A senior leader from Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, has been reportedly killed alongside two other members of the terrorist group in the province of Aleppo. Sanafi Al-Nasr, who was allegedly killed in an airstrike near the town of Dana, was Al-Qaeda’s senior strategist and an important power broker, the Iranian Fars news agency reports, citing jihadist sources close to the kill [...]

A study, to appear in the Fall 2014 issue of the academic journal Perspectives on Politics, finds that the U.S. is no democracy, but instead an oligarchy, meaning profoundly corrupt, so that the answer to the study’s opening question, "Who governs? Who really rules?" To put it short: The United States is no democracy, but actually an oligarchy. [...]

The United States is in decline. While not all major shocks to the system will be devastating, when the right one comes along, the outcome may be dramatic. Not all explosives are the same. We all know you have to be careful with dynamite. Best to handle it gently and not smoke while you’re around it. [...]

The UN has finally come out with a verdict on meat, with a report indicating that processed meat like sausages and ham can cause cancer, with red meat also under suspicion. The Monday report issued by WHO is set to once again heat up the ongoing debate over the health dangers of a carnivorous diet. [...]

Russia attack ISIS - Russia vs. ISIS - Russian airtrikes in Syria - Iraq war - Kurds - ISIS - Sinjar battle - Kobane battle - Kobani - female soldier - Arin Mirkan - Zozan Cudi - Syria war - Female soldiers IDF - Yezidis - iraq Christians - Peshmerga - Kurdos - IDF - Kurds female fighters - Gaza - YPJ - Kurdish YPG - Ukraine war - James Foley - ISIL - killing ISIS - PKK - IS - Ayn Al-Arab - Jordan [...]

Although the US military “do not seek” a new Cold War, it is determined to oppose the rising global powers – Russia and China – in order to protect the US-dominated “international order,” US Defense Secretary Ash Carter has said. [...]

Young people from across the country to sweep Washington, D.C. with direct action 'to demand justice on race, climate change, and immigration' Buoyed by President Barack Obama's fresh rejection of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, thousands of young people from across the country are preparing to unleash on Monday what they say will be the "largest-ever civil disobedience for racial, climate, [...]

Russian independent pollster, the Levada Center, says the share of Russians who are happy with Vladimir Putin's work as president has reached 89 percent, which is his highest-ever approval rating. The poll was conducted over the period June 19-22, with the Levada Center releasing its results on Wednesday. [...]

If Middle East strongmen Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were still in this world, it would have been a better place, because what came instead is much worse, US presidential candidate Donald Trump said. Asked by CNN's Jake Tapper on his State of the Union show whether the world would have been better off with Hussein and Gaddafi still ruling in Iraq and Syria, Trump said “100 percent.” [...]

Today marks 15 years since Russian President Vladimir Putin's first inauguration. RT looks back at his years as president and all the important benchmarks on the way. After former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin resigned back on December 31, 1999, his Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took over the reins, inheriting a country in a dire economic situation and struggling with lawlessness. [...]

Sending some 50 US advisers to Syria illegally to train the so-called ‘moderate rebels’ looks like a calculated move. If, or when, someone gets hurt, the US will have a pretext for boots on the ground, believes retired US Air Force Lieutenant Col Karen Kwiatkowski. Does this deployment mean Americans will be putting themselves in the direct line of fire in Syria? [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin plays a key role in fighting global terrorism, his Argentinian counterpart Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner told RT, after speaking with the Russian leader on Wednesday. The two presidents held a video conference to mark 130 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, and discussed Russian-Argentinian partnership in a number of fields. [...]

Israel wanted to send commandos to break into the Fordo nuclear facility in Iran and sabotage it from the inside, WSJ reports. The US considered it a suicide mission and refused to sell Israel military hardware that could be used in such a raid. [...]

News headlines this week of epidemic drug abuse and mortality among Americans confirm what many observers have already noted – America is in bad, bad shape. But despite the media coverage, there was little commentary on the backdrop to the malaise. American society is collapsing because of an epic failure in the economy. [...]

Women arming themselves in Austria as migrant rape epidemic hits Europe. Private gun sales are exploding in Austria as women prepare to defend themselves against migrant rapists. “All long guns are currently completely sold out,” a Czech TV station reported. “Those arming themselves are primarily women.” [...]

Brace yourselves. Honoring a perhaps questionable tradition dating to 1898, a marble bust of warmonger, murderer, liar and despised cretin Dick Cheney will be installed in the Capitol's Emancipation Hall (sic). [...]

When Trust In Leadership Is Declining. Pope Francis Address to Joint Meeting of Congress Pope Francis addressed Congress on the third day of his visit to Washington, praising American values but urging changes to better serve the dignity of all. Pope Francis becomes the first pontiff in history to deliver an address to a joint meeting of Congress. In the hour-long speech on Thursday morning [...]

From one fiasco to another: Washington has failed to change the regime in Syria, failed to effectively fight ISIL, and now wants Russia to fail. At the same time, Obama appears to be willing to arm any anti-regime fighter who can carry a gun. What could possibly go wrong with that? CrossTalking with Philippe Assouline, Marcus Papadopoulos, and Roshan Muhammed Salih. [...]

President Barack Obama has vetoed the military funding bill passed by Congress, envisioning almost $1 billion in aid to Syrian rebels and the Ukrainian government. As the primary reason for vetoing the House Resolution 1735, as the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act is known, Obama cited the allocation of $38 billion into a war fund not subject to budget caps, [...]

To be part of the European Union means you have to shed your national identity and be part of everybody. It is no longer acceptable to be yourself. This agenda serves the 1 percent and Washington, Paul Craig Roberts told RT in an interview.   [...]

The leader of the Polish coalition of Euroskeptic and right-wing parties has approved the recent visit to Crimea by French MPs, and said that he and his allies could soon also pay a visit to the Russian republic. Founder of the Coalition for the Renewal of the Republic Janusz Korwin-Mikke told Russian daily Izvestia that when the French MPs visited Crimea they practically recognized the current [...]

As October ended, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest announced that the U.S. would be sending "less than 50" boots-on-the-ground Special Operations forces into northern Syria in an “advise-and-assist” program for Kurdish rebels and their (essentially nonexistent) Arab allies. Only days before, in yet another example of twenty-first-century mission creep, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter h [...]