American F/A-18 crashes near Philippines while attempting to land on USS Carl Vinson

An American F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed while attempting to land on the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier near the Philippines on Friday.  The pilot successfully ejected from the aircraft and was promptly recovered by a rescue helicopter assigned to the carrier.  His current medical status has not yet been revealed, but the indicates that the […]

German chancellery investigated in probe into WikiLeaks sources

Berlin’s chief public prosecutor has extended an investigation into the release of a trove of documents by WikiLeaks to include the chancellery as well as the Bundestag lower house of parliament, broadcaster NDR said on Thursday. Last December, WikiLeaks released the confidential documents, which German security agencies had submitted to a parliamentary committee investigating the […]

US will seek the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

The United States government, through the Department of Justice, is seeking the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, according to a report from CNN. U.S. officials familiar with the matter say that Assange can no longer claim First Amendment protections. Prosecuting Assange has been a priority for the Department of Justice for many years, but under […]

Mattis on war in Yemen: ‘It has simply got to be brought to an end’

In his first trip to Saudi Arabia as Secretary of Defense, James Mattis is seeking to shore up relations between the U.S. and the Saudis, while sending Iran a message. Along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the Trump administration is effecting a sort of ‘reboot’ with the Saudis, who had felt continually at odds […]

Tillerson accuses Iran of ‘alarming provocations’ as U.S. reviews policy

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday accused Iran of ‘alarming ongoing provocations’ to destabilize countries in the Middle East as the Trump administration launched a review of its policy toward Tehran. Tillerson told reporters the review, which he announced on Tuesday, would not only look at Tehran’s compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal […]

Russian bombers intercepted off the coast of Alaska twice in a matter of hours

U.S. military aircraft were scrambled twice to intercept Russian TU-95 Bear bombers flying off the coast of Alaska in less than 24 hours this week.  This was the first such incident since July 4th of 2015 when Russia flew two similar bombers off the coasts of Alaska and California.  U.S. military officials characterized the flights […]

USS Carl Vinson isn’t anywhere near North Korea: Incompetence or political theater?

A week ago, White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group was being diverted from its scheduled operations in Australia to head directly for the Korean peninsula amid ever-increasing tension surrounding Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons program. Reports substantiating his claim came in from the Pentagon, and […]

Could the U.S. have caused North Korea’s missile test to fail with a virus?

Another recent ballistic missile test by Kim Jong Un’s North Korean regime ended in failure over the weekend, prompting another round of headlines poking fun at the reclusive state’s inability to make meaningful progress in building a missile with a high probability of success.  Although it seems likely enough that the floundering economy and educational […]