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“We are not afraid of war and we will be prepared for it if it happens,” Buthaina Shaaban told Lebanon’s Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen TV station...She charged that Israel was interested in prolonging Syria’s civil war but that a Syrian government victory over the rebels would change the region and the world, and that Israel would be “the biggest loser.”...British Prime Minister Theresa May has called an emergency cabinet meeting for Thursday and The Telegraph newspaper reported that she has already ordered British submarines to move within missile range of Syria,...

Russia has moved almost all of its warships from the port of Tartus in Syria ahead of a potential strike on the country by the United States, according to satellite images published Wednesday...Trump’s warlike tweets came in response to a warning from Russia’s ambassador to Beirut, who took to a television network run by the Hezbollah terror group to declare that any US missiles would be shot down “as well as the sources they were fired from.”

WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Mike Rounds on Sunday said President Donald Trump needs to explain his "endgame" to the American people when it comes to imposing tariffs on goods from foreign countries and said the U.S. should "quit fighting with Mexico and Canada."

Mike Pompeo, the hard-charging CIA director picked to be the next secretary of state, will tell the Senate on Thursday that years of soft U.S. policy toward Russia are "now over."...According to his prepared remarks, Pompeo will chastise Russia for acting "aggressively" and emphasize that the Trump administration considers Russia "a danger to our country." But he will also say that diplomatic efforts with Moscow, while challenging, "must continue."

By 1945, Pyongyang was known as the Jerusalem of East Asia, where 50,000 Catholics lived in peace and Catholic missionaries were overseeing a wave of conversions. The heartbreaking story of religious persecution in North Korea began during the Soviet occupation from 1945-1948 and continued with the new independent state in 1953. Today, there is only one state-controlled Catholic church in Pyongyang and there are no priests or members of a religious institute recognized by the Holy See. Francis Lee, a translator for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, estimates that there are about 800-3,000 ‘official’ Catholics left in North Korea....

North Korea's foreign minister, on a visit to Moscow, said on Tuesday that the situation on the Korean Peninsula and world events showed that his country and Russia needed to forge stronger ties. "The current situation on the Korean peninsula and around your country, and the overall international political situation require our two countries to further strengthen friendly cooperation, to increase our strategic communication and coordination of action between our countries," Ri told reporters. Ri said he hoped they would find concrete ways to create "a new milestone" this year in their relations. High ranking North Korean officials have been...

Winship on another level.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0niyl-vDBk  

The Russian military prizes disruption and deception to overcome foes which may be technologically more advanced — a practice dating back to before World War II. Today, the Russian army is increasing training in the old-fashioned art of planting mines behind enemy lines. One Russian formation in particular is a specialized mine-laying company attached to the 1st Guards Engineer-Sapper Brigade, which traces its history back to World War II, and which served in both Chechen wars. The brigade is based in Murom, 160 miles east of Moscow. The specialized company — comprised of several dozen soldiers — are divided into...

As establishment neoconservatives, liberals, and globalists all demand deeper U.S. involvement in Syria's establishment-fueled civil war, much of President Donald Trump's base continues to advocate a total withdrawal of U.S. military forces from the region. Meanwhile, Trump said he is considering all options for how to deal with Syria after the reported chemical weapons attack. But first, the president suggested he wanted to know what happened in the highly suspicious attack, which came not long after Trump suggested that American troops in Syria would soon be coming home.Previous chemical weapons attacks in Syria, after first being blamed on Syrian dictator...

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley slammed Russia over a deadly chemical attack on Syrian civilians, saying the country's hands are "covered in blood." "The Russian regime, whose hands are all covered in the blood of Syrian children, cannot be ashamed by pictures of its victims," Haley said during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Monday. "We must not overlook Russia and Iran's roles in enabling the Assad regime's murderous destruction," she continued.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Monday that Moscow has warned the United States of “grave repercussions” if it carries out an attack against Syrian government forces over reports of a deadly chemical weapons attack. “There was no chemical weapons attack,” Nebenzia told the U.N. Security Council. “Through the relevant channels we already conveyed to the U.S. that armed force under mendacious pretext against Syria – where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed - could lead to grave repercussions,” he said. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told...

CNN is reporting that the United States and North Korea have  been holding secret, direct talks in preparation for a summit meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.CIA Director Mike Pompeo and a team of officials have been meeting with their North Korean counterparts to come up with a location for the meeting. Although the North Korean regime has not publicly declared its invitation by Kim Jong Un to meet with Trump, which was conveyed last month by a South Korean envoy, several officials say North Korea has since acknowledged Trump's acceptance, and Pyongyang has reaffirmed Kim is willing...

WASHINGTON - North Korea has confirmed directly to the Trump administration that it is willing to negotiate with the United States over potential denuclearization, administration officials said Sunday. The confirmation offers the administration greater assurances that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is committed to a potential meeting with President Donald Trump by the end of next month. ‘‘The U.S. has confirmed that Kim Jong Un is willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,’’ an administration official said.

Donald Trump a moron? Hardly. Far from being a moron, the US president is actually a pretty smart cookie. A smart cookie is what Trump called North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un. Recent events, unimaginable just months ago, show both are smart in very different ways. Kim is a calculating chameleon who can order the ruthless murder of his uncle and brother yet charm Chinese leader Xi Jinping into thawing the chill between them. Trump is no murderer but is cocksure smart, a cowboy-style leader with his finger on the trigger. He figuratively shoots first and asks questions later. Kim shoots...

Against the backdrop of an upcoming presidential meeting with Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Discovery Institute’s Stephen Meyer has a striking proposal. Writing with Arthur Herman in the Wall Street Journal, he concisely argues for a cheap and technologically very attainable alternative to waiting passively to see what comes of North Korea’s growing ICBM collection.Yes, this is Steve Meyer of Darwin’s Doubt and Signature in the Cell fame. Herman and Meyer argue for the use of drones to intercept missiles at boost phase: Our existing ground-based missile-defense systems are designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles during the later phases of flight....

Could this be true? The Army's 'Military Review' Just Declared that America Was Defeated in Syria I was interested to see in an article in the new issue of “Military Review,” a publication of the U.S. Army, conclude that, “Russia appears to have won at least a partial victory in Syria, and done so with impressive efficiency, flexibility, and coordination between military and political action.” Looking at Putin, the article states that “the Russian campaign might be judged a qualified success from the standpoint of the Kremlin’s own objective.” As for the United States, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the authors...

U.S. Monitoring Possible North Korean Military Base in Syria Report: North Korea running underground military base in Syria BY: Adam Kredo March 14, 2018 12:20 pm The United States is monitoring information indicating that North Korea may be running a large underground military base in Syria that could be used for advanced weaponry and nuclear-related work, according to regional reports and U.S. officials tracking the situation. Regional reports have begun to surface indicating North Korea has neared completion of the construction of an underground military base located near Qardaha in Syria, the hometown of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "According...

President Donald Trump's unexpected announcement on Thursday that the US would "be coming out of Syria like very soon" is raising concerns among some national security officials who warn that withdrawing now would not only undermine American credibility in the region but prompt a significant escalation to an already devastating conflict. While Trump has often touted the gains made against ISIS since taking office, his latest comments caught much of his own administration off-guard -- including defense officials who have warned that now is not the time to withdraw from Syria. "We're knocking the hell out of ISIS. We'll be...

<p>“The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace,” Kim said during the four-day visit, according to Xinhua.</p>

he mysterious meeting Kim Jong Un was summoned to in Beijing this week likely saw China's president remind the North Korean dictator who his real patron is ahead of talks with the U.S., according to experts. Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, made a surprise visit to Beijing on Monday, arriving on a mysterious green train that sparked rumors the North Korean first family was in China. The trip was planned in the weeks after President Trump announced he had accepted the despot’s invitation to meet by May, Yun Sun, who runs the East Asia program and the China...