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A military expert is warning about the path ahead for the U.S. as it begins new strikes on Iran.Retired Admiral James Stavridis, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, said during a Tuesday appearance on CNN that the U.S. "launched pretty significant strikes here," and cautioned, "This is the last turn before the tunnel for the Iranians in terms of Trump's patience."Stavridis suggested that the strikes came after the Trump administration "just got tired" of Iranian attacks on merchant shipping, which must have been "a bridge too far." He described the Trump administration's retaliation as "a pretty strong set of strikes for this stage" in negotiations for a ceasefire, but Stavridis held out hope."Let's hope the Iranians kind of get the signal here and stand down from striking merchant shipping," Stavridis said. "Bottom line, the ceasefire can still be salvaged."However, Stavridis described the ceasefire as being on "life support."Former GOP congressman Adam Kinzinger, who appeared on CNN alongside Stavridis, agreed with Stavridis, even though "this has kind of been the way from the first so-called ceasefire." Kinzinger argued the first ceasefire only gave the U.S. time to negotiate the memorandum of understanding that was meant to stop hostilities."Now, the Trump administration has a decision to make," Kinzinger said. "And that decision is simply, you have to basically escalate to try to compel some answer or some negotiation that actually works out, or do you just walk away and give Iran the Strait [of Hormuz]? Basically walk away from the nuclear material?"

A former U.S. diplomat went off on President Donald Trump and the way he's dealing with American NATO allies.During an appearance on CNN on Tuesday, Nick Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO and China, discussed Trump's relationship with NATO and how he ignores what concerns them the most, which is the threat of Russia."NATO is important for the United States, and the threat now is Putin and Russia," Burns said. "So when the president says somehow the Atlantic Ocean is going to protect us in the 21st century from Russia, he's just badly mistaken."Burns was responding to comments made on Tuesday by Trump in which he said he wasn't concerned about the threat of Russia because “we have a thing called the ocean in between us.""He's living in some other century," Burns said, reacting to Trump's comments. "But not the century we're living in."CNN anchor Erin Burnett noted "how easy it is to get drones off the coast" and how the world has seen warfare change."The world has changed dramatically," Burnett said. "So has warfare even in recent months. We've seen that."Burns also talked about how Trump doesn't talk about how European NATO countries have increased spending on their military infrastructure, and in dealing with NATO, "it's as if he's talking about a Europe of three or four or five years ago, not the Europe of today."However, when speaking about Trump's feuds and bickering with NATO leaders like the Italian prime minister, Burns suggested Trump should be like the American presidents of the previous century."You catalog the abusive comments he's made, the sarcastic comments, the critical comments personally about a number of NATO leaders; we've never had an American president do that," Burns said. "Can you imagine Truman or Eisenhower or John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan criticizing, in personal terms, the Italian prime minister, the French president, the German chancellor, the British prime minister?"

The U.S. military announced Tuesday it had launched "powerful strikes" against Iran — something an analyst signaled could be a sign of what repercussions are to come.CNN White House reporter Adam Cancryn told CNN anchor Jake Tapper and senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes during a live report that a military official said these attacks were meant as "punishment" after Iran attacked three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Cancryn warned that the retaliation could have a direct impact on Americans."At least in the immediate term here, it means more uncertainty when it comes to energy prices," Cancryn said. "So, we've already seen, as a result of these economic sanctions, sanctions being now reimposed, the global oil prices, and markets going up once again. The real risk here again is how the Iranians respond, whether they end up closing the Strait of Hormuz again, which, over the last few months, really pushed the price of oil and the price of gas at the pump up."The attacks also put the current ceasefire into further question while Trump was in Turkey, which borders Iran, for a NATO summit where world leaders were planning to discuss the Strait of Hormuz and the ongoing conflict."The concern here is that the ceasefire that we've had these last few weeks is maybe not as solid as people hoped it would be, that it's fragile, it could be broken. It could be broken for good," he added. "That's the real concern here that we end up in this standoff when it comes to the shipment of oil through that Strait."

President Donald Trump's administration resumed open hostilities against Iran on Tuesday, abandoning the soon-to-expire ceasefire memorandum after declaring Iran to be in "clear violation" for attacks on commercial ships, and striking back against multiple targets.The news prompted an explosion on social media, with many of Trump's supporters cheering the new attacks on, but others being less confident or supportive."Not much collective understanding of the memorandum of understanding," wrote The Bulwark's Sam Stein."Not just strikes, but powerful strikes," wrote Rory Johntson of CommodityContext. "Not just costs, but heavy costs; And they mean business because it's a long way from the weekend.""FIFA Peace Prize winner making a big move during the World Cup," wrote Grant Stern of Occupy Democrats."This US strike on Iran is much heavier than previous retaliatory strikes over 20 explosions in [Bandar] Abbas alone," wrote the WarMonitor account."Trump never had a real deal," wrote policy consultant Adam Cochran. "He just wanted headlines for his birthday — so of course it fell apart.""Trump's Iran War seems be resuming," wrote New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. "Aside from the air strikes, the US has revoked the lifting of oil sanctions on Iran. This is more than a blip but not clear (to me at least) if we're headed back to full war or some darker shade of the gray area inbetween."

Thousands of women are killed in dowry disputes each year, despite the practice being banned in 1961Dowry deaths in India no longer provoke the public anger they once did, despite thousands of women’s lives still being lost every year, according to new research.The killings – women who are murdered or driven to suicide following dowry disputes between families – have also faded from political debate, despite an increase in cases. Continue reading...

Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries rushed to hospital after fighting between prisoners from two drug gangsClashes at a Sri Lankan jail have killed 26 people, including seven guards, and wounded more than 100 in the country’s deadliest prison riot in years, officials said.Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries were rushed to Negombo hospital, north of the capital Colombo after overnight fighting between prisoners from two drug gangs, police said on Monday. Continue reading...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened to escalate the controversy over President Donald Trump's intervention in a U.S, soccer player's suspension by using an upcoming NATO summit to focus on it.While meeting with Chilean Foreign Minister Francisco Perez Mackenna on Monday, Rubio was asked about Belgium's appeal of FIFA's decision to reverse U.S. player Folarin Balogun's suspension ahead of the World Cup match with Belgium."It was a bad decision," Rubio said of the suspension. "I think it was the right decision to reverse it.""And if you're Belgium, why would you want to play a game and win a match, and then you win this match, and then everyone will argue you didn't really win it because their best player, leading scorer, was not on the pitch during that — during the match?" he continued. "You want the other side to be at its best so that your victory is not tainted in that way."The U.S. Secretary of State went on to claim that Belgium might be "trying to get an international incident.""I don't know; maybe we'll bring it up at NATO tomorrow when we're there with the Belgians and everybody else," he warned. "But I just hope the match will go on, everyone will be at full strength, and the winner will be the winner."

Impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US imposed a blockade in JanuaryCuba on Monday suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, the state electricity company said.The impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US president, Donald Trump, imposed an oil blockade in January, which has depleted the already dwindling supply of fuel for Cuba’s power plants. Continue reading...