Wednesday, October 25, 2017 - Today
is Constitution Day in Lithuania
China unveils new leadership
China's new Politburo Standing Committee
was introduced today at the Great Hall of the People.
The U.S. needs a 'robust' missile
defense
It's now an almost weekly headline that
North Korea is announcing or conducting highly provocative intercontinental
ballistic missile tests.
President Trump should "lower the volume
of rhetoric" on North Korea and instead focus on diplomatic and long-term
efforts to bring the country to negotiations, former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta has said.
Kurds offer to 'freeze' independence
referendum
Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan
Regional Government said it's prepared to freeze the results of last month's
independence referendum that triggered deadly clashes with government troops and
hurt oil exports. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) offered today to
put the independence referendum on hold as part of efforts to end the
military confrontation with Iraqi forces and resolve the crisis with the central
government.
Getting tough on the Taliban
After years of failed peace talks and
following one of the deadliest weeks of suicide attacks on Afghan forces, the
Trump administration is said to be pushing for the Taliban's Qatar-based office
to be closed down in an increasingly ironfisted approach.
Saudi crown prince says he's taking on
extremists
At an event yesterday in Riyadh meant to
highlight the kingdom's influence in the business world, Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman said Saudi Arabia was returning to "moderate" Islam and intended to
"eradicate" extremism.
As top investors and executives from
across the world gather in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for a summit this week, the
country's economic progress lags, but its social progress is real.
And the Saudi Arabian government says it
will build a $500 billion mega-city, with the goal of diversifying its economy.
It says the megacity will be 33 times larger than New York City.
U.S. State Dept. approves foreign military sale to
Greece
The
U.S. State Department has approved a package of upgrades valued at $2.4 billion
to raise the Hellenic Air Force's fleet to the F-16V standard, a Defense
Security Cooperation Agency notice says.
During
a joint speech at the White House with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of
Greece last week, President Donald Trump highlighted the potential sale and
praised Greece’s commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO).
U.S. considering sanctions on
Myanmar
The United States is taking steps and
considering a range of further actions over Myanmar's treatment of its Rohingya
Muslim minority, including targeted sanctions under its Global Magnitsky Law,
the State Department has said.
Genetically modified super-human
soldiers?
Genetically-modified superhuman soldiers
"worse than a nuclear bomb" and whom will have no fear or pain could soon
become a reality, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Iran sentences 'Israeli spy' to
death
By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel Aviv
Iran has sentenced to death a doctor
found guilty of spying for Israeli intelligence, allegedly providing information
that led to the assassinations of at least two of Iran's nuclear
scientists.
Nicaragua has signed the Paris climate
agreement, meaning that the U.S. and Syria are the only two countries not to be
giving the accord their support.
In a shockingly absurd move, Europeans
are awarding the father of a slain Palestinian terrorist.
And Israel is facing an immigration
crisis no less serious than those making headlines in America and Europe.
Homeland insecurity
As President Donald Trump's travel ban
restrictions expire, the administration will allow in refugees from all
countries - but with new, enhanced vetting rules, the administration announced
yesterday. The Trump administration will resume refugee admissions, but will
impose new security measures on 11 nations. President Donald Trump issued an
executive order yesterday to restart the refugee resettlement program, which was
suspended for 120 days.
Nine months after President Trump took
office, the first tangible signs of progress on one of the central promises of
his campaign have appeared along the U.S.-Mexico border.
A Georgia appeals court has
ruled against DACA recipients seeking free in-state college
tuition.
The tropical island-nation of Singapore
now boasts the world's strongest passport, according to a new ranking. It's the
first time an Asian country has topped the list.
In a statement released today, the
Oakland County (Mich.) Homeland Security Division has alerted the public
that an unknown person has been posing as a an official of the Oakland County
Emergency Operations Center in order to take advantage of a water crisis
there.
The Department of Homeland Security is
hosting a cybersecurity round-table with Pensacola, Fla.-area government,
business and academic leaders.
The Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) has granted Pennsylvania an extension on the Real ID Act through Oct.
10th.
And the top Democrat on the Senate
homeland security committee wants to know how the elimination from government
computers of a popular Russian anti-virus system is going.
U.S. Coast Guard
USCGC Forward
(WMEC-911)
Drug smugglers are known for their
ingenuity when they explore different ways to move narcotics under the noses of
law enforcement authorities, and the U.S. Coast Guard says it's seeing a "surge"
in the use of drug-laden submarines.
USCGC Baranof, in Bahrain,
is flying the Houston Astro's team's flag with permission.
The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued a
31-year-old passenger from the cruise ship Carnival
Sunshine off the coast of Port Canaveral, Fla.
The Coast Guard has suspended its search
for two people who were swept out into Lake Superior during a storm. The U.S.
Coast Guard used a helicopter to search for the man and woman for several hours
after they were reported missing yesterday afternoon.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Honolulu
Fire Department crews have rescued the master of a fishing vessel off
Waikiki, Hawaii, and are struggling to remove his grounded vessel.
USCGC Forward has returned home
to Portsmouth, Va., after assisting with hurricane relief efforts in the
Caribbean Sea.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) officers have notified the Coast Guard that missing Sonoma
County, Calif., resident Justin Greer, 35, has been found and is
safe.
A Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak,
Alaska-based MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew forward deployed to Cold Bay,
Alaska, has medevaced an injured crewman from his cargo ship.
And from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
PT, on Saturday, Oct. 28th, the Coast Guard Auxiliary will offer an
in-depth recreational Boating Safely class to the public in Ilwaco, Wash.
NOAA news
A NOAA National Weather Service
team confirmed yesterday that two EF-2 tornadoes have touched down in South
Carolina, and possible tornadoes have flipped planes and destroyed hangars at a
North Carolina airport.
And the Trump administration is
preparing to launch a new weather and climate satellite. The first is the Suomi
National Polar-orbiting Partnership, a joint NOAA and NASA satellite.
U.S. Army
The oldest U.S. active duty military
unit will be honored on Friday. A statue honoring the 3rd U.S. Infantry
Regiment - known as "The Old Guard" will be dedicated at 5 p.m.
on Friday at the Powder Magazine Museum in the Jefferson Barracks Park near
St. Louis, Mo. The work is of military figures, each representing a
different aspect of The Old Guard. Centered between the figures is a replica of
the grave markers used in the Arlington and Jefferson Barracks national
cemeteries. The 3rd Infantry by sculptor B.J. Mungenast consists of three
bronze, larger-than-life-size for the unit that has served the nation since
1784. It is the Army's official ceremonial unit and escort to the president, and
it also provides security for Washington, D.C., during national emergencies
and civil disturbances. Sculptor Mungenast will unveil the monument. The keynote
speaker is James F. Laufenburg, a retired Army colonel and former head of the
Old Guard. Other guest speakers include County Executive Steve Stenger and St.
Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar.
The U.S. Army is considering a 2018
solicitation for a new, light ground mobility vehicle.
U.S. Army navigation and targeting
experts are ready to kick off a 10-year program to build an electro-optical
all-weather day-and-night target designation and laser range finder system to
help forward observers guide smart munitions to their targets.
Armored combat vehicle experts at
Textron Systems will build as many as 255 Mobile Strike Force Vehicles (MSFV)
and vetronics for use in Afghanistan under the terms of a $332.9 million
contract.
The remains of a St. Louis, Mo.-born man
who was listed as missing in action after a battle in the Netherlands during
World War II arrived at the airport in St. Louis today en route to
central Illinois for burial. The remains of Army Staff Sgt. Michael Aiello
arrived in St. Louis a little after 3 p.m., according to PJ Staab, II, of
the Staab Funeral Home in Springfield, Mo. A Patriot Guard escort will
be on site for the arrival. There will then be a procession up Interstate 55 to
the town of Sherman, Illinois, where Aiello lived after moving from St. Louis as
a child. Aiello was born in 1909 in St. Louis. Three years later, his family
moved to Sherman where he attended grade school.
After finishing the eighth grade, Aiello became a coal miner at the age of 13.
Aiello’s family moved to Springfield in 1918. Aiello later owned and operated a
restaurant in Springfield, but primarily worked as a coal miner until he entered
the Army in 1942. Within two years, Aiello advanced to the rank of staff
sergeant and was assigned to a glider infantry
regiment. He was involved in the D-Day Invasion and later in 1944 his
unit was assigned to Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands. Operation
Market Garden called for glider and airborne troops to seize bridges in the
Netherlands and hold them until British armor units arrived. The operation,
portrayed in a book and the 1977 movie, A Bridge Too Far, failed.
Military records indicate Aiello went missing on Sept. 30, 1944, during fighting
near the bridge at Nijmegen. While no remains were officially identified as his,
the military issued a presumptive finding of death a year later. Aiello was 35
when he went missing. About eight years ago, the military disinterred a set of
remains that were later identified as Aiello. Relatives
in the Springfield area provided DNA samples to confirm the identity.
Aiello will be buried at the Camp Butler Cemetery
at 10 a.m. on Saturday. The ceremony at the cemetery is open to the
public.
The team of U.S.
Army Special Forces soldiers that were ambushed in Niger this month, which
led to the deaths of four soldiers, was reportedly collecting intelligence on a
terrorist leader. The U.S. military believes someone in a Niger village may have
tipped off attackers to the presence of U.S. commandos and Nigerian government
forces.
The U.S. Army is
making a $41.7 million investment in its manufacturing center at Watervliet
Arsenal, N.Y.
Nick
Walters, a longtime test pilot at the U.S. Army's Redstone Test Center in
Alabama took his final flight yesterday upon his retirement.
Researchers from
the U.S. Army Research Laboratory recently participated in the Department of
Defense Allied Nations Technical Corrosion Conference in Adelphi,
Md.
Comtech has been awarded a $7.5
million order from to provide tropo-scatter equipment to support U.S. Army
activities.
The Concurrent Technologies Corp. has
won a competitively-bid contract to support the U.S. Army with the
manufacturing of ground combat vehicles.
John Dillard has been elected chairman
of the Denton County, Texas, Republican Party. Dillard spent
25 years with the Army National Guard in the 49th Armored Division and
in the U.S. Army Reserve, retiring as a lieutenant
colonel.
Nearly 50 U.S. Army Reserve soldiers put
their boots back on American soil at Ft. Hood, Texas, a few days ago
after being deployed overseas for a year.
Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone has hosted a
panel to show off the Army's cyber talent. Nakasone said the Army plans to build
11 additional cyber protection teams from the Army National Guard and 10 from
the U.S. Army Reserve.
The South Carolina Army National
Guard has activated its first unit dedicated to protecting South
Carolina and the U.S. from cyber attacks.
The Mississippi Army National Guard
has announced an upcoming deployment for some of its soldiers in 2018.
And the Washington Army National
Guard has trained with the Summit Pacific Medical Center and Grays Harbor
County as part of a regional first responders' exercise.
FCC to roll back media ownership
rules
By Jim Corvey, News of the Force St. Louis
The Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) will vote at its November meeting to roll back landmark media
ownership regulations that limit the ability of companies to own multiple TV
stations and newspapers in the same market and remove other restrictions,
Chairman Ajit Pai told a congressional panel today.
The move would be a win for newspaper
companies and broadcasters that have pushed for the change for decades, but was
criticized by Democrats who said it could usher in a new era of media outlet
consolidation.
The FCC in 1975 banned cross-ownership
of a newspaper and broadcast station in the same market, unless it granted a
waiver, to ensure a diversity of opinions. The FCC allowed existing ownership
structures to remain in place.
Lifting ownership limits comes on the
heels of the FCC's controversial decision this week to eliminate a nearly
80-year-old requirement for TV and radio stations to maintain a main studio in
or near the communities they serve.
Critics said that move would lead to
more consolidation, less diverse programming and industry job cuts.
U.S. Navy and Marine Corps
A U.S. Navy warship has blasted a
missile out of the sky using a weapon with the force of a "10-ton truck going at
600 mph."
U.S. Navy airborne surveillance experts
needed eye-safe laser range-finders for the electro-optical Navy Raytheon
Multi-Spectral Targeting System (MTS). They found their solution from the L-3
Technologies Advanced Laser Systems Technology (ALST) segment in Orlando,
Fla.
In Virginia, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard
has wasted $21 million for equipment and gear for what's being called "an
unauthorized" security force.
Reserve Force Master Chief C.J.
Mitchell was piped ashore after his retirement ceremony at the U.S. Navy
Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
experts at the Northrop Grumman Corp. are continuing their efforts to install a
sophisticated surface-search radar system on the U.S. Navy's fleet of MQ-8C Fire
Scout shipboard unmanned helicopters.
Shipboard electronics designers at
Global Technical Systems (GTS) in Virginia Beach, Va., will provide the U.S.
Navy with additional rugged water-cooled open-architecture shipboard computers
under the terms of an $10.6 million order announced on Monday.
The Marine Corps is experimenting with
the idea of using rocket launchers from ships in amphibious assaults even
before a beachhead is carved out.
U.S. Marines with the 26th Marine
Expeditionary Unit (MEU) are unloading emergency care items at the St. Thomas
Cyril E. King Airport in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Senior U.S. military officers are
warning against cuts to the U.K.'s Royal Marines, with one U.S. Marine
Corps colonel saying that it would be "very damaging."
The 12th annual Mt. Vernon U.S. Marine
Corps Ball is planned for Nov. 4th at the American Legion in Mt. Vernon,
Illinois.
Vice President Mike Pence on Monday
honored the memory of 241 U.S. service members killed in the 1983 Marine
barracks attack in Beirut, Lebanon.
And the Pensacola, Fla., Marine
Corps League concludes its 2017 "Heroes Among Us" speaker series tonight with a
tribute to police, firefighters and first responders.
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