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Israel's first two F-35s will arrive by the end of 2016, with deliveries scheduled to be completed by 2021, the ministry said. The Pentagon plans to spend nearly $400 billion to develop and build 2,457 of the radar-evading aircraft over the next two decades for the U.S. military and its allies

Below, we demonstrate that the U.S. keeps “losing” war after war. There are 3 potential reasons this might be happening: •Is this chaos an intentional way to implement regime change and grab resources? •Or is this a sign of the decline of the American empire … and we just can’t win a war anymore? •Or do those in charge just not really give a damn about winning … and are they just focusing on one short-term goal after another?

Columnist Pat Buchanan said that while the White House’s summit on violent extremism didn’t do anything “ISIS is not an existential threat to the United States of America” on Friday’s “McLaughlin Group.” “I don’t think the summit did a thing, John. But let me say this, ISIS is not an existential threat to the United States of America. If it’s a threat over there, it’s to the Sunni countries, and they’re going to have to man up and deal with it, and provide the troops without whom there’s going to be no victory” he stated.

A new documentary on Russian President Vladimir Putin from German television claims he received a face-lift, beat up his ex-wife, and drank heavily as a KGB agent in East Germany. Some of the allegations are already quite well known. Ben Judah, who has written extensively about the Russian president for Newsweek, was contacted for the programme. In a Newsweek feature based on a large number of interviews with insiders, Judah explained that Putin likes to rise late and does most of his work in the afternoon, is a fitness fanatic and keeps busy even on the weekend, sometimes has study...

One year ago, Dasha Oratovska and Sasha Zakhovaieva fled from Kyiv's Independence Square as riot police launched an assault on anti-government protesters, firing flares and rubber bullets into the crowd. Sasha lost consciousness and was dragged by a friend to a makeshift hospital in the nearby Trade Unions building. The building soon caught fire, forcing doctors and wounded protesters to evacuate. As the Euromaidan Revolution reached its bloody crescendo, Dasha found Sasha sitting, dazed, on St. Sophia Square, a short distance from Independence Square. Six months later, Dasha left Ukraine, likely permanently. Sasha remains in Kyiv but has begun formulating...

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Saturday that his country is not on the verge of collapse and that Russian-backed separatists continue to attack Ukrainian soldiers despite a recent cease fire agreement. [....] He also repeated his plea for Western allies to supply weapons to the out-gunned Ukrainian forces. “We have to defend ourselves,” Yatsenyuk said. “Russia is constantly supplying tanks, surface-to-air missiles and the rest of the stuff. And again everyone knows this. We still use outdated Soviet-style equipment.”

Anti-Putin activist Alexei Navalny, who is currently under house arrest, has officially informed authorities of his intention to assemble a 100,000-strong, anti-government protest in Moscow on 1st March. A photo of Navalny’s letter, addressed to Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin and requesting permission for the protest, was posted on his blog. The image also revealed that Mikhail Khodorkovsky was one of the letter’s five signatories. Khodorkovsky is a Kremlin dissident who announced last September that he would be prepared to run for president if incumbent Vladimir Putin could not combat corruption and prevent a financial crisis in Russia. The former oligarch...

Ukraine this weekend is marking the anniversary of the culmination of the EuroMaidan Revolution. Thousands gathered on Independence Square on Feb. 20 to remember the Heavenly Hundred, the more than 100 demonstrators killed during three months of protests that forced President Viktor Yanukovych from power. Yanukovych fled the nation in fear on Feb. 21, 2014, leaving behind his billion-dollar estate and documents that incriminate him in massive financial corruption since taking power in 2010. He and his top former aides are being sheltered in Russia by President Vladimir Putin, who refuses to extradite them. Yanukovych faces murder and corruption charges...

Former CIA director says Obama is 'scared' to call ISIS terrorists 'Islamic' after FBI director wasn't invited to extremist summit – but Russia's secret police chief was! Former CIA director James Woolsey said Thursday that President Obama 'looks scared' to called members of Middle Eastern terrorist groups 'Islamic,' just hours after the conclusion of a White House 'Countering VIolent Extremism' summit that studiously avoided pinning terrorism on Islamists. Sitting FBI director James Comey was not invited to the event, but his counterpart from Russia – Aleksandr Bortnikov, the director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) – attended. The FSB...

Whilst threatening Russia with more sanctions, US Secretary of State John Kerry has condemned the country’s behavior toward the Ukraine ceasefire. Separatist rebels, however, have reported a planned prisoner exchange. During his meeting with his British counterpart Philip Hammond in London on Saturday, Kerry said Russia’s conduct was “completely counter to what the international community” worked for in the Ukraine ceasefire. Over a week since the repeatedly violated ceasefire was agreed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, Kerry said the US and its allies were “not going to play this game” with Russia and “be part of this kind of extraordinarily...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday other countries should not have the illusion that they can attain military superiority over Russia, Interfax reported. "No one should have the illusion that they can gain military superiority over Russia, put any kind of pressure on it. We will always have an adequate answer for any such adventures," he was quoted as saying in an address he will present next week on the Defenders' of the Fatherland Day holiday. The report of Putin's comments came the same day British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said that Putin posed a "real and present danger"...

Eduard Hellvig, currently a conservative MEP who has been chosen by President Klaus Iohannis to be the next chief of the Romanian foreign intelligence service, has published an article in which he warns of the “threat for the EU” from the rapprochement of Hungary with Moscow. In an article published in his blog and republished by Hotnews, Hellvig, who is a politician from Romania’s German minority, writes that Romania and the EU face an unprecedented case—“the blatant prejudice against liberal democratic values by the regime of Victor Orbán”, the Hungarian Prime Minister. “Hungary tends to be a threat to European...

Russia agreed to provide military training for three leftist regimes in Latin America and increase military visits and exercises following a visit last week to the region by Moscow’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu, Pentagon officials said. Shoygu met with defense and military leaders in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua and signed several agreements on warship visits and military training during the visit, which ran from Feb. 11 to 14. It is not clear whether any new arms deals were completed during the visit. Defense officials said the Russian leader is seeking bases in the region for strategic bomber flights that Shoygu...

Elon Musk isn’t afraid to shake things up, and he did so again with accusations that US defense contracts awarded to a competitor were the product of corruption. SpaceX, Musk’s orbital transport firm, has been competing for a major contract to put US Air Force satellites in orbit. With a dearth of private investment in space and the end of the US space shuttle program, SpaceX has quickly leapt to the fore of aerospace firms with the help of contracts from NASA to provide re-supply missions to the International Space Station and develop a manned spacecraft to fly astronauts there....

R ussia has dismissed Ukraine's calls for UN-mandated peacekeepers to enforce a shaky cease-fire deal in the country's east. Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich said on February 19 that the truce agreement signed in Minsk last week should remain the basis for the conflict's resolution. He also said Kyiv was responsible for making sure the accords were carried out. Ukraine called for peacekeepers to enforce the cease-fire after government troops withdrew from the strategic town of Debaltseve following intense fighting against Russian-backed separatists. President Petro Poroshenko's request was approved by Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council at an emergency meeting...

While Obama desperately tries to stick to his now crushed "Nobel peace prize winner" image, by not succumbing to an all-out land war in the one nation where his progressive "pacifism" brought him fame (and according to some, the presidency), namely Iraq, the rest of militant, "interventionist" US foreign policy is rapidly starting to resemble that waged by the most brutally rabid, neo-con Republican leader. Case in point an absolute stunner reported minutes ago by the WSJ, according to which the White House has decided to provide pickup trucks equipped with mounted machine guns and radios for calling in U.S....

David Cameron has been warned that Britain cannot afford any more defense cuts in the wake of the growing threat posed by Vladimir Putin—despite claiming the UK military is strong enough to fend off Russian aggression. The Conservative chair of the Defense Select Committee, Rory Stewart, said Mr. Putin was watching to see if Britain was going soft on defense. He said Britain’s military could not stand another round of defense cuts after the election. Mr. Stewart’s stark warning comes after RAF fighters were scrambled to escort two Russian bombers in international airspace off the coast of Cornwall yesterday. A...

RAF fighters were scrambled after two Russian bear bombers were spotted off the coast of Cornwall, the Ministry of Defence has said. The Typhoon jets, from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, escorted the Russian aircraft which were flying in international airspace close to the UK yesterday afternoon, an MoD spokesman said. An MoD spokesman said: `"RAF Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighter aircraft were launched yesterday after Russian aircraft were identified flying close to UK airspace. “The Russian planes were escorted by the RAF until they were out of the UK area of interest. At no time did the Russian military aircraft...

<p>ANKARA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Turkey will go ahead with plans to order a $3.4-billion missile defence system from China, Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz said, despite U.S. and NATO concerns over security and compatibility of weaponry.</p>

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced a new round of sanctions in response to what he calls the "escalated acts of aggression" by Russian-backed fighters in eastern Ukraine. Harper's office issued travel bans Tuesday against 37 Russian and Ukrainian individuals and economic sanctions against 17 Russian and Ukrainian entities.