Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea has increased its production of fuel for nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites in recent months — and that Kim Jong Un may try to hide those facilities as he seeks more concessions in nuclear talks with the Trump administration, U.S. officials told NBC News.

The intelligence assessment, which has not previously been reported, seems to counter the sentiments expressed by President Donald Trump, who tweeted after his historic June 12 summit with Kim that "there was no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea."

Analysts at the CIA and other intelligence agencies don't see it that way, according to more than a dozen American officials who are familiar with their assessments and spoke on the condition of anonymity. They see a regime positioning itself to extract every concession it can from the Trump administration — while clinging to nuclear weapons it believes are essential to survival.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Canada announced Sunday that it has moved forward with retaliatory measures against U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, slapping $13 billion in its own tariffs on American exports.

CNN reported that over 40 U.S. steel products will see tariffs of 25 percent. A 10 percent tariff will be levied on more than 80 other American items, including toffee, maple syrup and coffee beans.

Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister, said Friday, "We will not escalate, and we will not back down."

Freeland said she had spoken to U.S. Trade Representative http://thehill.com/people/robert-bob-lighthizer multiple times this week about how to resolve the dispute over the tariffs.

The tariffs come amid an escalating feud between Canada and the U.S. over trade policy, after President Trump imposed steep steel and aluminum tariffs last month on Canada and other longtime U.S. allies.

The retaliatory measures were in the works for weeks after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed during last month's Group of Seven summit in Canada that the country would "not be pushed around."

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

SEOUL—North Korea is completing a major expansion of a key missile-manufacturing plant, said researchers who have examined new satellite imagery of the site the latest sign Pyongyang is pushing ahead with weapons programs even as the U.S. pressures it to abandon them.

The facility makes solid-fuel, ballistic missiles—which would be able to strike U.S. military installations in Asia with a nuclear weapon with little warning—as well as re-entry vehicles for warheads that Pyongyang might use on longer-range missiles able to hit the continental U.S.

New images analyzed by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Calif., show that North Korea was finishing construction on the exterior of the plant at around the time North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore last month. The U.S. is pushing Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear, chemical, biological and ballistic-missile programs.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]