The US military’s F-35 Lightning II stealth aircraft have a problem with spare parts, and it’s keeping the planes out of the sky, according to a new report by a government watchdog. "F-35 aircraft were unable to fly nearly 30% of the May-November 2018 time period due to spare parts shortages," according to an April report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). [...]

Almost uniformly, the western think tankers and media types who comment on Russia purport to be strongly concerned with freedom. After all, the central tenet of their anger with the country’s rulers is what they perceive as a lack of democracy. The usual charge goes something like this. Putin is a “dictator” who is suppressing the liberty loving Russian people and crippling their hopes and d [...]

The US government's indictment of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange on 17 additional charges under the Espionage Act has shocked and horrified journalists who are calling it an unprecedented attack on press freedom. [...]

As the U.S. government ratchets up a new Cold War, Poland is taking hostility toward Russia to the next level, inviting in U.S. military bases and arresting an anti-NATO politician on vague “espionage” charges, writes Gilbert Doctorow. Since Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice Party returned to power last fall, the new government has been cracking down on independent media, reshaping the [...]

Iran dismisses Washington's calls to "talk" as a waste of time since Tehran is fighting for true economic autonomy and independence from the Western-led dollar diktat, says Pye Ian, an American economic analyst and private equity executive, explaining why US efforts to confuse and scare the Islamic Republic don't work. [...]

Andreas Maurer, chairman of the Die Linke party branch in the town of Quakenbrück in Lower Saxony, became the first German politician to publicly advocate recognizing Crimea as a part of Russia. Maurer, who recently returned from his trip to the Crimean Peninsula, told Sputnik that because [...]

Italy’s Deputy PM Matteo Salvini has said that an investigation into a “Ukrainian group’s” plot to kill him was what led to a major seizure of weapons, including an air-to-air missile and neo-Nazi memorabilia, by police this week. [...]

The reason the casualty figures from US drone warfare can’t be more precise is that Washington wants to make sure that as little information as possible is made public about drone raids, says Russell Whiting from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The US has admitted that its [...]

The US erodes global security and seeks “absolute superiority,” but Beijing won’t follow the “beaten track” of big powers in seeking hegemony, focusing instead on having a “world-class” army, says a new Chinese military document. [...]

NATO has not flown its white-on-blue flag during the course of its massive Anaconda-2016 war games aimed at demonstrating European solidarity and unity in the face of a purported “Russian threat,” suggesting that there are deep divisions within the alliance over the portrayal of Moscow as an enemy. [...]

If the iconography and tone of Hong Kong protests and the support from US diplomats weren’t enough, Washington’s words of concern sure seem to suggest that the months-long demonstrations amount to a ‘color revolution.’ [...]

Britain will have to pay the European Union a hefty sum if it is to follow through with Brexit, with claims that an estimated €25 billion is owed to the bloc in unpaid bills. An outstanding total of €200 billion (£170 billion, $221 billion) has been shifted around by the EU for years, under what Brussels’ mandarins call the “reste à liquider.” [...]

Russian mobile operator MTS has teamed up with Chinese tech giant Huawei for a 5G pilot scheme in Moscow and Kronshtadt, where for the first time the super-fast network will cover almost the entire city. The agreement between the two parties was signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia in June, when he met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and took part in the St. [...]

Having been engaged in fierce battles against each other for over a year in Afghanistan, Islamic State and Taliban militants have agreed a truce to counter US-backed forces in the region, military officials told American media. Afghan government forces have been using the rivalry between Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and the Taliban to push the latter’s forces back from the territori [...]

With just days left before the elections in Israel, the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a long meeting with President Vladimir Putin at the Russian leader's Sochi residence. The main reasons behind the Israeli’s PM visit this time around are “to minimise the Iranian role in the region, put pressure on Iran to limit its logistic (financial and military) support to Palestinian [...]

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are founding members of ISIS by bankrolling, arming and supporting jihadists in Syria and Libya to both destabilize the Middle East and expand the domestic police state. Clinton even even admitted in 2009 that the U.S. government – staffed with many of her [...]

Russia began trial production of the next-generation mobile air defense system earlier this year, and plans to start mass production of the system in the second half of next year. The operational effectiveness of Russia’s S-500 air and missile defense system “greatly exceeds any active air defense system in the world,” China’s Sina news portal has suggested. [...]

Social media users are in a panic after WikiLeaks said an unknown man had climbed the Ecuadorian embassy in London where Julian Assange has been staying for four years. Users suggested that it was probably an assassination attempt, “ordered by Clinton.” [...]

Maria Butina, a Russian gun activist who spent months in a US jail for failing to properly register as a foreign agent, has landed in Moscow. Her case sparked outcry in Russia and accusations of “prosecutorial overreach.” She has arrived in Sheremetyevo airport after a long flight from Miami, Florida on Saturday. [...]

Far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) presidential candidate Norbert Hofer has called for a ban on naturalization of Turkish residents in Austria until dual citizenship issues are resolved and said that his country could still leave the EU if Turkey joins the bloc. [...]

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded to the outgoing US administration’s efforts to provoke conflict through new sanctions in what some are calling the “most embarrassing” way possible for US President Barack Obama. [...]