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 @ISIDEWITHNewsDaily DiscussionSouth KoreaNorth Korea Military StrikesSeoulChiefs•••2yrs ago

North Korea says it tested ballistic missile capable of carrying super-large warhead

North Korea said it successfully tested a new tactical ballistic missile on Monday capable of carrying a 4.5-ton super-large warhead, state news agency KCNA reported on Tuesday.

A day earlier, South Korea reported the launch of two ballistic missiles by North Korea and said the second likely failed soon after launch, blowing up in flight over land.

The KCNA report did not make clear if two missiles were launched and referred to the projectile in a singular term.

It said the test of the new tactical ballistic missile, named Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5, was conducted with a simulated heavy warhead to verify flight stability and accuracy.

It did not elaborate on the nature of the simulated warhead.

North Korea's report on the missile test was likely "deception" with one of the two missiles flying abnormally and appearing to show up in a field not far from Pyongyang, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) spokesperson Colonel Lee Sung-jun told a briefing.

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6 Replies

 @ISIDEWITHasked…2yrs2Y

How does the advancement of military technology by a single country impact your views on the necessity of arms control and disarmament in maintaining world peace?

 @BurstMurst  from Texas  commented…2yrs2Y

The US must not remain complacent in a time of peace and must be ready militarily at any moment.

 @ISIDEWITHasked…2yrs2Y

How does the idea of one country developing powerful missiles affect your feelings of safety on a global scale?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…2yrs2Y

Does the testing of ballistic missiles by a country like North Korea change your perspective on the importance of international diplomacy?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…2yrs2Y

If a nation claims to develop weapons for defense, where do you think we should draw the line between national security and global threat?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…2yrs2Y

Considering the potential for mass destruction, should there be a global agreement to ban certain types of weapons, even if it means some countries might feel less secure?

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…2yrs2Y

U.S. Students Slide in Math, Science Test Scores

U.S. scores were no better than when the tests were first given in 1995. In math, the recent declines wiped out years of gains. American science scores have fallen since 2015, although the latest drops from 2019 weren’t statistically significant.The results come as President-elect Donald Trump has criticized America’s education system and pledged to abolish the federal Education Department. Wednesday’s release did come with a slice of good news, though: U.S. students still score above international averages, which include countries with a range of economic levels.Some other countries’ scores also declined since before the pandemic, but U.S. rankings slid comparatively on some measures, falling to 24 out of 45 education systems in eighth-grade math and 15 out of 63 in fourth-grade science.Countries whose performance moved ahead of the U.S. included Finland in math, England in science, and Poland for both subjects in fourth grade.High-scoring countries included Singapore, Japan and England. Officials say it is difficult to determine why some places excel and others struggle. The quality of a country’s schools, as well as other factors like poverty, can influence test performance. Carr said some countries use curriculum that is more closely aligned with the TIMSS exams.Even as U.S. schools have long since returned to normal from Covid-19 closures, educators struggled with new challenges. More teachers have left the profession. Student misbehavior and absenteeism jumped. “Coming out of Covid, parents and students got comfortable with the idea that it’s OK to stay home,” said Suzan Harris, a middle-school principal in Butts County, Ga. Chronic absenteeism rates have improved recently, but remain elevated compared with prepandemic figures, according to an American Enterprise Institute compilation of state data.In the years before the pandemic, national exams showed that school achievement was already stagnating or declining.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…1yr1Y

Biden bans new offshore oil drilling along most of US coastline

President Joe Biden announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of the US coastline on Monday in a move designed to bolster his environmental and climate legacy as he prepares to leave office.The order will protect 625mn acres of ocean on the US east coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coasts of Washington, Oregon and California, as well as portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska, the White House said on Monday.“My decision reflects what the coastal communities, business and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said.The executive action will not prevent oil and gas companies obtaining leases in the central and western parts of the Gulf of Mexico, areas that produce almost 15 per cent of the nation’s oil supplies. Nevertheless, the move is expected to complicate the policy agenda of incoming president Donald Trump, who has vowed to “drill, baby, drill” and boost US oil production, even though it is already at a record level.The Trump transition team said it was a disgraceful decision designed to exact “political revenge on the American people” and the incoming president said he would immediately “unban” Biden’s prohibition on new offshore drilling.“I have the right to unban it immediately . . . we can’t let that happen to our country. It’s our greatest, it’s really our greatest economic asset,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview on Monday.Biden’s action will probably be challenged by the oil industry in court and face pushback from Republicans in Congress. But overturning the order could prove challenging and may require an act of Congress, according to legal experts.Biden is using his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, to protect the areas from drilling — the same mechanism which former president Barack Obama used previously to ban offshore drilling in some Arctic and Atlantic waters in 2016.In 2019, a federal judge ruled that an executive order by former president Donald Trump that lifted an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean was unlawful.

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