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Russia on Tuesday announced the start of tactical nuclear weapons drills close to Ukraine, in what it said was a response to Western "threats". Throughout its two-year offensive on Ukraine, Moscow has repeatedly talked-up its arsenal of nuclear weapons and its readiness to deploy them if it senses an existential threat. The West has accused President Vladimir Putin of irresponsible nuclear sabre-rattling. Russia's defence ministry said Tuesday the drills were taking place in its Southern Military District, which borders and includes parts of Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed. It did not specify exactly where.

MOSCOW, May 9 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that there was nothing unusual in a planned exercise involving the practice deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in southern Russia along with ally Belarus. Russia said on Monday it would practise the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what the Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States. "There is nothing unusual here, this is planned work," Putin said, state news agency TASS reported. "It is training." Russia's defence ministry, in its announcement on Monday, explicitly linked the nuclear...

Russia plans to hold drills simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced Monday, days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine. The drills are in response to “provocative statements and threats of certain Western officials regarding the Russian Federation,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement. It was the first time that Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, though its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises. Tactical nuclear weapons have a lower yield compared to massive warheads that arm intercontinental ballistic missiles intended to...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has continued his deranged nuclear warnings to the West, warning Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that London's iconic No.10 Downing Street is on a hit list. Russian president Vladimir Putin has today ordered nuclear missile firing drills and warned not even Downing Street will be safe. He told defence minister Sergei Shoigu to prepare exercises in the near future "in order to increase the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to fulfil combat missions." A Russian defence minister said it would involve land, air and naval forces. A ministry spokesperson said: "A set of measures will be taken...

J.K. Rowling won a significant victory over Scotland’s new speech restrictions after daring the police to arrest her over comments criticising transgender ideology, as Police Scotland said they would not take criminal actions against the Harry Potter author after activists reported her statements to law enforcement. Successfully calling the bluff of the leftist government of First Minister Humza Yousaf, J.K. Rowling struck a stinging blow against the oppressive Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, after she goaded the police to arrest her as the bill came into law on Monday for insisting that transgender “women” are in reality still...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump plans to skip the first Republican primary debate next week and instead sit for an online interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the matter. Trump has for months suggested that he would likely pass on Wednesday night's debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, arguing that it did not make sense to give others a change to attack him given his sizeable lead among Republicans in national polls. Trump has also criticized Fox, which is hosting the debate, over its recent coverage of him. Trump's...

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D.-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R.-Ky., have struck a deal to include the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), according to Axios. If the deal holds, it will move this essential piece of legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk. The NDAA must pass by year’s end to fund America’s military. The JCPA would allow news organizations to band together to negotiate fair fees from online platforms, such as Facebook and Google, who derive ad revenue from the hard work of newsrooms — mostly small, local, community-rooted...

During the Overtime segment of Friday’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) program busing migrants to New York City, Washington, D.C., and Chicago has called the bluff of liberals in those cities and exposed the “hypocrisy” of people on the left saying, “let’s have open borders or close to it,” “but not in my backyard.” Maher said, “It is an interesting question for liberals to be like, hey, let’s have open borders or close to it, and then when they come, but it’s not in our states. And the Texas Governor kind of called their...

(CNN) — For the last 72 hours, since the FBI conducted a search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, the former President has spouted any number of claims about what happened and why. He's said that Democrats led the search (they didn't) and raised the possibility that FBI agents might have planted evidence, without providing any proof of the allegation. On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland struck back -- albeit in the limited way available to him as the head of the Justice Department still actively investigating the possibility that Trump took classified documents out of the White House and had...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear force should the West get involved in the war a “bluff.” The Ukrainian leader has ramped up his calls for the West to impose a no-fly zone over the country as Russian aerial attacks have intensified and amid warnings that Moscow may be prepared to use weapons of mass destruction on its neighbor.

A woman was dead after a bluff collapsed at Grandview Surf Beach in Encinitas Friday afternoon, authorities said. Discarded beach chairs and sun hats could be seen near the portion of cliff that officials say sloughed off around 3 p.m. beneath a staircase giving access from the 1700 block of Neptune Avenue. In addition to the fatality, four others were hurt. Two people were in critical condition, one of whom had to be airlifted for treatment, according to Encinitas Fire Chief Mike Stein. Another two people suffered minor injuries. One of them was treated and released at the scene, while...

WASHINGTON — President Trump still isn’t ready to release the “devastating” documents he said a few months ago he would drop on Democrats if they continued hounding his administration. “If they play tough, I will do it. And they will see how devastating those pages are,” Trump said during a late November sit-down with The Post. He said he could declassify FISA warrant applications and other documents from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe — and predicted they would expose the FBI, the Justice Department and the Clinton campaign as being in cahoots to set him up. The president had been...

<p>BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- U.S. President Donald Trump says he will shortly be providing formal notice to Congress that he will terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement, giving lawmakers six months to approve the replacement he recently signed. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington from Argentina, Trump says: “I will be formally terminating NAFTA shortly.” Seeking to gain leverage with skeptical lawmakers to approve the revised trade pact, Trump says Congress “will have a choice” as it considers the agreement he signed with the leaders of Mexico and Canada on Friday during the Group of 20 summit. He says they can choose between the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or “pre-NAFTA, which works very well.” Trump has made renegotiating NAFTA a centerpiece of his presidency.</p>

Political operative Roger Stone said Friday that he believes Trump wasn't allowed to release all of the secret John F. Kennedy assassination records because of an effort by "Deep State" policies to cover their "asses." Stone was reacting to Trump's decision to allow only 2,800 of the remaining 3,100 JFK documents to be released on Thursday, and give agencies six months to review their contents for possible redactions related to national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns. "I was told that they went to [Trump] and said, 'These 200 documents can never be released, but we just don't have...

Russia Ready To Use Nuclear Weapons: Pentagon’s Top Russia Expert By Polina Tikhonova on November 6, 2015 5:21 am With Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering his security council to develop defensive nuclear equipment, the Pentagon says Moscow is poised to use nuclear weapons to “bring a speedy peace.”

“I don’t like to analyze myself because I might not like what I see.” — Donald Trump, in an interview for Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success, by business journalist Michael D’Antonio. “Trump was willing to say and do almost anything to satisfy his craving for attention. But he also possessed a sixth sense that kept him from going too far.” — D’Antonio’s conclusion to the book. One often-underappreciated virtue of U.S. presidential campaigns is that their extreme length makes it very difficult to conceal what makes a candidate tick. (Barack Obama in 2008 was an exception,...

No Ammo is Available for the .442 Rimfire Tranter shown Bluffing with a gun often works.   Most criminals do not wish to be shot; they run away.   But sometimes, the criminal is drugged, crazy, or  determined, and they "call" the bluff, often with direct, aggressive action.  It is then that you need a few skills to keep from being hurt or killed.   First, do not allow the criminal to get close (within five feet) of you.   Inside that distance, it is very hard to stop a determined person who has the advantage of action over reaction....

It takes a lot to make me angry. But one thing that will do it every time is the occasional college administrator who hides behind a university spokesperson or public relations firm. Last week, Bryan College made the serious mistake of attempting to contact me through a hired public relations firm. They made the additional error of having their public relations specialist ask me questions about the “substance” (that means accuracy) of my reporting about Bryan. To be as clear as possible, I am the reporter in this situation. That means I am the one asking the questions. After Bryan’s...

President Obama has repeatedly promised to do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. If there is no other choice, he says, he will resort to force. In a March 2012 interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, the president famously rejected the alternative policy, namely, allowing Iran to go nuclear and then trying to contain it. He emphasized the point dramatically: “[A]s president of the United States,” he said, “I don’t bluff.” Really? Suppose this statement was just a show of toughness, timed to keep supporters of Israel on his side during the 2012 campaign season. Suppose that,...

The 'secular branch' of the Jewish Home party produced this video preview (which has some parts that are Hebrew only but includes a lot of English). It's a parody about the American 'security plan' for the 'two-state solution.' Let's go to the videotape.