JULY 26, 2018 / 2:58 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO

When to end the war? North Korea, U.S. at odds over path to peace

SEOUL (Reuters) - Washington’s reluctance to declare an end to the Korean War until after North Korea abandons its nuclear arsenal may put it at odds not only with Pyongyang, but also with allies in South Korea.

The 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the U.S.-led United Nations forces technically still at war with North Korea.

Friday marks 65th anniversary of the truce, which will be commemorated by the United Nations Command in a ceremony in the fortified demilitarized zone that has divided the two Koreas since the war. North Korean veterans of the war, which left more than 1.2 million dead, will gather in Pyongyang for a conference.

In their April summit, the leaders of North and South Korea agreed to work this year with the United States and China, which also played a major role in the war, to replace the armistice with a peace agreement.

In June, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a statement saying they would seek “to establish new U.S.–DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity,” using the initials of the North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Kim has broadly committed to the “denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula” if the United States and its allies drop their “hostile” policies and the North has made clear it sees an official end to the state of war as crucial to lowering tensions.

Many experts and officials in Washington, however, fear signing a peace deal first could erode the international pressure they believe led Kim to negotiate. It could also endanger the decades-long U.S. military alliance with South Korea, and may undermine the justification for the U.S. troops based on the peninsula.

“Broadly speaking, one side wants denuclearisation first, normalization of relations later, and the other wants normalization of relations first, then denuclearisation later,” said Christopher Green, a senior advisor at the International Crisis Group.

North Korea says it has taken steps to halt its nuclear development, including placing a moratorium on missile and nuclear bomb testing, demolishing its only known nuclear test site, and dismantling a rocket facility.

READ MORE: https:// www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-peace-analysis/when-to-end-the-war-north-korea-u-s-at-odds-over-path-to-peace-idUSKBN1KG0PC

JULY 26, 2018 / 4:39 AM / UPDATED 7 MINUTES AGO

Iran's Quds force chief tells Trump: Threaten me, not Rouhani: report

ANKARA (Reuters) - The chief of Iran’s Quds force said on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump should address him when threatening the Islamic Republic, the Iranian Young Journalists’ Club reported.

“As a soldier, it is my duty to respond to Trump’s threats … If he wants to use the language of threat … he should talk to me, not to the president (Hassan Rouhani),” Major-General Qassem Soleimani was quoted as saying in the central city of Hamedan.

Iran has dismissed a warning from Trump that Tehran risked dire consequences “the like of which few throughout history have suffered before” if it made threats against the United States.

https:// www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-usa-soleimani/irans-quds-force-chief-tells-trump-threaten-me-not-rouhani-report-idUSKBN1KG106

U.S. airlines' changes to Taiwan references 'incomplete', China says

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Forty of 44 international airlines have amended their website references to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, China’s civil aviation regulator said on Thursday, adding that measures taken by some U.S. airlines were still incomplete.

China has demanded that foreign firms, and airlines in particular, do not refer to self-ruled Taiwan as a non-Chinese territory on their websites, a demand the White House slammed in May as “Orwellian nonsense.”

Taiwan is China’s most sensitive territorial issue. Beijing considers the island a wayward province of “one China” and has not renounced the possible use of force to bring it under its control.

Hong Kong is a former British colony which returned to China in 1997 with wide-ranging autonomy. Macau, a former Portuguese colony, returned to China two years later.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), which has been pushing airlines to make the change, said four airlines had submitted rectification reports on Wednesday and sought a two-week extension for website audits.

READ MORE: https:// www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-airlines-china/u-s-airlines-changes-to-taiwan-references-incomplete-china-says-idUSKBN1KG0W4

JULY 25, 2018 / 6:28 PM / UPDATED 40 MINUTES AGO

Pakistan's Imran Khan edges closer to power, opponents cry foul

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani cricket icon-turned-politician Imran Khan inched closer to power on Thursday after a general election that has been marred by long delays in ballot counting and claims of rigging by opponents.

https:// www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-election/pakistans-imran-khan-edges-closer-to-power-opponents-cry-foul-idUSKBN1KF32O

Wasn't HRC there recently

Think she showed them a thing or two

JULY 26, 2018 / 4:53 AM / UPDATED 18 MINUTES AGO

Iran's Quds force chief says Red Sea no longer secure with U.S. presence: TV

ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran’s Quds force chief Qassem Soleimani said on Thursday that the Red Sea was not secure with the presence of American troops in the area, Iran’s Arabic-language Al Alam television reported.

“The Red Sea which was secure is no longer secure with the American presence … (U.S. President Donald) Trump should know that we are nation of martyrdom and that we await him,” Qasem Soleimani was quoted as saying.

The Red Sea is one of the most important trade routes in the world for oil tankers.

https:// www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-usa-trump/irans-quds-force-chief-says-red-sea-no-longer-secure-with-u-s-presence-tv-idUSKBN1KG11I

Is this there version of our Mattis

Qassem Soleimani

US Army Secretary: Army Building Next-Gen Weapons To Counter Russia And China

The US Army has begun to develop and field next-generation weapon systems – like autonomous killer robots, fifth-generation fighters, hypersonic technologies, laser cannons, rail guns, new squad automatic rifles, and quantum computers – in order to contend with its top rivals [Russia and China] on the modern battlefield across multiple domains—space, cyberspace, air, land, maritime, before the next round of hybrid wars break out around 2025 to 2040 timeframe.

During the Aspen Security Forum, which took place from July 18 to 21, Army Secretary Mark Esper spoke about the new Austin-based “Futures Command” as “the biggest organizational change since 1973” when the Army established Force Command and Training and Doctrine Command to counter the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Almost half a century later, the purpose of adding a new command [Futures Command] is to maintain America’s empire of 800 military bases around the globe, along with countering new economic systems [Belt and Road Initiative and Maritime Silk Road] that Russia and China are attempting to bring online.

“It is important to note that the National Defense Strategy released earlier this year tells us that we need to be prepared for a high-intensity conflict and that we should consider strategic competitors such as China and Russia as those against us”, said Esper, emphasizing that the military is “ready for any kind of threat today”.

“In the meantime, as we implement our vision, we want to make sure that in a number of areas we can ensure that we are superior in different areas to ensure that we are able to deal with Russia, and eventually with China over this longer period,” he added.

READ MORE: https:// www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-25/us-army-secretary-army-building-next-gen-weapons-counter-russia-and-china

Russia Unveils 20-Ton Sixth Generation Drone Fighter

Thu, 07/26/2018 - 02:45

Russian defense industry sources have recently unveiled a massive, 20-ton stealth drone fighter to be flight-tested later this year — will be the prototype for their sixth-generation jet, according to TASS, a Russian state-owned media outlet.

According to the defense official, the sixth generation jet program “has not yet taken full shape, its main features are already known.”

“First of all, it should be unmanned and capable of performing any combat task in an autonomous regime. In this sense, the stealth drone will become the prototype of the sixth generation fighter jet,’ the source said, adding that the drone will be able to “take off, fulfill its objectives and return to the airfield.”

“However, it will not receive the function of decision-making regarding the use of weapons – this will be decided by a human,” he said.

TASS notes, in the report, that they were not able to officially confirm the information provided by the defense official.

Another defense expert told TASS that the single-engine Okhotnik (“Hunter” in Russian) stealth drone has a top speed of roughly 621 mph (.809 Mach), and would start flight tests in the second half of this year.

“The Russian Defense Ministry and the Sukhoi Company signed a contract for developing the 20-ton Okhotnik (Hunter) heavy unmanned strike aircraft in 2011. The drone’s mock-up model was made in 2014. According to unconfirmed reports, composite materials and anti-radar coating were used to create the Okhotnik. The drone is equipped with a reaction-jet propulsion and is supposed to develop a speed of 1000 kilometers per hour,” said TASS.

Earlier this month, Popular Mechanics published a picture of the Okhotnik, which was posted on a Russian aviation forum called paralay.iboards.ru.

READ MORE: https:// www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-25/russia-unveils-20-ton-sixth-generation-drone-fighter

What Boris Johnson Doesn’t Know About British History

Thu, 07/26/2018 - 03:30

What will be Britain’s standing in the world compared to other nation states after Brexit? Sane analysis has been overwhelmed by vituperative debate as we get closer to the day of the great rupture.

Boris Johnson claimed in his resignation speech that after a full-throttle Brexit, Britain will be in a good position to become “one of the great independent actors” on the world stage. He feared only a failure in the necessary will-power and self-confidence “to believe in this country and what it can do”.

But what can this country really do? How far will greater independence outside the EU be real rather than nominal? Will strength of will in pursuit of self-determination make much difference when we will always be holding a weaker hand of cards than our neighbours?

This imbalance of forces is highlighted every day in the Brexit negotiations, and there is no reason why this should change in our favour after we leave.

Supporters of Brexit discount such realpolitik, saying that they are inspired – and seek to emulate – a past in which Britain as a fully independent state won victories against the odds. Critics often deride this approach as self-indulgent nostalgia, but there are real lessons to be learned from past British experience.

The problem is that Brexiteers, when they take a serious view of British history that is not coloured by Shakespeare’s plays or Errol Flynn movies, have never shown much understanding of the roots of Britain’s successes.

READ MORE: https:// www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-25/what-boris-johnson-doesnt-know-about-british-history

If we posted this yesterday I apologize

But dag blammit it was to hard to pass up

CNN’s Jake Tapper Went Ballistic at Staff Over Botched Clips

by Aidan McLaughlin | Jul 25th, 2018, 1:41 pm

Jake Tapper, CNN’s august and outwardly civil newsman, blew up at his staff during a commercial break last week after they botched airing a series of clips on his show The Lead, a reliable CNN production source told Mediaite.

During last Tuesday’s broadcast, Tapper — who had just returned from Helsinki — covered President Donald Trump‘s ever-changing explanation for his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he cast doubt on US intelligence that the Kremlin was behind meddling in the 2016 election.

There were three clips that Tapper’s team had lined up for his show. They were, in chronological order:

1. Trump, at Putin presser says, “I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia”

1. Trump, in televised statement, says he meant to say “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.”

1. Trump, in televised statement, says he accepts that Russia meddled, before adding, “Could be other people also.”

In the clip above, you can watch Tapper ask his team to run clip No. 3.

Tapper said: “[Trump] still couldn’t help himself. Bottom line, he doesn’t believe and accept the intelligence community’s assessment. So he contradicts himself even when asserting that he does. Let’s run that clip once more.”

Tapper’s team played clip No. 1.

Tapper responded: “Okay, so that’s what he said yesterday, now let’s run the clip from today, when he undermines his attempted contradiction.” (Again, requesting clip number 3).

His team ran clip No. 2.

An exasperated Tapper responded: “Then he said, that, uh, he did accept the conclusion of the intelligence community, and then he undermined it, and I’d like to play that clip.”

His team didn’t play any clip, and Tapper stared into the rolling camera before giving up — shaking his head and declaring: “Alright, we don’t have the clip for some reason.”

During the commercial break, we are told that Tapper went ballistic, berating his staff in front of the entire studio for “not reading my emails!”

Our source described the outburst as “unhinged” and “bananas,” replete with a lot of shouting about the staff’s incompetence.

CNN declined to comment.

If, by chance, you have video of the incident we would love to see it. Ping me: aidan@mediaite.com.

https:// www.mediaite.com/tv/cnns-jake-tapper-went-ballistic-at-staff-over-botched-clips/

>>2294457

Say it isn't so…

>>2294339

Wasn't the fall of her down the steps when she was there a few months back. We've been making meme's out of that fall ever since. I believe Obama showed up right after that.

Checking out guys … cat is smacking at the keyboard with his paws and I'm too tired to swat his sorry arse aside one more time.

He's own's this keyboard now