The United States will never allow Saudi Arabia to become a nuclear power and threaten its security and that of Israel, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview on Friday.

"We will never write a $150 billion check to the Saudis and hand them over the capacity to threaten Israel and the United States with nuclear weapons. Never", Pompeo said in an interview with CBS News.

The $150 billion figure is a reference to the Iran nuclear agreement negotiated by the administration of President Barack Obama.

US lawmakers are infuriated over the Trump administration’s secret talks with the Saudi kingdom over a nuclear deal.

With no solid prospects in sight, the administration has shown US companies the green light for that would enable the monarchy to have nukes.

Congressmen specifically want to know whether or not the approval was issued after dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the Hill reported Sunday.

One of Poland's top former military commander's who led the country's Land Forces until 2009, General (ret.) Waldemar Skrzypczak, has made stunning remarks on the nature of the "Russian threat" to Europe and the readiness of western allies to deploy nuclear weapons in any future conflict.

Alarmingly, his recent remarks during an interview with Polish media conglomerate Wirtualna Polska this week likely reflect powerful and hawkish elements of the Polish military establishment who along with Skrzypczak now see Poland as a bulwark against "aggression from the East." The retired general imagined a future scenario of conflict where a US nuclear strike would be welcomed and necessary as "the most reasonable response"

One of Poland's top former military commander's who led the country's Land Forces until 2009, General (ret.) Waldemar Skrzypczak, has made stunning remarks on the nature of the "Russian threat" to Europe and the readiness of western allies to deploy nuclear weapons in any future conflict.

Alarmingly, his recent remarks during an interview with Polish media conglomerate Wirtualna Polska this week likely reflect powerful and hawkish elements of the Polish military establishment who along with Skrzypczak now see Poland as a bulwark against "aggression from the East." The retired general imagined a future scenario of conflict where a US nuclear strike would be welcomed and necessary as "the most reasonable response".

Turkey’s vice president said his US counterpart must choose between an alliance with a loyal NATO partner or siding with terrorists, after Mike Pence issued an ultimatum for Ankara to pick its F-35 jets over Russian S-400 systems.
“The United States must choose. Does it want to remain Turkey’s ally or risk our friendship by joining forces with terrorists to undermine its NATO ally’s defense against its enemies?” Vice President Fuat Oktay tweeted, in response to Mike Pence’s demands.

The Turkish official did not make clear what “terrorists” he was talking about. Ankara is at odds with Washington over the military support it provides to Syrian Kurdish militias which are designated as terrorist organizations in Turkey.

That aside, self-exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose entity Turkey accuses of plotting the 2016 coup attempt, has found a safe haven in the US which also poisons relations between the two NATO allies.

Jerusalem (AFP) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long domination of Israeli politics has earned him the nickname "King Bibi" but he now faces the twin risks of a strong political challenger in an April 9 election and possible indictment for corruption.

Should he win again for a fifth term in office, Netanyahu will be on track to surpass Israel's founding father David Ben-Gurion's record of more than 13 years in office.

But opinion polls show Netanyahu's right-wing Likud locked in a close battle with a centrist alliance led by former armed forces chief of staff Benny Gantz.

The attorney general has announced his intention to indict Netanyahu on fraud, bribery and breach of trust charges pending a hearing, which will be held after the election.

Netanyahu is not legally required to resign if indicted, only if convicted with all appeals exhausted, but political pressure would likely be intense.

Washington has annulled the entry visa of Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, after the State Department vowed to shield Americans from “unjust prosecutions” of possible war crimes in Afghanistan.

“We can confirm that the US authorities have revoked the prosecutor’s visa for entry into the US,” Bensouda’s office told Reuters in an email. However, the move should not restrict her travels to the UN headquarters in New York City.

Over the last two years, the Gambian lawyer has been probing US-led war crimes in Afghanistan but has not yet opened a formal investigation into alleged atrocities conducted over the last 18 years. For now, the preliminary inquiry remains in Pre-Trial Chamber, even though Bensouda found a “reasonable basis to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in connection with the armed conflict in Afghanistan.”

The situation at the LoC (Line of Control) between India and Pakistan remains critical, as both countries are ready for an all-out conflict, reported Sputnik.

"There is a difficult situation with India. We wish for de-escalation and are taking steps for this. The situation like the prime minister [Imran Khan] said remains on alert", Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Dr. Muhammad Faisal said in a television report earlier this month.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held meetings with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and military commanders, over its "readiness to initiate war against Pakistan," India TV News reported.

Saudi Arabia has nearly completed its first nuclear reactor according to satellite photos of the facility published by GoogleEarth, which reveal a "columnar vessel that will contain atomic fuel," according to Bloomberg.

Located in the southwest corner of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Riyadh, the new facility has raised concerns in the West - as the Saudis have yet to sign up to the international framework of rules adhered to by other nuclear powers in order to prevent civilian atomic programs aren't used to develop weapons. Nuclear fuel providers, meanwhile, cannot legally supply the new reactor until modern surveillance arrangements have been reached with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

While diplomacy seems to be slowing down in recent weeks, there are still high hopes that a peace deal with North Korea is possible, and that this may include denuclearization, even if it isn’t the US version which requires Kim to give the US all the weapons directly.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is all for that idea, and said on Tuesday that they are fully prepared to act as the monitor for any nuclear deal that might get reached.

IAEA Director Amano Yukiya tod the UN Security Council that the agency could have inspectors back in North Korea within a matter of weeks if a deal came into effect that would allow them to go there.

Amano said he believes the IAEA is the only body equipped to carry out the job at all. This may not sit well with the Trump Administration, as the IAEA has repeatedly confirmed Iran is in compliance with that nuclear deal, despite the US withdrawing from the pact and falsely accusing Iran of non-compliance.

The U.S. Navy is hiring a new team of hackers, engineers, and scientists to find ways to stop swarms of commercial drones.

Drones are causing problems for militaries around the world, and the Navy wants to make sure it can prevent more issues as the technology gets more sophisticated, according to Defense One — a chilling glimpse of the future of counter-insurgent warfare.

ARMS RACE
Off-the-shelf drones can already disrupt airports and be used as makeshift bombs, and the military has taken note of the threat, developing lasers and digital tools to counter the emerging threat.

The Navy is now joining forces with the Army on an anti-drone project called JYN (named after, yes, a “Star Wars” character). According to a memo reviewed by Defense One, Navy leadership sees anti-drone efforts as a crucial step to stay on top of new technological weaponry.

KEEPING PACE

The cast of characters will be familiar to observers of secret intelligence operations.

The embassy burglars sought information, a la Watergate. Unlike Watergate, they came by day. They invaded the Embassy in a quiet residential neighborhood, assaulted the staff, tied people up, and demanded computers and files.

A BBC report says they were especially interested in former ambassador to Madrid, Kim Hyok-chol, a confidante of Kim Jong-un.

He was a natural target for those seeking intelligence about North Korea’s nuclear program. In February Thae Yong-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to South Korea in 2016, described him as nuclear expert.

“At a very young age, Kim Hyok Chol was placed on the task force that wrote the drafts for North Korea’s nuclear strategy documents at its foreign ministry,” Thae told reporters at a news conference in Seoul.

El Pais on the possible motive for the brazen attack:

According to US Central Command, at least six airstrikes were carried out by US forces over the past week in Yemen. The strikes were intended to targeted the local al-Qaeda affiliate in al-Bayda Province.

As usual, Centcom offered no casualty data or any details of who was hit, or who was even the intended target. Bayda is known as a major haven for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) but strikes into the province aren’t necessarily productive to that US air war.

The reason Centcom discussed the matter at all seems to have been to clarify that this was part of an anti-al-Qaeda campaign, and not in any way related to the Saudi invasion of Yemen. Despite that, Centcom says that the operation was coordinated with the Saudi-backed government.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a progressive Democrat who is the co-chairman of the 2020 Democrat presidential campaign for Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that he hopes a bipartisan coalition comes together to work with President Donald Trump to end a number of wars and U.S. military conflicts worldwide.
Ro Khanna argued that if the United States stops its backing of Saudi Arabia in Yemen’s civil war, finally ends the war in Afghanistan, withdraws troops from Syria once and for all, resists temptations by some to get militarily involved in Venezuela, and completes successful peace negotiations with North Korea, then the United States could better invest resources wasted abroad into rebuilding America’s infrastructure.

Nasa has called India's destruction of a satellite a "terrible thing" that could threaten the International Space Station (ISS).

The space agency's chief, Jim Bridenstine, said that the risk of debris colliding with the ISS had risen by 44% over 10 days due to the test.

However he said: "The international space station is still safe. If we need to manoeuvre it we will."

India is the fourth country to have carried out such a test.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the test - Mission Shakti - with great fanfare on 27 March, saying it had established India as a "space power".

In an address to employees, Mr Bridenstine sharply criticised the testing of such anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons.

He said that Nasa had identified 400 pieces of orbital debris and was tracking 60 pieces larger than 10cm in diameter. Twenty-four of those pieces pose a potential risk to the ISS, he said.

In using his own version of Christianity to create US foreign policy, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has raised fears on Capitol Hill as to the influence of evangelical beliefs on the administration of a nuclear superpower.

"I am confident that the lord is at work here," stated Pompeo, regarding the history of Judaism, during an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network earlier in March, even as the influence of evangelism in the American government has been seen to be on the rise, according to a report in The New York Times.

Pompeo's beliefs, similar to those of US Vice President Mike Pence and former President George HW Bush, make no apology for using a Christian belief system to justify foreign policy moves — often within the same sentence — indicating the extent that an evangelical approach to American diplomacy could lead to war with other nations whose populations adhere to different faiths.

On March 27th, US President Donald Trump said that “Russia has to get out” of Venezuela, and that “All options are on the table” if Russia refuses to withdraw from Venezuela the protection it has recently provided to Venezuela’s elected Government, which Trump is attempting to overthrow, by an illegal coup. And Vice President Mike Pence, on the same day, said “Nicolás Maduro is a dictator with no legitimate claim to power, and it is the policy of the United States of America, at the direction of President Donald Trump, that Nicolás Maduro must go.” The United States is therefore trying to do to Maduro what Barack Obama did to Victor Yanukovich in Ukraine in 2014, and to Muammar Gaddaffi in Libya in 2011, and tried to do to Bashar Assad after 2011 in Syria, and what George W. Bush did in 2003 to Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

IRmep has filed a 39-page federal lawsuit (PDF) challenging the secrecy of a gag order—WNP-136 (PDF)—that forbids all U.S. government agency employees and contractors from discussing Israel's nuclear weapons program.

The classification bulletin, which took effect on September 6, 2012, forbids covered persons from making any comment on U.S. government information or information in the public domain about Israel's nuclear weapons program. The classification bulletin's first known use was against former Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear policy specialist James Doyle after he wrote the following sentence in an article titled "Why Eliminate Nuclear Weapons?" which had been security cleared by his employer and published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

If the U.S. opts to develop low-yield nuclear missiles, expect the Navy to deploy these weapons as part of the nation’s undersea nuclear deterrent, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command told lawmakers Thursday.

If developed, the U.S. low-yield nuclear weapons would fall within limits set by the New START nuclear arms treaty, Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, told the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee. New START, signed in 2010 by the U.S. and the Russian Federation, caps the number of nuclear warheads each nation deploys.

“We’ll actually remove big weapons from the submarines and put small ones in,” Hyten said. “We’re going to have still the same number weapons, they just going to give us a smaller yield. But we think that smaller yield actually gives us a better chance to deter our primary adversary.”

A Pentagon official has said that the US will retain the right to carry out a nuclear strike in response to a conventional attack. A 'no-first-use' policy would erode US allies' belief that they are protected, he said.
Washington has no plans to reverse its policy of "no first use" of nukes, which means it can bomb its adversaries with nuclear weapons under "extreme circumstances," Deputy Undersecretary of Defense David Trachtenberg said in his prepared remarks to the Senate Armed Service Committee hearing on Thursday.

Trachtenberg claimed that if the US changes its take on the issue, which he described as "constructive ambiguity," it "would undermine US extended deterrence and damage the health of our alliances because it would call into question the assurance that the United States would come to the defense of allies in extreme circumstances." This uncertainty might prompt these countries to arm themselves with nuclear weapons, he said.

IN SEPTEMBER 2017, Aileen Black wrote an email to her colleagues at Google. Black, who led sales to the U.S. government, worried that details of the company’s work to help the military guide lethal drones would become public through the Freedom of Information Act. “We will call tomorrow to reinforce the need to keep Google under the radar,” Black wrote.

According to a Pentagon memo signed last year, however, no one at Google needed worry: All 5,000 pages of documents about Google’s work on the drone effort, known as Project Maven, are barred from public disclosure, because they constitute “critical infrastructure security information.”

One government transparency advocate said the memo is part of a recent wave of federal decisions that keep sensitive documents secret on that same basis — thus allowing agencies to quickly deny document requests.

“Not only crop destruction, but US policies of extensive bombing, defoliation, and relocation of people from the countryside seem clearly to fall within the definition of crimes against humanity and war crimes,” wrote the Stanford Biology Group in a report entitled The Destruction of Indochina.

As part of a deliberate campaign of environmental destruction during its war against Vietnam, the US sprayed the countryside with herbicides containing carcinogenic chemicals to destroy tropical forest foliage and agricultural crops. The objectives of this diabolical program, which perhaps should be called “death by defoliant,” were threefold: first, to deprive the Vietnamese resistance fighters of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of hiding places and cover; second, to starve them into surrender by wiping out their food supply; and third, to drive rural peasants to urban areas controlled by the US-backed regime in an attempt to decimate popular support for the NLF.

Former Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland and other aides in the White House appear to have worked on a plan to “transfer sensitive U.S. nuclear technology” to Saudi Arabia…

The US is formally committed to dominating the world by the year 2020. With President Trump’s new Space Directive-4, the production of laser-armed fighter jets as possible precursors to space weapons, and the possibility of nuclear warheads being put into orbit, the clock is ticking...

Back in 1997, the now-re-established US Space Command announced its commitment to “full spectrum dominance.”

Progressives are told to love the Pentagon budget (Bloomberg, 3/17/19) by a pundit whose connection to the military/industrial complex isn’t disclosed.

You may not know it, but bloated Pentagon budgets are actually “progressive.” Or so says a recent opinion piece in Bloomberg News (3/17/19), “Progressives Should Learn to Love the Pentagon Budget,” by Hal Brands.

Bloomberg identifies Brands as the “Henry Kissinger Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.” “Kissinger” is ominous enough, but surely Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments is some innocuous, wonky academic institution, no?

In a piece explicitly defending bloated military budgets, however, perhaps it would be useful to know what exactly the “Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments” is.

RUSSIA has unveiled a first glimpse of its monster submarine - dubbed “Vladimir the Great” - as it goes on sea trials in the Arctic.

The the Borei-style nuclear ballistic missile submarine is capable of launching 20 intercontinental nuclear missiles, decimating cities almost 6,000 miles away.

There are times when I wish that the United States would just drop the charade and declare itself a global empire. As a veteran of two imperial wars, a witness to the dark underside of America’s empire-denial, I’ve grown tired of the equivocation and denials from senior policymakers. The U.S. can’t be an empire, we’re told, because – unlike the Brits and Romans – America doesn’t annex territories outright, and our school children don’t color its colonies in red-white-and-blue on cute educational maps.

The proposed policies, if adopted by the new leadership in the House, would certainly fracture whatever consensus exists today to modernize America's strategic nuclear deterrent -- and at a time when both Russia and China are charging ahead militarily, and Iran and North Korea are racing toward a deliverable nuclear weapons capability.

If the United States chooses to eliminate its land-based missiles, as arms control advocates have proposed, it would dramatically and dangerously simplify an adversary's targeting calculus. The US would be reducing more than 500 distinct American-based nuclear-related targets -- including 450 Minuteman silos and 48 launch control centers spread across five American states -- down to only five continental US targets -- three USAF bomber bases, and two submarines bases -- and only roughly 10 targets if US submarines at sea were included.

US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford issued a statement Monday denying weekend media reports that the US plans to leave around 1,000 troops in Syria, saying the reports are “factually incorrect.”

Dunford presented the current planned “residual force” as 200, saying that this hadn’t changed since February. The US announced 200 would stay on February 21, but on February 22 officially increased that number to 400.

It’s not clear from Dunford’s statement where the “incorrect” aspect of the new report, which came out of a Wall Street Journal, exists. That report suggested that the 1,000 figure was not yet finalized, but was being discussed. Dunford’s comments didn’t include any details on what is actually being discussed, but just that nothing was finalized.

A U.S. government-led group is working with chipmaker Intel Corp and Cray Inc to develop and build the nation's fastest computer by 2021 for conducting nuclear weapons and other research, officials said on Monday.

The Department of Energy and the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago said they are working on a supercomputer dubbed Aurora with Intel, the world's biggest supplier of data center chips, and Cray, which specializes in the ultra-fast machines.

This is the incredible moment enormous American B-52 bombers land at a RAF base in the largest US bomber deployment to the UK since the Iraq war.

Amazing photos and video footage have captured the impressive US planes landing at RAF Fairford, in Gloucestershire, their new temporary base.

Their arrival on Thursday and Friday came ahead of a NATO exercise in Georgia, which will be a show of force against Vladimir Putin's neighbouring Russia - though it is unclear if the B-52s will be involved.

Two US strategic bomber B-52H Stratofortress have, earlier today, arrived at Fairford Air Force Base in the UK. Aircraft DRYER91 and DRYER92 took off from Barksdale air base in Louisiana and landed in the morning at a British airfield, according to the data from the following source:

In addition, three more American B-52 bomber with the callsign STRAY81, STRAY82, STRAY83 and one B-52H with the call sign CLIP91 were transferred to the UK in the last two days. Thus, according to the information of the source, the USA transferred six nuclear bombers to Fairford. This should raise some concerns.

The U.S. has sent nuclear-capable Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers to the United Kingdom for strategic missions in Europe.

A "Bomber Task Force" arrived at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford on Thursday from the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, U.S. Air Forces Europe-Africa (USAFE) said in a press release.

"The deployment also includes joint and allied training in the U.S. European Command theater to improve bomber interoperability. Training with joint partners, allied nations and other U.S. Air Force units contributes to our ready and postured forces and enables us to build enduring and strategic relationships necessary to confront a broad range of global challenges," the statement read.

According to Gloucestershire Live, two B-52s arrived at RAF Fairford on Thursday with more expected Friday.

With the world’s largest, most destructive arsenal of nuclear weapons, the United States poses an enormous risk not just to peace, but to the survival of much of the human race. That’s only a problem, of course, if the US starts using that arsenal.

Which is where formal US nuclear doctrine would come in. There have been debates for decades on whether the US should adopt a “no first use” policy, officially ruling out the idea that the US would launch a nuclear attack without first being attacked with a nuclear weapon.

Morally, this ought to be obvious, but every attempt to adopt such a policy has been opposed, with Joint Chiefs commander Gen. Joe Dunford the latest to come out against the idea, saying promising not to nuke other nations in a first strike would “simplify an adversary’s decision-making.”

Pentagon officials announced plans this week to move forward with flight tests of two medium to long range missile types previously banned under the Reagan era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) which both Washington and Moscow recently declared they have effectively pulled out of. The tests of the long-banned ground-launched cruise missiles would mark an ultimate point of no return for the fast faltering landmark 1987 treaty.

The tests are expected to begin in August, the point at which the US and Russia agree the INF is set to finally terminate, which would be the death knell of the over three decade treaty which successfully kept missile build up out of Europe at the tail end of the Cold War and after.

Washington’s new nuclear doctrine, which was announced on 2 February, outlines that President Trump, just like predecessor Barack Obama, would consider using nuclear weapons only in “extreme circumstances”. The Nuclear Posture Review also allows the US to strike first in a preemptive move.

General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has warned against changing the current US military policy which allows the country to be the first to use nuclear weapons during a possible conflict with an adversary.

Speaking at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Dunford said that he “absolutely” believes that “the current policy is the right policy”.

First deputy chairman of the defense committee of the State Duma, Andrei Krasov, explained to Russian media – and through FRN, to the Anglophoe world – why the US maintains a nuclear first strike policy. According to the Russian senator, the policy of a preemptive nuclear strike by the United States is not beneficial to American society, but to the US military’s defense industry. Krasov made his comments in the aftermath of disturbing comments made from

Yesterday on March 14th, low-functioning psychopath and war-criminal for hire, General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of the US Armed Forces, said that Washington should not abandon the policy of delivering a preemptive nuclear strike, since this option forces the enemy to make informed decisions.

Thom talks with author and filmmaker John Pilger about his new documentary “The Coming War On China” and the military escalation that could lead World War III.

A “marathon” round of talks with the Taliban in Qatar has produced an “agreement in draft” on counter-terrorism assurances and American troop withdrawal, said US envoy for peace in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad.
“The conditions for peace have improved,” Khalilzad tweeted after the talks. “Despite ups and downs, we kept things on track and made real strides.”

It’s clear all sides want to end the war.

Troop withdrawal and counter-terrorism assurances are the first two issues that Khalilzad and the Taliban reached an “agreement on principle” during the talks in January.

When the final deal is reached on those two issues, the Taliban will start negotiations on “a political settlement and comprehensive ceasefire,” with the government in Kabul and other factions in Afghanistan, Khalilzad said.

On July 25, 1945, in the waning moments of World War II, then US President Harry S. Truman jotted the following words in his diary, “We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world.” But not terrible enough to employ them, it seems.

Just weeks later, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese industrial cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, indiscriminately killing some 200,000 civilians in, literally, a flash. Many others died in the years that followed from radiation poisoning and other associated illnesses. If there is a special place in hell for those who would expose the planet to such horrific weapons, Truman must certainly be there.

Palmer Luckey (previously) the alt-right financier who was made a billionaire by Mark Zuckerberg's decision to acquire his VR startup Oculus, is now running a Peter-Thiel-backed surveillance startup called Anduril Industries, which has won a contract to contribute to Project Maven, the Pentagon's controversial AI-for-drones system (Google's involvement in Project Maven sparked an employee uprising that ended with the relevant executives leaving the company and the contract being allowed to lapse).

Luckey's company won the contract after he made lavish contributions to the campaigns of Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans.

A lawsuit warns that U.S. aid to Israel violates a law meant to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation, even as the United States prepares to increase the already massive Israeli aid program.

Filed Aug. 8 by Grant Smith, director of the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy, or IRMEP, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the suit alleges that U.S. aid to Israel violates two amendments to the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, known as the the Symington and Glenn Amendments, which collectively ban support for countries engaged in clandestine nuclear programs.

In the lawsuit, Smith alleges that violating these amendments means that Israel has received approximately $234 billion in illegal aid since the passage of the International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act of 1976.

The lawsuit reads:

The US Government has been scorned for lifting its ban on experiments to engineer deadly bird flu which could infect humans.

Research into the viruses will soon be allowed to carry on, despite experts warning people could die if the pathogens break out of laboratories.

Scientists say they want to study the virus 'to protect human health' so they can learn more about it and be better prepared for a pandemic.

But Professor Steven Salzberg, a biomedical engineering expert at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, said he cannot fathom why the US National Institutes of Health, which has permitted the 'dangerous' research, is allowing it to happen.

While the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile has not attracted the same level of media attention as the strategic Avangard re-entry vehicle or even the air-launched Kinzhal aeroballistic missile, it nevertheless represents an important advance in military technology and represents the state-of-the-art of Russian technologies. It promises to maintain and even expand Russia’s conventional deterrence through its high guarantee of effective retaliatory capability even against the most advanced anti-air and anti-missile defenses.

This doesn't look good...

Two days after reports about North Korea rebuilding a long-range missile test site surfaced in Western media, the Korea Times reported Thursday that a 2.1-magnitude earthquake has been detected in North Korea.

Most alarmingly, the Korean Meteorological Administration said the quake was the result of "artificial" seismic activity, presumably the result of an explosion inside a mine.

"The epicenter is measured to be near the land surface," one official reportedly said.

The footage shows the aftermath of four separate 32-kiloton blasts from an atomic bomb later nicknamed 'Dirty Harry.'

Three clips show the moment the heat blast from the bombs melted the paint on three separate automobiles, including two classic sedans and a bus.
Moments later the vehicles are blown away by the bomb's shockwave.
A fourth clip shows an empty tent bursting into flames before being obliterated.

Deseret News called the nuclear trials 'tragic and insane,' in a 1953 editorial, but said the tests were necessary in the atomic Cold War era, the New York Times reported.

'So long as we live in an atomic world, we must and will continue to learn more about this power and how to survive it,' the paper's editors once rationalized.
There were 928 nuclear tests that took place at the Nevada test site from 1951 to 1992.

Most of those test explosions were detonated underground.

The Commander, Naval Air Forces and the U.S. Marine Corps Deputy Commandant for Aviation published a statement last week declaring its fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35C stealth fighter jets are operationally ready for war.

After several decades of testing and development, the service announced Thursday that the fifth-generation fighter had achieved Initial Operating Capability, indicating that it has passed all tests to be flown on combat missions.

Thursday's announcement came after a squadron of the F-35Cs qualified and deployed with the San Diego-based Nimitz-class supercarrier, Carl Vinson.

“The F-35C is ready for operations, ready for combat and ready to win,” said Commander Naval Air Forces, Vice Admiral DeWolfe Miller. “We are adding an incredible weapon system into the arsenal of our Carrier Strike Groups that significantly enhances the capability of the joint force.”

The UK is under pressure to adopt a more aggressive posture towards the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in exchange for better trade deals with the US in post-Brexit negotiations between the two countries.

Details of the post-Brexit trade negotiations-which suggest Britain is unlikely to get softer treatment than other US allies-were released last week in an 18-page document by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), led by Robert Lighthizer. Listed amongst the “negotiating objectives” of the Trump administration is a demand for the UK to take a more hostile stance towards BDS.

Russia has formally pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) after previously signalling that it would take this historic step after the White House announced last month that the US would suspend all obligations under the treaty. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday formally enacting and finalizing Russia’s suspension of the INF Treaty, which was set to expire in less than six months and subject of heightened tensions after both sides have repeatedly accused the other of having been in violation of its terms for years.

Research that could make flu viruses more dangerous, and that the government suspended in 2014 because of safety concerns, has been approved to begin again, federal officials have confirmed.

The government did not publicly announce its decisions in recent months to allow two labs to resume their projects. The new go-ahead was first reported in the journal Science.

The lack of information about the decision and how it was made have provoked outrage from some scientists, who oppose the research because they say it could create mutant viruses that might cause deadly pandemics if they were unleashed by lab accidents or terrorism. The research sparked worldwide fears when it was first revealed in 2011.

In 2014, U.S. officials imposed a moratorium on experiments to enhance some of the world’s most lethal viruses by making them transmissible by air, responding to widespread concerns that a lab accident could spark a global pandemic. Most infectious-disease studies pose modest safety risks, but given that these proposed experiments intended to create a highly contagious flu virus that could spread among humans, the government concluded the work should not go on until it could be approved through a specially created, rigorous review process that considered the dangers.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah today condemned the UK’s decision to add it to its list of “terrorist groups”.

“No country in the world that embraces, finances and supports terrorism has the right to accuse the party [i.e., Hezbollah], or any resistance movement, of terrorism,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

The move, the group added, “reveals how the British government is only a follower in the service of its American master.”

Yesterday, Britain’s parliament voted to officially label Hezbollah as a “terrorist group”.

As of next Monday, membership in – or support for – the group will be considered a criminal offense in the UK, carrying sentences of up to ten years in prison.

A Russian defense contractor, Kalashnikov Concern, named after one of the most famous small-arms designers of all time, is now producing kamikaze drones designed to destroy remote ground targets.

The “high-precision unmanned aerial system” KUB-BLA was for the first time showcased at the International Exhibition of Arms and Military Equipment 2019 in Abu Dhabi. The drone delivers an explosive charge on the coordinates of the target, which are set manually or can be acquired automatically by uploading image of the target into the guidance system.

The KUB-BLA has a 3-kilogram payload, a flying time of 30 minutes, and a 80-130-kilometer-per-hour speed. It measures 1210mm wide by 950mm long and 165mm high. Typically, the payload is apparently a high-explosive charge. Kalashnikov Concern says that the advantages of the system are “hidden launch, high accuracy of the shot, noiselessness and ease of handling”.

The House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform has issued a report on a plot to make billions of dollars by selling Saudi Arabia sensitive American nuclear technology that could allow the Kingdom to develop nuclear weapons. The scheme required breaking US law, which forbids technology transfers that might allow nuclear proliferation.

We're at a scary moment internationally as tensions escalate between the nuclear powers of India and Pakistan, and we should all be praying for things to calm down. In addition to the horrible death toll and humanitarian crisis that would follow, according to scientists, a small-scale nuclear war could actually reverse global warming and actually cause devastating global cooling.

To be abundantly clear, what follows isn't meant as a how-to guide advocating nuclear war as some sort of out-of-the box alternative solution to climate change. It's meant as a description of the science surrounding how a theoretical regional nuclear war could affect the Earth's atmosphere, and thus the climate, even for people not directly in the blast radius.

War has erupted in Asia. India is the second largest country in the world by population, and Pakistan is the fifth largest, and they both possess large nuclear arsenals. If this conflict continues to escalate, things could get really, really bad very quickly. On Wednesday, military aircraft were shot down by both sides, there was shelling across the border by both armies, and in recent hours videos have been posted of Pakistani tanks and Indian tanks both heading to the border. Once one army crosses the “Line of Control”, it is going to be very difficult to get the two sides to sit down at the negotiating table. War is one of the elements of “the perfect storm” that I have been warning you about, and I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of the conflict that we are going to see in 2019.

The Pakistani military was greatly embarrassed by the successful Indian airstrikes on Monday, and on Tuesday military aircraft from both sides were shot down…

The United States military is going to attempt to build deadly artificial intelligence-driven tanks. Dubbed Project ATLAS, this type of tank would lead to the first autonomous ground combat vehicles.

According to Quartz, the Advanced Targeting and Lethality Automated System (ATLAS) would theoretically give a tank the ability to do everything necessary to take down a target except pull the trigger. A human operator will still need to actually fire the weapon that will kill another human being. The United States Army has already called on experts in the field to help it develop this deadly technology. Eventually, it will allow a ground combat vehicle such a tank to automatically detect, target, and engage enemy combatants – without the risk of the operator losing their life.

The military's four new Humvee replacement Joint Light Tactical Vehicles are not ready to be deployed due to 'safety issues, being difficult to maintain and the doors don't open properly'

The military reported test results of it's four Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs)
They were all found to be 'not operationally suitable' for use on the battlefield
The Close Combat Weapons Carrier in particular was 'not operationally effective'
The findings revealed problems including inaccurate health monitoring systems, doors opening, difficulty loading missiles and not enough cargo space
The military plans to order 55,000 JLTVs for use by the Army, Marines Corps and Air Force, which would partially replace their Humvees
The military intended to start rolling out the JLTVs to the branches in early 2019 .

fter two of its destroyers were involved in deadly accidents in the summer of 2017, the Navy’s leaders pledged real change: more sailors for their ships, and better training for those sailors and the officers who led them. Old or broken equipment would be fixed, too. Most important, the Navy’s top command would stop forcing ships out to sea before they were ready.

In late 2017, as part of an effort to assure commanders that the Navy was committed to genuine reform, Adm. Philip Davidson embarked on a speaking tour. Davidson was in charge of “readiness” — responsible for making sure that the Navy’s ships were fully staffed, and that sailors were adequately trained and equipped and ready for combat. He had recently authored a public report laying out dozens of specific weaknesses that the Navy had begun fixing.

The House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform has issued a report on a plot to make billions of dollars by selling Saudi Arabia sensitive American nuclear technology that could allow the Kingdom to develop nuclear weapons. The scheme required breaking US law, which forbids technology transfers that might allow nuclear proliferation.

Nothing unites the D.C. blob like a good old coup d’état. The only other times, it seems, that Donald Trump is given a break by “the resistance” is when he acts “presidential” — i.e., orders military aggression, as we saw with Syria.

As veteran journalist Dan Rather put it at the time:

The number of members of the press who have lauded the actions last night as ‘presidential’ is concerning. War must never be considered a public relations operation. It is not a way for an Administration to gain a narrative. It is a step into a dangerous unknown and its full impact is impossible to predict, especially in the immediate wake of the first strike.”

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro faced growing regional pressure on Sunday after his troops repelled foreign aid convoys, with the United States threatening new sanctions and Brazil urging allies to join a “liberation effort”.

Violent clashes with security forces over the opposition’s U.S.-backed attempt on Saturday to bring aid into the economically devastated country left almost 300 wounded and at least three protesters dead near the Brazilian border.

Juan Guaido, recognised by most Western nations as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, urged foreign powers to consider “all options” in ousting Maduro, ahead of a meeting of the regional Lima Group of nations in Bogota on Monday that will be attended by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

While Americans were obsessing over a third-rate actor’s fake claims of a racial assault, old foes India and Pakistan were rattling their nuclear weapons in a very dangerous crisis over Kashmir. But hardly anyone noticed that nuclear war could break out in South Asia.

India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed, have fought four wars over divided Kashmir since 1947, the lovely mountain state of forests and lakes whose population is predominantly Muslim. India controls two thirds of Kashmir; Pakistan and China the rest. This bitter dispute, one of the world’s oldest confrontations, has defied all attempts to resolve it.

The United Nations called on India to hold a plebiscite to determine Kashmir’s future, but Delhi ignored this demand, knowing it would probably lose the vote.

A majority of voters in a referendum on Okinawa opposed a plan to relocate a U.S. military base within the southern Japanese island, but the central government said on Monday it intended to press ahead with its construction plans.

The United States has left unanswered Russia’s proposal for reaffirming the commitment to efforts for preventing nuclear war, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in the wake of calls from the mayors of Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, addressed to Russia and the United States, for preventing the severing of the Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his annual presidential address to the legislature Wednesday, criticized the United States for ignoring the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty by deploying missile launchers in Romania and Poland.

"First it started developing and using intermediate-range missiles it deceitfully called targets for missile defenses. Then it began to deploy the Mk-41 launchers in Europe, capable of using intermediate range cruise missiles Tomahawk for combat purposes," he said.

"By doing all this the United States blatantly ignored the provisions contained in articles 4 and 6 of the INF Treaty."

Russia will respond to any U.S. deployment of short or intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe by targeting not only the countries where they are stationed but the United States itself, Putin warned.

Europe’s possible agreement to host US intermediate and shorter-range ballistic missiles will be tantamount to signing a "suicide pact" in light of Russia’s declared resolve to target these potential security threats, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the leader of Germany’s Civil Rights Movement Solidarity party, told Sputnik.

"If Europe were to accept the installation of new US missiles on its territory in this strategic environment, it would sign a suicide pact," Zepp-LaRouche said.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has vowed to use force against the United States should the U.S. deploy any missile weapons in Europe. Putin says the threat is necessary to protect Russia because U.S. weapons will be much closer to being able to destroy his country.

In what could be called Putin’s toughest remarks yet on a potential new arms race, the Russian president said Moscow was not seeking confrontation and would not take the first step to deploy missiles in response to Washington’s decision this month to quit a landmark Cold War-era arms control treaty. But Putin would take action against the U.S. if the decision is made to deploy weapons in Europe.

In his first major public address since the US formally pulled out of the INF arms-control treaty, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that Russia would point its new arsenal of hypersonic missiles - which can purportedly bypass NATO's ABM systems - directly at the US if it dares to reintroduce ground-based intermediate-range missiles to Europe.

According to Fox, Putin threatened to deploy Russia’s new Zircon missiles, which Putin said can fly at nine times the speed of sound and carry a range of 620 miles and are part of the country's drive to upgrade its defensive capabilities against an increasingly aggressive US and NATO.

Russia will consider tit-for-tat and asymmetric measures if the United States deploys intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles to Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his annual State of the Nation address to the Federal Assembly on Wednesday.

"I’ve already said and I want to repeat - and this is vital - to repeat this specifically, that Russia is not planning to be the first to deploy these missiles to Europe. If they are indeed manufactured and sent to the European continent, and the US does have these plans, anyway, we haven’t heard other statements, this will sharply deteriorate international security and create serious threats to Russia since it takes up to 10-12 minutes for certain types of these missiles to fly to Moscow. This is a very serious danger to us. In this case, we will be forced, and I want to stress this, we will be forced to envisage tit-for-tat and asymmetric measures," Putin said.

In an address to the Federal Assembly on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin touched upon a spate of pressing international issues related to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Putin Warns Against US Missiles in Europe

During the address, the Russian president specifically touched upon the possible deployment of US missiles in Europe.

He warned that if Washington deploys its medium-and short-range missiles in Europe, it will “dramatically exacerbate international security situation" and create serious challenges to Russia.

Our sudden hostility to China reflects a consensus – at least within the Washington Beltway – that we need to wrestle China to the ground and pin it there. But what are the chances we can do that? What are the consequences of attempting it? Where are we now headed with China?

Realism is out of fashion in Washington even if it’s alive and well elsewhere in America. It should give us pause that our new enemy of choice is a very different, larger, and more dynamic country than any we have unbefriended before. China had a couple of bad centuries. But forty years ago, the Chinese Communist Party and government began to evolve what turned out to be a successful model of economic development that blended state capitalism with free enterprise. This unleashed the entrepreneurial talents of the Chinese people. The results have been staggering.