War

A leaked communication between the Trump transition team's Undersecretary of Defense for policy Brian McKeon, and the Pentagon, has revealed the four biggest defense priorities for the president-elect. Among the top four items listed in the memo from are: 1) developing a strategy to defeat/destroy ISIS; 2) build a strong defense by eliminating budget caps/the sequester, 3) develop a comprehensive cyber strategy, and 4) eliminate wasteful spending by finding greater efficiencies.

Four people are dead and many more injured after a minibus drive into a market in the northern region of Beijing. While China's traffic safety record is not exactly stellar, with many on edge following the Berlin attack, this event is noteworthy as China has faced a threat from Islamist militants operating in its far western region of Xinjiang who have been blamed for a series of attacks in recent years.

The attack on a Berlin Christmas market may be a state-sponsored “false-flag” operation to push Germany to play a more active role in the so-called war on terror in the Middle East, according to Chicago author and journalist Stephen Lendman At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured when a truck crashed into a crowded market in Berlin on Monday. Police detained a 23-year-old suspect, Navid B., a Pakistani asylum seeker but have since admitted they may have arrested the wrong man.

Following yesterday's deadly terrorist attack, in which a truck driver rammed into a crowded Christmas market, killing 12 and injuring 48, the German mood has been dour, deteriorating further this morning when the interior minister of the German state of Saarland said on Tuesday that Germany is in a state of war. "We must say that we are in a state of war, although some people, who always only want to see good, do not want to see this," the minister, Klaus Bouillon, told German broadcaster SR.