I have long complained about Donald Trump’s first trip to North Korea where he vowed to dismantle NK’s nuclear weapons program either by diplomacy or military action. Unlike in Iran, he did neither. Instead, he came away totally deceived by the charm offensive that Kim Jong-un was tutored to do, by Xi Jinping himself, who first learned the art of flattering Trump during their first visit together at Mar-a-Lago. You would think, with all of North Korea’s continued development in nuclear weapons and long range ballistic missiles, that have since become capable of even reaching the USA, that Trump would have seen how dangerous Kim has obviously become and that he had been duped. But no. Not only has Trump failed to see the rising threat of North Korea, he has even turned against America’s strongest ally in the region, South Korea, in his effort to play up to Kim. This week, out of deference to North Korea’s complaints about so many joint US and S. Korean military exercises, Trump order the Army to decrease any future exercises with S. Korea. Even the most hardened political commentators are shocked at the dichotomy between how Trump treats North Korea (a known and ever more powerful nuclear enemy) compared to Iran, whose nuclear industry he has already destroyed, or nearly so. To receive a free, one-time sample of the Brief, along with options on how to subscribe, click on Request a sample on the left.
Multiple shocks are converging all at once across the global food complex, including continued disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, rising El Niño risks, and adverse weather across the US agricultural belt. This note focuses on another emerging chokepoint: Europe's breadbasket, where intensifying attacks in the Russia-Ukraine war have shuttered critical Black Sea grain export terminals.
President Zelensky used the devastation to once again call on the West to urgently provide more Patriot systems, amid dwindling anti-air supplies. "The interceptors for Patriot systems have not yet been replaced, and they are needed every day," Zelensky wrote in a Telegram post on Thursday. "Each additional missile saves the lives of our people."
The new test is obviously meant to send a strong message, given it follows Pyongyang's dismissal of President Trump's decision to scale back US military exercises with South Korea this week. Without doubt, Kim Jong-Un is welcoming the sudden attention from Trump, but if there's hope of rekindling the 'bromance' - this is basically Kim playing hard to get.
More than half of all internet traffic now comes from bots, analysts say, and for businesses, that means reaching customers may be more challenging than ever. The flood of artificial intelligence-powered bots is forcing small businesses especially to find new strategies to make human connections.
Trump's Economic War against Iran Begins Trump says "severe economic consequences" for any country that does businesses with Tehran Trump says "ECONOMIC D-DAY" begins against Iran UAE Cuts Ties As Iran Warns Gulf States Against Helping Washington; Kpler Says US Navy Gaining Ground In Hormuz
There are now more than 2,700 mosques in the United States. In 1970, there were about 100. But it isn’t just mosques that are going up everywhere. Enormous Islamic “mini-cities” are being constructed in states such as California and Texas. And rapidly growing Islamic populations are taking over entire sections of the states of Minnesota and Michigan.
South Korea took peacetime operational control, or OPCON, of its military in 1994, but the US still holds wartime OPCON. Lee previously committed to regaining wartime OPCON by the end of his term in 2030, which he reaffirmed at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Jeffrey Tucker - founder and president of the Brownstone Institute, says top FDA and NIH officials told him that the purpose of the COVID-19 lockdowns were "to delay the onset of natural immunity… until after the shots were online."
I spent the next three weeks living in a kind of financial limbo that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I couldn’t access my savings, which represented years of careful budgeting and sacrifice. My automatic payments started bouncing, which meant late fees and angry emails from creditors who didn’t care about my explanations. I had to ask my parents for a loan at thirty-four years old, which was humiliating in ways I can’t fully describe. My wife tried to be supportive, but I could see the worry in her eyes, the question she was too kind to ask: what if this doesn’t get fixed? What if this is just how things are now?
Freedom of association is under attack.
One limitation provides a reality check: the system works only after it has been trained on a person's radio signature. The 99.5 percent accuracy figure applies to re-identifying enrolled participants, not identifying a stranger cold. The attack succeeds when it can say 'the person recorded here is the person recorded earlier'. So this limitation disappears once anyone with sufficient reach starts collecting signatures at scale.
No talks: Trump confirms US-Iran negotiations are off, vows to 'strangle them' over time. Hormuz attack: Tanker hit, injuring a crew member. Houthis escalate: Attacks shut Yemen’s Mokha port. Diplomacy stalled: Qatar says not mediating until Oman-Hormuz deal finalized. Iran hardens: Tehran says it maintains an offensive posture.
illegal immigrant found not guilty by reason of insanity in a 2019 killing managed to flee the United States on a one-way flight to his native Tajikistan while on an approved 48-hour pass from a state mental health facility.
he plea caps a records scandal that began with his own emails bragging about making federal documents disappear.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted that Hormuz would become 'irrelevant' within two years, as Gulf countries develop new pipelines for oil exports
At least 180 of the drones were confirmed downed over the Moscow region alone - possibly more - with emergency crews responding to several crash sites, including at another Wildberries warehouse near Moscow. Authorities cited that at least three people were injured in the assault, including a 10-year old girl. Smoke has been seen rising over residential and construction areas in social media photographs.
The Syrian government and US Envoy to Iraq and Syria Tom Barrack said the attacks hit Abu al-Duhur military airfield in Idlib province in northwestern Syria. Barrack blasted it as an unnecessary escalation that threatens regional stability.
The ICC, he added, has attempted to “assert authority over” over U.S. citizens and nationals of other nations that have not consented to the Rome Statute that set up the court. The United States is not a party to the ICC.
Trump repeats declaration that he'll make Strait of Hormuz a "US territory", calling it "a great idea". Iran goes "fully offensive": Tehran threatens escalation if diplomacy fails, after last week's military command reshuffle. MoU expires: Iran says the US-Iran agreement is effectively dead & "irrelevant". Trump threatens Oman: Trump warns "we'll bomb the s**t out of them." Backchannel denied: Tehran rejects Trump's claim of IRGC communications.
President Trump revealed Sunday he has ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with longtime close ally South Korea, surprisingly mentioning his "very good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a motivating factor in the decision. Trump said in a Truth Social posts that exercises, due to start on Monday, are costly and "send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile" to North Korea, which he said "has been unthreatening and respectful" during his time in office.
If verified, the invasion attempt comes just weeks after the first round, in which more than 60,000 military-aged men attempted to breach the border. This only suggests that migrant flows are being deliberately weaponized to pressure the socialist government in Madrid, potentially marking a second phase of sustained border destabilization.
A peer-reviewed study documenting millions of excess deaths across the West after the rollout of COVID measures and shots has been yanked by the British Medical Journal — not for bad data, but for the crime of asking inconvenient questions.
“Three Iranian pilots were captured alive by Qatari forces after the Su-24 fighter jets crashed during the March attacks.” ... Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari denied the claims, saying Qatar is not holding any Iranian pilots.
Abbott says facilities benefiting one religion should be illegal in public buildings.
Clinics and activist groups allegedly misdiagnosed children with physical conditions so insurers would pay for gender procedures.
One study by the Heat Initiative found Snapchat recommended 739 “unsafe” videos—including 257 related to drugs and alcohol, and 244 with sexual content—to two 13-year-old avatar accounts across a 12-hour period. It also recommended 419 strangers as friends, including at least six sexual content creators and three people advertising drugs. Other questionable exposures included violence, criminal activity, disordered eating, self-harm, and suicide.
In a matter of days, once-pristine beaches in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta have been reduced to open-air dumps and disease-ridden camps occupied by thousands of illegal migrants who refused to leave after the mass invasion from Morocco. Locals describe feces, urine, garbage, and makeshift shacks covering the sand. Contagious illnesses are spreading. Mass brawls with bladed weapons have broken out.
Economic despair, social repression and regional friction have preserved Afghanistan as an enduring catalyst for crises
"While many are pro-choice, you can still be pro-choice and see this law as going beyond the norms of acceptability." Rep. Dennis Gallagher, also a Democrat, said he simply saw no need for the law in the first place.
Come for the Utopia. Stay Because Your Car Has Been Stolen.