United States

Gold Surges 2.6% After Jackson Hole and N. Korean Missile

“Financial markets think the only realistic option for the U.S. and North Korea will be to sit down and talk at some point because other options are too costly for everyone involved. But no one can rule out the risk of accidents. Markets think the chicken game will continue for now and North Korea will remain a risk.”

      - Masayoshi Kichikawa, chief strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui.

Ahead of tonight's missile launch across Japan, North Korea warned that The UK “faces a miserable end” should it decide to join the joint military exercises being conducted by the US and South Korea that began last week, according to local media reports cited by Russia Today.

The annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills, which have been conducted every year since the Korean War ended in an uneasy ceasefire, involve nearly 20,000 troops and have long provoked the ire of North Korea’s leaders.

16 years since the Bush administration launched its military intervention in Afghanistan, President Trump has announced his intention to increase the U.S. military presence in the country. As Statista's Niall McCarthy notes, there are approximately 8,400 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan and reinforcements could start arriving within days. Trump's new strategy is set to extend the longest war in U.S. history and add even further to its already staggering cost.

Authored by Alastair Crooke via ConsortiumNews.com,

America’s Deep State players have tied down President Trump on Russian sanctions and other foreign and economic policies but that doesn’t mean the struggle is over...

President Trump has had his foreign policy hands and feet tied by the Russia (and Iran) Sanctions Act.