featured video

As the US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and its accompanying escort ships come within striking distance of North Korea, a Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, is reporting that Russia and China have sent spy ships to monitor their movements.
Yomiuri Shimbun says it has been provided with this information by “numerous sources within the Japanese government”.  The Japanese government would be well-informed about this situation because some of its own warships have joined the task force led by Carl Vinson.

Not so long ago, using the term “false flag” immediately marked you as a “conspiracy theorist,” – basically a nutcase not in touch with reality. Supposedly.
In case anybody still doesn’t know, a “false flag [attack/event]” is an incident perpetrated by one party (usually a state) either against itself or someone else, while making it appear that a third party is to blame.

Turkey votes today in a referendum that could give President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers in government, giving the President unprecedented control of the country.
Opinion polls give the “Yes” vota a narrow lead, but polls have been anything but reliable this past year.
The referendum will turn Turkey’s parliamentary democracy, into an all-powerful presidency which could keep Erdogan in office until at least 2029.
The cause for concern is obvious and real.

South Korea’s Joint Chief of Staff reports that North Korea has attempted to test a missile but the launch has ended in failure.
A South Korean military official has told Yonhap,

“It’s presumed to be a new ICBM. It seems longer than the existing KN-08 or KN-14 ICBMs”.

The statement continued,

Tragedy has struck Syria a a suicide attack kills and injures civilians being evacuated from the embattled towns of Fua and Kefraya to Aleppo. The current death toll stands at 70 with 130 people injured. Among the dead, more than half are thought to be children. The number of casualties is expected to rise as more information comes in.
The attack took place near a bus convoy taking 5,000 besieged Shi’a Syrians away from the Shi’a majority towns of Fua and Kefraya into Aleppo city.

Last week The Duran reported on the many “deplorables” turned off by Trump’s new found fancy for a US interventionist foreign policy.
Last week Trump also backtracked on much of his NATO pre-presidential stance.

North Korea has peacefully celebrated The Day of The Sun, birthday celebrations for Kim Il-Sung, the founder of North Korea and Supreme Leader from 1948-1994. He would have been 105 today.
The large military parade and choreographed pageantry went off as expected, contrary to reports from NBC that the US would attack North Korea today. The report has subsequently been amended.

The unchallenged reign of the US Navy on the high seas may be drawing to a close.
Russia has plans to build a new class of supercarrier which will be able to challenge the US navy’s Nimitz and Gerald Ford class carriers.
The “Storm” (or Shtorm) class supercarrier, also called Project 23000E, is being planned by Russia to be comparable to the Gerald Ford class, will be nuclear powered, and carry around 90 combat aircraft.

Assad finally gives his thoughts on the Idlib province chemical attack. Assad is calm, measured, and his comments are intelligent and coherent.
Here is what Assad told the BBC…

There has been some discussion, especial on social media, as to whether or not Russia might shoot down US aircraft or missiles attacking Syria, and of the circumstances in which that might happen.
There have even been some suggestions that there are no circumstances where the Russians would ever shoot down US aircraft or missiles in Syria, and that the whole Russian military position in Syria is limited to fighting Jihadi terrorists and with respect to the US is essentially a bluff.