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Russia A leaked draft of President Donald Trump's nuclear posture review seems to confirm that Russia has been building an underwater nuclear doomsday machine. Reports of the torpedo sent a chill down the spines of experts, who say it could not only destroy a city but poison the area with radiation for years to come. Russia may have intentionally let on that it was working on the doomsday device to sow fear in the US and deter attacks. President Donald Trump's nuclear posture review,  leaked to HuffPost this month , seems to show the US believes Russia is building a dangerous new undersea nuclear weapon that critics say could cause widespread death and damage. "Russia is developing and deploying new nuclear warheads and launchers," the leaked review says, adding that these systems include "a new intercontinental, nuclear-armed, undersea autonomous torpedo." Printouts of plans for such a nuclear torpedo had been spotted in state TV footage of a meeting ...

.   An F-35B begins its short takeoff from the USS America with an external weapons load.Lockheed Martin While North Korea  feverishly works to perfect intercontinental ballistic missile technology , the US and its allies are putting the finishing touches on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that will soon be patrolling the Pacific. Japan and South Korea, the US's principal allies the region, will both deploy over 100 F-35s by 2021,  according to Aviation Week . This follows the US choosing Japan as the site of its first-ever deployment of operational F-35Bs, which are  particularly well-suited  to combat in the Pacific region. The F-35, with its stealth characteristics and ability to improve the performance of the legacy jets it flies with, presents technical challenges that even the world's best air forces can't yet overcome. Against North Korea's rudimentary air force and air defenses, the F-35 would dominate and lead South Korean, Japanese, and US legacy fi...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the test of a new-type anti-aircraft guided weapon system organised by the Academy of National Defence Science in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) May 28, 2017. KCNA/via          North Korea fired a missile on Friday in an unusual late-night test launch, and details announced by Japanese officials and media suggested it could be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The launch from North Korea's northern Jangang province took place at 11:41 p.m. (1441 GMT), an official at South Korea's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The U.S. Defense Department confirmed the launch, saying it was making further assessments.       "As a result of their launches of ICBM-level missiles, this clearly shows the threat to our nation's safety is severe and real," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the...

file photo, a man watches a TV news program showing a file image of a missile launch conducted by North Korea, at the Seoul Railway Station  The Defense Intelligence Agency now estimates that North Korea could have an ICBM with a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the U.S. mainland by next year, The Washington Post  reported  Tuesday. The estimate by the DIA significantly shortened the timeframe for when North Korea could develop the technology for miniaturizing a nuclear warhead to fit atop an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and survive re-entry into the atmosphere. Previous estimates said that North Korea was at least three years away from having the capability. The new confidential assessment by the DIA followed  the July 4 missile test  that North Korea claimed was an ICBM. U.S. Pacific Command initially said the missile appeared to be of intermediate range but later concluded that it had the range of an ICBM capable of hitting Alaska. The DI...

Hawaii's  Emergency Management Agency released  an ominous statement on how to survive and proceed in the event of a nuclear attack. Citizens of Hawaii are advised to look out for emergency sirens, alerts, wireless notifications, or flashes of "brilliant white light" that will indicate that a nuclear detonation is incoming or underway. From there, the agency instructs citizens to get indoors, stay indoors, and stay tuned via radio as "cell phone, television, radio and internet services will be severely disrupted or unavailable." Instead, expect only local radio stations to survive and function. If indoors, citizens should avoid windows. If driving, citizens should pull off the road to allow emergency vehicles access to population centers. Once inside, Hawaiians should not leave home until instructed to or for two full weeks, as dangerous nuclear fallout could sicken or kill them. Read the full release below:

KCNA/REUTERSKim Jong Un at the test of a strategic submarine ballistic missile in an undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency in 2015. As tensions reach a boiling point between North Korea, the US, and the North's neighbors, Japan's government has issued a guide for its citizens on how to survive a missile attack that would take less than 10 minutes to hit Japan,  The Washington Post reports . The guide  warns specifically of nuclear ballistic-missile attacks, as North Korea continues both nuclear and ballistic-missile programs. The guide instructs people to keep calm, keep roads clear, and maintain communication with the outside world through radio or TV in the event of a nuclear, chemical, or biological attack. It recommends that in the event of a nuclear explosion, people not look at the flash, which could be blinding, and have the least possible amount of skin exposed to the blast of radiation. Paranoia or real concern? North Korea  stu...

In-Depth Coverage Iran Press TV The US AirForce has test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads, a move that is expected to escalate simmering tensions with North Korea over its development of missiles and nuclear weapons. The unarmed Minuteman III missile was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles, California, and successfully hit the target near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The test was aimed at assessing the effectiveness, readiness, and accuracy of the missile system, the USAF said. Colonel John Moss, the commander of the 30th Space Wing, said the Minuteman missiles need to be tested on a regular basis to ensure their reliability and to demonstrate the national nuclear capabilities. The timing of the test was questioned by peacegroups, with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation calling it a "double standard" in the wake of rising tensions w...

This US Navy photo obtained on March 31, 2017 shows the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and other vessels as they participate in an exercise with Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers in the Philippine Sea on March 28, 2017. (Via AFP) North Korea is reportedly engaged in a large-scale live-fire artillery exercise, in what is apparently intended to signal to a hostile United States that Pyongyang is combat-ready. On Tuesday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that the North appeared to have deployed a large number of long-range artillery units in the region of Wonsan on its east coast for the drill. The day coincides with the anniversary of the establishment of the North’s military. The United States, North Korea’s archenemy, and regional adversaries South Korea and Japan have harbored fears that the occasion might witness another nuclear test by Pyongyang. North Korea has so far conducted five confirmed nuclear tests and numerous missile test-launches. Pyongyang...

As Donald Trump’s first three weeks in office come to a close, critics are pointing out that his iconic slogan, “Make America Great Again” is starting to look more and more like an attempt to bring American society back to the 1950s. What most people haven’t realized yet is that his vision of turning back the clock also applies to America’s nuclear arsenal. Just this past week, CQ Roll Call  reported  that a blue-ribbon Pentagon panel urged the Trump administration to make the U.S. arsenal more capable of fighting a “‘limited’ atomic war.” According to the report, “The Defense Science Board … urges the president to consider altering existing and planned U.S. armaments to achieve a greater number of lower-yield weapons that could provide a ‘tailored nuclear option for limited use.’” The strategy behind limited nuclear use sounds deceptively simple. You need to escalate a conflict just  enough  to end it. As the theory goes, using low-yield nuclear weapons aga...

Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Behrouz Kamalvandi (File Photo). Iran’s new domestically-manufactured IR-8 centrifuge machines will increase the country’s capacity to enrich uranium 20 times more than the existing IR-1 machines, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) says. “The enrichment capacity of IR-8 centrifuge is 20 SWU per year and the [country's] enrichment capacity will increase 20 times after the mass production of this machine,” Behrouz Kamalvandi said at a Tuesday conference in the northeastern city of Mashhad. This is while the enrichment capacity of the existing IR-1 centrifuges is one SWU per year, he noted. The official pointed out that the IR-8 centrifuges are currently being tested with enriched uranium gas and it will be mass produced eight years after the implementation date of Iran's nuclear deal with the P5+1 group of countries, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). This file photo shows...

US President Donald Trump is expected to retreat from his campaign promise to rip up a nuclear deal signed by Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany in 2015, says an analyst. “Despite President Trump’s campaign promises in which he called the Iran nuclear deal as the ‘worse deal’, we don’t think the White House will be killing the nuclear deal,” Roozbeh Aliabadi, managing partner of the Global Growth Advisors from New York, told Press TV on Tuesday. European states, Russia and China are behind the nuclear accord called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the analyst said adding, “it is highly unlikely that we will see killing of the deal.” “It is reasonable for all of us to assume that the nuclear deal will stay in place,” the analyst noted. He said the fact that Trump in his first three weeks in office has not yet discussed the JCPOA with the ...

The half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly been assassinated in Malaysia, South Korean media and Malaysian police say. The announcement was first made by the Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's largest news agency, on Tuesday, which said 45-year-old Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of late former leader Kim Jong-il, was “killed” in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Monday. It added, citing an unnamed South Korean government source, that he lost his life after being attacked by two unidentified female agents with “poisoned needles.” Shortly after Yonhop’s report, South Korea's TV Chosun, a cable television network, citing multiple unnamed government sources, confirmed the assassination of Jong-nam by female assailants, adding that they had fled the crime scene and were still at large. On Tuesday evening, Malaysian police confirmed the death of Jong-nam, saying he had planned to travel to the autonomous region of Macau, which lies on the sout...

International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Yukiya Amano, attends a panel discussion at the World Government Summit 2017 in Dubai on February 14, 2017. (Photo by AFP) The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has once again confirmed that Iran is implementing the landmark nuclear agreement it signed with the P5+1 group of countries in 2015. “Implementation is very important and that requires efforts by all and ... we have a very robust verification tool,” IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano told reporters on the sidelines of a summit in Dubai on Tuesday. “There is nothing political that will change our implementation," he added. Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany - started implementing the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - on January 16, 2016. Officials and diplomats from Iran, the EU, and the P5+1 group of co...

Alex Lockie The test-fire of Pukguksong-2. This photo was released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on February 13.KCNA/Handout On Sunday, North Korea launched a missile into the Sea of Japan for the first time since US President Donald Trump took office. South Korean officials  told Reuters  that the missile, a land-based adaptation of the submarine-launched KN-11, doesn't have the range to strike the US but has another trait that's just as troubling, if not more: solid fuel. North Korean missiles usually rely on liquid fuel and have to be gassed up similar to how you'd fill up a car. North Korea, like many nuclear powers, mounts its nuclear-capable missiles on trucks. Road-mobile missile launchers can hide easier, launch from almost anywhere, and take an enemy by surprise - but liquid fuel complicates all that. To launch a liquid-fueled missile, a giant convoy of military trucks must drive out to a location, fuel up the rocket with the multiple types...

A senior Iranian lawmaker says any move by US President Donald Trump to leak confidential documents on the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries would be harmful to the UN nuclear agency and not Iran. "If Trump wants to publish confidential documents between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it will in fact constitute a violation of the agency's obligations, because the agency has been committed not to make Iran's confidential nuclear information and documents available to any country, including the US," Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Sunday. He added that such a move by the US would pose challenges to the IAEA as an international body. During the US election campaign, reports circulated indicating that Trump would reveal certain documents on Iran's nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCP...

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (R) and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at UN headquarters in New York City on January 27, 2017 (Photo by Reuters) The United Nations Security Council has announced an emergency meeting to discuss North Korea’s recent launch of a nuclear-capable ballistic missile. The United States, Japan, and South Korea on Sunday requested the meeting on an “urgent basis.” North Korea launched the missile near the western city of Kusong on Sunday. It flew east about 500 kilometers before falling into the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) later on Monday confirmed that Pyongyang had “successfully” tested a “surface-to-surface medium long-range ballistic missile.” The North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, “expressed great satisfaction over the possession of another powerful nuclear attack means, which adds t...

The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, in an undated photo. Military experts in the region say that the country is still years away from achieving capabilities that it has claimed, like striking the continental United States, as well as its military bases in the Pacific. KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES SEOUL, South Korea —  North Korea  said on Monday that it had successfully tested a new nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile, claiming important progress in being able to strike its enemies with long-range missiles tipped with nuclear warheads. Confirming  the missile test  detected by the United States and South Korean authorities on Sunday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said it had launched an intermediate-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile named Pukguksong-2, or Polaris-2. North Korea’s leader,  Kim Jong-un , inspected the test, the news agency said. ...

President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered an abrupt joint statement Saturday night, addressing reports that North Korea test fired a ballistic missile into its eastern sea. "I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100%," Trump said. In his remarks, Abe called the launch "absolutely intolerable." Trump and Abe made their remarks from Mar-a-Lago, Trump's estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and did not take questions from reporters. The launch was North Korea's first such test of the year and an implicit challenge to Trump's new administration. But details of the launch, including the type of missile, were scant. There was no immediate confirmation from the North, which had recently warned it is ready to test its first intercontinental ballistic missile. The reports come as Trump was hosting Abe and just days before the North is to mark the birth...

All 28 NATO allies fully support Ukraine as it faces the worst upsurge in fighting against pro-Russian rebels in two years, alliance deputy head Rose Gottemoeller said Thursday. US President Donald Trump has stoked concerns in NATO and Europe by dubbing the alliance "obsolete" and taking a softer stance on Russia, in marked contrast to his predecessor. "There was unanimity around the NATO-Ukraine Council table, strong support from all allies for Ukraine," she told reporters after talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The US-led alliance had stood by Ukraine since "Russian aggressive actions" began in 2014 and it would not recognise the illegal annexation of Crimea early that year, she said. The recent fighting was the worst in two years, with OSCE monitors reporting more than 10,000 violations of the Minsk ceasefire accords on one day, she said. "We are deeply concerned by the recent spike in vi...

Three Turkish soldiers were "accidentally" killed and 11 wounded on Thursday when a Russian air strike targeting jihadists in Syria hit a building where the troops were deployed, the Turkish army said. With Moscow and Ankara cooperating ever more closely on Syria, President Vladimir Putin quickly reached out to Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to express condolences and promise better future coordination. The Russian plane had been seeking to hit targets of Islamic State (IS) jihadists but "by accident three of our heroic soldiers were martyred when a building was bombed where our units were," the Turkish army said in a statement. It said that of the 11 injured, one was badly wounded. Putin contacted Erdogan to express his "sadness and condolences," it added. "Russian officials have said that the incident was an accident," the army said, adding an investigation is being carried out by both sides. In Moscow, the Kremlin said Putin...