United States

First, a Russian spy ship spotted off the US East Coast. Then Russia being accused of deploying a banned ground-launched ballistic missile.

Now, in the latest escalation in military tensions between the two nations which were supposed to be mending frayed diplomatic relations, Reuters reports that multiple Russian military aircraft came close to U.S. Navy destroyer USS Porter (located in close proximity to Russia in the Black Sea) on Feb. 10, incidents considered "unsafe and unprofessional," a U.S. official said on Tuesday.

With every passing day, it appears that many of the anticipated foreign policy changes under the new administration may end up being nothing but smoke and mirrors. First, it was the middle east, where despite campaign promises of pulling back US troops, Trump is instead considering adding to US deployments to reinforce what he plans to be Syrian "safe zones."

Scientists have discovered a massive pool of molten carbon stretching 1.8million square kilometres under the Western United States. The massive reservoir, 350km beneath the earths surface with a temperatures of more than 1,000C and covering an area almost the size of Mexico, has cast doubts over previous estimates of carbon levels inside the Earth. RT reports: The discovery was made by a team from the University of Royal Holloway London using the world’s largest array of seismic sensors that identified the carbon from vibrations generated in Earth’s upper mantle.

On the same day that it emerged Russia has secretly deployed controversial new cruise missiles and buzzed a US Navy destroyer, a Russian spy ship was reportedly spotted off the East Coast of the United States. On Tuesday morning the Vishnya-class intelligence ship, the SSV-175 Viktor Leonov, was spotted patrolling off the coast of Delaware. It comes at a time when the Trump administration is trying to find a replacement for national security adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned Monday.

First a spy ship off the US East Coast, now a banned missile.

According to the NYT, Russia has (not so) "secretly" deployed a new ground-launched intermediate-range cruise missile in violation of a 1987 treaty with the US which helped end the Cold War, despite complaints from American officials.