It is official. The deep state has admitted that Trump is now under their control and it is now business as usual — just like it was under Bush and Obama — and just like it would’ve been under Hillary.

For those who don’t remember, with the help of mainstream media—from The New York Times to Fox News—after 9/11, Americans were duped into accepting endless war by George W. Bush thanks to a constant bombardment of lies sold to the masses under the guise of “protecting freedom.” All one needs to do to realize no freedoms were protected by these wars, in which thousands of Americans died and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were slaughtered, is look around today.

The 100,000-ton US Navy supercarrier ‘Ronald Reagan’ has conducted drills with Japanese warships south of the Korean Peninsula, Japan's military said. Pyongyang, meanwhile, has threatened a further “hydrogen bomb test” over the Pacific.
The Japan Maritime Self Defense Force said in a statement on Friday that the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier ‘Ronald Reagan,’ based in the Japanese town of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, and its escort ships have been holding drills with Japanese Navy vessels in waters south and west of Japan's main islands since September 11. The strike group is also set to stage a separate drill with the South Korean Navy in October, the Defense Ministry added.

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US President Donald Trump addresses the 72nd Annual UN General Assembly in New York on September 19, 2017 © Timothy A. Clary / AFPTrump: US may have no choice but to ‘totally destroy’ North Korea

After a week of heavy cross-border shelling between Indian and Pakistani forces, the directors general of military operations (DGMOs) of both armies held a crucial meeting on Friday.

That meeting unfortunately made no headway, as both sides accused each other of violating the ceasefire. Pakistan alleged that shelling by Indian troops resulted in the death of six Pakistani civilians and injured 30. The Indian side vehemently denied having deliberately fired at civilians.

"DGMO-level talks on behest of Pak DGMO was held on September 22. During the talks the Pak DGMO raised the issue of targeting of Pakistani civilians opposite the Jammu sector," the Indian Army said in a statement on Friday.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivered another snub to the Trump administration on Friday when he said that Iran would continue its missile program in defiance of US sanctions, and to underscore the determination, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard unveiled its newest long-range ballistic missile during a military parade in Tehran.

The new missile that was introduced at the parade is capable of reaching much of the Middle East, including Israel, with a range of 1,200 miles. It's also capable of carrying several warheads. The parade in Tehran commemorated the 1980s Iraq-Iran war. Though Iran has long boasted of having missiles in the same range in its arsenal, it was the first time that the new Khoramshahr missile was displayed in public, the AP reported adding that in February, Iran test-fired the same medium-range type of missile, prompting Trump to say that the United States is "putting Iran on notice."

In a considerably more aggressive, and less diplomatic, 'story' in China's government mouthpiece Xinhua, writers warn:

"It is not hard to tell that the situation has become a vicious circle where more missile tests trigger more sanctions, while more sanctions trigger more tests..." urging the double-freeze solution once again, saying that "the parties concerned need to respect each other's security concerns."

However, following last night's less than veiled threat from North Korea that the next escalation will be to test a hydrogen-bomb over the Pacific:

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho suggested leader Kim Jong Un was considering testing “an unprecedented scale hydrogen bomb” over the Pacific in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat at the United Nations to “totally destroy” the country.

When it comes to 9/11, there are two groups of people: those who don’t know exactly what happened, and those who orchestrated it.

Nearly everyone on earth belongs in the former category, but a lot of folks like to pretend they have a rock solid understanding of the events which transpired on that fateful day in 2001. Scoffing mainstream adherents like to pretend they’re confident that the official narrative is accurate, but they aren’t. A lot of hardcore conspiracy analysts like to pretend they know the real story, but they don’t.

There’s simply not enough publicly available information for anyone to be certain exactly how things went down that day; all we can know for sure is that (A) the official story is riddled with plot holes, and (B) the American power establishment has an extensive and well-documented history of using false flags and propaganda to manipulate the public into supporting evil acts of military interventionism.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hinted at using a kinetic weapon on Tuesday while discussing tensions with North Korea when he made a Freudian slip.

Mattis was asked whether there was “any military option the US can take with North Korea that would not put Seoul at grave risk,” Mattis responded, “Yes, there are, but I will not go into details.”

Later during the press conference, another reporter questioned Mattis and caught him off-guard:

“Just to clarify, you said that there were possible military options that would not create a grave risk to Seoul,” a reporter asked. “Are we talking kinetic options as well?”

“Yes, I don’t want to go into that,” Mattis responded.

Previously, Mattis stated that a war with North Korea would “involve the massive shelling of an ally’s capital, (South Korea) which is one of the most densely packed cities on earth.”

Double Standards? All eyes on North Korea

Amply documented, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey are in possession of nuclear weapons which are deployed under national command against Russia, Iran and the Middle East.

Following the failed July 2016 military coup in Turkey, the media reported on Turkey’s nuclear weapons stored and deployed at the Incirlik airbase.

The F-35 Joint Program Office has skimped out on spending a few million dollars to conduct more thorough testing of the fifth-generation plane’s potentially lethally flawed ejection seat despite its generous $400 billion budget.

Given how much flight time the US military plans to use the F-35 for, 22 pilots are projected to suffer injuries or be killed over the lifetime of the plane’s use because of insufficient testing, according to the report first obtained by CQ Roll Call.

The internal report created by the Technical Airworthiness Authority said the failure to implement extra safety tests is bound to prove “catastrophic,” the Stripes report states. “No less than $1 million” and 9 to 12 months of testing could lower the risk of pilot injury or death from 22 to zero, TAA said in its report dated May 1.

The Syrian Army liberating the Deir ez-Zor region from terrorists is facing strong resistance and massive fire from areas where armed opposition groups and US forces are stationed, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The Syrian Army continues to liberate the Euphrates valley to the east of Deir ez-Zor with the help of the Russian Air Force, the statement from the ministry says, adding that the government forces have already retaken more than 60 square kilometers on the left bank of the Euphrates from Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL).

The Syrian Army, however, faces resistance not only from jihadists, but also apparently from US-backed armed opposition groups, according to the statement

Once again, the annual United Nations General Assembly is taking place in New York City with U.S. President Donald Trump set to take center stage as he is expected to focus on the North Korean Crisis and the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

As the Western media’s attention has been focused on the North Korea crisis (which is also another very serious matter), another development has been taking place in Tel Aviv, as calls for action by Israeli officials against Iran’s Nuclear Program although it’s not a new development (it’s been going on for many years). Channel 2 on Israeli TV reported that Mossad chief Yossi Cohen is calling on the Israeli government to take action against the Iranian government. The Times of Israel reported that

“Channel 2 on Sunday paraphrased Cohen as asserting that “Today’s Iran is the North Korea of yesterday, and so we need to act now so that we don’t wake up to [an Iranian] bomb.”

Israel and the U.S. inaugurated the first American military base on Israeli soil on Monday, which will serve dozens of soldiers operating a missile defense system.

The move comes at a time of growing Israeli concerns about archenemy Iran's development of long-range missiles. Together with the U.S., Israel has developed a multilayered system of defenses against everything from long-range guided missile attacks from Iran to crude rockets fired from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

The base's opening is largely symbolic and isn't expected to bring operational changes. But the Israeli military says that along with other measures, it sends a message of readiness to Israel's enemies.

"It's a message that says Israel is better prepared. It's a message that says Israel is improving the response to threats," said Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovich, the commander of Israel's aerial defense.

Ukraine’s and the United States’ refusal to work on the text of Russia’s draft resolution on deploying a UN contingent in Donbass to ensure security of the OSCE mission reveals their real plans to realize a kind of the Croatian scenario, Denis Pushilin, the chief negotiator for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic at the pace talks in Minsk, said on Monday.

"Ukraine’s and the United States’ refusal to work on the text of the Russia-initiated draft resolution on a UN mission in Donbass reveals the real motives of the Western partners. Such actions openly show what [Ukrainian President] Pyotr Poroshenko and his American friends really want," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying.

The Senate is expected to pass by a wide margin a $700-billion defense bill today. When it comes to extravagant military spending, Congress is relentlessly bipartisan, and all bickering stops, as long as the bacon gets spread to every district and state.

“The 1,215-page measure defies a number of White House objections, but Trump hasn’t threatened to veto the measure,” the Washington Post mused. “The bill helps him honor a pledge to boost military spending by tens of billions of dollars.”

So who gets this money?

It’s going to get spread around, but defense contractors are going to get a chunk of it, and they’ve been on cloud 9 all year. Their shares – fired up by plenty of saber-rattling – have mostly soared from all-time high to all-time high.

These are some of the biggest defense contractors and their shares year-to-date as of this morning:

Rockwell Collins (COL), to be acquired by United Technologies: $130.90, up 40.6% YTD

While President Trump fell just short of "fire and fury," his first address to The United Nations was very clear in its perspective on North Korea (Iran and Syria).

Both Haley and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared on the Sunday talk shows to stress – using language that’s ringing increasingly hollow - that the administration wouldn’t hesitate to authorize a military response to the North should diplomacy fail.

And to demonstrate that, four US F-35 stealth fighters and two B-1B bombers conducted another round of "mock bombing exercises" over the Korean peninsula on Monday, according to Reuters. The US aircraft, which were joined by four South Korea F-15K fighter jets, returned to their bases in Japan and Guam after the exercise, but the latest demonstration of western capabilities likely assures that Kim Jong Un, who views such exercises in the same way the international community views his missile launches, will seek to retaliate with his own show of force.

In the ongoing game of escalating verbal ping-pong, North Korea responded on Monday to the latest condemnation by the UN Security Council which responded to Pyongyang Friday missile launch with a harsly worded verbal rebuke, and warned that the more sanctions pursued by the US and its allies, "will only increase our pace towards the ultimate completion of the state nuclear force,” KCNA reported, citing ministry of foreign affairs.

The latest sanctions represent “the most vicious, unethical and inhumane act of hostility to physically exterminate the people of the DPRK, let alone its system and government,” a foreign ministry spokesman said, as cited by Reuters.

The North Korean statement also said that “it is a foolish dream to hope that the sanctions could work with the DPRK while the sanctions have failed to stop it from becoming a full-fledged nuclear weapons state and making rapid progress in the building of an economic power for more than half a century.”

Bangladesh has accused Myanmar of repeatedly violating its air space and warned that any more “provocative acts” could have “unwarranted consequences”, raising the risk of a deterioration in relations already strained by the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Nearly 400,000 Rohingya Muslims from western Myanmar have crossed into Bangladesh since Aug. 25, fleeing a Myanmar government offensive against insurgents that the United Nations has branded a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Bangladesh said Myanmar drones and helicopters had violated its air space three times - on Sept. 10, 12 and 14 - and it had called in a top Myanmar embassy official in Dhaka to complain.

“Bangladesh expressed deep concern at the repetition of such acts of provocation and demanded that Myanmar takes immediate measures to ensure that such violation of sovereignty does not occur again,” the ministry said in statement late on Friday.

“These provocative acts may lead to unwarranted consequences.”

A Soviet officer who prevented a nuclear crisis between the US and the USSR and possible World War III in the 1980s has quietly passed away. He was 77. In 2010 RT spoke to Stanislav Petrov, who never considered himself a hero. We look at the life of the man who saved the world.
A decision that Soviet lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov once took went down in history as one that stopped the Cold War from turning into nuclear Armageddon, largely thanks to Karl Schumacher, a political activist from Germany who helped the news of his heroism first reach a western audience nearly two decades ago.

A majority of Americans support military action against North Korea if economic and diplomatic efforts fail, according to a Gallup poll released on Friday, amid rising tension over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program and recent missile launches.

This formula begins with sanctions under Chapter VII of the UN Charter: approximately eleven sanctions have been inflicted upon North Korea, and four presidential statements. The sanctions are, in themselves aggressive action, intended to weaken and demoralize the intended nation-targeted victim, and ultimately destroy the will, the spirit and unity of the nation. The now twelve sanctions on the DPRK are reminiscent of the words Richard Nixon used for the CIA engineered destruction of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile:

“Make the economy scream!!”

Earlier this year Rodman’s agent said that his client helped convince North Korea to release American college student Otto Warmbier before his death. Now, nearly everyone else involved with Warmbier’s release has denied that Rodman had much to do with it, but the mere fact that he was in position to take credit is proof enough that he has become the unlikely face of US-North Korean relations. As North Korea expert Ken Gause said to Time that “he’s not the best ambassador we could have but it’s who we have.”

In just about any other situation, Gause would be correct in describing Rodman as an utterly inappropriate ambassador – as the man himself admits “[Kim and I] ride horses, we hang out, we go skiing, we hardly ever talk politics and that’s the good thing.” Rodman also fundamentally lacks the tact and restraint required in most diplomatic situations, and has a tendency to make events all about himself.

Gold spiked and USDJPY tumbled as headlines from Japan's Nikkei newspaper confirmed US military officials' observations last night that North Korea is said to show signs of missile launch preparation.

According to the Nikkei, citing an unidentified Japanese government official, the missile is being prepared for launch has engine for liquid fuel, suggesting missile is an ICBM. It adds that the missile is said to be fueled already, ready for launch. As Japan's Asahi further notes, the North Korean missile prep may be for a Hwason 14 ICBM and adds that missile prep is said to have started on Wednesday.

The immediate reaction was a risk-off spike in the Yen and dollar.

Ideally, sanctions should be abolished, prohibited for any reasons.

They’re counterproductive, achieving pain and suffering alone for ordinary people in targeted countries, nothing else.

As long as they’re permitted, legally by Security Council members alone, illegal unilaterally, sanction America for its high crimes of war and against humanity, not North Korea, threatening no other countries - even though a US veto would block adoption.

A symbolic 14 - 1 statement would send a powerful message, especially if enough world community nations no longer are willing to put up with endless US wars on humanity.

The leadership of any country threatened by Washington would be foolhardy not to seek powerful weapons and munitions for self-defense.

Abandonment of powerful weapons programs by Iraq and Libya led to their rape and destruction by US-led aggression - a lesson well understood in Pyongyang.

he defeat of Islamic State in Syria is reliant on a questionable supply-line, funnelling unprecedented quantities of weapons and ammunition from Eastern Europe to some 30,000 anti-ISIS rebel fighters.

Armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades fresh from state-owned production lines and stockpiles of the Balkans, Central Europe and increasingly the former Soviet Union, these US-backed troops are spearheading the battle to reclaim Raqqa, the capital of the so-called caliphate, and liberate other areas of Syria held by ISIS.

But the flow of weapons to these Pentagon-backed militia depends on misleading official paperwork, an investigation by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, OCCRP, has uncovered.

The operation has been criticised by arms transfer experts and even worried officials in Berlin, who have seen large quantities of weapons passing through US military bases in Germany on the way to Syria.

Less than a day after US officials observed North Korea moving mobile missile launchers and engaging in preparations for what appears to be another missile test, a North Korean state committee has stepped up its belligerent rhetoric, threatening to use nuclear weapons to “sink” Japan and reduce the US to “ashes and darkness” after the UN Security Council passed new sanctions against the isolated country earlier this week, Reuters reported. The North also accused the US of “cooking up” the latest restrictive measures against it and demanded that the US be beaten “to death as a stick is fit for a rabid dog.

The latest round in their campaign was U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s disingenuous and falsehood-filled speech at the American Enterprise Institute last week. The speech is useful in one sense: it provides a handy summary of just about every creative and mendacious argument that die-hard opponents of the JCPOA have been cooking up since the agreement was signed. Unfortunately, it is neither an accurate guide to the agreement, to its current status, nor more importantly, to U.S. interests.

Among other things, Haley claimed — falsely — that the deal “gave Iran what it wanted up-front, in exchange for temporary promises to deliver what we want.” The truth is about 180 degrees from this claim: Iran gave up enriched uranium, destroyed 13,000 centrifuges, dismantled the Arak reactor, let the U.N. install monitoring devices, implemented the NPT Additional Protocol, and a host of other measures — all before the United States or anyone else began lifting sanctions.

On the 16th anniversary of 9/11, a prescient Hunter S. Thompson column from the day after the attacks was shared on social media. Thompson wrote at ESPN on Sept. 12, 2001:

The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now — with somebody — and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.

Thompson couldn’t have been more right. More than a decade and a half since the attacks, the United States has led regime change in Iraq and Libya and is still bogged down in the longest war in American history in Afghanistan. During that time, Al-Qaeda has been diminished but remains. A group even more extreme that al-Qaeda, the Islamic State (also sometimes known as ISIS), has risen in the power vacuums created by U.S. interventions.

ISTANBUL — In the clearest sign of his pivot toward Russia and away from NATO and the West, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Tuesday that Turkey had signed a deal to purchase a Russian surface-to-air missile system.

The deal cements a recent rapprochement with Russia, despite differences over the war in Syria, and comes as Turkey’s ties with the United States and European Union have become strained.

It is certain to stir unease in Washington and Brussels, where officials are trying to keep Turkey — a longtime NATO member, and an increasingly unlikely candidate for European Union membership — from entering Russia’s sphere of influence.

The U.S. Senate will hold a vote on an amendment to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) tomorrow. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) presented an amendment seeking to sunset the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMF). This will be the first time the Senate has held a vote regarding the AUMF since 2002.

The amendment would not only repeal the 2001 AUMF, but would also repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. The 2001 AUMF was passed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, while the 2002 AUMF was passed in order to authorize the Iraq War.

The amendment would also require Congress to hold a vote to approve any future authorization of military force. According to Sen. Paul, most senators do not want to take any responsibility for America’s ongoing wars, and would rather refuse to vote on authorizing any future wars.

If passed, it would be six months before the amendment would go into effect.

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is responsible for verification of the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran. This means they offer monthly assessments, all of which have affirmed Iran is in total compliance with its requirements under the deal.

Monthly reminders of that fact are increasingly seen as insufficient, however, with the US government publicly attacking the pact and making wild accusations of unspecific Iranian violations. Now, IAEA officials feel obliged to publicly defend the concept of a deal, the nature of this specific deal, and Iran’s compliance all at once.

IAEA chief Amano Yukiya today defended the deal’s verification program as the “most robust” ever, noting that the IAEA has dramatically increased its number of inspections in Iran since the deal was signed, calling the pact a “clear and significant gain.”

Wissam Nassar, a Gaza-born photojournalist who has worked in the coastal enclave for the past eight years, has seen it all. He lives a life surrounded by war and reconstruction but finds the most authentic images he makes as a photographer in the subtler moments of reprieve.

“My family and I are refugees,” Nassar tells TIME, as he recalls growing up in Gaza as one of eight children from what he calls a very “working class family.” Nassar was first inspired to begin documenting Gaza’s most turbulent times while in college. He began his professional career covering the past three Israeli-Hamas wars in 2008, 2012 and 2014.

The US State Department has approved $3.8 billion in weapons sales to the tiny island nation of Bahrain. The Pentagon confirmed the approval and the State Department has notified Congress, who held up a similar sale last year over Bahrain’s many, many human rights problems.

The $3.8 billion sale is almost entirely going to Lockheed Martin, who will be providing 19 F-16V fighter jets, along with substantial upgrades to the nation’s existing fleet of F-16s. Raytheon will be selling 221 anti-tank missiles to go with it.

Sales to Bahrain were supposed to be suspended, as Sen. Bob Corker (R – TN) had threatened to hold them all up until they resolved tensions with Qatar. In the end, however, Congress is said to have signed off through normal channels.

The USS Wasp is sailing from its homeport in Virginia to Sasebo, Japan, to join the US Navy’s 7th Fleet and bring Washington’s most advanced fighter jets to North Korea’s backyard.

The Wasp, an Amphibious Assault Ship and lead ship of her class, doesn’t have quite as much surface area for jets to take off and land as the larger Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, but the ship will still bring a new squadron of carrier-compatible F-35B aircraft to the 7th Fleet’s area of operations.

The F-35 B jets have the AV-8 B Harrier’s capability of taking off vertically, as a helicopter does, while also being able to operate in the air like fighter jets.

Placing the Amphibious Assault Ship in proximity to the Korean Peninsula “ensured that our most technologically-advanced air warfare platforms are forward deployed,” USS Wasp Cmdr. Andrew Smith said in an August 30 release.

The unanswered question of the past several weeks is “What would China do to prevent a US attack on North Korea?” Well, the Chinese began to answer that question with military exercises and deployment of air defense forces designed to expand the roles of anti-missile units in size and scope of territory defended. RT News released an article on September 6 entitled China carries out live-fire exercise fending off ‘surprise’ overseas attack, and here is an excerpt:

While UN ambassador Nikki Haley certainly didn’t come to the American Enterprise Institute Tuesday to praise the nuclear agreement with Iran, she insisted she wasn’t there to bury it either.

But we think she doth protest too much. Because that is exactly what she set out to do.

“I’m not making the case for decertifying (the agreement),” she told her rapt AEI audience. “I’m just saying if he (president) should decertify, he has the grounds.”

Haley then warned for what would not be the last time that we shouldn’t just assume that the Iranians were “doing the right thing.”

“What if they weren’t doing the right thing?” Haley presupposed, “And when that 10-year (expiration) hits … they start a nuclear war?”

Immediately after Israel's latest unprovoked strike on Syria we posed the question, did Benjamin Netanyahu just panic? The answer is yes, Israel is now acting from a position of desperation as it has failed in its goal of regime change in Syria. Overnight (Wed. evening/Thursday early morning), Israel attacked a Syrian military base near the town of Masyaf at about 3:00 a.m. which Syria has now confirmed in a statement that warns of "serious repercussions". Syria reported two troop deaths in the attack. It appears to have been a massive strike - grainy photos show a large fireball lighting up the night sky outside of Masyaf.

But this is the reason for Israeli media and defense officials quickly claiming that the strike at Masyaf was on a chemical weapons facility: they know the "humanitarian" angle sells in the West, especially when coupled with allegations of civilians being gassed.

the urge to shape and control US foreign and war policies is strong in neoconservative circles. The critiques from the AEI stable of advisors and op-ed writers alone on a Presidency under constant attack from the domestic left and a generally neoconservative TV, radio and print media, can be very effective. The center and left leaning thinktanks in D.C. all embrace aggressive interventionism abroad, and advocate for it.

One week after the Pentagon announced an escalation of the Afghan War of an unspecified size, anonymous US officials are saying that the deployment will be about 3,500, bringing the total size of the US forces in the country to 14,500.

The Pentagon would officially neither confirm nor deny the figure, saying that they will not comment in any way on the numbers until there is an official announcement. This figure is roughly in line with expectations of the size of the deployment.

This is, however, expected to only be the first deployment in a much broader open escalation announced by President Trump last month. It’s not clear that subsequent deployments will be announced at all, with or without numbers.

About two and a half years ago, Saudi Arabia started bombing Yemen and began an occupation to prop-up the puppet government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. The Saudi’s air strikes deliberately target homes. Tens of thousands have died. Millions are at risk of famine. The siege has triggered a globally-unprecedented cholera epidemic. And people can’t even flee the country because the airport is closed at the behest of Saudi Arabia.

Corporate media barely covers Yemen at all. Not only do they leave many key pieces of information out, they blatantly lie to reinforce their imperialist narrative. Here, Geopolitics Alert will attempt to debunk many of the most common myths and explain the truth.

Confirming what many corporate media outlets have been saying for years, the Russian military recently admitted that Syria is a testing ground for Russia’s military capabilities, Russian-owned outlet TASS reports.

“More than 200 weapons have been tested during the special operation [in Syria], which demonstrated high combat effectiveness and proved to be mission-capable,” Chairman of the Military Science Committee of the Russian Armed Forces and Deputy Head of the General Staff Lieutenant General, Igor Makushev, said at the Army-2017 international military technical forum during a round table discussion on the Syrian experience last Friday.

“Special attention is paid to new arms models, including those that are undergoing state tests, in order to timely detect and quickly remove possible manufacturing and design defects,” Makushev also added.

Buthaina Mansour was the sole survivor of a bombing in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, that killed her entire family. An image of her trying to open her eyes despite her injuries has gone viral on social media as a symbol of solidarity with the people in the war-torn country.

The Trump administration has just announced that it is moving ahead with an Obama-era plan to modernize America’s nuclear arsenal, sprucing up the nuclear Triad with a new fleet of land-based missiles, missile-carrying submarines, and air-delivered nuclear weapons that will cost the American taxpayer well over $1 trillion in the coming years. The ostensible purpose behind this modernization effort is to maintain America’s nuclear deterrence capability for decades to come. The harsh reality, however, is that through this nuclear upgrade, America is simply repeating the mistakes of the past, building weapons whose precision and speed will trigger a new arms race with Russia and China as they seek to match this new American capability with weapons designed to sustain their version of nuclear deterrence.

As tensions with North Korea have risen, the US has been eager to impose new sanctions on them. Since the US doesn’t trade with North Korea in the first place, that has mostly boiled down to sanctions against Chinese companies that do.

The ease with which the Trump Administration has made sanctioning North Korea mean sanctioning China is coupled with a lot of angry blaming of China from US officials, who still expect them to solve North Korea unilaterally. China is unsurprisingly viewing itself as a target.

President Trump campaigned on trade with China being unfair, and many see that driving their actions against China as part of North Korea policy. Trump has presented North Korea’s continued tests as an “embarrassment” to China, and suggests the US could cut all trade with every nation that trades with North Korea, which covers a lot of nations, but especially China.

South Korea’s defense minister on Monday said it was worth reviewing the redeployment of American tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula to guard against the North, a step that analysts warn would sharply increase the risk of an accidental conflict.

As concern over Korea deepened following North Korea’s huge nuclear test Sunday, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was “begging for war.”

Here in Seoul, the Defense Ministry warned that Pyongyang might be preparing to launch another missile into the Pacific Ocean, perhaps an intercontinental ballistic missile theoretically capable of reaching the mainland United States.

President Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, spoke on the phone for 40 minutes Monday night, Korean time — some 34 hours after the nuclear test and more than 24 hours after Trump took to Twitter to criticize Moon’s “talk of appeasement.”

China confirmed on Monday its Foreign Ministry has lodged solemn representations to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) embassy in Beijing over its sixth nuclear test.

"The representations were lodged to the person in charge of the embassy," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a regular news briefing.
The DPRK Sunday detonated a hydrogen bomb that can be carried by an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), DPRK's Central Television announced. This was the sixth nuclear test the DPRK has undertaken.

"China's adherence to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and opposition to nuclear tests and missile development by the DPRK is well-known," Geng said.
China has proposed realizing denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula while establishing a peace mechanism. China has also expected the DPRK to suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the suspension of large-scale U.S.-ROK military exercises.

The U.S. and South Korea have agreed to lift limits on South Korea's missile payload capabilities following North Korea's hydrogen bomb test over the weekend, the White House announced Monday.

During a call between President Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-In, Trump "gave his in-principle approval to South Korea’s initiative to lift restrictions on their missile payload capabilities,” the White House said in a readout of the call.

“President Trump also provided his conceptual approval for the purchase of many billions of dollars’ worth of military weapons and equipment from the United States by South Korea," the statement added.

A spokesman for South Korea’s presidential office confirmed the call Monday, describing the move to lift the limit on the payload of South Korean missiles under U.S.-South Korean guidelines as an "effective" countermeasure, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

The single mountain under which North Korea most likely conducted its five most recent nuclear bomb tests, including the latest and most powerful on Sunday, could be at risk of collapsing, a Chinese scientist said.

By measuring and analysing the shock waves caused by the blasts, and picked up by quake stations in China and neighbouring countries, researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui province, said they were confident that they were all carried out from under the same mountain at the Punggye-ri test site.

A chilling video showing gas masks being tested on schoolchildren by government scientists using deadly organisms paints a disturbing picture of life in the Cold War.

The unsettling footage, which was taken in 1960, shows a classroom full of children no older than 10 being given a lecture about the biohazard safety devices by a visitor.

The youngsters, who are the children of soldiers, are then led into a chamber where the mask’s effectiveness is tested using a potentially deadly mix of microbial organisms.

The children stay in the chamber for 10 minutes before being removed, with the narrator noting that ‘a concentration much greater than could be reasonably expected during any biological attack’ is being tested on them.

Experts and commentators say a deterrent independent of the US is needed in face of uncertain support from Donald Trump

Commenting on the missile test, and Japan's response, RIA Novosti military observer Alexander Khrolenko wrote that Pyongyang's latest test has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that all the sophisticated US missile defense systems in and around the Asian country are next to useless.

The North said the underground test site where it detonated what it described as a hydrogen bomb did not leak radioactive materials. If that's true, it will be difficult for outsiders to determine whether the device was indeed a thermonuclear weapon or a simpler nuclear bomb.

Trump should attack in North-Korea, but only if he knows there will not be a retaliation, warns IDF former Intelligence Chief.

Earlier in the day, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said that a nuclear weapon that was tested by North Korea on Sunday is preliminarily estimated to have a yield of up to 70 kilotonnes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have agreed to “appropriately deal” with the recent nuclear test conducted by North Korea, Chinese Xinhua news reports.

"The two leaders agreed to stick to the goal of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and keep close communication and coordination to deal with the new situation," the report says.

The presidents met in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen for the ninth BRICS summit, which is scheduled for September 3-5.

Korea tested hydrogen bomb that can be mounted on ICBM – state TV
Earlier in the day, the Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the North Korean test, adding that in a situation like this, it is essential “to keep composure and to restrain from any acts, which may lead to further escalation of tensions.”

The test is “another example of Pyongyang’s outright disregard” of UN Security Council resolutions and international law, the ministry said in a statement.

Pyongyang confirms its sixth nuclear test, after 6.3-magnitude tremor was recorded near nuclear test site.

North Korea could "basically vapourise" millions of South Koreans if the West attacks, even without nuclear weapons, Boris Johnson has warned.

Britain's Foreign Secretary sounded the stark alert to explain why he backs diplomacy, not military action, despite the rogue state's latest nuclear test.

State TV today claimed a hydrogen bomb ordered by leader Kim Jong-un was a “perfect success” and was a “meaningful” step in completing the country’s nuclear weapons programme.

The US Treasury Department will submit to President Donald Trump a new package of sanctions against North Korea after the latest nuclear test by Pyongyang, the authority's secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said Sunday.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The news about sanctions emerges after US President Donald Trump commented on the reports about the nuclear test, saying Pyongyang's "words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States."

"We have already started with sanctions against North Korea but I am going to draft a sanctions package to send to the president for his strong consideration," Mnuchin told the US Fox News broadcaster.

Mnuchin added that if other countries wanted to do business with North Korea, the United States would not engage in cooperation with them.

Experts are still gathering data and air samples that will permit them to determine precisely what happened at the Punggye-ri proving grounds on Jan. 6, but seismic evidence indicates the device had a yield of around 6 kilotons.

That would mean it fell well short of a thermonuclear device - which could be expected to have a yield around 100 times more powerful. The assumption among analysts is that it was a conventional nuclear bomb that was enhanced with fusion fuels, such as deuterium or lithium.

The top military officers of the United States and South Korea have discussed “effective military responses” that could show the military might of the allies in the wake of North Korea’s latest nuclear test on Sunday.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and South Korea’s Gen. Jeong Kyeong-doo discussed on phone the enhancemnet of military cooperation between Seoul and Washington and joint response to North Korea, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The news came after Pyongyang announced it had conducted a test of a hydrogen bomb, which was successful, as no radiation leakage took place in the process. The Japanese NHK broadcaster confirmed the test was successful, adding that no breaches of nuclear materials to the outside occurred.

So then, what are the prospects Washington could jump off the hamster wheel and come up with something besides threats and sanctions? The omens are not auspicious. Just before he left the White House, Steve Bannon violated the taboo surrounding Delusion 1: «Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don't die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don't know what you're talking about, there's no military solution here, they got us.» Then he was gone.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it had recorded a M 6.3 earthquake that it described as a “possible explosion” in northeastern North Korea—near the site of Pyongyang’s past nuclear tests—at a depth of zero kilometers at noon Pyongyang time. The agency initially assessed it to be a magnitude-5.1 temblor.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff assumed North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test, after an artificial earthquake was detected near the site of the North’s previous nuclear tests earlier today. Additionally, the Korea Meteorological Administration said that it had detected a revised magnitude-5.7 earthquake in the same area of North Korea, in what it described as likely being a “man-made” earthquake.

Because earthquakes are measured using a logarithmic scale, a magnitude-6.3 quake would be 10 times as powerful as the one triggered by the North’s September 2016 nuclear test, which triggered a magnitude-5.3 earthquake, according to the USGS.

Following remarks from the leaders of South Korea and Japan, President Donald Trump has responded to North Korea's latest "perfect" nuclear test, emphasizing that South Korea's "talk of appeasement will not work," and that Kim Jong Un and his government "only understand one thing!" He added that the nuclear test is an embarrassment...to China.

Boris Johnson has warned there “no easy military solution” to preventing North Korea escalating its nuclear aggression but said all options were still on the table for retaliation after the regime’s nuclear weapons rest.

The foreign secretary said it was not clear how a military response from the West would be possible, given the proximity of the South Korean capital Seoul to the North Korean border.

Any military challenge to Kim Jong-Un’s regime could come at huge cost to civilian lives in South Korea, Johnson said.

“It’s certainly our view that none of the military options are good,” he told reporters after North Korea announced it had tested a powerful hydrogen bomb that could be loaded on to an intercontinental ballistic missile

The US Pacific Command has for the first time developed a schedule for naval patrols in the South China Sea, with freedom of navigation operations (FONOPS) two or three times over the next few months, a report said on Friday (Sept 1), quoting unnamed US officials.

This would mark a considered approach to FONOPS in the disputed South China Sea, the Wall Street Journal reported. China claims the maritime zone virtually in its entirety, but Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan also have claims there.

China has called previous FONOPS by the US provocative. There have been three so far under President Donald Trump, and four under the previous Barack Obama administration.

China reacted sharply to a US patrol on July 2, when the American destroyer USS Stethem passed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracels chain.

n their latest monthly statement on the P5+1 nuclear deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has once again confirmed that Iran is in total compliance with the deal, and that its low-enriched uranium stockpile is well within limits.

This is the statement they’ve issued every time since the deal was implemented, but comes at an increasingly important time, as President Trump has repeatedly claimed he considers Iran to be in violation is some non-specific way.

It also comes amid calls from US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley for the IAEA to inspect all of Iran’s conventional military facilities, to try to look for some violations. The IAEA, however, has insisted that there is no need for this.

The creation of elusive combat railway missile complexes (BZhRK) in the Soviet Union significantly boosted the country's defense capabilities. Sputnik contributor Andrei Kots and military expert Igor Korotchenko explain how Russia's modernized Barguzin nuclear trains may nullify the US concept of a prompt global strike now.

Decades of U.S. diplomacy with Iran, including the Obama administration's landmark nuclear accord, may leave Israeli military action as the only option to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, according to former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.

"I don't make any disguise of the idea that ultimately it may take an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear program to stop it," Bolton told the Washington Free Beacon. "I wish we weren't at that point, but this is what 25 years of negotiations with Iran gets you."

Make no mistake that America has been quietly arming its police for battle with its own citizens, under the guise of the drug war, since the early 1990s.

As part of its misguided “war on drugs,” policy makers decided that if police were to act like drug warriors, they needed to be equipped like warriors. Since that time, almost $5 billion in military hardware was transferred from the military to law enforcement, according to a report by the ACLU. By giving military hardware to law enforcement for free, the NDAA and 1033 program encourages police to employ military-like tactics and weaponry.

An F-15E from Nellis Air Force Base dropped an inert version of the B61-12 over the Nevada desert earlier this month after its first test in March

B61-12 gravity bombs, without a nuclear warhead, were dropped from F-15E fighter jets at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada on August 8

The mock bomb landed in a dry lake bed at the Tonopah Test Range

Scientists will spend months analyzing the data gathered from the test
B61-12 consolidates and replaces older versions in the nation's nuclear arsenal

The bomb is described as the most dangerous nuclear device ever produced because its yeild can be adjusted between the equivalent of 50,000 tons and 300 tons of TNT. It is also more accurate than ever.

The looming threat of World War III, a potential extermination event for the human species, is made more likely because the world’s public can’t count on supposedly objective experts to ascertain and evaluate facts. Instead, careerism is the order of the day among journalists, intelligence analysts and international monitors – meaning that almost no one who might normally be relied on to tell the truth can be trusted.

US policymakers have recently announced plans to hand over control of the Syrian city of Raqqa to former Islamic State (ISIS)-affiliated officials, Newsweek would report.

In its article, “Syria: Arab Tribes Who Once Supported ISIS Turn to U.S. As Endgame Being In Raqqa,” Newsweek reports:

A top U.S. diplomat in the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has praised recent talks with Syrian tribal leaders slated to play a large role in governing Raqqa once the jihadis are expelled.

But the plan to create a careful balance of local power on the ground in Raqqa that will likely see former ISIS-affiliated officials ultimately in charge could cause a split between the U.S. and its Kurdish allies.

What appears to be ill-conceived policy is in fact the United States providing direct military protection to the remnants of terrorist organizations operating in Syria it has supported, including fighters of the so-called “Islamic State.”

No amount of interference or shadowing of its aircraft will stop the Chinese air force from carrying out long-range drills, the defense ministry said, announcing another round of exercises of the type that have unnerved neighbouring Taiwan and Japan.

The air force carried out further long-range exercises on Thursday, the ministry said, without giving details of where they happened. Japan said it was concerned about bombers flying close to its territory.

Such “normal” drills accord with international law and practices and are part of an “ordinary need” to raise combat abilities and strengthen the military, it added.

“No matter what obstructions are encountered, the Chinese air force will carry on as before; no matter who flies with us, the Chinese air force will fly a lot and as normal!” the ministry added, citing an air force spokesman.

Meanwhile, Trump has backed himself into a corner over North Korea. His threats and bombast have not made the North’s leader Kim Jong-un stop threatening to launch nuclear-armed missiles at the US island of Guam, Hawaii, Japan and South Korea. That is, if the US and South Korea keep up their highly provocative annual military war games on North Korea’s borders that each year invoke North Korea’s fury.

Unless, of course, Trump, who managed to avoid Vietnam era military service because of a bump on his foot, decides to go nuclear. This would mean hitting North Korea with a score or more nuclear weapons, large and small, before the North could riposte. North Korea would be totally destroyed, and its 25 million people left dying, maimed or starving. Japan, the world’s third largest economy, would also be shattered.

In a move which can only be construed as calling President Trump’s bluff over his ‘fire and fury’ threat over further provocations, U.S. Pacific Command announced that North Korea has launched several ‘Short-Range’ ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan today.

Earlier today, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that several ‘unidentified projectiles’ from area of Gitdaeryong in Gangwon Province at around 6:49 a.m. local time, flying over 250 Km (155 miles) towards the North East.

“Our military is closely monitoring for North Korean additional provocation and strengthened surveillance and security postures and maintaining readiness postures,” the South Korean release said.

Meanwhile, Japanese officials told Kyodo news service that the North had fired ‘a projectile’ into the sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula.

On a visit to Ukraine today, Defense Secretary James Mattis played up the narrative that the ongoing fighting in Eastern Ukraine was wholly Russia’s fault, vowing that the US “stands with Ukraine” against the Russians, and confirming active considerations are ongoing to providing lethal military aid to them.

Ukraine’s President Poroshenko claimed 3,000 Russian troops are in Ukrainian territory, a claim which appears to be built around the assumption that Crimea, which seceded from Ukraine and joined the Russian Federation, is still technically Ukrainian.

Still Mattis appeared to accept the number unquestioningly, accusing Russia of trying to “redraw” the map of Europe by military force, and vowing that the US would stand against them. Though he stopped short of promising arms to Ukraine, he gave the impression they were probably coming.

Officially revealing the fifth generation of Sukhoi-57 supersonic stealth fighter aircraft, Russia has made a statement that it is in the game of stealth warfare. The Sukhoi-57 is designed to compete with the American F-22 Raptor and the Chinese Shenyang J-31 Falcon Hawk, claimed the official statement from the Russian Ministry of Defence.

“T-50 was created for qualitative superiority over predecessors, opponents and competitors,” says MIA’s Alexander Khrolenko. “This is the answer to the US aircraft of the fifth generation F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II.”

Heading to Vienna to meet with officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley intends to demand that the agency begin conducting thorough inspections of Iranian military sites, claiming the P5+1 deal gives them authority “to look at any suspicious sites.”

This is likely to be a matter of serious dispute, as before the P5+1 deal was signed, the IAEA had already confirmed all issues surrounding Iran’s military sites were resolved, and the public version of the P5+1 text does not give them any access to random military sites for inspections.

Despite Haley’s claim that the IAEA has such authority, she goes on to accuse Iran of having something to hide, likely because she knows full well Iran isn’t going to comply with these demands, even if the IAEA capitulates and asks for access to the sites.

Starting with the 2001 invasion, the US war in Afghanistan is now 16 years in: as President Trump pointed out in last night’s speech, the longest war in American history. Even President Trump thought this was excessively long, admitting that “my original instinct was to pull out.”

But the US isn’t pulling out. Instead, President Trump recommitted the US to a new round of escalation with no concrete end conditions, and formally disavowed a “time-based” approach. He added that he doesn’t think the US should publicly announce the dates for ending their “military options.”

The reality behind this rhetoric, though, is that once again any pretense of the Afghan War ending is out the window, and the seemingly endless war again has no end in sight. Trump has laid the ground for reckless new escalations, and in presenting 9/11 and the Iraq withdrawal as justification, is committed to staying.

For the first time ever, the US and South Korea will be conducting war games meant to prepare their militaries for the possibility of a nuclear war, according to a South Korean Defense Ministry official. North Korea has previously called the planned military exercises a provocation that could lead to nuclear war.

The US Navy may be causing more harm than good in the Indo-Asian-Pacific theater.

The US military’s maritime presence near Asian shipping routes adds risk rather than helps uphold international freedom of navigation rights, Chinese news agencies said Tuesday.

This summer has already seen two crashes involving US Navy guided-missile destroyers and merchant vessels. In June, the USS Fitzgerald collided with the ACX Crystal container ship in an incident that killed seven sleeping US sailors when the bow of the transport ship struck the ship’s starboard side. On August 21, the USS John S. McCain was damaged on its port side following contact with the Alnic MC tanker east of Singapore near the Strait of Malacca.

The Malaccan straits are the highest-trafficked trading lanes in the world and hit a new record last year with 83,740 transits occurring, according to Seatrade Maritime News.

Information revealed about a severe illness known as the ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ which spread amongst US Army veterans who were exposed to DU while using theseweaponry, helped Iraqi researchers and Medical Doctors to understand the nature of the effect of these weapons, and the means required to investigate further into this issue.

DU is a chemically toxic and radioactive heavy metal produced as waste by the nuclear power industry. It is used in weapons because it is an extremely hard material capable of piercing armor.

The synergistic impact on health due to the 1991post-Gulf War1 economic sanctions, and DU related radioactive and toxic contamination, raised the number of casualties in contaminated areas such as in Southern Iraq.

As many as 100 more F-35 joint strike fighters could be summoned to the Korean Peninsula to support allies in South Korea and Japan against the nuclear and ballistic missile threat posed by North Korea, according to recent media reports.
F-35A jets forming the US Air Force’s 34th Fighter Squadron are slated to deploy to Iwakuni, Japan, and Osan Air Force Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, by the end of the year, UPI reports, citing South Korea’s Yonhap News.

The F-35 force operating proximate to South Korean and Japanese airspace is poised to be strengthened by Seoul’s agreement to buy 40 of the multi-role joint strike fighters. The jets are slated for delivery by 2021, the UPI report added.

Japan has already agreed to purchase 42 F-35s from Lockheed Martin.

The charge d’affaires of the North Korean embassy in Russia told Sputnik that Pyongyang has finished preparationg for a strike on the US territory of Guam and is ready to carry it out in case of a "provocation."
The US must stop pressuring North Korea, the North Korean embassy's charge d’affaires Jin Jong Hyop said, emphasizing that whether there is a war on the Korean Peninsula depends on Washington.

"As you know, we have completed the preparation of the Guam strike. Everything will depend on whether the United States acts sensibly or not. If they do not do so, they will be shamed yet again on the Korean Peninsula in front of the whole world," Jin Jong Hyop said.

"They must stop blatant provocations and unilateral pressure," Jin Jong Hyop said. "This will determine whether there will be a war on the Korean peninsula or not."

The Pentagon has hired Boeing and Northrop Grumman to develop a replacement for the US Air Force’s arsenal of ageing Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and cruise missiles, amid nuclear tensions with North Korea.

"The Minuteman III is 45 years old. It is time to upgrade," Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein said in a statement on Monday, three days after the deal for the new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) was inked.

Boeing and Northrop Grumman were awarded $349 million and $328 million respectively to continue the project over the course of the three-year contract.

The Air Force has estimated that the project would cost US taxpayers at least $62 billion. However, the Pentagon's office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) says the costs would surpass $85 billion.

The journalist pointed out that one can hardly find any information about the secret weapon.

"It is only known that, according to some estimates, the rocket can reach a fantastic speed of Mach 10, which means that it can travel almost 3.5 kilometers (2.17 mi) per second," Stanavov highlighted.

More importantly, the Zircon's extraordinary speed makes it nearly invulnerable to modern missile defense systems installed on aircraft carriers.

"Even the famous American multifunctional naval combat system Aegis [armed] with [SM-2] Standard missiles is powerless," the journalist stressed.

The crux of the matter is that the Aegis' reaction time is about 8-10 seconds. Even at a speed of 2 kilometers per second, the Zircon will travel a distance of 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) in this period of time. Thus, the US much-praised missile defense system would have no chance to detect and destroy it.

How fragile the NATO ranks are is illustrated by the following incident that happened at the Noble Jump exercise (NOJP 17) held in June in Romania. Military units from 11 NATO countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Greece, Spain, Latvia, Holland, Norway, Poland, Romania and the USA took part in the drills. During the shooting at the training grounds, the Bulgarian soldiers flatly refused to shoot as “Russian identification marks have been placed on the targets, and they won’t shoot at Russians!”

This evening Trump will announce a new "path forward" in the occupation of Afghanistan. According to the usual leaks it will be very same path the U.S. has taken for 16 years.

Several thousands soldiers from the U.S. and various NATO countries will (in vane) train the Afghan army. Special Forces and CIA goons will raid this or that family compound on someone's say-so. Bombs will be dropped on whatever is considered a target.

Trump will announce that 1,000 or so troops will be added to the current contingent. About 15,000 foreign troops will be in Afghanistan. About three contractors per each soldier will be additionally deployed.

Trump knows that this "path forward" is nonsense that leads nowhere, that the best option for all foreign troops in Afghanistan is to simply leave:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump - 21 Nov 2013
We have wasted an enormous amount of blood and treasure in Afghanistan. Their government has zero appreciation. Let's get out!

- South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday joint military exercises starting with U.S. forces on Monday are purely of a defensive nature and do not aim to raise tensions on the Korean peninsula.

South Korean and U.S. forces will conduct military exercises from Monday through to Aug. 31 that will involve computer simulations designed to prepare for a possible attack by nuclear-armed Pyongyang.

Trump is in a bind. As Taliban forces continue to rack up military and political gains across their country, no serious expert can possibly believe that continued U.S. intervention will deliver “victory.” Sixteen years of experience show that almost every U.S. tactic has not only failed, but backfired.

Far from winning hearts and minds, nighttime Special Forces raids and bombing runs have turned countless villagers against the Afghan government and its foreign backers. Far from bolstering Kabul’s resources, tens of billions of dollars in U.S. aid created an epidemic of corruption that decimated the government’s credibility and put money and weapons in the hands of the Taliban.

(Anti Media) Societies pick and choose their outrage. What is one day considered barbaric is met with a collective yawn the next.

Unfortunately, for the innocent people of Yemen, the masses are completely uninterested in their current state of suffering. Maybe it’s because Western propaganda hasn’t sufficiently signaled in the direction of the misery and destruction facing the Yemeni people. Maybe it’s that the havoc is being carried out by Saudi Arabia and their cohorts, who are not only allies of the United States and the United Kingdom but also have the financial means to silence dissent in the West. Possibly, it’s that the U.S. and the U.K. are both backing the carnage on the ground in Yemen, not only via the providing of arms to the Saudi coalition but also providing military ground support.

Whatever the reason may be, the time has come for the world to wake up and realize there is more on planet earth than Donald Trump’s Twitter account.

North Korea warned Sunday that the upcoming US-South Korea military exercises are "reckless behavior driving the situation into the uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war."

Pyongyang also declared that its army can target the United States anytime, and neither Guam, Hawaii nor the US mainland can "dodge the merciless strike."
The messages in Rodong Sinmun, the official government newspaper, come a day before the US starts the Ulchi Freedom Guardian military exercises with South Korea.

Tensions between the US and North Korea have grown in recent weeks.
Just last week, Pyongyang said it had finalized a plan to fire four missiles toward the US territory of Guam. State media reported that leader Kim Jong Un would assess the US' next move before giving launch orders.
Kim would "watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees," a North Korean statement said last week

The daring move from Washington and Seoul follows "Armageddon trade" between Pyongyang and the Pentagon over Kim Jong-un’s threat to blast US territory Guam with nuclear missiles, which looked as though it was reaching boiling point last week.

But when Donald Trump warned the despot the US is “locked and loaded”, ready to respond to any strike, tensions simmered.

Yet when troops land on the peninsula, just miles form Jong-un’s territory, explosive consequences are feared.

A staggering 80,000 troops will be involved in the military drills along with hundreds of thousands of first responders and civilians.

The Ulchi-Freedom Guardian war games are computerised command and control exercises which take place every other year.

So-called defensive exercises between the two nations are the world’s largest - and will simulate warfare with North Korea.

UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien issued statements Friday slamming the Saudi-led coalition attacking Yemen, along with the Saudi-backed government in south Yemen, saying they are “unilaterally denying and excessively delaying” entry of humanitarian aid into northern Yemen.

This has been a recurring problem throughout the war, as the Saudi coalition’s first act was to impose a naval blockade. Since then, they’ve tried to funnel aid shipments overwhelmingly to Aden, the de facto capital of their allies, while attacking and blockading Hodeidah, the last northern port.

O’Brien insisted that it was “simply wrong” for the coalition to insist that cargo go through Aden instead of Hodeidah, urging the countries to endorse a UN mechanism for allowing shipments into Hodeidah.

The US last month approved a set of sanctions against Tehran, aimed at its missile program and support for terrorism, a move that officials and members of Congress have said is separate from the nuclear deal. But on Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned that the sanctions violate the spirit of the deal.

Rouhani's speech has been taken as a warning that Iran will withdraw unilaterally from the deal, known by the acronym JPCOA, should US sanctions move forward. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley swiftly fired off a statement condemning Rouhani's words.

Various annually scheduled US wargames in and around the Korean Peninsula almost always provoke an increase in tension for their duration. The upcoming Ulchi-Freedom Guardian (UFG) exercise is particularly ill-timed on that front, coming amid dangerously high tensions already.

The exercise, which begins Monday, will last 10 days, and involve 20,500 foreign troops in a simulated defense of South Korea from an invasion by North Korea. The exercise is the largest annual computerized command-and-control operation in the world. North Korea has termed the decision to hold the exercise a “catastrophe.”

17,500 US soldiers will participate, along with troops from Australia, New Zealand, multiple NATO member nations, and Colombia. US officials say the exercise is designed to “increase readiness,” though again this comes after weeks of claiming that US troops were already ready for war with North Korea at a moment’s notice.

Friday’s Camp David talks on Afghanistan appear to have ended without a final decision by President Trump on troop levels, as he continues to resist pressure from top cabinet officials to sign off on a massive escalation of the 16-year-old conflict with thousands of fresh troops.

Trump had initially delegated the decision to Defense Secretary James Mattis, but Mattis found a cap limiting his maximum deployment too restrictive. Now, Vice President Pence and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster are also taking up the cause of large-scale escalation, pushing Trump to accept the recommendations of the commanders.

Pence and McMaster were at the Camp David meeting, but Blackwater founder Erik Prince, who has been pushing a “privatize the war” initiative, was blocked, apparently at the behest of McMaster. Trump aide Steve Bannon, another skeptic of military escalation, was sacked outright.

Providing the most specific details yet on Israel’s ongoing series of military strikes inside war-torn Syria, Air Force Chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel revealed today that Israel has carried out nearly 100 distinct military actions over the last five years specifically related to what they believed were Hezbollah-bound arms convoys.

This comes less than a month after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was caught on an open microphone admitting to “dozens” of strikes in Syria, though obviously this is far greater, because many Israel strikes on Syria clearly were not Hezbollah related.

Indeed, recently reported Israeli strikes in Syria have almost always been the result of stray artillery shells landing in empty territory inside the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and Israel responding by attacking Syrian military bases in the area.

Cyberwar and cyber intelligence are diverging, as are Cyber Command and the NSA. Here’s what that means for the man who leads both entities, the future of signals intelligence collection, and cyberwarfare.

The move to elevate Cyber Command to a full Unified Combatant Command and split it off from the National Security Agency or NSA shows that cyber intelligence collection and information war are rapidly diverging fields. The future leadership of both entities is now in question, but the Pentagon has set out a conditions-based approach to the breakup. That represents a partial victory for the man who directs both Cyber Command and the NSA.

Traders barely had time to enjoy the lull from the "Armageddon trade" - the rising possibility of a nuclear exchange between the US and North Korea, which peaked over the weekend when various US officials said a nuclear war is not imminent, echoed by a statement by N. Korea's state-run news agency KCNA, before a new set of worries promptly took over, chief among them the ongoing slow motion train wreck in Donald Trump's administration coupled with yesterday's double terrorist attacks in Spain. Alas, "nuclear war" risk is about to come back with a vengeance because on Monday US and South Korea are scheduled to begin joint military exercises, a massive show of force which every time in the past has infuriated North Korea, sometimes triggering a show of force.

On Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry accused the US and the UK of supplying toxic agents to terrorists based on evidence found in Aleppo and a Damascus suburb. Sputnik Radio spoke with political scientist Dr. Kevin Barrett about the significance of this discovery and whether it could become a turning point in the Syrian conflict.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula appeared to ease up following intense saber-rattling by the US and North Korean sides last week, but once Pyongyang’s leaders observe the US ramping up war games again, another ballistic missile test may be imminent, Seoul warns.

Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills are slated to commence on Monday, Korean media reported Wednesday. "There is a great possibility that North Korea will carry out strategic or tactical provocations to protest the latest UN sanctions and the UFG exercises," the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement to the nation’s lawmakers.

Military exercises in which US forces essentially rehearse and practice attacking the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) "are not funny to [North] Korea," Radio Sputnik Loud & Clear host Brian Becker said Tuesday.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday there is evidence that the West is supplying chemical weapons to militants in Syria.

“Yes, it’s true,” she told the state-funded Vesti FM radio station on Thursday morning. "Western countries and regional powers are directly and indirectly supplying militants, terrorists and extremists in Syria with banned toxic substances.”

The comment came after Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said on Wednesday that chemical weapons supposedly produced by the United States and Britain had been found in areas previously held by Islamic State.*

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, replaying to the latest round of US sanctions and threats, insisted his country remains committed to the P5+1 nuclear deal for the time being, despite repeated US violations. He warned this could change, however.

Iran has repeatedly sought redress for violations to mediators of the deal, but the US has continued to reimpose sanctions they removed under the deal, coming up with new pretexts, usually pretexts very light on details. Rouhani warned that if this continues, Iran might be forced to quit the nuclear deal.

Rouhani said US actions prove they can’t be trusted to deal fairly over the pact. Iran’s parliament, particularly the hardliners, are pressuring him to make some sort of reaction, and this is likely Rouhani’s attempt to warn the other five signatories that the deal could be at risk.

The chemical agents were found at terrorists’ depots both in Aleppo and in liberated districts in the eastern suburb of Damascus, according to the Syrian deputy foreign minister

The State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) will not sue The New York Times newspaper for its article about the possible purchase of Ukrainian-produced missile engines by North Korea, SSAU acting chairman Yuriy Radchenko told reporters on Tuesday.

On Monday, The New York Times published an article, citing classified assessments by US intelligence agencies and a study by Michael Elleman, a senior fellow for missile defense with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank, which suggested that Pyongyang may be using a modified RD-250 high-performance liquid-propellant engine (LPE) for its latest missiles, the kind that used to be developed at Ukraine’s state-owned Yuzhmash and Russia’s Energomash companies. The article cited Elleman as saying that the engines for North Korean missiles likely came from Ukraine, and probably by illicit means.

Iranian leaders are responding to the latest round of sanctions signed by US President Donald Trump with a two-pronged approach: increased defense and intelligence spending by roughly $600-800 million and marshaling military vessels to the Atlantic Ocean.

"No military official in the world thought that we can go round Africa to the Atlantic Ocean through the Suez Canal but we did it as we had declared that we would go to the Atlantic and its western waters,” Iranian Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari said over the weekend, according to local media sources.

"We moved into the Atlantic and will go to its Western waters in the near future," Sayyari added. In April, Sayyari reportedly said, "redeployment in the Atlantic Ocean, intelligence superiority, development of communications, progress in the development of the Makran coast and building new vessels are among the Navy’s plans this year."

Israel has approved measures launching emergency regulations against striking employees at the Negev Nuclear facility in Dimona.

For the past few months, scientists and researchers at the facility have been on a slowdown strike over the denial of a wage increase request.

On Sunday, the Tel Aviv regime approved a request by the head of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, Ze'ev Snir, enabling the issuing of restraining orders against striking employees.

A flurry of threats last week had the whole region fearing a new Korean War was about to break out, but Monday gave way to at least a bit of an attempt by everyone involved to revisit the possibility of diplomacy.

That’s not to say that diplomacy is any more imminent this week than war was last week, but as North Korea put its Guam missile launches on hold, US officials against made it very clear they were at least open o a resolution that didn’t involve nuclear war.

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un said that US should show itself to be committed to an alternative to the conflict, while US officials continued to reiterate how ready they were for war. Either way, both sides agree it was entirely the other side’s fault, and that it’s entirely up to the other side to stop the provocations.

United States Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Seabees (C.B. – construction battalion), of the Naval Construction Force held a groundbreaking ceremony for a maritime operations center on Ochakov Naval Base, Ukraine, July 25. According to the Navy.mil, the official website of the US Navy, the maritime operations center is one of three projects that are currently planned to be executed by the Seabees in Ochakov and will serve as a major planning and operational hub during future military exercises hosted by Ukraine. The Seabees arrived in Ochakov in April to establish contracts, obtain construction permits and perform other logistical tasks for the maritime operations center project.

The former Soviet republic of Moldova may actually become yet another foothold for the US military in Europe. The US Naval Facilities Engineering Command Europe Africa Southwest Asia (NAVFAC EURAFSWA) plans to construct eight training facilities for military operations in urban terrain at the Bulboaca training base in Moldova. The fact that the US Navy Department is involved makes believe the facility will host American Marines.

A total of $1.6 million has already been invested in the renovation of the Bulboaca base located near Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria or the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic. The largely Russian-speaking region broke away from Moldova following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Less than half of the bombers President Donald Trump would rely upon to be “locked and loaded” against North Korea could launch today if needed, according to the latest Air Force figures available.

That’s not a surprise to the bomb squadrons who have seen firsthand the combined effects of aircraft age, the demand of 15 years of air war operations and reduced budgets. But the numbers can be stark. Of the nation’s 75 conventional and nuclear B-52s, only about 33 are ready to fly at any given time, according to Air Force statistics. Of the 62 conventional B-1s, only about 25 are ready. With the 20 nuclear B-2 stealth bombers, the number drops further. Seven or eight bombers are available, according to the Air Force.

“On a nominal basis you don’t have more than single digits of B-2s available to do anything,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, currently the dean of the Mitchell Institute of Aerospace.

SETTING THE STAGE

In March, at around the time of the biggest annual maneuvers between the U.S. and South Korea, the North fired four extended-range Scud missiles into waters off the Japanese coast in what was intended to be a mock attack on Marine Corps Air Station, Iwakuni.

Iwakuni is one of the main U.S. bases in Japan and was the staging point for F-35 stealth fighters believed to be training for precision strikes on North Korea against Kim Jong Un and his top lieutenants.

The March missile launch was not as bold as the plan for Guam — the North didn’t tell the world beforehand and deliberately sent the missiles much farther north than the base itself, an easy tweak. But the move sent a strong message that such an attack would be possible.

When the US State Department supported Ukraine domestic forces and nationalist elements to stage a successful and deadly coup against then pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, the outcome was supposed to be a nation that is a undisputed US ally and persistent threat, distraction and non-NATO opponent to bordering Russia. Instead, it now appears that it has been Ukraine which was, as the NYT writes, the secret behind the success of North Korea's ballistic missile program.
Specifically, in a blockbuster report this morning, the NYT alleges that North Korea has been making black-market purchases of powerful rocket engines from a Ukrainian factory citing "expert analysis being published Monday and classified assessments by American intelligence agencies."

How close is the US to war with North Korea? That was the question several top military and national security advisors struggled to answer over the weekend, mitigating fears of an imminent nuclear war even as Trump raises geopolitical tensions and boosts bellicose rhetoric with every public appearance.

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday", and walking a fine line of backing Trump's tough talk but not wanting to raise the alarm at home, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said there’s no indication war will break out.

According to state run propaganda media, North Korea is on standby to launch a missile at the mainland United States. Responding to President Donald Trump’s recent warnings to the rogue regime in this manner has just flung tensions to heights never seen – not even during the Cold War.

North Korea took its turn Saturday to raise tensions in the back-and-forth escalation toward war with President Trump and the United States. The state-run newspaper said that North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un’s revolutionary army is “capable of fighting any war the U.S. wants.” The same newspaper also noted that the Paektusan army is now “on the standby to launch fire into its mainland, waiting for an order of final attack.” Unfortunately, it is possible that we will witness World War 3 and these heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea could be the catalyst.

Authored by Jeremiah Johnson (nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces) via ReadyNutrition.com,

Let’s just say that the unthinkable becomes the real and happening. Let’s take this article and go over it. This will be a segment in three parts, the next ones being immediate actions taken at work and at home. I’m hitting on traveling first, as there are so many vacationers jaunting around happily over the landscape. All kidding aside, traffic is congested during the summer, extending traveling time on the commutes. Let’s game the scenario, and here it is.

Here’s the scenario:

The Pentagon’s top military officer said here Sunday the focus remains on finding a diplomatic solution to the North Korea missile crisis, even as the military works up viable options in case they become necessary.

Amid heated rhetoric between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s rogue leader, Kim Jong Un, the military is quietly supporting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s effort to use diplomatic and economic pressure to avert war.

“As a military leader, I have to make sure that the president does have viable military options in the event that the diplomatic and economic pressurization campaign fails,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford in his first public remarks since the crisis escalated with North Korea’s launch of a second intercontinental ballistic missile late last month.

The error, according to 38 North, lies in an inept English translation of a statement made by North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho at the ASEAN Regional Forum meeting on July 26.

The English translation was: “We will, under no circumstances, put the nukes and ballistic rockets on the negotiating table. Neither shall we flinch even an inch from the road to bolstering up the nuclear forces chosen by ourselves, unless the hostile policy and nuclear threat of the US against the DPRK are fundamentally eliminated.”

38 North says the splitting of the sentences raises several questions as to what was covered under the qualifier of “unless” the hostile policy is removed. But 38 North says the answer can be found in the Korean-language version in which the formula was presented as one sentence, not two.

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Mattis issued an ultimatum to North Korea, saying “cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and destruction of its people.”

His warning came in response to Pyongyang suggesting plans to fire ballistic missiles to within 30 – 40 km from Guam by mid-August.

On Thursday, Trump said his “fire and fury” warning perhaps wasn’t “tough enough.” The DPRK should “get (its) act together (or it’ll) be in trouble like few nations have ever been.” Its leadership should be “very, very nervous” if it does anything harmful to America or its allies.

Kim Jong-un “disrespected our country greatly. He’s not getting away with it.”

On Friday, China warned Washington, saying if it tries to forcefully topple North Korea’s government, it’ll intervene to stop it.

It repeated calls for calm and diplomatic outreach – easing tensions, not escalating them further. China’s People’s Daily said

North Korea displayed its submarine-launched ballistic missiles for the first time on Saturday ahead of a massive military parade in the capital, Pyongyang.

Weapons analysts said they believed some of the other missiles on display were new types of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

North Korea warned the United States on Saturday to end its "military hysteria" or face retaliation as a US aircraft carrier group steamed towards the region and the reclusive state marked the 105th anniversary of the birth of its founding father.

The North Korean ceremony began with a massive parade of military personnel and hardware through Pyongyang on Saturday morning to mark the birthday of Kim Il-sung, the revered founder of the nation.

As the rhetoric continues to pick up around North Korea, the talk of military options, or worse the “military solution” increasingly appears to center around the conceit that there is some possibility for a limited war, or some other way that the US could make a quick attack on North Korea and fix everything militarily.

Experts, however, broadly agree that’s simply not the case. North Korea has spent the last 60+ years worrying about a US attack, and preparing to retaliate with everything that they have. This retaliation, even before factoring in North Korea’s nuclear program would destroy much of South Korea, and likely kill upwards of a million people.

That threat of massively destructive retaliation was always the ace up North Korea’s sleeve that kept them from getting attacked in the first place, sort of a mutually-assured destruction build around conventional arms and the fact that the huge, and economically important, city of Seoul is so close by.

As is often the case, most people wait until the last minute to prepare for the worst.

As reported by CBS Detroit, one Army Surplus store owner reports that preparedness equipment is flying off the shelves:

“We’ve been very busy. Unusually busy, I’d say,” Orr told WWJ’s Sandra McNeill. “It’s definitely an increase, just in selling all the normal prepper stuff, end of the world stuff. A lot of water prep stuff, food, MREs — the military meals.”

And there’s been a substantial increase in the sale of a particular item they don’t sell much of — a so-called radiation antidote called potassium iodide.

What should one do in the event of a nuclear attack?

Not long ago, it seemed like an abstract question. That was before President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who have been escalating military threats recently.

Just today, Trump said his earlier warning about bringing “fire and fury” upon the communist nation may not have been tough enough. When asked what could be tougher, he said, “Well you’ll see.”

The threat of nuclear war is much scarier that the reality, as the New York Times notes in this report.

Still …

The City Of Chicago, as it happens, has a whole page dedicated to the topic on its website.

Around 200,000 US troops are stationed in 177 countries throughout the world. The forces use several hundred bases, more than 1,000 if the figure includes overseas warehouse and installations. The US may need more soon, with its presence and involvement in armed conflicts on the rise.

Under President Trump, drone strikes worldwide grew 432 percent as of mid-March. Civilian death toll is significant in Iraq and Syria as a result of US bombardment.

A war with Iran appears to be imminent. An attack against North Korea is on the cards. There is a plan to spend $8 billion on bulking up the US presence in the Asia-Pacific region over the next five years by upgrading military infrastructure, conducting additional exercises and deploying more forces and ships.

George W, Bush was known for his total ignorance of geography. “Dubya the Geographer: Someone Buy This Man an Atlas” appears in dubyaspeak.com, Dubya Speaks, We Record the Damage.

Fast forward to 2017: What about Donald Trump who has his thumb on the nuclear button. What is his knowledge of geography.

“If you’re sweating the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency, take this to heart — at least he’s not running to be anyone’s eighth grade geography teacher.” Jeva Lange quoted in This Week, June 15, 2016)

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”. Martin Luther King Jr.