Submitted by Andrew Bacevich via TomDispatch.com,

Police in riot gear have taken over Turkey’s opposition newspaper Zaman in a midnight raid using tear gas and water cannons. Turkey’s highest-circulating newspaper is now under state control in another blow to press freedom in President Recep Erdogan’s Turkey. Business Insider UK reports: The government takeover of Today’s Zaman was evidently in response to Erdogan’s perception of the paper as a front for the Gülen movement — a social movement led by the Turkish scholar and preacher Fethullah Gülen that is openly critical of Erdogan’s government.

The U.S. is to deploy the B-52 Stratofortress long-range strategic bomber to the Middle East to fight ISIS. The huge nuclear capable jet-powered bomber is made by Boeing and can drop 32 tons of conventional bombs simultaneously. Russia Today reports: The B-52s will replace several Rockwell B-1 Lancer supersonic strategic bombers, which had been striking terrorist positions near Kobani, Syria for several months and have now returned to their base in Texas, the Air Force Times reports. Defense officials also confirmed the information to Fox News.

North Korea’s leader has ordered that the country’s nuclear weapons are prepared for use at any time and the military to be in “pre-emptive attack” mode. Citing growing enemy threats, Kim Jong-un  made his announcement on Friday a day after the UN approved its harshest sanctions crafted by the US against the impoverished nation, marking a further escalation of tension on the Korean peninsula.

Late last month, Norwegian PM Erna Solberg proclaimed that if she became convinced that Sweden’s refugee crisis was set to spiral out of control or “break down” (as she called it), she may be prepared to close her country’s borders altogether in what would quite possibly amount to a contravention of Norway’s duties under the Geneva Convention and a move that would almost surely trigger a rash of human rights violations. 

(Solberg)