China will double its arsenal of nuclear warheads, report says (Source foxnews.com)

China’s clear ambition to massively expand its nuclear arsenal is generating extreme concern among U.S. military leaders who recognize the pace at which new weapons are being added dramatically alters the global calculus, according to the Pentagon’s 2020 China Military Report.

The report specifies China’s fast increase in the number of warheads arming Beijing’s intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of threatening America will likely grow to 200 in the next five years. As an element of this expansion, China is increasing its inventory of long-range land-fired DF-26 Anti-Ship missiles able to fire both conventional and nuclear missiles.

“Combined with a near-complete lack of transparency regarding their strategic intent and the perceived need for a much larger, more diverse nuclear force, these developments pose a significant concern for the United States,” the report explains.

S.C. reports 1,084 new COVID-19 cases, 12 additional deaths(Source live5news.com)

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control reported 1,084 newly-confirmed cases of COVID-19 Thursday, including 161 reported across Lowcountry counties.

Thursday’s report also included 29 probable cases, 12 deaths and 1 probable death attributable to COVID-19. This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 119,822 probable cases to 1,874, confirmed deaths to 2,667, and 140 probable deaths.

WHO’s Oral Vaccine Sparks New Polio Outbreak In Africa (Source greatgameindia.com)

A week after World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that its decade-long vaccination campaign in Africa was successful, its own oral vaccine itself has sparked a new Polio outbreak in the continent. The outbreak has been caused by mutation of strain in vaccine. A new polio outbreak in Sudan has been linked to the oral polio vaccine that uses a weakened form of the virus. News of the outbreak comes a week after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that wild polio had been eradicated in Africa. The WHO linked the cases to a strain of the virus that had been noted circulating in Chad last year and warned that the risk of spread to other parts of the Horn of Africa was high. In a statement on the new cases, the WHO said two children in Sudan, one from South Darfur state and the other from Gadarif state, close to the border with Ethiopia and Eritrea, were paralysed in March and April. Both had been recently vaccinated against polio.

Kanye West’s  Biggest Revelations From His Candid Interview With Nick Cannon (Source usmagazine.com)

In his first presidential rally in South Carolina in July, West opened up about his and Kardashian’s near-abortion. He tearfully talked about how close the couple was to terminating the Skims creator’s first pregnancy. Despite getting backlash for his public declaration, West is happy that his pro-life stance has been heard. During a candid chat about abortion and Planned Parenthood, West explained how the name of his presidential candidate banner, the Birthday Party, came about. “When I came up with the name of my party, the Birthday Party, it was funny,” the Grammy winner said. “It was just crazy, it was Yazy. I was like, ‘that’s it!'” The Birthday Party, which has a message of “dealing with life and pro-life,” was inspired by West’s belief in God as well. “I can only give God the glory because of the connection point to the Birthday Party is dealing with life and pro-life,” he continued. “Because these are kids that are now gonna get a chance to have birthdays.” Amid his run for president, West has also been vocal about protecting himself, which he addressed with Cannon. “I should have a [bulletproof] vest on right now, like, I always knew I was going to wear a vest as part of my campaign,” the artist explained, referencing the protection he wore to speak on the campaign trail. “The first time I was put into the hospital in 2016, I actually started reading the Bible,” the designer told Cannon of his hospitalization after canceling his tour. “That was part of what God hit me with. And you know, God … has a calling on all of us, and he uses us in different ways. When I went to the hospital the first time, one of the things I wrote down was ‘start a church in Calabasas.

Federal debt will exceed size of entire US economy next year because of coronavirus, analysis says

(Source usatoday.com)

The federal debt will grow to approximately the size of the entire economy this year, the Congressional Budget Office announced Wednesday in its first analysis to fully take into account the economic and fiscal effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The debt is projected to be larger than the gross domestic product by next year, according to the report. In the nonpartisan agency’s 10-year outlook that was issued in January, CBO projected the debt wouldn’t reach 98% of GDP until 2030. 

“We thought we had a full 10 years before reaching this unfortunate milestone, but the virus wiped out a decade of fiscal space in just a few months,” said Michael Peterson, head of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan organization focused on the country’s long-term fiscal challenges. “Worse yet, by 2023 we will break the all-time record for debt-to-GDP, which was set just after World War II.” The debt was 79% the size of the economy at the end of 2019 and 35% of GDP in 2007, before the start of the previous recession.

Tulsa Massacre Survivors Sue City Nearly 100 Years After Attack (Source nytimes.com)

Nearly 100 years after white mobs slaughtered Black residents and destroyed a prosperous Black business district in Tulsa, Okla., survivors of the massacre and descendants of the victims filed a lawsuit against the city and others on Tuesday, saying they must be compensated for the losses they endured. Greenwood was once a booming business district in Tulsa, comprising some 40 blocks of restaurants, hotels and theaters owned and run by Black entrepreneurs. But in 1921, it was destroyed by a white mob enraged after a confrontation with armed Black Tulsans trying to save a man from being lynched. Decades later, Greenwood is now only half a block, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs, who accused Tulsa officials of appropriating the massacre, decrying the horrors of the past while trying to turn what remains of the district into a tourist destination. “It’s so much more than a tourist site — it’s a crime scene,” said the Rev. Dr. Robert Turner of the Historic Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church in Tulsa, the only structure in Greenwood that was not destroyed by the mobs. “Until Tulsa does right by Greenwood, this district will forever be a crime scene.” The lawsuit, which was filed in Tulsa County District Court, names seven defendants, including the Tulsa County sheriff, the Oklahoma National Guard and the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

Two hypersonic weapons complete new developmental milestone (Source defensenews.com)

The U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have wrapped up captive carry tests of two hypersonic weapon variants that will perform their first free-flight tests later this year, the organizations announced Sept. 1. Both Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have designed scramjet-powered hypersonic missiles as part of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) program run by the Air Force and DARPA. The companies have validated that their separate air vehicle designs can achieve and sustain flights in excess of five times the speed of sound. Upcoming flight tests will evaluate that the weapons’ propulsion and thermal management systems will be able to withstand hypersonic cruise speeds, DARPA said in a news release. “Completing the captive carry series of tests demonstrates both HAWC designs are ready for free flight,” said Andrew Knoedler, DARPA’s HAWC program manager. “These tests provide us a large measure of confidence – already well informed by years of simulation and wind tunnel work – that gives us faith the unique design path we embarked on will provide unmatched capability to U.S. forces.” In its release, DARPA made no mention of whether one of the missiles had been destroyed when an accident occurred during captive carry tests, as Aviation Week reported in June. At the time, DARPA declined to comment to Defense News about the report, citing the classification of the tests. The completed captive carry tests put the Air Force one step closer to fielding a hypersonic cruise missile. In April, the service issued a request for information about technologies that would enable an air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile small enough to be launched from a fighter or bomber.

NATO Begins Provocative Military Exercises on Russian Border (Source globalresearch.ca)

Once again, NATO is operating dangerous and bold military maneuvers in regions close to the European Russian border. This time, the country hosting the tests is Estonia, a Baltic State that in recent decades has been characterized by a strong pro-Western and anti-Russian stance. The small European country is occupied by a large contingent of American troops and will be in such a situation until at least September 10, when the operations end. The tests started on September 1 are already causing a small diplomatic crisis between Russia and the United States. The Russian Embassy in Washington commented on the exercises with great antipathy:

“The Russian Federation has repeatedly offered to the United States and its allies to limit training activities and to divert exercise areas from the line of contact between Russia and NATO. We consider the actions of the US Armed Forces in Estonia provocative and extremely dangerous for regional stability. What signal from NATO members want to send us? Who is actually fueling tensions in Europe? And all this is taking place in the context of an aggravated political situation in that region of the European continent. how would the Americans react if such shooting were carried out by our military near the US borders?”. In addition to the diplomatic crisis, military tension broke out in the region last Tuesday. NATO planes that would be used in the exercises were intercepted unexpectedly by Russian fighters while flying over the border area.