United States

Via Andrei Akulov of The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Russia and NATO balancing on the brink of military conflict has been a hot topic ever since 2014 when the bilateral ties were frozen as a result of the events in Ukraine. Heightened tensions, arms control erosion and a plethora of divisive issues negatively affect the bilateral relationship, with misunderstanding and frustration hindering any attempts to turn the tide.

Fast-moving Iranian vessels equipped with ballistic missiles came “dangerously close” to three Royal Navy ships and a U.S. Navy surveillance ship over the weekend. According to reports, the Iranian vessels approached the U.S. and UK Navy, forcing them to change their course in the Strait of Hormuz. The provocation of the USS Invincible and Royal Navy came around the same time that Iran successfully test-fired a pair of ballistic missiles destroying a floating barge in the same region.

Well that escalated quickly. Just a day after North Korea's test firing of 4 missiles towards US bases in Japan, and hours after North Korea warned the world was "on the brink of nuclear war" due to US-South Korea "maneuvers," CNN reports the first pieces of the controversial US-built missile defense system (designed to mitigate the threat of North Korean missiles) arrived at the Osan Air Base in South Korea Monday night, according to the US military.

Via Disobedient Media

Update: North Korea warned Monday that U.S.-South Korean military exercises, which it called "the most undisguised nuclear war maneuvers," are driving the Korean Peninsula and northeast Asia toward "nuclear disaster." The North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, Ja Song Nam, said in a letter to the U.N. Security Council that the U.S. is using nuclear-propelled aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, nuclear strategic bombers and stealth fighters in the joint exercises that began Wednesday.