Assange British Home Secretary Priti Patel on Friday signed an extradition order to send Julian Assange to stand trial in America. [Link] Julian’s wife Stella vowed to fight the order. "We're going to fight this. We're going to use every appeal avenue," Stella Assange told reporters, calling the decision a "travesty". "I'm going to spend every waking hour fighting for Julian until he is free, until justice is served." [Link] Assange's brother said the Assange legal team's appeal to London's High Court of the decision to extradite him to the United States would include new information...
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NATO Takes Command of US Carrier Strike Group for Massive Drill
The USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier strike group and other American warships have come under the command of the NATO alliance for major military drills in the Baltic, Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas.
North Korea Plans Future Nuclear Weapons Development
North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has announced that his country will further develop its nuclear capabilities, vowing to build up its arsenal following a flurry of weapons tests in recent months.
German Chancellor Warns Intervention in Ukraine Could Spark Nuclear War
Amid mounting pressure to step up military aid to Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that major involvement in the conflict risks escalation that could ultimately kick off a nuclear exchange with Russia.
North Korea Tests New ‘Tactical Guided Weapon’ as US, South Korea Set to Begin Joint War Games
North Korea fired two missiles it claims are "new-type tactical guided weapons." The test comes a day before the US and South Korea kick off joint war games. Bloomberg reported a message from the South Korean military claiming the two missiles traveled about 60 miles. Joseph Dempsey, a research associate at International Institute for Strategic Studies, said, “the ‘new tactical guided weapon’ outwardly resembles their KN-23 and KN-23 [short-range ballistic missile]. The use of a wheeled quad launcher indicates a smaller, lighter and likely shorter-range missile.” North Korean media KCNA...
US Deploys Aircraft Carrier Strike Group Off Korean Coast
The US has moved the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group near the Korean Peninsula. The ships are expected to enter the East Sea later this week as a show of force in response to recent North Korean missile tests.
Pentagon Seeks to Scrap Problematic Littoral Combat Ships in 2023
The Pentagon's 2023 budget proposal calls for retiring 24 ships to make way for more expensive vessels. All nine of the Navy's Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) would be among those scrapped. The LCS program has been plagued with issues. The most serious are failures in the population system. Last year, a major defect was found in the transmission, causing new ship deliveries to be halted. The frequent issues have led to the nickname "little crappy ships." Many of the Freedom-class crafts to be cut are the newest in the American fleet, with five ships commissioned in the past...
NATO to Deploy 4 New Battlegroups to Eastern Europe, Warns of Consequences for Chemical Weapons Use
NATO is preparing a military build-up along its Eastern flank, according to the civilian head of the alliance, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. The deployment will consist of four new battlegroups deployed to Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Romania. Battlegroups typically are made up of 1,000-1,500 soldiers. The trans-Atlantic alliance currently has similar deployments in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. Stoltenberg described the new security situation in Eastern Europe, “Along with our existing forces in the Baltic countries and Poland, this means that we will have eight...
Ukraine, a New Safe Haven for Mercenaries
Onrush of the Russian military operation in Ukraine has placed President Volodymyr Zelensky into a troublesome situation. Due to the lack of weaponry and ammunition, copious human losses, and destruction of vital military infrastructure the Ukrainian leader started actively seeking for any sort of help from the outside. This is borne out by his numerous callouts to the European Union, NATO, and the international community for ammunition supplies, on top of his decision to create a non-visa regime for anyone who is willing to fight alongside the Ukrainian Armed Forces and far-right...
Whatever Happened to Medical Ethics?
I recall being shown in grade school a series of short films about the danger of seemingly friendly men who drove popsicle trucks and tried to lure young children into accepting free treats. We were sternly instructed to stay far, far away from such people. How the world has changed. Today we have political leaders with no knowledge of our personal health situation asking us to accept injections of experimental substances for the simple reason that they have been told by their advisers (also ignorant of our circumstances) that it would be good for us to do. It is a bizarre, even absurd...