US officials have confirmed Swedish media reports of a mid-July incident in which an American spy plane invaded Sweden's airspace as it was evading a Russian fighter jet. The maverick plane was spying on Russia when it was intercepted. The incident, which happened on July 18, went public last Wednesday after a classified document from Sweden’s Defense Ministry was leaked to the press. [...]

The turmoil gripping the Middle East is a direct result of the provision of cash, weapons and surveilla's "helpless detachment" is just for show, the Intercept's Glenn Greenwald writes. In a bold examination, the former Guardian journalist reveals the amazing contrast between what the United States says publicly, and what it does behind the curtain. [...]

Ministers say contracts for military equipment will be individually examined to ensure they are not being used in Gaza offensive. The UK government is reviewing the sale of £8bn in arms and military goods to Israel to see whether each licence is "appropriate" in light of the conflict in Gaza, Downing Street has said. [...]

More than 400 Ukrainian troops have been allowed to cross into Russia after requesting sanctuary. It's the largest, but not the first, case of desertion into Russia by Ukrainian soldiers involved in Kiev's military crackdown in the east of the country. [...]

UN chief Ban Ki-moon tells Israel to 'end this madness' after bombardment kills at least 10 people and injures dozens. A third deadly attack on a United Nations school sheltering people fleeing bombardment in Gaza was strongly condemned by both the UN and the US on Sunday, with UN chief, Ban Ki-moon, calling it a "moral outrage and a criminal act" and pleading for an end to "this madness". [...]

Russian border checkpoint at the Gukovo crossing was shelled from the Ukrainian side twice on Sunday. OSCE observers and journalists were working at the checkpoint when it was attacked. The first shell exploded at Gukovo at around 13:55 Moscow time (0955 GMT), Russian border guard spokesman Vasily Malaev told Itar-Tass news agency. [...]

New information indicates that Israeli intelligence eavesdropped on telephone conversations by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Sources told SPIEGEL the government then used the information obtained from the calls during negotiations in the Mideast conflict. SPIEGEL has learned from reliable sources that Israeli intelligence eavesdropped on US Secretary of State John Kerry during Middle East p [...]

US steps to increase military cooperation with Ukraine, providing its National Guard arms and training amid Kiev's military operation, can be considered complicity in war crimes, Russian MP Irina Yarovaya believes. “In a situation, when the National Guard of Ukraine is leading punitive operations in the Donbass, the US promises to allocate $19 million for training and equipping this military [...]

US officials are making groundless assertions about Moscow’s involvement in the downing of flight MH17, former CIA and US State Department official Larry Johnson told RT. On July 29 Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) issued an open letter to President Obama calling him to immediately release the evidence on the Malaysian airplane downing in eastern Ukraine. [...]

US Senate report may confirm that Diego Garcia was used for extraordinary rendition after 9/11. The government stands accused of seeking to conceal Britain's role in extraordinary rendition, ahead of the release of a declassified intelligence report that exposes the use of torture at US secret prisons around the world. [...]

In the latest step by Washington to increase the pressure on Russia's border with Ukraine, the Obama administration has informed Congress that the US will train and arm the Ukrainian National Guard next year, the Pentagon said. "The Defense Department and State Department have notified Congress of our intent to use $19 million in global security contingency fund authority to train and equip fou [...]

The European Union has "quietly" agreed to lift restrictions supplying Kiev with military technology and equipment which can be used for the "repression" in the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "During a recent meeting of the Council of Europe in Brussels, leaders of EU member states agreed 'on the quiet' to remove restrictions on exports to Kiev of equipment that could be used for i [...]

Israel gets signals from the US that it can do whatever it wants, so Tel-Aviv keeps refurbishing its weapons so that it could kill more Gazans, independent researcher and writer Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich told RT. It seems that we are having incremental ceasefires for an incremental genocide. One has to understand the thinking that is behind all this as much as one does regret a single death; I do [...]

Potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including women and children, have been made homeless in just over three weeks, UNRWA spokesperson Christopher Gunnes told RT. ‘Only political actions and influence can make a difference in Gaza,’ Gunnes said. [...]

President Barack Obama made a rare acknowledgment during a Friday press briefing concerning the United States' past use of enhanced interrogation tactics in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. “In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong. We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks. We did things that were contrary to our val [...]

An old Soviet Tu-143 reconnaissance drone allegedly deployed by the Ukrainian army has crashed near Donetsk, with local militia - obviously not aware of what that monstrosity was - claiming in the video to have downed Kiev's weapon of mass destruction. The YouTube video of the downed drone claims the archaic unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was shot down “at approximatly 13:30 local time near Sh [...]

Moscow has upped the ante in its growing confrontation with Washington after releasing an incendiary statement, accusing the US of spinning and distorting facts to allege that Russia is testing a new cruise missile, banned by a landmark Cold War treaty. “Once again the US is trying (and again rather clumsily) to act as a mentor, for some reason pretending to possesses the truth in the last in [...]

Deadly, nearly untreatable superbugs known as CRE, dubbed "nightmare bacteria," have spread at an alarming rate throughout the southeastern region of the US in recent years, new research indicates. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have found cases of antibiotic-resistant CRE - or carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae - increased by at least a factor of five in community hospitals [...]

Recess begins without lawmakers acting on legislation to fund firefighting efforts in Oregon, Washington and California. President Obama had requested $615 million in emergency funding to help the U.S. Forest Service and Interior Department pay for firefighting efforts, and the Democratic-controlled Senate proposed a $2.7 billion spending bill to deal with both the wildfires and the influx of u [...]

The Senate overwhelmingly approved an emergency measure early Friday that could give $225 million in additional revenue to Israel for the country's Iron Dome missile defense system. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) received unanimous consent from his colleagues Friday morning when he asked them to consider approving the measure, The Hill reported. An attempt one day earlier by the S [...]

The West is tightening the financial screws on Moscow, but German companies are already feeling the kickback of a slowing Russian economy and weakening ruble. Russia is Europe’s third-largest trading partner, so a spluttering Russian economy, exacerbated by the Ukraine crisis, is seriously affecting German companies. In 2013, Germany exported 36 billion euro worth of goods to Russia. [...]

A doctor in Belgium has refused medical help to a 90-year-old Jewish woman with a fractured rib, saying that she needs to be sent to Gaza to "get rid of" the sharp pain she is suffering. “I’m not coming,” the physician said and hung up after receiving the call at 11pm Wednesday. [...]