North Korea Scales Up Yongbyon Nuclear Site’s Activities

China, North, and South Korea seen from space© NASA Earth Observatory

MOSCOW, August 7 (RIA Novosti) - North Korea is expanding the operations of the Yongbyon nuclear site, renovating its 5 megawatt-electric (MWe) reactor to make plutonium for nuclear weapons and expanding the centrifuge plant, Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said in a recent report.

“The June 30th satellite imagery, combined with procurement data obtained by ISIS, suggests that North Korea is emphasizing the production of weapon-grade plutonium as well as enriched uranium for its nuclear weapons program,” ISIS said in the report. “Additionally, movement of material, a new piece of roofing, and several other renovations have been detected at the fuel fabrication and uranium centrifuge complex located in the southern part of the Yongbyon nuclear site.”

Pyongyang is also constructing and possibly installing equipment at the experimental light water reactor (LWR) which would allow to produce “several times more plutonium than the 5 MWe reactor.”

Pyongyang withdrew from the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in April 2003 and began developing its nuclear stockpile after a war in Iran, fearing an invasive regime change.

North Korea declared itself a nuclear power in 2005. In 2006, Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test, followed by underground tests in 2009 and 2013. In response to North Korea’s actions, the UN Security Council adopted a number of resolutions demanding Pyongyang to stop nuclear activities.

According to the Arms Control Association, North Korea currently has enough plutonium for approximately eight bombs.

Credit to RIA Novosti

Poland PM warns of possible Russian direct intervention in Ukraine

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warns the threat of a direct intervention by Russia's military in Ukraine has risen over the last couple of days

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday that he believed there was a "growing threat of direct Russian intervention" in easternUkraine.

Tusk said on Wednesday that his assessment was based on information received in the previous dozen hours or so, but gave no details.

"The threat of direct Russian intervention is certainly greater than it was a few days ago," he said.

Air strikes and artillery fire between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops in Donetsk have brought the violence closer than ever to the city centre, as Kiev's forces move in on the rebel stronghold.

As the rebels struggle to push back Kiev's forces, the wild card will be whether Russia will come to their rescue.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has faced increasing pressure from Russian nationalists urging him to send in the army to back the insurgency, and Western leaders have accused Russia of building up troops along the border with Ukraine in what some fear may preface an intervention.

The Russian Defence Ministry on Tuesday also shrugged off US warnings that an air force exercise in southern Russia this week was adding to tensions, saying that the drills were being conducted hundreds of kilometres away from the Ukrainian border.

Credit to The Telegraph

Jesse Ventura Sets The Record Straight

Ebola Deaths Go Exponentia and Saudi Death First In Arab World

The official Ebola death toll is now at 932 with over 1,700 reported cases but as the WHO reports, in the last 48 hours, deaths and cases have exploded (48 and 108 respectively). As the charts below show, this epidemic is going exponential. What is perhaps most worrisome is, while playing down the threat in Nigeria (most especially Lagos - which the CDC Director is "deeply concerned" about), officials have formally asked the US for the experimental Ebola drug, which suggest things are far worse than the 3 deaths reported so far in Nigeria would suggest. Finally, as we warned yesterday, Saudi Arabia is suffering too as the main who was hospitalized yesterday with symptoms has died - the first reported casualty in the Arab world.

As The BBC reports,

It is the world's deadliest outbreak to date and has centred on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Eight people are currently in quarantine in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, and two have died there.

The Saudi man died after showing Ebola symptoms when he returned from a business trip to Sierra Leone, the Saudi health ministry said.

The Ebola outbreak has gone exponential...

Cases...

Deaths...

And then there is this...

• *NIGERIA FORMALLY REQUESTS EXPERIMENTAL EBOLA DRUG FROM U.S.
• *NIGERIA HEALTH MINISTER IN TOUCH WITH U.S. CDC DIRECTOR

Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu has sent request to director of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he tells reporters in capital, Abuja.

“We have been in communication in the last 36 hours”

“We are getting reports that the experimental drug seems to be useful”

Which suggests things are far more serious in Nigeria than officials are letting on. As The BBC reports,

But it is not clear if the ZMapp drug, which has only been tested on monkeys, can be credited with their improvement.

Prof Peter Piot, who co-discovered Ebola in 1976, Prof David Heymann, the head of the Centre on Global Health Security, and Wellcome Trust director Prof Jeremy Farrar said there were several drugs and vaccines being studied for possible use against Ebola.

"African governments should be allowed to make informed decisions about whether or not to use these products - for example to protect and treat healthcare workers who run especially high risks of infection," they wrote in a joint statement.

The WHO, "the only body with the necessary international authority" to allow such experimental treatments, "must take on this greater leadership role", they said.

Credit to Zero Hedge 

OBAMA’S WAR AGAINST RUSSIA BACKFIRES

For everybody except Obama’s patrons, his policies regarding Ukraine are disastrous




U.S. President Barack Obama’s war against Russia isn’t only causing Russia to cooperate more strongly with the other BRIC countries to break the U.S. dollar’s reign as the global reserve currency, but it’s also causing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s job-approval rating in Russia to soar, and the confidence that the Russian people have in their own Government to soar likewise.

The latest of these signs came on 5 August 2014 in a report from Gallup Analytics (by subscription only) headlined “Russians’ Confidence in Many Institutions Reaches All-Time High.” Especially sharp has been the rise in “Confidence in national government,” which was only 39% in 2013 prior to the overthrow by Obama in February 2014 of Ukraine’s government which had been friendly to Russia, but which confidence-level stands now at 64% — a gain of 64/39 or 1.64 times higher than it was a year ago. Confidence in the military has risen from 65% in 2013 to 78% now. Confidence in the “honesty of elections” has risen from a very low 23% in 2013 to 39% today (which is 39/23 or 1.70 times higher), as increasing numbers of Russians have come to conclude that their political system is producing better results for them than they had expected, perhaps better than in the longer-established “democratic” nations, such as the United States, whose President Barack Obama is far less highly regarded now by Russians, after his overthrowing Ukraine’s Government, than he was prior to that. Remarkably, more Russians than ever before, 65%, answer “Yes” when asked “are you satisfied … with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?” Last year, only 56% did, down 2% from the prior all-time high of 58% in 2006.

A Gallup poll issued on 18 July 2014 headlined “Russian Approval of Putin Soars to Highest Level in Years,” and reported that “President Vladimir Putin’s popularity in Russia is now at its highest level in years, likely propelled by a groundswell of national pride with the annexation of Crimea in March on the heels of the Sochi Olympic Games in February. The 83% of Russians saying they approve of Putin’s leadership in late April/early June ties his previous high rating in 2008 when he left office the first time.” Furthermore, “The 29-percentage-point increase in Putin’s job approval between 2013 and 2014 suggests he has solidified his previously shaky support base. For the first time since 2008, a majority of Russians (73%) believe their country’s leadership is leading them in the right direction.” Pointedly, Gallup says: “At the same time that their faith in their own leadership has been renewed, Russians’ approval of the leadership of the U.S. and the EU are at all-time lows. The single-digit approval of the leadership of the U.S. and EU at least partly reflects Russians’ displeasure with the position each has taken on their country’s ongoing involvement in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea.” Moreover, “Despite U.S. and European sanctions earlier this year over Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine, more Russians see their economy getting better now than has been the case since 2008.”

All of these changes are largely attributable to Obama’s replacement of the democratic but corrupt government in Ukraine by a dictatorial but corrupt one (now elected only by voters in the areas of the country that the new regime isn’t ethnically cleansing to get rid of the people who had voted into office the President — Viktor Yanukovych — whom Obama and the CIA overthrew in February 2014).


Furthermore, there was no serious possibility of Crimea’s rejoining Russia (of which Crimea had been a part between 1783 and 1954) until the new Ukrainian regime massacred hundreds of its opponents inside the Odessa Trade Unions Building on May 2nd, the event that caused Yanukovych’s voters to fear for their lives. That massacre was co-masterminded by Ihor Kolomoysky, the billionaire gas oligarch who recently hired Joe Biden’s son.

On 2 July 2014, I headlined “Gallup Poll Finds Ukraine Cannot Be One Country,” and reported that, “The 500 people that were sampled in Crimea were asked ‘Please tell me if you agree or disagree: The results of the referendum on Crimea’s status [whether to rejoin Russia, which passed overwhelmingly] reflect the views of most people here.’ 82.8% said ‘Agree.’ 6.7% said ‘Disagree’.” Moreover, “Additionally, in the Crimean region — Ukraine’s farthest southeast area, which our President, Barack Obama, says that Russia forcibly seized when the people there voted overwhelmingly on 16 March 2014 to become part of Russia again (as they had been until 1954) — only 2.8% of the public there view the U.S. favorably; more than 97% of Crimeans do not.” Moreover, Gallup surveyed Crimeans a few months before Obama’s coup in Ukraine, and headlined “Public Opinion Survey: Residents of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, May 16-30, 2013.” They found that when asked “Regardless of your passport, what do you consider yourself?” 40% said “Russian,” 25% said “Crimean,” and only 15% said “Ukrainian.” So: when the Autonomous Republic voted after Obama’s coup, when even fewer Crimeans self-identified with the now-fascist-run Ukraine, it had to have been a foregone conclusion they’d choose Russia, because even prior to that, there was nearly a three-to-one preference of Russia over Ukraine. That same poll showed 68% favorability for Russia and 6% favorability for “USA.” 53% wanted to be part of the Customs Union with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, while only 17% wanted to be part of the EU. Obama lies through his teeth about Crimea. On 25 March 2014, the Los Angeles Times headlined “President Obama Says Russia Seized Crimea.”

On 15 July 2014, Newsweek bannered, “BRICS Conference Plots a Challenge to Western Economic Domination,” and reported that, “A new monetary organization that aims to be a rival to the World Bank and the IMF was launched today by leaders of the BRICS group at their annual summit. Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, banded together as a set of emerging nations, announced the long-awaited bank and contingency fund, a clear move away from the dominance of the West in global economics and the dire consequences of an unstable dollar.”

Obama’s takeover of Ukraine — or of the rump western portion of it that will remain as “Ukraine” after the civil war that Obama started there — will leave a weakened United States, and a world far more hostile to us. He, and his stooges in Europe, may succeed in harming Russia, but the public in every nation will be harmed by what Obama has done in Ukraine. A few aristocrats who will be grabbing former Ukrainian assets will gain, but they and their U.S. and EU partners (such as Exxon, Chevron, and Shell) will be the only ones who will. Aristocrats are the only people that Obama really cares about. He certainly doesn’t shed crocodile tears over the hundreds of thousands of residents in southeastern Ukraine who are either being murdered or else fleeing into refugee camps inside Russia, all due to him – due to people he has appointed, decisions he has made, and actions he has taken.

For everybody except Obama’s patrons, his policies regarding Ukraine are disastrous.
Credit to Infowars

Russia Prepares Large-Scale Invasion: “Battle-ready Force of Infantry, Armor, Artillery, and Air Defense”

A massive buildup on the Ukrainian border in the last 48 hours has seen Russia double its troop levels with 17 additional battalions and has left Western leaders trying to figure out what President Vladimir Putin is planning to do next.

On Tuesday the Russian President called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to resolve the “humanitarian crisis” in Ukraine that has reportedly left tens of thousands of people displaced because of fighting over the last several months, a move that some in the West see as prelude to a Russian invasion of Ukraine.


“We are convening an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine,” Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin was quoted as saying.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross expressed “readiness” to discuss its plan to deploy a “humanitarian mission” to Ukraine, which some consider to be a pretext for an invasion by Russian forces.

Russia has significantly built up its troop presence along the Ukrainian border in recent weeks, according to U.S. officials, making it ready for a potential large-scale invasion of southeastern Ukraine if Russian President Vladimir Putin so chooses.

According to a report in The New York Times, Russia has nearly doubled its troop presence along the border, adding 17 battalions and 19,000 to 21,000 troops who now compose a “battle-ready force of infantry, armor, artillery, and air defense within a few miles of the border.”

The White House has openly worried about what would be, for all intents and purposes, an invasion under the guise of a “peacekeeping” operation.

“We’ve seen a significant re-buildup of Russian forces along the border, potentially positioning Russia for a so-called humanitarian or peacekeeping intervention in Ukraine,” deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken said last week.

“That’s a very real option,” a senior Defense Department official told The Times. “And should Putin decide, he could do that with little or no notice. We just don’t know what he’s thinking.”

Source: Business Insider

It should be clear exactly what Vladimir Putin is thinking.

He’s thinking he can send his troops over the border and no one in Europe or the United States will have the will or fortitude to stop it. And, given the foreign policy failures of the United States over the last five years, he’s probably right.

After heavy sanctions that threaten to seize the asset of Russian politicians and businessmen, and a direct attack on Russia’s economy, Vladimir Putin is about to show the world what a Russian response looks like.

The following map, made available by Zero Hedge and generated within the last week, indicates that Russia now has up to 42,000 troops within a few miles of the border with additional units in reserve.

(Click for larger image)



As Charlie McGrath noted recently, the Russians have the weapons, the technology, the will and the manpower to see this through.

For casual observers, pay attention, because there’s a strong possibility that you are seeing the buildup to the next great war.
Credit to ShftPlan.com

Putin Has Now Begun His Promised Economic Attack On America.