Beijing-Washington Star Wars: As China draws ever closer to launching a prototype space laser intended to destroy enemy satellites, the United States is worried. Angelo M Codevilla argues that Washington currently could not defend against such a space-based laser weapon… unless it repurposes its THEL, or Nautilus, weapon that was engineered from the leftover hardware of a laser called Alpha that was designed to dominate orbital space.
Japan’s new casinos: Last year, Tokyo passed legislation that is the first step to legalizing casinos and Japan’s newly opened gaming market could be worth US$25 billion in gross revenue a year, reports Daniel Hurst & Peter Langan. The new legislation will see two family-oriented integrated resorts in Tokyo and Osaka opening in 2023, followed by 10 smaller regional ones to be completed from the mid-2020s onwards.
Don’t bomb Pyongyang: With US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s recent statement that years of negotiations with North Korea have failed, it seems an American military response is seen, in some quarters, as inevitable. Grant Newsham writes that if America attacks North Korea, it better be prepared to finish it as there will be no short, clean strike that jolts Kim Jong-un to his senses.
India-Pakistan heightened tensions: A military court in Pakistan on Monday handed down a death sentence to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav for allegedly spying and trying to disrupt the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. E Jaya Kumar writes clashes are bound to escalate on the border along Kashmir if Pakistan hangs Jadhav with tensions between Lahore and Delhi already high after last year’s attack by suspected Pakistan militants on an Indian military camp and “surgical strikes” by India days later.
