carried out its first airstrikes in Syria on Thursday, just hours after members of Parliament voted to expand the use of military force in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). [...]

As Vice President, Dick Cheney was a prime architect of the worldwide torture regime implemented by the U.S. government (which extended far beyond waterboarding), as well as the invasion and destruction of Iraq which caused the deaths of at least 500,000 people and more likely over a million. [...]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been shooting from the lip over the past week since the fatal shooting down of a Russian fighter jet. He truculently denied accusations of supporting terrorism, challenging Russia to prove it. Well, holy smoke Batman! Yes, Batman. Not the caped screen hero. [...]

We, the West, overthrew Saddam by violence. We overthrew Gaddafi by violence. We are trying to overthrow Assad by violence. Harsh regimes all — but far less draconian than our Saudi allies, and other tyrannies around the world. What has been the result of these interventions? A hell on earth, one that grows wider and more virulent year after year. [...]

You know the country has really gone to the dogs when Washington’s main allies in its war on Syria are the two biggest terrorist incubators on the planet. I’m talking about Saudi Arabia and Turkey, both of which are run by fanatical Islamic zealots devoted to spreading violent jihad to the four corners of the earth. Not that the US doesn’t have blood on its hands too. It does, but that’s b [...]