Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he regrets growing global tendency of underestimating the risks of a nuclear war.

"I just thought somehow the danger of such a development in the world is somehow fading into the background," he said. "It seems impossible or something not so important. In the meantime, should anything like that happen, God forbid, this may result in the death of civilization and, possibly, the entire planet."

President Putin hopes mankind will have enough common sense to prevent a third world war from ever happening.

Some militant groups, after their defeat in Syria and Iraq, have been relocating to Africa, where they create large enclaves of the Daesh terrorist group, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram, Alexander Venediktov, the Russian Security Council secretary's assistant, told Sputnik.

"Let's take the problem of terrorism, which today is acute for African countries. After the defeat in Syria and Iraq, some militants have been on their way to the Sahel and further southward. As a result, bandit enclaves under the banners of ISIS [Daesh], al-Qaeda and Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to IS [Daesh] militants, are emerging on the vast territories," Venediktov said.

The US military’s Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is developing genetically engineered organisms that it hopes will be able to detect the presence of enemy submarines, ships, or divers, according to a new report published in Defense One.

The work is part of a $45 million initiative across all the branches of the US armed forces that is investigating ocean-based military applications for genetic engineering.

Motherboard has previously reported on the military’s plans to use larger aquatic animals to detect enemy ships, but now it appears that they are also looking to weaponize biology on the microscale.

As the Naval Research Laboratory told Motherboard in an email, researchers plan on using microorganisms commonly found in the ocean and genetically modify them so they react to various substances left by enemy vessels or equipment, such as fuel exhaust and trace amounts of metals.

This happened some 63 years ago, but as the U.S. government has never stopped lying about it, and it’s generally known only outside the United States, I’m going to treat it as news.

Here in our little U.S. bubble we’ve heard of a couple versions of a film called The Manchurian Candidate. We’ve heard of the general concept of “brainwashing” and may even associate it with something evil that the Chinese supposedly did to U.S. prisoners during the Korean War. And I’d be willing to bet that the majority of people who’ve heard of these things have at least a vague sense that they’re bullshit.

If you didn’t know, I’ll break it to you right now: people cannot actually be programed like the Manchurian candidate, which was a work of fiction. There was never the slightest evidence that China or North Korea had done any such thing. And the CIA spent decades trying to do such a thing, and finally gave up.

The U.S. lacks the defenses needed to protect against a new breed of highly sophisticated hypersonic weapons from China and Russia, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

“China and Russia are pursuing hypersonic weapons because their speed, altitude and maneuverability may defeat most missile defense systems, and they may be used to improve long-range conventional and nuclear strike capabilities,” the report said. “There are no existing countermeasures.”

The strategic vision which emerges from the Congressional report – even more worrying when we note that the Commission is composed of equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats – leaves no room for doubt. The United States – which, since 1945, has provoked wars causing between 20 and 30 million deaths (plus the hundreds of millions caused by the indirect effects of these wars) to “guide the construction of a world of unusual prosperity, freedom and security, from which it has benefited enormously” is now preparing to do anything necessary to maintain its “unequaled military power” upon which their empire is founded, but which is now beginning to crumble with the emergence of a multipolar world.

For this purpose, the Congressional Commission is examining scenarios of aggression against the United States, which are no more than the mirror image of their own aggressive strategy, which runs the risk of dragging the world into catastrophe.

An unprecedented “flood of bomb threats” prompted hundreds of evacuations and closures of private buildings, transport hubs and offices in four countries on Thursday, causing confusion and in some cases panic. The threats —which numbered in the hundreds— were issued throughout the day Thursday against businesses, schools, hospitals and media companies in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. It is the first time in history that such a large wave of bomb threats was issued against so many targets internationally.

A deadline of one business day was given to deposit the funds. Throughout the day, police agencies across three continents issued notices cautioning people to remain aware of their surroundings and report suspicious messages or behaviour. It was eventually determined that virtually all bomb threats were not credible.

HOWEVER, IT WAS THE SHEER NUMBER AND GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT OF THE THREATS THAT SHOCKED LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES ACROSS FOUR COUNTRIES.

LATE LAST MONTH, two former policymakers and lobbyists teamed up for an op-ed in the Washington Post. It was, as the genre goes, fairly mundane: a description of a problem or a threat, and a prescription that just happens to benefit a particular corporate sector that the lobbyists just might have an interest in benefiting.

In a piece titled “Why America needs low-yield nuclear warheads now,” Michael Morell and Jon Kyl argued that Russian and Chinese nuclear modernization programs demanded a response. “Russia is intent on exploiting what it perceives as a U.S. nuclear capability gap,” they write. “We must change that calculation” by adding submarine and sea-launched missiles with nuclear warheads. This would increase deterrence and prevent nuclear war, they claim; otherwise Russia will strike first.

The former Ukrainian envoy to NATO, Major General Petro Garashchuk, recently stated in an interview with Obozrevatel TV:

“I'll say it once more. We have the ability to develop and produce our own nuclear weapons, currently available in the world, such as the one that was built in the former USSR and which is now in independent Ukraine, located in the city of Dnipro (former Dnipropetrovsk) that can produce these kinds of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Neither the United States, nor Russia, nor China have produced a missile named Satan … At the same time, Ukraine does not have to worry about international sanctions when creating these nuclear weapons."

The BBC published an article in October titled, "How chemical weapons have helped bring Assad close to victory" in which it claims chemical weapons have been "crucial" to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's "war-winning strategy."

Superficially - the article appears impressive - loaded from top to bottom with colorful charts, graphs, and photographs of supposed victims in gas masks, expended munitions, and craters.

However, never once does the BBC provide an actual explanation as to how chemical weapons brought Damascus closer to victory. Even at face value, the article's entire premise is challenged in each paragraph by the statistics and events the article itself presents.

Alleged Chemical Weapon Casualties are a Drop in the Ocean

The article begins by claiming (emphasis added):

China is planning an underwater sea base, a latter-day "Atlantis" that runs on artificial intelligence that could aid Beijing in defense operations in the South China Sea, according to a recent press report.

The South China Morning Post reported Monday China is building the center that could become the "first artificial intelligence colony on Earth."

The project is named after the ancient Greek underworld of Hades and was launched at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping may be behind the project. In April, during a visit to a deep-sea research institute at Sanya, Hainan Province, Xi told scientists to do something never done before

General Sir Nick Carter warned Russia, China, Iran and sadistic terrorist organisations like ISIS are a colossal threat towards the UK. He said Britain’s security, stability and prosperity are being challenged by the “ambitious” superstates. He admitted, “the multilateral system that has assured our stability since 1945 is threatened” and mass migration was “arguably an existential threat to Europe”.

Mr Carter said, in his first lecture as Chief of the Defence Staff at the Royal United Services Institute, that Russia and China had “studied our strengths and invested carefully in new methods and capabilities that are designed to exploit weaknesses”.

These included ballistic and cruise missiles, low-yield nuclear weapons, cyberweapons, space and counter space weapons, and electronic warfare.

The statement issued by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on December 4 regarding the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty following the meeting of the foreign ministers of the alliance in Brussels puts the seal on the US decision to withdraw from the pact.

Washington has successfully rallied its European allies. Armed with NATO solidarity, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave Russia a 60-day ultimatum to return to compliance with the Treaty. Pompeo hopes to make Russia the culpable party.

However, quite some time ago, the US had already made up it mind to scrap the treaty. The Congress even made provision in the Pentagon budget for R&D relating to intermediate missiles. But an alibi was needed. In 2002, the US unilaterally withdrew from the ABM Treaty and dealt a body blow to international security without bothering to explain. On the contrary, INF Treaty is vital to European security and an alibi is necessary.

Milchan needed Netanyahu’s help to secure a long-term visa in the States because his long enjoyed right to long term visas had been revoked. Milchan, an Israeli citizen, was the regular recipient of ten-year U.S. visas until the right was revoked over his confession that he had been working in America on behalf of Israeli intelligence.

Milchan is an Israeli billionaire who is publicly known in the U.S as the Hollywood producer of over 150 movies, including Birdman, Brazil, JFK, Pretty Woman, The Revenant and 12 Years a Slave. He owned over thirty companies in seventeen countries. But at least some of those companies were fronts. According to the biography Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Producer, Milchan set up straw companies and secret bank accounts around the world whose purpose was to finance Israel’s secret Dimona nuclear plant.

There are at least three reasons that could lead to a military confrontation between Russia and the United States, believes the deputy director of the European and International Research Center of the College of Economics, Dmitry Suslov.

Suslov warned that in the short and medium term a global confrontation would be fraught with very serious risks, among them a military confrontation between Russia and the United States with increasing chances to happen.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the Kremlin would "respond appropriately" if the United States pulls out of the Cold War-era nuclear weapons treaty that prohibits intermediate and shorter-range nuclear missiles, according to the WSJ .

In October, President Trump said that Washington would withdraw from the 1987 treaty, citing Russia's development of the 9M729 cruise missile - which Moscow has been working on for several years. As we noted in September, Russia has been working on sub-launched hypersonic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear payload.

Russia’s state program of armaments has reportedly announced its intention to build two more Borey-class ballistic missile submarines in the next decade, bringing Moscow’s total ballistic missile submarine fleet to 11 boats. Meanwhile, the latest boat, Prince Vladimir, began sea trials last week.

Earlier, the US secretary of state urged Russia to return to the negotiating table to discuss the future of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. He added that the US would stop complying with it in 60 days if Moscow wouldn’t end its alleged violations of the accord.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded to earlier statements by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg regarding the INF treaty by stating that Moscow strictly adheres to the provisions of the arms accord.

"Russia is following the provisions of the treaty and the American side knows this well," she said.

Even Russian experts who have utmost respect for the tremendous military capacity of the US nonetheless point out Russia would be able to retaliate against a nuclear first strike -- and end the world

US Senator Tom Cotton and Congresswoman Liz Cheney have introduced a bill that prevents extending the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia or the Stopping Russia Nuclear Aggression Act. It says “Under no circumstances should the United States agree to extend the New START Treaty beyond the current expiration in 2021 without drastic improvements to the deeply flawed deal.” The bill includes the provision of Russia’s agreement to verifiably reduce its stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons. It also stipulates that the new weapons mentioned in the President Putin’s famous speech in March must be included into the count.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday condemned what he described as Iran’s testing of a medium-range ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple warheads as a violation of the international agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program.

Amid tension between Washington and Tehran over ballistic missiles, Pompeo warned in a statement released on Twitter that Iran is increasing its “testing and proliferation” of missiles and called on the Islamic Republic to “cease these activities.”

US President Donald Trump pulled out of an international nuclear agreement in May and reimposed sanctions on Tehran, criticising the deal for not including curbs on Iran’s development of ballistic missiles or its support for proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.

First: as from March 2020, the United States will begin to deploy in Italy, Germany, Belgium, and Holland (where B-61 nuclear bombs are already based), and probably also in other European countries, the first nuclear bomb with precision guidance in their arsenal, the B61-12. Its function is primarily anti-Russian. This new bomb is designed with penetrating capacity, enabling it to explode underground in order to destroy the central command bunkers with its first strike. How would the United States react if Russia deployed nuclear bombs in Mexico, right next to their territory? Since Italy and the other countries, violating the non-proliferation Treaty, are allowing the USA to use its bases, as well as its pilots and planes, for the deployment of nuclear weapons, Europe will be exposed to a greater risk as the first line of the growing confrontation with Russia.

Rogue regimes like Israel with their illegal stockpiles of nuclear weapons present the real danger to global peace, according to independent political analyst and writer,Adam Garrie.

A senior Russian official has cautioned the United States against a plan to withdraw from a landmark Cold War-era nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, saying such a move would have grave consequence for the world.

US President Donald Trump announced last month that Washington would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which was signed toward the end of the Cold War in 1987 by then-President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

The treaty — seen as a milestone in ending the Cold War arms race between the two superpowers — banned ground-launch nuclear missiles with ranges from 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers and led to the elimination of nearly 2,700 short- and medium-range missiles.

n November 15, Ernst & Young and other private firms that were hired to audit the Pentagon announced that they could not complete the job. Congress had ordered an independent audit of the Department of Defense, the government’s largest single cost center—the Pentagon receives two of every three federal tax dollars collected—after the Pentagon failed for decades to audit itself. The firms concluded, however, that the DoD’s financial records were riddled with so many bookkeeping deficiencies, irregularities, and errors that a reliable audit was simply impossible.

Iran has not declared all its chemical weapons capabilities to the global chemical weapons agency in The Hague, in violation of an international non-proliferation convention, the U.S. ambassador to the organisation said on Thursday.

Ambassador Kenneth Ward told a meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that Iran had failed to report a production facility for the filling of aerial bombs and maintains a programme to obtain banned toxic munitions.

There was no immediate Iranian reaction to the remarks.

Russia must ramp up production of high-precision missiles and artillery shells, President Vladimir Putin said. Smart munitions can do the job more effectively than their “dumb” counterparts – and even save on the costs.
“We definitely need, not the notorious ‘slugs’, but ‘smart’ and highly precise munitions instead, which expand the capabilities of both existing and prospective weapon systems, and, I stress, can save funds considerably,” Putin said on Thursday, speaking at a meeting with industry representatives and top military officers.

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FILE PHOTO. MiG-31 fighter jet carries Kinzhal hypersonic missile. © Alexey NikolskiyPutin teases new arms: Lasers & hypersonic missiles in service, but ‘that’s not all’

US dropped two million tonnes of bombs on Laos at height of Vietnam War. Why are cluster munitions still killing?

Vientiane - This year's Thanksgiving celebration marks 50 years since the American military embarked on the biggest bombing campaign in history, decimating the small Southeast Asian country of Laos by dropping more than two million tonnes of bombs on it at the height of the Vietnam War.

Half a century on, innocent lives are still being lost as the country struggles with the leftovers of the conflict.

On Thanksgiving Day in November 1968, the United States escalated its war against North Vietnam in Laos.

Then-US President Lyndon B Johnson had ordered traditional turkey dinners to be helicoptered in to US troops who were secretly deployed in the quiet, landlocked country to sever the North Vietnamese supply lines that ran through the east.

A bipartisan commission appointed by Congress issued a lengthy report Tuesday backing the Pentagon’s plans to prepare for a “great-power” war against Russia, China, or both, making clear that the Trump administration’s belligerent policies are shared by the Democratic Party.

Safe in the knowledge that its findings will never be seriously reported by the mass media, the authors of this report do not mince words about what such a war will mean. A war between the United States and China, which according to the report might break out within four years, will be “horrendous” and “devastating.” The military will “face greater losses than at any time in decades.” Such a war could lead to “rapid nuclear escalation,” and American civilians will be attacked and likely killed.

Moscow will not leave Washington’s decision to unilaterally withdraw from the landmark nuclear arms treaty unanswered, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, adding that the country doesn’t need to join another arms race.

Russia is still ready to continue dialog with the US on the bilateral treaty banning medium-range missiles, which has become one of the cornerstones of nuclear disarmament, the Russian leader said at a government meeting in Sochi. Still, the US should “treat this issue with full responsibility,” the president said, adding that Washington’s decision to withdraw from the agreement “cannot and will not be left unanswered.”

North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-Un, has decided to keep the nation’s nuclear weapons, despite promises to the Trump administration that he would begin denuclearization. It appears that a nuclear war threat is still lingering and could be the topic of discussion when president Donald Trump meets Kim early next year.

According to The Daily Sta UK, sources inside the Communist state have reportedly revealed its leader Kim Jong-un has no plans to surrender his nuclear weapons despite talks of denuclearization with Trump. Jiro Ishimaru of AsiaPress International, revealed insiders have said Kim has been assuring his citizens he won’t allow North Korea to be vulnerable. “Even after Kim met with [U.S. President Donald] Trump, progress on a peace treaty has been slow,” said Jiro. “So Kim must feel the need to assure people domestically that he has no intention to let go of nuclear weapons.”

The United States is facing a national security and military crisis and could lose in a war against Russia or China, a bipartisan congressional panel warned in a report on Wednesday (Nov 14).

Congress had tasked the National Defence Strategy Commission to look at President Donald Trump's sweeping National Defence Strategy (NDS), which highlights a new era of "Great Power competition" with Moscow and Beijing.

The panel, run by a dozen former top Democratic and Republican officials, found that just as the US military faced budget cuts and diminishing military advantages, authoritarian nations like China and Russia are pursuing buildups aimed "at neutralising US strengths."

Official ISIS documents, which have been obtained by the Russian RT TV, reveal that the terrorist group has financially motivated its fighters conducting attacks with chemical weapons.

According to the documents, many ISIS fighters received gold, silver and even cars for carrying out terrorist attacks. One of the documents reveals that this award program was created to encourage the terrorist group’s fighters to “fight the enemies.”

Head of the military documentation department of the Iraqi military intelligence department, Lt. Col. Jaber Asaad, told RT’s correspondent that these documents are a clear evidence that ISIS used chemical weapons in Iraq.

“All this confirms that the group possessed chemical weapons that are banned throughout the world,” RT quoted the Iraqi officer as saying.

The outcome of the American midterm elections gives us an even more divided country, confirming that the United States is in the midst of a deep crisis within its establishment.

Beijing’s fifth-generation stealth jets displayed a dazzling fifteen-minute performance earlier this week at Airshow China 2018. The jets wowed more than 20,000 spectators by performing combat maneuvers in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province, said People's Daily Online.

The J-20 stealth jets were first unveiled to the public at Airshow China 2016.

Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military expert, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the J-20s sported a new camouflage look for improved stealth capability.

It seems that China's fifth-generation stealth capabilities could be on par with the US. This threat will certainly not going unanswered by the West. China is preparing for war with new stealth technology, as a trade war between both countries is spiraling out of control. When trade stops, that is when a hot conflict could develop over the South China Sea.I

WASHINGTON: The Democrats’ recapturing the House means three major impacts on the Defense Department: The odds are that controversial Trump priorities like new nuclear weapons and a Space Force will go nowhere, defense budgets will go down, and oversight will go up, up, up.

Program winners and losers

The most likely losers are nuclear modernization programs, which leading Democrats like Adam Smith, the prospective House Armed Services Committee chairman, have criticized as unnecessary, excessive, and destabilizing.

While Secretary Mattis describes the “near peer” nations China and Russia as “revisionist powers”, it was not these nations that made the irresponsible and reckless decisions that have weakened the U.S. military establishment, nor aim to revise the ill-conceived and executed catastrophes of their American “peers”.

They have reached a state of military and technological parity with, and in many cases a position of superiority vis a vis the United States, because they exercised better judgement over the past two decades, invested their time, talent and treasure in developing powerful conventional and nuclear forces, and refrained from using their national defense assets to punish their perceived adversaries in such a way that more damage was caused to themselves.

The boost-glide weapon can fly at speeds of over Mach 20 or about 15,300 miles per hour (four miles per second). It could reach Washington in 15 minutes even if launched from Russia. There is no way to intercept it, as it moves in a cloud of plasma “like a meteorite.” The weapon is distinctive for its ability to withstand extreme heat during the final phase of its trajectory thanks to its heat-resistant titanium casing. Its in-flight temperature reaches 1,600-2,000° Celsius.

It is impossible to predict the direction of its approach. Installed on the 200-ton Sarmat, the Avangard could be sent into the desired orbit at an altitude of 100 km from Earth using a pre-booster, gliding to its target at a speed of Mach 20 (5-7 km/s) while maneuvering with the help of stabilizers. It can make rapid course changes in the atmosphere. Its signatures are quite different from those of traditional ICBMs. Advanced countermeasure systems increase its ability to penetrate missile defenses.

- U.S. arms sales to foreign governments rose 13 percent to $192.3 billion in the year ending Sept. 30, the State Department said on Thursday, a result of looser restrictions on sales coupled with high-level efforts to close deals.

President Donald Trump wants to make the United States, already dominant in the global weapons trade, an even bigger arms merchant to the world, U.S. officials have said, despite concerns among human rights and arms control advocates.

The largest U.S. arms contractors, who sell ships, tanks, airplanes, missiles and other goods to foreign militaries, include Boeing Co (BA.N), Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), Raytheon Co (RTN.N), General Dynamics Corp (GD.N) and Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N).

The increase came in part because the Trump administration rolled out a new “Buy American” plan in April that relaxed restrictions on sales while encouraging U.S. officials to take a bigger role in increasing business overseas for the U.S. weapons industry

According to The South China Morning Post, "some of China's smartest students have been recruited straight from high school to begin training as the world's youngest AI weapons scientists." A total of 27 boys and four girls all under the age of 18 were chosen for the four-year "experimental program for intelligent weapons systems" at the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) from more than 5,000 candidates. From the report:The BIT is one of the country's top weapons research institutes, and the launch of the new program is evidence of the weight it places on the development of AI technology for military use. "These kids are all exceptionally bright, but being bright is not enough," said a BIT professor who was involved in the screening process but asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject. "We are looking for other qualities such as creative thinking, willingness to fight, a persistence when facing challenges," he said.

On Oct. 12 CNBC reported that Russia had hit a snag in its development of its hypersonic weapon, because it was at the time unable to find a source for the critical carbon fiber components. The news agency stated that the Pentagon had doubts that the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) existed. Skepticism seems widespread. Some believe that Russia’s new super weapons are “virtual reality,” while others think they are “mostly hype.” In March, the National Interest cited Michael Kofman, a research scientist for the Center for Naval Analyses and a highly respected analyst, who offered his assurances that there was no chance Russia could field its hypervelocity boost-glide weapon by 2019. But history has shown that those who believed it to be just a bluff have been proven wrong.

The Democrats’ recapturing the House means three major impacts on the Defense Department: The odds are that controversial Trump priorities like new nuclear weapons and a Space Force will go nowhere, defense budgets will go down, and oversight will go up, up, up.

Program winners and losers

The most likely losers are nuclear modernization programs, which leading Democrats like Adam Smith, the prospective House Armed Services Committee chairman, have criticized as unnecessary, excessive, and destabilizing.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine continueS to increase presence in Donbass, concentrating near the line of contact with infantry combat vehicles and heavy mortars, declared the Russian envoy to the negotiations in Minsk, Boris Gryzlov.

“At the meeting of today’s contact group, measures to control compliance with the cease-fire were again discussed. In a series of passages from the contact line, the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to focus their forces and means,” Gryzlov told reporters on Tuesday after the ordinary meeting of the contact group to resolve the situation in Donbass in Minsk.

According to him, the Ukrainian military continues to register accurate shots not only with small arms but also with 82 and 120mm caliber mortars and with infantry combat vehicles.

It was only an announcement, but think of it as the beginning of a journey into hell. Last week, President Donald Trump made public his decision to abrogate the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), a 1987 agreement with the Soviet Union. National Security Advisor John Bolton, a Cold Warrior in a post-Cold War world, promptly flaunted that announcement on a trip to Vladimir Putin’s Moscow. To grasp the import of that decision, however, quite another kind of voyage is necessary, a trip down memory lane.

Is the radical Israeli government helping the Saudis build nuclear weapons? According to a new report in the online news and commentary website “Middle East Monitor,” an Israeli writer is blowing the whistle on a secret deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia to sell detailed information on how to build a nuke.

“This information should shock us,” Ami Dor-on wrote in a whistle-blowing column posted online at the “News One” website, “as we see the world is changing for the worse, following the race for the possession of nuclear weapons that pass right over our heads in the Middle East.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has laid the foundation stone for the kingdom’s first nuclear research reactor as calls grow in the US for a halt to nuclear talks with the Riyadh regime, which has been rattled by a scandal over the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The official Saudi Press Agency reported that the project had been launched during bin Salman’s visit to King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Riyadh on Monday.

The reactor was among seven projects launched by the prince during the visit, said the report.

It did not provide details on when the reactor – which is said to serve research and development purposes – would be constructed

Bin Salman, also known as MbS, has been pushing for an atomic deal with the United States that could pave the way for the Saudi regime to enrich uranium, prompting speculation that the regime might be planning to develop nuclear weapons in the long run.

Over the weekend, North Korea issued a statement warning that they will “seriously consider” returning to the development on nuclear weapons if the US continues to refuse to ease economic sanctions against them.

Since North Korea halted nuclear testing and has made substantial diplomatic progress, many nations have advocated for some early sanctions relief, but so far every such effort has been blocked by the US. North Korea is growing increasingly impatient with that, and with the Trump Administration refusing to reach a peace treaty with them.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dismissed the threats, and reiterated that the US has no intention of allowing any sanctions relief until America achieves its “ultimate objective.” Though this is meant to be understood as nuclear disarmament, some in North Korea have been increasingly vocal in fearing that the US will never deliver on anything once they’ve already gotten what they want.

Unnamed military sources, quoted by The Washington Post, have expressed alarm over Iran’s unpredictable reaction to US economic and diplomatic pressure.

The Washington Post has cited several military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as expressing concern that reducing the US military presence in the Middle East has dealt a blow to their ability to react to potential Iranian threats amid what they called an increased potential for confrontation due to the sanctions.

The military reportedly believes that it’s the current administration’s policy to deter Iran, including Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the landmark nuclear deal and efforts to eliminate what National Security Adviser John Bolton branded as “the Iranian menace” in Syria and in the region as a whole that has increased the likelihood of military confrontation.

Since it became evident last summer that India was moving forward with purchase of at least five of Russia's S-400 air defense systems, the controversial initiative which is part of India's big ambitions for regional dominance immediately ruffled relations with Washington, resulting in the complete cancellation of at least one planned visit of Mike Pompeo and Jim Mattis to New Delhi.

The S-400s can detect, track and destroy supersonic bombers, drones, fifth-generation fighters, spy planes, and supersonic missiles at a range of up to 400km and altitude of 30km - in what many Indian officials have praised as a game-changing military acquisition which has further cemented the Russian-Indian defense relationship which includes Moscow now accounting for 62 percent of New Delhi’s arms imports.

On November 1, Hayat Tahir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) announced that its members had attacked positions of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) near the village of Abu Qamis in southeastern Idlib. Three SAA soldiers were reportedly killed.

A source in the SAA told SouthFront that clashes had erupted near the village, but declined to provide additional details. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least one Hayat Tahrir al-Sham member was killed.

Later on the same day, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and another al-Qaeda-linked group, Horas al-Din, shelled multiple SAA positions in northern Hama and western Aleppo.

Genetically engineered viruses could very well become the next generation of warfare. Deadly viruses modified in labs could be released eliminating entire communities of people as they infect making them a valuable asset to militaries worldwide.

As dystopian as that sounds, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is already working on a project called Insect Allies which will use insects to infect crops with genetically modified viruses that edit the crops’ genetic profile to make them more resilient against disease, as well as natural and manufactured threats to the food supply.

The $13 billion Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the U.S. Navy’s costliest warship, was delivered last year without elevators needed to lift bombs from below deck magazines for loading on fighter jets.

Previously undisclosed problems with the 11 elevators for the ship built by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. add to long-standing reliability and technical problems with two other core systems -- the electromagnetic system to launch planes and the arresting gear to catch them when they land.

Just a little over 10 years after drone surveillance inside U.S. borders was declared a conspiracy theory, it is now an indisputable fact of life. So, too, are military grade drones along the “border,” which in reality constitutes a 100-mile-wide swath that encircles the continental United States and 2/3 of its population.

According to a new report from Defense One, this level of access is still seen as a restriction by the DARPA-directed military apparatus. As new forms of autonomous aircraft take to the skies such as the latest Blackhawk helicopter drones that could be ready by 2019, DARPA and aircraft developers want permission to fly over large cities as needed. Utilizing a new artificial intelligence system that is literally called MATRIX, developers see an opportunity for more flexibility in potential use. Of course, surveillance isn’t mentioned among those uses:

After nearly four years of research and development, the U.S.military is closer to helicopters that can fly themselves through unpredictable terrain and execute difficult missions with virtually no human input. It’s part of the Pentagon’s Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System, or ALIAS, program. Helicopter maker Sikorsky passed a key test earlier this month during an experiment at Fort Eustis, Virginia, involving an S-76B helicopter. The test demonstrated that Sikorsky’s software, called MATRIX, could take off, fly in difficult winds and at low altitude, avoid wires and other obstacles, and even make determinations about whether or not it is safe to land in one place or another. The goal, now, is to integrate the technology onto a Black Hawk helicopter next year.

A senior Russian official proposed that his country is seriously considering establishing a military base in Cuba in response to Trump’s plan to quit the INF treaty, predicting that "a new Cuban crisis" could erupt if the US and Russia fail to come to terms.

According to General Vladimir Shamanov, the head of the Russian lower house of parliament's defense committee and a former airborne troops commander, with the US planning on walking away from the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) treaty, Russia's response should be in the "spirit of those times", by reactivating Russian military facilities in Cuba.

The U.S. and Russia have accused one another of violating the agreement, but President Donald Trump has announced his intention to now end it, paving the way for new nuclear and conventional weapons systems at a time of heightened tensions, Newsweek reported.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis claims that it’s not enough for the United States to have advanced weapons on Earth, but in order for the nation to be safe, the country needs weapons in space. Mattis alleges that in order to protect the American way of life, the Pentagon must be prepared for the deployment and usage of offensive weapons in space.

“We are going to have to be prepared to use offensive weapons in space should someone decide to militarize it and go on the offensive,” said the retired Marine who took over the Pentagon in January 2017, according to RT. In any competitive sport in the world, “you cannot simply play defense and win,” Mattis added. “This is not an area that we want to be second-place in.”

Space is “critical to our economy, it’s critical to our way of life, we’ve grown reliant on it,” Mattis said. In addition to the surveillance and military intelligence roles, US satellites are used for navigation, communication, commerce, and banking.

Hitler ended the German nuclear weapons program in 1942 when told it could end life on Earth—the Americans were willing to take the risk; since the end of WWII the Cold War was to a very large extent, from beginning to end, a marketing campaign for subsidization of the aerospace industry, says Daniel Ellsberg

One of the key responsibilities of the Southern Theater Command is protecting China’s interests in the South China Sea, where Beijing claims sovereignty over a number of islands. The sea is of strategic importance to Chinese trade. The US rejects the territorial claims and has been sending so-called Freedom of Navigation missions through the waters and airspace, which Beijing considers its own, as a gesture of defiance.

Chief of US Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said Tuesday the US and China “will meet each other more and more on the high seas” as the two nations confront each other in the South China Sea.

Strategic Command of the US Armed Forces (USSTRATCOM) has announced the beginning of its annual military exercises for strategic nuclear forces: “Global Thunder 2019”.

According to a statement made by USSTRATCOM on Monday, the war games are being conducted in order to “curb, locate and, if necessary, avert strategic attacks on the US and its allies.” The exercises aim to determine the readiness of the military units that focus on nuclear deterrence.

US President Donald Trump earlier announced that Washington would be withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, citing alleged violations by Moscow. Russia has firmly denied the accusations and expressed regret at the decision.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that the US is currently in talks with its EU partners over Washington's decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty.

"We are in consultations with our European counterparts, I was speaking about it the day before with the German defense minister, and so as I said the consultations continue," Mattis said.

Dissident Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, who was recently murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, was about to disclose details of Saudi Arabia’s use of banned chemical weapons in its imposed war on Yemen days before he was killed, a report says.

Declaring that “there is a new strategic reality out there,” President Donald Trump’s hardline national security advisor John Bolton announced during a visit to Moscow earlier this week that the United States would be withdrawing from the 31-year-old Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. “This was a Cold War bilateral ballistic missile-related treaty,” Bolton said, “in a multi-polar ballistic missile world.”

“It is the American position that Russia is in violation,” Bolton told reporters after a 90-minute meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Russia’s position is that they aren’t. So one has to ask how to ask the Russians to come back into compliance with something they don’t think they’re violating.”

Russia introduced a draft resolution aimed to preserve the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to the UN General Assembly First Committee after the US announced a unilateral withdrawal from the pact.

The First Committee of the UN General Assembly, also known as Disarmament and International Security Committee, declined on Friday to hear Russia's draft resolution in support of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Russia proposed the draft resolution to the committee, but the US delegation protested against it. On Friday, the committee voted on whether the resolution draft should be reviewed.

Washington’s vow to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty poses again the question: Who will save us from America?

If complacency is the enemy of progress hubris is the harbinger of regress. And it is hubris of the most egregious kind that describes the unconscionable decision of the Trump administration to affect the unilateral withdrawal of the US from the 1987 INF nuclear treaty, one that at the time of its establishment Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev pointed out was “the first agreement in history on the mutually agreed destruction of an entire class of nuclear weapons.”

As they were discussing extremely serious issues such as implications of a dissolving INF Treaty, the perpetuation of anti-Russia sanctions, the risk of not extending a new START Treaty and the deployment, in Putin’s words, of “some elements of the missile shield in outer space”, the Russian President got into, well, arrows and olives:

“As I recall, there is a bald eagle pictured on the US coat of arms: it holds 13 arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other as a symbol of peaceful policy: a branch with 13 olives. My question: has your eagle already eaten all the olives leaving only the arrows?”

Bolton’s response: “I didn’t bring any olives.”

On Wednesday a top Russian defense official warned that it's impossible that Moscow will renegotiate the the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF), said to likely be at the top of the agenda when Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are set to meet in Paris on November 11 on the sidelines of commemorative events of the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma, Vladimir Shamanov, is reported to have said there's "no chances that the nuclear treaty will be renegotiated" citing Russia's position of there being "no turning point" away from the Reagan and Soviet-era 1987 treaty placing restrictions on nuclear-capable missiles and outlining arms reduction agreements.

The Trump administration is pushing ahead with its withdrawal from the INF Treaty. Speaking to Sputnik, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under President Ronald Reagan, shared his views on the apparent motives and driving forces behind the latest US gambit.

"This is yet another concession to the military-security complex, which is feeding its huge profits with orchestrated fear of Russia, which is then used to secure support from the American people and Congress for more military spending to counter the 'Russian threat'," said Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, commenting on Donald Trump's intention to quit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The American economist and author served as the US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under President Ronald Reagan.

There is one big and glaring sign that the United States seeks to thrust the globe back into an arms race. John Bolton is in Moscow to discuss the United States’ intent to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

There is one big and glaring sign that the United States seeks to thrust the globe back into an arms race. John Bolton is in Moscow to discuss the United States’ intent to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

These types of weapons would have the ability to travel at five times the speed of sound or more. They could strike at a target while evading missile defenses and hit almost anywhere without any warning deep inside enemy territory.

In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his nation had successfully tested a hypersonic weapon known as the Kinzhal, the Russian word for “dagger.” The video below shows the Russian “Dagger” which is one of the hypersonic weapons currently being developed.

There is one big and glaring sign that the United States seeks to thrust the globe back into an arms race. John Bolton is in Moscow to discuss the United States’ intent to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

The end of the 31-year-old treaty signifies that potentially, world powers will return to an arms race mentality. But there are some that believe the arms race is already upon us. According to NPR, over the past year, the U.S., China, and Russia have all stepped up efforts to develop a new kind of missile; a weapon that can fly faster and farther than almost anything in existence. This kind of missile is known as a hypersonic weapon.

These types of weapons would have the ability to travel at five times the speed of sound or more. They could strike at a target while evading missile defenses and hit almost anywhere without any warning deep inside enemy territory.

Washington's unilateral withdrawal from the INF treaty will have a multilateral negative impact. Earlier, Trump committed to withdraw from the accord citing violations on the part of Moscow.

Sputnik discussed whether President Trump will actually go through with his plan to pull out the US from the treaty with Dr. George Szamuely, political analyst and author of "Bombs for Peace: NATO's Humanitarian War on Yugoslavia."

It Is Like A Western Movie: A Showdown Is In The Making

Paul Craig Roberts

It has taken the US military/security complex 31 years to get rid of President Reagan’s last nuclear disarmament achievement—the INF Treaty that President Reagan and Soviet President Gorbachev achieved in 1987.

Tensions in the diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia seem to be ramping up to a potentially pre-war level. The increasingly thought diplomatic rhetoric of both Moscow and Washington as well as hostile US actions against Russia and an active pro-war propaganda campaign within the US military are openly signaling that the sides may posslby soon find themselves on the verge of open regional war.

On October 20, US President Donald Trump declared that the US would be abandoning the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty claiming that the decision comes as response to multiple Russian violations of the treaty, which had put a stop to the development of nuclear and conventional missiles, as well as their launchers, with ranges of 500–1,000 and 1,000–5,500 km.

US President Donald Trump threatned Russia and China that Washington intends to build up its nuclear arsenal until “people come to their senses.”
The president said his words were directed towards Moscow and Beijing, as he prepared to unilaterally leave the Intermediate Nuclear Forces in Europe (INF) treaty. The US president implied China should be part of any new nuclear arms control treaty.

“Russia has not adhered to the agreement,” neither in form or in spirit, Trump told reporters outside the White House on Monday, before departing for a campaign rally in Texas.

Until people come to their senses, we will build it up

If the US ditches the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), it could collapse the entire nuclear non-proliferation system, and bring nuclear war even closer, Russian officials warn.

By ending the INF, Washington risks creating a domino effect which could endanger other landmark deals like the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and collapse the existing non-proliferation mechanism as we know it, senior lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev said on Sunday.

The current iteration of the START treaty, which limits the deployment of all types of nuclear weapons, is due to expire in 2021. Kosachev, who chairs the Parliament’s Upper House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned that such an outcome pits mankind against “complete chaos in terms of nuclear weapons.”

On Friday, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration was preparing to exit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty as soon as next week.

Speaking to The Financial Times, British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson has made it plain that London will support Washington's decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the US and Russia.

"Our close and long-term ally, of course, is the United States, and we will be absolutely resolute with the United States in hammering home a clear message that Russia needs to respect the [INF] Treaty obligation that it signed," Williamson pointed out.

Washington’s planned withdrawal from the international Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, announced by President Trump on Saturday, has been slammed by Russia as "a very dangerous step" which is ultimately part of "continuing attempts to achieve Russia’s concessions through blackmail" in statements made by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Sunday.

And Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev, who chairs the Russian Parliament’s Upper House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned the move could create a domino effect endangering other landmark deals like the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). The lawmaker said such an outcome pits mankind against “complete chaos in terms of nuclear weapons.”

By scrapping the crucial Cold War era nuclear agreement Trump is destabilizing global security, even if his ultimate goal is to negotiate a ‘better deal’ and to include other parties like China, geopolitical experts have told RT.

“The United States would rather pull out because of China. Right now it cannot develop new intermediate-range missiles to confront China, even though China is not a signatory to that agreement,” former Pentagon official Michael Maloof said, after Donald Trump announced the US intention to scrap the INF treaty.

“The US is engaged in an arms race with China in the Pacific Ocean, and China has a whole bunch of those missiles that are not covered,” Iranian political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi added, calling Trump's announcement a “giant leap backward to the Cold War era.”