Sunday, August 27, 2017 - Today is
Lyndon B. Johnson Day in Texas
Maduro vows to 'punish'
opponents
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
has vowed to prosecute for treason opponents he accused of being behind the
sweeping new U.S. sanctions.
Maduro has summoned the holders of
Venezuelan bonds to a meeting with Economy Minister Ramon Lobo this week to
discuss the effects of the sanctions.
And Venezuela held nationwide armed
forces exercises yesterday, calling on civilians to join reserve units to defend
against "a U.S. invasion."
Hash and high explosives
Jihadis in Europe appear to now be
linked up with well-organized criminal networks - a nightmare scenario for
future carnage.
Tal Afar about to fall, Iraq's military
says
The Iraqi army and Shi'ite Popular
Mobilization forces fought the Islamic State yesterday in Tal Afar.
France will help reconstruction and
reconciliation efforts in Iraq as it emerges from a war against Islamic State,
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday after talks with Iraqi
officials in Baghdad.
Man shot after stabbing Belgian
soldier
A man has been shot dead after attacking
soldiers with a machete in Brussels, Belgium, in what prosecutors are
treating as a terror attack.
Spain's king joins protest march
Hundreds of thousands of people in
Barcelona have marched against the militant Islamists who left 15 people dead in
and around the city last week.
Peace marchers flooded the heart of Barcelona yesterday shouting
"I'm not afraid."
The Barcelona police say about 500,000
people have joined an anti-violence march under tight security protesting last
week's deadly attacks.
London's police arrest man with 4-foot
sword
The London Metropolitan Police
interrogated a man yesterday who had been detained near Buckingham Palace while
driving with a four-foot sword in his car and shouting “Allahu Akbar."
China promotes army general
China's military has promoted an army
general who led the fight against Vietnam in their 1979 border war.
Tropical storm hits Hong Kong and
Macau
Tropical Storm Pakhar brought strong
winds and heavy rain to Hong Kong and Macau today, just four days after one of
the strongest typhoons on record, Hato, caused serious flooding and damage in
the territories.
The glitzy exterior of Macau crumbled
after a super typhoon steamrolled through the gambling center, exposing critical
infrastructure flaws and overwhelming emergency services.
Blind Israeli bowler wins world
championship
By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel Aviv
The 60 year old bowling
champion was blinded in a mine explosion in the Golan Heights during army
reserve duty in 1986, when he was a 28-year-old newlywed.
Palestinians are threatening to "blow
up" the peace process after U.S. President Donald Trump with of American
foreign policy by refusing to commit to a "two-state" solution.
"Project Common Sounds" is using music
to foster coexistence by bringing together Arab and Jewish youth choirs.
Couzin Gym's Thought for the
Day: Have you ever wondered why they don't treat pyromaniacs with
anti-inflammatory drugs?
U.S. Army
Secretary of Defense James Mattis gave
an off-the-cuff speech to a group of deployed soldiers giving them some advice
and thanking them for their service while on his trip abroad.
An American service member remains
missing after a Black Hawk helicopter crashed off the coast of Yemen on Friday
in what U.S. military officials are calling a training accident.
Soldiers from Company B, 2nd Assault
Helicopter Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, have test-fired their helicopters'
guns at the Cincu Training Area in Romania.
Early County High School, in Dothan,
Ala., has honored United States Army 1st Lt and Blufton,
Ga.., resident Weston C. Lee, who died in April defending our country.
The ribbon was cut last week for a $12
million upgrade to a U.S. Army Reserve building at Fort Totten, in Bronx,
N.Y.
The U.S. Army Materiel Command
has announced the recipients of the Louis Dellamonica Award for outstanding
AMC Personnel of the Year for 2016.
An American journalist has been killed
in civil war-torn South Sudan, the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Army said
yesterday.
In the wake of the destruction
caused by Hurricane Harvey, the Arizona Army National Guard has sent four
helicopters and their crews to Texas. And At the direction of Gov. Greg
Abbott more than 1,300 members of the Texas Army National Guard have been
deployed to the Coastal Bend area.
Oregon Army National Guard helicopters
have dropped nearly 700,000 gallons of water on the Chetco Bar Fire.
Soldiers with the Montana Army National
Guard were recently activated to assist with firefighting operations at the
Meyers Fire in southwest Montana.
South Carolina Army National Guard
soldiers deployed for Afghanistan yesterday following a rousing deployment
send-off.
And Exercise Resolute Castle
particularly focuses on engineer skill sets, deploying active Navy, Army
Reserve, and Army National Guard engineer units.
Homeland insecurity
The arrest of 30 Chinese and Mexican
nationals who had entered the country without authorization has led U.S.
Border Patrol agents to uncover a clandestine tunnel spanning the U.S.
border.
Almost a month after John Kelly left his
post atop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to become the White House
chief of staff, President Trump delayed picking a new DHS chief.
Department of Homeland Security
spokesman David Lapan has denied reports that the department had made any
recommendations on the DACA to the president.
And President Trump has signed an order
directing the Pentagon to reverse its transgender policy. The order also affects
the Department of Homeland Security, which contains the Coast
Guard.
JCS chief attends Scottish
Tattoo
U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford
used his invite to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Scotland to visit
British bases in the area and speak with senior United Kingdom defense leaders
on a wide range of defense topics.The chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff was invited months ago by his U.K. counterpart, British Chief of the
Defense Staff Air Chief Marshal Stuart Peach, to visit the tattoo and take the
salute from the British units participating in the event.
"I didn't realize how
big the tattoo was when I accepted," Dunford said during an interview on a
flight back to Washington, D.C. "I learned."
The tattoo ceremony
is held at the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle in the month of August, and
more than 210,000 attend the event with about 100 million viewing the event on
TV, according to news reports.
Earlier yesterday,
Dunford met with British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon and Peach to discuss a
full range of issues from the South Asia strategy to the situation in East
Asia - specifically North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
"Both from my trip and the positive rhetoric that is coming out of
Beijing is that the economic and political pressure is having an effect,"
Dunford said. "It remains to be seen if the campaign will be successful, but
there are indications that things are heading in the right
direction."
Chinese officials
told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that if he launched a missile toward Guam,
he was on his own. China surprised the world by voting for sanctions against
North Korea in the U.N. Security Council and now appears to be enforcing those
sanctions, Dunford said. Still, it is "much too early," he said.
"You can't measure enforcement sanctions in weeks, but again the rhetoric has
been positive from Beijing."
Dunford also
discussed opportunities for continued military-to-military engagement between
the United States and the U.K. "We obviously have a very strong relationship
with the U.K., and they are with us in Iraq and Afghanistan," Dunford
said.
The chairman visited
the future HMS Prince of Wales - a Royal Navy aircraft carrier
being built in Rosyth, Scotland. The British ship will field American-built
F-35B Lightning II aircraft. "Any future fight is going to require
a coalition, and interoperability is a critical and fundamental element of
alliance and coalition warfare," Dunford said. "This reflects the close nature
of the alliance and bodes well for the interoperability."
The chairman received
positive feedback from the British leaders on the new strategy for South Asia
announced earlier this week. "It is fair to say that all of the
nations that are currently contributing to the Resolute Support Mission, and
certainly all of the nations who have been there since the very beginning like
the U.K., have received the strategy well," Dunford said. Coalition
allies tell Dunford they believe the conditions-based approach is the right
approach, "and that it will allow us all to have a longer-term horizon to assure
our Afghan partners of our continuing support," he said. The
strategy helps Afghan President Ashraf Ghani with his four-year plan to deal
with corruption issues and economic development. "Instead of a
one-year-at-a-time campaign, we can start to take a longer term approach and
have confidence that the resources necessary to implement this longer term
approach will be there," the chairman said.
In addition to the
British allies, Dunford spoke with other NATO allies, the Chairman of the NATO
Military Committee, Czech Gen. Petr Pavel, and other close partners. He noted
that U.S. Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, Eucom's commander and NATO's Supreme
Allied Commander Europe, has also spoken to allies, as has U.S. Army Gen. Joe
Votel, the U.S. Central Command's chief.
"We’ve touched a lot
of people this week and there has been universal support for the approach we are
taking," the chairman said.
U.S. Air Force
The Republic of Singapore Air
Force (RSAF) has clinched two awards during its participation in the United
States Air Force-hosted air combat exercise.
Saudi Ambassador to the U.S.
Prince Khaled bin Salman has met with Saudi fighter pilots at Nellis Air Force
Base, Nev.
An Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP) commander has used every part of his body to pull a 190-ton U.S. Air Force
plane five meters by himself at the "Thunder Over Dover" air show in
Connecticut.
A month after thousands of
citizens died on Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. Air Force Major Andrew Becker decided
to enlist. Now, after Becker was killed in a crash, he's being honored in his
hometown on Novi, Mich.
U.S. Air Force planes monitored
the skies over the Gulf of Mexico on Friday as Hurricane Harvey approached the
Texas coastline. Members of the Air Force Reserve's 53rd
Weather Reconnaissance Squadron have been tracking Hurricane Harvey for more
than a week.
Personnel, aircraft and watercraft
from the Suffolk County-based 106th Rescue Wing of the New York Air National
Guard deployed to Texas yesterday. The state is deploying 104 New York Air
National Guard members, airplanes and boats to aid the hurricane victims in
Texas and Louisiana.
Fifty-one Nebraska Air National
Guard airmen from the Lincoln-based 155th Air Refueling Wing were welcomed home
form their overseas deployment yesterday.
The Massachusetts Air National
Guard's 101st Intelligence Squadron has celebrated its 100 years of service at
Joint Base Cape Cod.
And officials with the Civil Air
Patrol provided eclipse resource support last week for the Idaho Office of
Emergency Management.
Ten-day march to begin tomorrow
Activists are set to start a 10-day
march from Charlottesville, Va., to Washington, D.C., tomorrow to confront white
supremacy and demand President Trump's removal from office.
President Trump and Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are courting an economic catastrophe with a
standoff over how to raise the debt limit.
Sebastian Gorka has been ousted from his
job as a White House aide. "Questions remain," an aide said, about whether
Gorka's wife, Katie Gorka, an official at the Department of Homeland Security,
would stay at her job.
The President and "Team Trump"
are sending our thoughts and prayers to the families of our brave sailors
who were injured and lost after a tragic collision at sea, as well as to those
conducting the search and recovery efforts after USS John S. McCain
collided with a merchant ship.
Last weekend, the President signed the
Global War on Terrorism War Memorial Act while at Camp David, Md. This bill
begins the process of establishing a memorial honoring those who have fought and
died in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 and those still fighting for us today.
We must never forget those who pay the ultimate sacrifice for our
freedoms.
In an address to the nation last
Monday, President Trump made it clear he has no higher priority than the safety
and security of the American people. Since the very first day of his
administration he has taken decisive action to protect our citizens, our
country, and our very way of life. The President announced a new strategy for
South Asia to ensure that terrorists will never use Afghanistan again as a
sanctuary to enable attacks against the United States. The President said it
best in his historic speech: "From now on, victory will have a clear definition:
attacking our enemies, obliterating ISIS, crushing al-Qaida, preventing the
Taliban from taking over Afghanistan, and stopping mass terror attacks against
America before they emerge."
The main base of operations for the U.S.
Border Patrol in Yuma, Ariz., received a visit from President Trump last
week. He's following through on his promise to the American people to build a
wall to secure the southern border and the Yuma Sector is a clear example of how
effective that wall will be. Illegal border crossings in the Yuma Sector have
declined by 70 percent since they first built more than 50 miles of border wall
in 2006. The President evaluated personnel and the state-of-the-art equipment
used to secure our border, as well as the morale of U.S. Border Patrol, with
whom he has a very special bond.
And last week, President Trump was
thrilled to be back in Phoenix, Ariz., with thousands of hard-working American
patriots that helped put him in office! The President delivered a powerful
speech, reminding his Arizona supporters that he is fully committed to fight for
them until the job is done. Now more than ever, the President believes that we
can do anything, build anything, and dream anything.
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