Authored by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
It was no coincidence that America's 11-ton bunker-tunnel busting bomb was deployed in Afghanistan as tensions mount over North Korea's nuclear theats.
In the past, China resisted U.S. saber-rattling against North Korea. Now China is threatening North Korea with military action. What's going on? Why the sudden convergence of U.S.-China threats of military force against North Korea?
In a striking development involving the rapidly changing North Korean geopolitical situation, moments ago Voice of America reporter Steve Herman stated that according to US government and other sources, North Korea has "apparently placed a nuclear device in a tunnel and it could be detonated Saturday AM Korea time."
US gov’t and other sources say #DPRK has apparently placed a nuclear device in a tunnel and it could be detonated Saturday AM #Korea time.
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 12, 2017
With everyone putting down new and/or revised "red lines", be it on Syria or North Korea, it was now China's turn to reveal its "red" or rather "bottom line", and in a harshly worded editorial titled "The United States Must Not Choose a Wrong Direction to Break the DPRK Nuclear Deadlock on Wednesday" Beijing warned it would attack North Korea's facilities producing nuclear bombs, effectively engaging in an act of war, if North Korea crosses China's "bottom line."
Yesterday was the deadline for companies to submit bids for Trump's "physically imposing" yet "aesthetically pleasing" border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. And while the U.S. government has said they won't disclose bids, rather just the names of companies actually awarded contracts on June 1st, some of the companies decided to disclose their plans themselves. Below are a couple of our faves...
Submitted by OilPrice
Mexico’s oil and gas regulator said last week that the country’s proved hydrocarbon reserves will drop by 10.6 percent in 2017. This forecast, coupled with the lower oil production that state company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) reported for yet another year in 2016, is painting a rather bleak picture of Mexico’s reserves.
Without resumption in investments and more drilling, and if no significant finds occur, Mexico will be running out of reserves within 9 years, according to an official from the National Hydrocarbons Commission.