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President Trump

U.S. and Japan Seek to Cut Off North Korea’s Oil Supply

In response to the missile launch of North Korea over the Japanese islands on Tuesday, the United States and Japan will call for an international embargo on oil exports to Kin Jong Un’s government. The allied effort seeks to strike at the heart of Pyongyang’s weapons programs.

Japan has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York City along with the U.S. and South Korea. The three governments will then propose their ban to the UN. Whether or not other nations agree to join this proposed ban on oil is another matter.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke via telephone on Tuesday and both agreed that now is the time for further pressure on North Korea, rather than dialogue. The missile launch by the North Koreans was another dangerous precedent, having the missile carry over Japanese territory.

Though this marks the fifth time North Korean missiles have flown over Japan, key differences from past cases indicate that the threat is greater this time.

The missile was launched from Sunan, near Pyongyang, around 5:58 a.m. and landed in the Pacific Ocean about 1,180km east of Cape Erimo on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It flew about 2,700km, according to the Japanese government, suggesting that Pyongyang intended to prove that it can strike the American territory of Guam at any time.

Tokyo and Washington see quick, decisive action as necessary to avert a crisis. Past sanctions have done little to hinder Pyongyang, but an oil embargo that includes China, which North Korea relies on for the bulk of its supply, and Russia could deprive the regime of a vital resource, the thinking goes.

Both China and Russia, who have veto powers in the Security Council, are expected to fight this proposal. Which could embolden the North even more.

To read the entire article from The Nikkei Asian Review, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Trump Rolls Back Limits on Surplus Gear from Military to Police

President Donald Trump is going to lift the current restrictions on surplus military gear that can be passed on to state and local law enforcement agencies. This comes despite cries from some circles that police used armored vehicles and other military kit to escalate confrontations with protesters.

According to documents leaked to the AP, Trump was going to undo an Obama administration sanction that restricted police agencies’ access to grenade launchers, bulletproof vests, riot shields, firearms, ammunition and other surplus military equipment.

Trump’s order would fully restore the program under which “assets that would otherwise be scrapped can be repurposed to help state, local, and tribal law enforcement better protect public safety and reduce crime,” according to the documents.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions could outline the changes during a Monday speech to the national conference of the Fraternal Order of Police in Nashville, Tennessee, a person familiar with the matter said. The person insisted on anonymity to discuss the plan ahead of an official announcement.

The changes would be another way in which Trump and Sessions are enacting a law-and-order agenda that views federal support of local police as a way to drive down violent crime.

While some have called this further militarization of the police, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that he’s for improving the morale for local law enforcement which is a key to curbing spikes in violence in some cities. The documents in the possession of the AP state that President Trump favors the public’s safety over the appearance of heavy equipment. And the gear was listed as “defensive in nature.”

To read the entire article from USA Today, click here:

Photo courtesy DOD

MTV Invites Transgender Military Personnel to 2017 VMAs

Reality television station MTV has extended an invitation to all of the active duty transgender troops in the United States military according to CNN. However, before the troops can attend, they must get approval by military authorities.

All active duty personnel face certain restrictions when participating in certain national public events. “At this time the Department of Defense is reviewing the parameters of the request,” Pentagon Spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Haverstick said.

“This is about who is considered a valid human being,” says first openly trans person to serve in U.S. Army

“MTV has invited transgender members of the U.S. armed forces to the 2017 Video Music Awards and we would be honored if they could attend,” MTV president Christopher McCarthy said. “Any patriot who is putting their own life at risk to fight for our freedom and stands for equality is a hero at MTV, and to young people everywhere.”

The network has taken steps this year to overhaul some of its categories to be gender neutral, replacing Best Male Video and Best Female Video with the new Artist of the Year award. MTV has also changed how it references its iconic trophy, which is now referred to as a “Moon Person” instead of a “Moonman.”

This year’s show is certain to draw a number of artists making political statements. In 2010, Lady Gaga mocked the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy by entering the stage with service members discharged due to homosexuality. Last year, former ‘NSync alum Lance Bass wore a jacket that read “Love Trumps Hate” in an effort to derail Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

With the number of transgender military members a hot-button issue for many, the acts of this year’s show are bound to reflect that.

To read the entire article from Rolling Stone, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

White House to Announce Guidance on Transgender Troops Ban

President Donald Trump is moving forward with his instructions for the Pentagon to ban transgender troops and is reportedly sending guidance to the Pentagon according to official government sources. The Wall Street Journal was the first to break the news.

According to the guidance that will be sent to the military service chiefs, is that the military is to stop admitting transgender troops. For troops already in the service, the Pentagon must consider a service member’s ability to deploy when determining whether or not to expel them from the service. The guidance will also contain a proviso for the Pentagon to stop paying for transgender troops’ medical regimens.

It is not clear if the memo is finalized. The Pentagon said in a statement Wednesday night that it “has not received formal guidance from the White House as a follow-up to the Commander-in-Chief’s announcement on military service by transgender personnel.”

“The (Defense) Department continues to focus on our mission of defending our nation and ongoing operations against our foes, while ensuring all service members are treated with respect,” the statement read.

The Pentagon said it would provide an update when the formal guidance is announced.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, responded to The Wall Street Journal’s report with a tweet Wednesday night: “This is NOT how you keep America safe. Period. #ProtectTransTroops.”

To read the entire article from CNN, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

North Korea Promises ‘Merciless Retaliation’ to US, South Korea

The military war games conducted by the United States and South Korea elicited a typical North Korean response. Pyongyang threatened both countries on Tuesday with “merciless retaliation” over their ongoing joint military drills.

North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News (KCNA) had a bombastic warning that both countries they “should take the whole responsibility for catastrophic results from (a) reckless war game.” The annual joint exercise is a 10-day mutual defense drill that consists of 50,000 South Korean forces and 17,500 US troops taking part.

Pyongyang views the annual drills as an invasion rehearsal. South Korea and the U.S. describe them as defensive in nature. This year’s drills come amid a war of words between North Korea and the U.S. over the former’s threat to launch missiles into waters near the U.S. territory of Guam, although tensions have eased in recent days.

In a separate opinion piece published by KCNA, North Korea described President Trump as a leader who tweets “weird articles of his ego-driven thoughts” and “spouts rubbish” that make life for his aides difficult. In previous commentaries, the North has described Trump  as “going senile” and a “war maniac bereft of reason.”

A North Korean diplomat appearing at a United Nations forum on nuclear disarmament in Geneva on Tuesday said Pyongyang would not negotiate over its nuclear program. Ju Yong-chol said his country’s nuclear deterrence was a “justifiable” and “legitimate” form of self-defense in the face of hostile U.S. foreign policy.

Adm. Harry Harris, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said the drills are critical for maintaining readiness against an aggressive North Korea. In other comments on CNN, Harris stated that “testing our forces will be foolhardy.”

The US released footage of F-16s scrambling off the Osan air base runways, which can reach the DMZ in 2-3 minutes and the U-2 spy planes that they monitor the North Koreans with.

To read the entire article from USA Today click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Trump Commits Long-Term To Afghanistan War, Troop Numbers Uncertain

President Donald Trump has committed U.S. support in the ongoing war in Afghanistan. While not offering specifics in regard to a number of troops that would be involved, his decision was welcomed by the Afghan government.

In a nationally televised speech from Ft. Myer, VA on Monday night, Trump admitted that he favored a withdrawal from the war-torn country and was going against his instincts in approving this new campaign strategy sought by his top military advisers, but said that leaving would pose a greater risk.

“The consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable,” he said. “A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists, including ISIS and al Qaeda, would instantly fill.” The Taliban released a statement stating that they would make the country a “graveyard for the American empire.”

Still, he promised an end to “nation-building” by U.S. forces in what has become American’s longest war and stressed that ultimately Afghanistan’s struggling police and army must defeat the Taliban.

“The stronger the Afghan security forces become, the less we will have to do. Afghans will secure and build their own nation and define their own future. We want them to succeed.”

Most of the approximately 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan work with a NATO-led training and advising mission, with the rest part of a counter-terrorism force that mostly targets pockets of al Qaeda and Islamic State fighters.

While Trump said he would not discuss troop levels or details of the new strategy, U.S. officials said on Monday he had signed off on Defense Secretary James Mattis’ plans to send about 4,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

Trump called out Pakistan for allowing safe havens for terrorists inside of their borders. The Pakistanis strongly denied this, “There are no terrorist hideouts in Pakistan,” spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Trump to Address Troops, Announce Administration’s Plan for Afghanistan

President Donald Trump’s administration has completed plans on the nation’s plan for the ongoing war in Afghanistan and will announce his strategy on national television tonight at 9 p.m. His idea is to address the troops live at Ft. Myer, VA in Arlington just across the river from Washington, DC.

Trump held a conference on the subject of Afghanistan and South Asia with his national security team on Friday at Camp David. Their plan for the region is expected to increase the troop levels in the country by 3000-5000.

The Camp David meeting included Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who has said the Trump administration is close to finalizing a strategy for Afghanistan.

Options on the table include proposals to send roughly 3,000 to 5,000 more U.S. troops to a conflict that stretches back to the 9/11 attacks in 2001. More than 2,400 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan.

The top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, has said several thousand additional troops are needed to help break the stalemate in the war against the Taliban, the Islamic State and other insurgent groups there.

Any additional U.S. and coalition troops would remain in a support role in Afghanistan, helping to advise Afghan forces, which have suffered high numbers of casualties in the fight against insurgents. The coalition is also providing limited air support for Afghan government forces.

Mattis and the President have differed on a proposal to turn the war over to US government contractors, but that isn’t expected to be in play at this point.

To read the entire article from The USA Today click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Military Chiefs Break with Trump, Denounce Charlottesville Racism

In a startling move, the leaders of the military broke with President Donald Trump and have denounced the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA over the weekend.

Five of the military’s service chiefs representing the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and National Guard have taken to social media to condemn the white nationalists, the so-called alt-right rally where violence erupted between the white supremacist groups and the counter protesters on Saturday. One woman died after being run down by a car driven by a Nazi sympathizer and two police officers covering the rally also died when their helicopter crashed nearby.

The joint chiefs’ actions break with the military’s normal reticence of entering the political arena and their condemnation of racism and white supremacist groups stands in stark contrast with President Trump’s statements that blamed both all of the protesters for the violence that erupted on the streets of Charlottesville.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson’s shared his admonition hours later on Saturday night.

On Monday, the 82nd Airborne’s official account brought up World War II history to explain their impatience for Nazis.

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Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, also rebuked racial intolerance in his statement, stating that it stood against the institution’s very foundation.

To read the entire article from NBC News, click here:

Photo courtesy DOD

Maduro Calls For Military Exercises After Trump’s Threat of Intervention

Despite insisting that he wants to meet with President Donald Trump and hold talks with him, Venezuela’s President, Nicolas Maduro called for the military to hold exercises to counter the threat of armed intervention by the United States.

Trump’s proclamation that the country is going to “collapse into dictatorship”, has Maduro trying to rally support for a Yankee “imperialist invasion.” Vice President Mike Pence was in Caracas trying to allay fears and do damage control, promising a peaceful solution to Venezuela’s collapse.

The unpopular Maduro, struggling with a disintegrating economy at home and increasing diplomatic isolation abroad, has used Trump’s comments on Friday to reaffirm long-standing accusations that Washington is preparing a military attack.

“Everyone has to join the defense plan, millions of men and women, let’s see how the American imperialists like it,” Maduro told supporters, urging them to join the two-day operation on Aug 26 and 27 involving both soldiers and civilians.

Thousands of government supporters rallied in Caracas where they denounced Trump’s suggestion of a “military option” to resolve Venezuela’s crisis.

Trying to deflect the nation’s problems off of a series of disastrous socialist policies, Maduro played the Yankee card, trying to blame Trump and the US for the economic collapse of the Venezuelan economy. Once the richest nation in Latin America, now it is one of the poorest with thousands of people starving and fleeing for neighboring countries.

Two days ago Maduro appeared in front of a sign that read, “Fuera Trump de America Latina” which translates to “Trump go away from Latin America.”

To read the entire article from Reuters click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Mattis Suggests Transgenders May Continue to Serve

With the Trump White House has still not provided the Defense Department the necessary policy guidance on transgender persons serving in the armed forces, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told the press, that DOD was continuing to study the issue. That statement hints that transgender military members may be allowed to continue to serve despite President Trumps’ announcement to ban their service back in July.

“We are going to study the issue,” Mattis said to the press on Monday at the Pentagon.

“The policy is going to address whether or not transgenders can serve under what conditions, what medical support they require, how much time would they be perhaps non-deployable leaving others to pick up their share of everything. There’s a host of issues and I’m learning more about this than I ever thought I would and it’s obviously very complex to include the privacy issues which we respect,” Mattis said.

“I am waiting right now to get the President’s guidance in and that I expect to be very soon,” he added.

Trump announced his plan to ban transgender service members on Twitter last month. The move took the Joint Chiefs of Staff by surprise, and the Pentagon has said it is awaiting an official order from Trump before making a policy change.

The White House still hasn’t sent any guidance to the Pentagon on the issue and Mattis told the press that the guidance issued by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Joseph Dunford in July still stands.

Dunford wrote in a memo “no modifications to the current policy until the President’s direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidelines.” “In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect,”

Trump when questioned by the media last week, stated that by banning transgender troops, he was, “doing the military a great favor.”

To read the entire article from CNN, click here:

Photo courtesy DOD