United States

The dynamics of the standoff between the US and North Korea have shifted dramatically in the past week.

First, the North started with an unexpectedly sharp provocation - launching a missile over the Japanese island of Hokkaido - before following that up with its sixth nuclear test. Also, judging by the size the earthquake detected in the country’s mountainous North on Sunday morning, North Korea may have been telling the truth when it said it conducted what it described as its first hydrogen bomb test.

Authored by James George Jatras via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

They say that most of the world’s real dangers arise not because of what people don’t know but because of what they do 'know' that just ain’t so.

As a case in point, consider three things about Korea that the bipartisan Washington establishment seems quite sure of but are far removed from reality:

Delusion 1: All options, including U.S. military force, are «on the table.»

A day after Russian President Vladimir warned that the US and North Korea are “balancing on the verge of a large-scale conflict," North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is doing everything in his power to validate Putin’s words.

Authored by John Lanchester via The London Review of Books,

For anyone wondering why meteorologists can’t say for certain where Hurricane Irma – now a category 3 storm – might land in the US, Jonathan Erdman, a senior meteorologist at Weather.com, has an explanation. First, let’s look at the National Hurricane Center current forecast cone, a five-day forecast.