US News

• Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity explain why the extradition of Julian Assange is an attack on all of us. [Link]
• Some non-citizen military vets are being deported. [Link]
• F-35s are grounded 30% of the time because the planes are missing spare parts. The spare parts are often unavailable, and the military is frequently cannibalizing other F-35s for parts. Only 27% of F-35s were fully mission-ready. [Link]
• The US empire has had several recent setbacks in Libya, Sudan, Algeria, and Ukraine. [Link]

Mexico

• The Mexican state of Veracruz reports 682 murders in 2019. [Link]

Venezuela

• Russia rejects Mike Pompeo’s claim that Maduro was prepared to flee Venezuela until Russia told him to stay. [Link]
• Secretary of State Pompeo and the Russian Minister have a phone call about Venezuela. They warned each other not to interfere in Venezuela. [Link]
• Pompeo said military action in Venezuela is possible. [Link]

Great Powers

• Responding to Trump’s push to engage Russia and China in arms control talks, Russia says it is open to engaging in talks. [Link]
• The US sails two warships through the Taiwan Strait. [Link]

Afghanistan

• The US and the Taliban begin another round of peace talks in Qatar. [Link]
• The Afghan War IG says the bombing campaign against Taliban drug labs was probably a waste of resources. The failure of the bombing campaign was predictable. [Link]
• Scott Horton and Robert Gains explain why the US cannot save Afghanistan. [Link]

Africa

• Kenyan vets of the Somali War are suffering from PTSD and receiving no treatment. Some vets have been kicked out of the army and charged criminally because of the symptoms of their PTSD. [Link]