As tensions between the US, its regional allies and North Korea continue ebb and flow, depending on what and where Kim lobs the next missile and whether Kelly can block Trump from tweeting for the next few hours, Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to personally weigh in on the conflict for the first time since the UN passed new sanctions against the North earlier this month.
While we are confident that both Trump and Kim would be delighted to just keep trading insults at each other for the indefinite future, even as North Korea launches the occasional ballistic missile, that time may be over. Speaking at the UN, the US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that North Korea’s launch of a missile over Japan was “absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible” and that the Security Council now needed to take serious action.
Kim Jong Un is once again showing the US exactly how disinterested he is in negotiating any settlement - particularly one that ultimately forces North Korea to surrender its nuclear weapons: To wit, Kim ordered more rockets and warheads during a televised visit to a local munitions factory just hours after Secretary of Defense James Mattis praised Kim’s “restraint” for not having launched any new missile strikes since the latest round of UN sanctions took effect on Aug. 5. Mattis also reiterated that the Trump administration would be open to talks.
Building on his apocalyptic vision of the future (as writ by Terminator-style Skynet domination or Robocops walking the streets), Tesla CEO Elon Musk (and 115 other like-minded 'experts') have penned an open letter to The United Nations urging the outright ban of the development and use of killer robots.
As a reminder, Musk previously called on the government to proactively regulate artificial intelligence before things advance too far.
A leaked United Nations report finds that Saudi Arabia has massacred thousands of children in Yemen since the start of its air campaign in the impoverished country and now the Saudis are using their vast wealth and influence to suppress the document's findings in order to stay off of a UN blacklist identifying nations which violate child rights.