MASSAGE PARLOR BUSTED AS HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION: What tipped the cops? Used condoms clogged the drainpipes.

What happens in Texas stays in Texas drain pipes!

TOURISTS ARE IDIOTS: Berlin’s Kreuzberg section “has decided to erect a protective wall for the wall itself…” Yes, a wall to preserve the Berlin Wall, or what’s left of it. Tourists insist on taking chunks home.

BUSINESS INSIDER: What ever Trump said to China about North Korea, it seems like it worked.

Well, it’s way too early to tell.

While China has signed onto every UN Security Council resolution against North Korea since 2006, “it has, of course, watered down most if not all of those Security Council resolutions because it has not wanted to agree to sanctions that might create instability in North Korea,” Glaser said. “And if it won’t cause instability, it’s probably not likely to be tough enough to cause Kim Jong Un to rethink his strategy and priorities.”

So while China may have been swayed to act against its own interests by the Trump administration’s military posturing, another more credible threat could have moved the needle.

“I think that [the Chinese] are quite worried about what Trump might do in the area of trade and economics — that’s really credible,” Glaser said.

I suspect Rex Tillerson’s “strategic patience is over” comment and Trump’s retaliation against Syria’s Assad regime helped move Beijing’s needle.

NORTH KOREA AND SYRIA: Two hereditary dictatorships.

RELATED: “China is increasingly angry at Koreans in general for not showing sufficient respect.”

RUSSIA DENIES SYRIA USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS: The U.S. blasts Russia’s denial.

A question CNN will never ask: “Why is Putin covering for Obama?”

BUT WHAT ABOUT HILLARY’S NARRATIVE? Putin says trust between the U.S. and Russia “has not become better but most likely has degraded” since Trump became president.

H.R. MCMASTER URGES RUSSIA TO RETHINK SYRIA:

In his first televised interview, H.R. McMaster pointed to dual U.S. goals of defeating the Islamic State group and removing Assad from power. As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was making the Trump administration’s first official trip this week to Russia, McMaster said Russia will have to decide whether it wanted to continue backing a “murderous regime.” Trump is weighing next steps after ordering airstrikes last week.

“It’s very difficult to understand how a political solution could result from the continuation of the Assad regime,” McMaster said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Stay tuned.

STRATEGYPAGE’S WW2 BOMBER SERIES: A flight of B-17s — in living color.

AN ENEMY WW2 BOMBER: In StrategyPage’s WW2 combat aircraft photo series: the German He-111.

Here’s some He-111 historical trivia. The Nationalist Chinese Air Force used a very early version of the He-111 in 1937 in the Second Sino-Japanese War. (The Wikipedia entry explains.)

MY LATEST CREATORS SYNDICATE COLUMN: The chemical weapons attack in Syria —Obama’s Red Line Horror.

UPDATE ON LATEST NORTH KOREAN MISSILE TEST: South Korea suspects North Korea’s latest missile launch tested “new technology.”

The South Korean military said the missile was fired from land near the east coast city of Sinpo and flew about 60 kilometers (40 miles). The earlier one in February flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles). Analysts were trying to determine if the shorter distance meant Wednesday’s launch was a failure.

One expert said it could have been a test of a new missile intended as a stepping stone toward developing a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the U.S. mainland. Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, questioned why North Korea would do a shorter launch of the KN-15.

More:

Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank in Honolulu, said he was expecting North Korea would do something to coincide with the Trump-Xi summit, perhaps conduct a nuclear test. The missile launch may be a precursor, with more to come as the summit starts Thursday, he said.

“I’ve joked before that they don’t mind being hated but they definitely hate to be ignored,” Cossa said.

Recent satellite imagery shows possible preparations for a test at North Korea’s main nuclear test site, including the laying of communication cables used to initiate a test and collect data.

Diplomatic dealings, U.S.-China:

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged the launch in a brief statement but said the U.S. had spoken enough about North Korea and would not comment further.

Trump has said China must do more to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear program. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Wednesday that all sides needed to be involved.

“If we are serious about solving this issue, we need to tackle the root of it,” she said at a regular news briefing. “We need to balance the interest of each side. China wants to make efforts with all sides involved, to make denuclearization a reality, and ensure peace in the region.”

SecState Tillerson said a lot in March when he said strategic patience with North Korea is over. This essay has a long section discussing the Trump Administration’s policy change vis a vis North Korea. I’ve linked to it several times but it’s history-rich and does help readers understand current events on the Korean peninsula.

NORTH KOREA FIRES ANOTHER BALLISTIC MISSILE: Pyongyang’s nuclear destruction threat crap won’t stop until it’s stopped. (Intentionally crude paraphrase of the classic Instapundit paraphrase of Herb Stein’s Law, to whit, “if something can’t go on forever, it won’t.”)

North Korea launched a ballistic missile Wednesday into the East Sea, South Korea’s military said, just two days ahead of summit talks between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

“North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the East Sea from a site in the vicinity of Sinpo, South Hamgyong Province, at around 6:42 a.m.,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. “The flight distance is about 60 kilometers.”

The projectile is estimated to be “a type of KN-15 medium-range ballistic missile,” also known as Pukguksong-2, and the maximum altitude of its flight was 189 km, a senior JCS official later told reporters.

“It’s still premature to conclude whether the test-firing was a success or failure,” he added. “It was detected by South Korean Navy’s Aegis ship operating in the East Sea and the Air Force’s ballistic missile warning system.”

He said the North seems to have aimed to test the technology of its ballistic missile technology and also considered the timing just before the U.S.-China summit.

Citing an initial assessment, the US Pacific Command also said the projectile seems to be a KN-15 ballistic missile fired from a land-based facility.

It flew nine minutes, added the Hawaii-based command.

More:

In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump warned that the US will take unilateral action to get rid of the North’s military threats unless China does its part.

Yes. Here’s some deep context which will help readers understand current events on the Korean peninsula.

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S WATERGATE-LEVEL SCANDAL?: Peter J. Wallison at RealClearPolitics examines that question.

The smoking gun in Watergate was President Nixon’s effort to use the CIA to impede an FBI investigation. What kind of “gate” is the misuse of the intelligence community to get inside information on an opposing presidential candidate?

It may turn out that the Democrats, so eager to prove that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians, have unknowingly blundered into a matter that will come back to damage both their party and the Obama administration.

Read the whole thing.

IN RANGE OF NORTH KOREAN NUKES: NBC talks to American ex-pats in South Korea. I’ve read similar stories over the years.

Of course, there was this earlier NBC report, quoting a North Korean defector.

A senior North Korean defector has told NBC News that the country’s “desperate” dictator is prepared to use nuclear weapons to strike the United States and its allies.

Thae Yong Ho is the most high profile North Korean defector in two decades, meaning he is able to give a rare insight into the secretive, authoritarian regime.

Reuters reports on China-North Korea relations.

China has taken steps to increase economic pressure on Pyongyang but has long been unwilling to do anything that may destabilize the North and send millions of refugees across their border.

Here’s what I wrote two weeks ago regarding the end of “strategic patience.” The essay provides a lot of context.

TIME FLIES ON STRATEGYPAGE, SO TO SPEAK: I’m behind –again. Time to catch up with StrategyPage.com’s WW2 bomber series.

From late last week: the A-20 Havoc. Note the six .50 caliber machine guns in the nose.

This week: the B-34 Lexington, with U.S. markings.

Earlier this week: the Avenger. An outstanding Navy plane. The caption mentions President George H. W. Bush and Paul Newman.

REMEMBER OBAMA’S CHEMICAL WEAPON RED LINE IN SYRIA?: Stephen’s posted on this. I’ve been following the chemical attack in Syria story since early this morning. The BBC article Stephen linked to and the AP both report the suspected the chemical agent used in the attack is sarin (GB), a nerve agent. The description of the symptoms experienced by victims is consistent with a nerve agent.

Note this from the BBC report:

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that strikes on Khan Sheikhoun by Syrian government or Russian jets had caused many people to choke.

We don’t know who delivered the bombs– not yet.

Now, recall Obama worked out a deal with Russia (via Vladimir Putin). Russia would take control of the Assad regime’s chemical weapons arsenal. The Kremlin would then move the weapons out of Syria and destroy them.

Apparently the BBC didn’t remember that history, even though it is very relevant context. Well, Business Insider remembers.

The Obama administration’s failure to enforce the “red line” it drew for intervention in Syria against Assad in 2012 has become arguably the biggest stain on the former president’s foreign-policy legacy. Kerry acknowledged in December that the failure to follow through on the threat to retaliate against Assad for his use of chemical weapons to kill 1,500 people in August of 2013 damaged the US’s reputation in the region.

Obama opted instead for a deal brokered by Russia to ship Assad’s chemical weapons stockpile out of Syria and destroy them. The US hailed the deal as a success, but Assad has evidently retained some of the weapons he promised to destroy. Syrian activists have reported three separate chemical attacks in the last week alone, according to the Associated Press, including the attack Tuesday.

Stay tuned.

JAPAN SEEKS COUNTER-ATTACK CAPABILITY TO DEAL WITH NORTH KOREA: This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Japan is fed up with North Korean threats. And SecState Tillerson said strategic patience if over.

BREXIT ROCKS GIBRALTAR: Well, not quite. Some EU stuffed shirt bureaucrats hoped it would. But it appears the Spaniards don’t want to mess with it. Spain has its Catalan secession issue.

FORTRESS OVER ENGLAND: StrategyPage’s WW2 aircraft series. A B-17 Flying Fortress flies above the English countryside. There’s no date on the photo, but it’s clearly a war time picture.

Two B-17 bonus history photos:

A B-17G flying with a B-52H Stratofortress. The photo was taken in May 2006.

Four female pilots training to fly B-17s. They are WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots). WASPs would pilot U.S. aircraft on ferry flights, typically from factories to seaports or training bases. The photo was taken at Lockbourne, Ohio. The B-17 in the background is named Pistol Packin’ Mama.

BYRON YORK: 11 key points about Trump-Russia and Obama-Hideously Illegal Spying On Political Opponents.

Yes, the column has “Trump-Russia” in the title but it addresses Trump-Russia and Obama-Hideously Illegal Spying On Political Opponents.

MORE WW2 BOMBER PHOTOS: I’m finally catching up with the StrategyPage photo series. One of the greats is featured this week.

The B-25 Mitchell: The plane flown in the 1942 Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.

The B-25 deserves a two photo bonus. They aren’t part of the series but they are fine photos. I found them in a site search. A sky filled with B-25s: The picture was snapped April 18, 2010 during a memorial for the Doolittle Tokyo raiders. A B-25 air strike — from 2016: Well, the plane was part of an air show at Nellis AFB.

MORE NEWS ON THE INTELLIGENCE PROBE: Fox News is reporting that the individual who unmasked Trump associates is “very high up…in the intelligence world.”

Intelligence and House sources with direct knowledge of the disclosure of classified names told Fox News that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., now knows who is responsible — and that person is not in the FBI.

For a private citizen to be “unmasked,” or named, in an intelligence report is extremely rare. Typically, the American is a suspect in a crime, is in danger or has to be named to explain the context of the report.

“The main issue in this case, is not only the unmasking of these names of private citizens, but the spreading of these names for political purposes that have nothing to do with national security or an investigation into Russia’s interference in the U.S. election,” a congressional source close to the investigation told Fox News.

MORE:

“Unmasking is not unprecedented, but unmasking for political purposes … specifically of Trump transition team members … is highly suspect and questionable,” an intelligence source told Fox News. “Opposition by some in the intelligence agencies who were very connected to the Obama and Clinton teams was strong. After Trump was elected, they decided they were going to ruin his presidency by picking them off one by one.”

Stay tuned.

WHEN AND HOW DID PEOPLE ENTER THE AMERICAS?: The BBC article covers new evidence and revised theories.

MATTIS SAYS NORTH KOREA’S RECKLESS ACTIONS MUST BE STOPPED: The SecDef is talking about nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

“This is a threat of both rhetoric and growing capability, and we will be working with the international community to address this,” he said. “We are working through the United Nations, we are working our allies, and we are working diplomatically including with those who we might be able to enlist in this effort to get North Korea under control.”

My last Observer column assessed the North’s escalating rhetoric and improving capabilities. It’s got the background.

UPDATE: I see Stephen posted on North Korea while I was typing up this post. Same story. But it’s a big one.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hey, I read all the posts. I just hadn’t looked at the page in about 20 minutes and was going through about four articles on Korea. This report struck me as the best of the lot.

THE MARTIN B-10B: According to the caption, this airplane was used throughout WW2.