Germany's Armed Forces are most likely to stay underequipped for the next decade or so, the German Defense Chief has admitted. Meanwhile, the units are stuck with sharing gear and vehicles.

At least nine brigades in the German Armed Forces, known as Bundeswehr, lack the necessary equipment and arms, the military Inspector General Eberhard Zorn said, adding that they are expected to be "fully equipped" no sooner than in 13 years - by 2031. The lack of spare parts for the military equipment also remains one of the major concerns.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a warning about what it describes as a "hunt on our citizens," urging travelers to be cautious. The message follows the detention of a Russian citizen by the FBI in Saipan.

Russians should take every precaution when traveling abroad and ensure there's nothing in their records that might interest the US, the Foreign Ministry warned after the 39-year-old citizen was arrested.

"US law enforcement officials are continuing their hunt on Russian citizens," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS on Saturday. The statement was issued just after Dmitry Makarenko was detained by FBI in the Pacific island of Saipan.

Hacking syndicate Anonymous has just released its fourth tranche of documents hacked from the internal servers of the Institute for Statecraft and its subsidiary, the Integrity Initiative. Several explosive files raise serious questions about the shadowy British state and NATO-funded 'think tank' and its connections with the Skripal affair.

The files were released just after 2:30pm GMT on January 4 - I've barely scratched the surface of the content, but what I've seen so far contains a panoply of bombshell revelations - to say the least, the organization(s) now have serious questions to answer about what role they played in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in March, and its aftermath both nationally and internationally.

Sinister Timeline

One file apparently dating to "early 2015" - "Russian Federation Sanctions" - written by the Institute's Victor Madeira outlines "potential levers" to achieve Russian "behaviour change", "peace with Ukraine", "return [of] Crimea", "regime change" or "other?". The suggested "levers" span almost every conceivable area, including "civil society", "sports", "finance" and "technology".

On December 13, the United States Senate made history with a vote invoking the 1973 War Powers Act to stop America's military participation in, and support of, the unauthorized and immoral war against the desperate people in Yemen.

Never before had a vote of this nature passed the Senate. The measure passed with 56 senators voting in support and 41 voting against. It marked the first time the Senate has been able to put the breaks on our involvement in Yemen, a war that was never authorized by Congress, as is required by our Constitution.

Meanwhile, Speaker Paul Ryan went to extraordinary lengths to forestall a vote on a similar motion in the House of Representatives.

The history here is worth noting.

A security policy advisor to South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Saturday that "bold" action by North Korea and partial US sanctions relief could help address a perceived deadlock in negotiations over Pyongyang's denuclearization.

Moon Chung-in, a Yonsei University professor, made the remarks as Seoul seeks to advance its peace initiative by creating fresh momentum for the apparently stalled dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.

"A breakthrough may emerge should the North take bold action and the US partially lift sanctions at the same time," Moon said during an internet broadcast.

"But it is not easy to demand that one of them give ground first," he added.

Moon also pointed out the need for the US and North Korea to "take action rather than just exchanging verbal pledges" to make progress in their peace efforts.

NASA has indefinitely postponed a visit by Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, which was set for next month. It would have required a sanctions waiver, as Rogozin has been barred from the US since 2014.

"NASA has informed the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, that the proposed visit of Roscosmos Director General, Dr Dmitry Rogozin, currently planned for February 2019, will need to be postponed," NASA spokeswoman Megan Powers told Sputnik on Friday. No new date for the visit has yet been set.

The about-face from NASA comes just days after Powers told Politico that planning for Rogozin's trip to meet NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in the US was underway despite a growing outcry from some hard-line lawmakers.

Confirming that there were no plans to cancel the visit on Tuesday, Powers highlighted the importance of US-Russia cooperation in space, ongoing since the 1970s, and pointed out that Rogozin's visit would have come in return for Bridenstine's visit to Russia in October.

Bridenstine, a former Republican representative for Oklahoma's 1st congressional district, took the reigns in NASA in April after a seven-and-a-half-month confirmation hiatus.

Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford discussed the situation in Syria and the fight against terrorism during their telephone talks on Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"During their talks, the counterparts exchanged opinions on the situation in Syria and fight against terrorism, as well as other pressing issues of mutual interest," the ministry said in a statement. Gerasimov and Dunford also reaffirmed the importance of maintaining the existing channel of communication, according to the statement.

On December 5, Gerasimov said that Russia had suggested to the United States that it eliminate its military base located in the southeastern Syrian city of Al Tanf and establish joint Russian-US control over the zone instead. According to Gerasimov, Washington has not provided an answer to that proposal. The general also stressed that the United States justified its presence in Al Tanf by the necessity of countering Iran, which is allegedly transporting weapons and military equipment to Syria.

US President Donald Trump has announced the start of the US troop withdrawal from the war-torn country, claiming that the Daesh terrorist group has been defeated, and since US troops were present in Syria exclusively to fight, they now had no reason to remain there.

Even if America once felt wealthy enough to squander its financial resources in such pursuits, those days have ended. Washington is effectively bankrupt, with massive unfunded liabilities. Its fiscal future will only worsen as Baby Boomers continue to retire.
The annual budget battle is at its peak and Washington continues to flaunt its remarkable dysfunction. This fiscal irresponsibility affects more than domestic programs. In the coming years, it is likely to drive U.S. foreign and military policy.

The U.S. government has no more important duty than defending the nation. However, providing for the "common defense," as the Constitution puts it, is remarkably easy. America has vast oceans east and west and peaceful neighbors to the north and south.

Today only Russia, with an arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles, could launch a serious attack on America. However, Moscow has no incentive to do so, since the result would be devastating retaliation. China's military is expanding but directed at preventing Washington from dominating the People's Republic of China at home and in its neighborhood.

Terrorists abound but mostly result from maladroit U.S. policies that create enemies and make other people's conflicts America's own. Moreover, while such attacks are atrocious, they do not pose an existential threat. Nor do America's conventional forces and nuclear arsenals offer the best response; promiscuous war-making around the world is more likely to accelerate than diminish terrorism. The better option would be to do less militarily, especially in the Middle East.

Why, then, is Washington spending $717 billion in fiscal year 2019 to maintain vast armies, fleets, and air armadas around the world? Not for defense, of America, anyway. It is to protect allies, assert influence, remake failed societies, dictate behavior, promote values, and more. All of these may have some value, though rarely as much as asserted. And none have much to do with protecting America's territory, people, constitutional system, and prosperity.

Unfortunately, attacking is far more expensive than deterring. Most of America's Pentagon outlays go to project power, which is why the United States has an outsize military budget, equal to that of the next dozen or so nations combined. None of them, or any combination of them, could defeat America. Rather, Washington wants the ability to target them. The so-called "defense" budget is the price of America's aggressive foreign policy. Playing global gendarme-is not cheap.

The new president issued an order that removes the rights of the LGBT community and indigenous residents from consideration by the new human rights ministry.

Newly installed President Jair Bolsonaro targeted Brazil's indigenous groups, descendants of slaves and the LGBT community with executive orders in the first hours of his administration, moving quickly after a campaign in which the far-right leader said he would radically overhaul many aspects of life in Latin America's largest nation.

Sao Paulo's stock market, meanwhile, jumped 3.56 percent to a record closing of 91,012 points as new Cabinet ministers reinforced the intent to privatize state-owned companies and a Brazilian arms maker benefited from Bolsonaro's plans to loosen gun controls. Similar spikes in stock prices also occurred during the presidential campaign.

It's not just Congress that's seeing more and more female faces as of late. Women have taken control of the US' multibillion dollar military-industrial complex too. Who said that war is only a man's business?

With the 116th Congress being hailed as the most diverse and most female one yet, the rise of the empowered woman has left few sectors of business and government untouched and now extends to the US' cosy-cosy club of arms manufacturers and their government procurers.

Politico celebrated this "watershed" moment on Wednesday, announcing that as of January 1, the CEOs of four of the nation's top five defense contractors - Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Boeing's defense wing - are now women. The latest appointment was of Kathy Warden as CEO and president of Northrop Grumman.