It was published after a picture was taken of the little prince, with an innocent, delighted, expression on his face, as he stood in a helicopter one day shy of his fourth birthday. “The image of the prince expressing his happiness in this way led many [on Twitter] to declare their support of George for a whole new position: gay icon,” the article continued.

He wrote to PinkNews demanding it withdraws the article and apologises, reports the BBC. “Sexualising a young child in this fashion is entirely inappropriate,” the Brexit-supporting Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Antrim wrote to the website’s editor.

“In reality, the photo which prompted the piece shows a four-year-old boy who is smartly dressed and excited about being on a helicopter with his male father and female mother. To take an image of a little boy and to fantasise of him being an icon for a life defined by sex is outrageous and sick.”

PinkNews, which describes itself as  “premier LGBT news outlet in the UK and beyond”, published the article on July 25th. “There are of course those who say that any discussion of the prince’s sexuality is premature, but this isn’t about his sexuality,” the article elaborates. “Kids are born with a sexuality, and should be encouraged to find it without it being assumed that they’re straight,” it adds.

"The DPRK must choose to stop isolating itself and stand down its pursuit of nuclear weapons," Mattis said in a statement. DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "The DPRK should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people," Mattis said.

"The DPRK regime's actions will continue to be grossly overmatched by ours and would lose any arms race or conflict it initiates," he added. Mattis added that while the State Department was making diplomatic efforts, the United States and its allies have the most "precise, rehearsed and robust defensive and offensive capabilities on Earth."

Despite the statement by Mattis, US officials say that for now, additional assets have not been moved to the region and the threat assessment has not changed. The United States has 28,500 troops in South Korea to guard against the North Korean threat. Japan hosts around 54,000 US military personnel, the U.S. Department of Defense says, and tens of thousands of Americans work in both countries.

In response to Williams' unexpected and very revealing comment, Mitchell appeared to shake her head, though it's unclear if she was approving or disapproving of what he actually said - there was no push back by the panelists or attempt to seek clarification on Williams' words.

Though the world is currently witnessing a dangerous and escalating war of words between President Trump and the so-called hermit kingdom, mainstream media reporting has long been driven by simplistic fear mongering concerning the geopolitical dynamics driving tensions in the region. The American public is generally woefully uneducated regarding to history of US-North Korean tensions and war.

According to the 20th century theologian and political commentator Reinhold Niebuhr, fear is a prime means which leading public institutions and elites utilize to keep the masses loyal. Fear and sensationalized coverage is also good for ratings and advertising revenue. Niebuhr says society's "myth-makers" - an apt description of today's major corporate media - constantly give us mere illusions divorced from truth.

"We will, of course, intensify work related to import substitution, reduction of dependence on US payment systems, on the dollar as a settling currency and so on. It is becoming a vital need," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Monday, according to a Reuters report that cited the RIA news agency. Russia called the measure a "fully fledged trade war" and issued its own retaliatory response: demanding the reduction of US diplomatic personnel by 750 by September 1 and planning to take over diplomatic property previously used by the US.

Trump also lashed out at lawmakers for endorsing the sanctions measure while blaming Congress for fostering a tense relationship with Moscow. “By limiting the executive’s flexibility, this bill makes it harder for the United States to strike good deals for the American people, and will drive China, Russia and North Korea much closer together,” Trump said Wednesday.

In fact, the only thing that makes North Korea a threat is their nuclear capability — made possible by the Clinton and Bush administrations. These two administrations played key roles in helping the late Kim Jong-Il develop North Korea’s nuclear prowess from the mid 1990’s onward. Former US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld was on the board of technology giant ABB when it won a deal to supply North Korea with two nuclear power plants.

According to the 2003 report from SWI, the Swiss-based ABB told swissinfo that Rumsfeld was involved with the company in early 2000, when it netted a $200 million (SFr270million) contract with Pyongyang. The ABB contract was to deliver equipment and services for two nuclear power stations at Kumho, on North Korea’s east coast. However, Rumsfeld was simply taking the baton from the Clinton administration, who, in 1994, agreed to begin replacing North Korea’s domestically built nuclear reactors with light water reactors.

Henry Sokolski, head of the Non-proliferation Policy Education Center in Washington, noted at the time that “LWRs could be used to produce dozens of bombs’ worth of weapons-grade plutonium in both North Korea and Iran. This is true of all LWRs — a depressing fact US policymakers have managed to block out. These reactors are like all reactors, they have the potential to make weapons. So you might end up supplying the worst nuclear violator with the means to acquire the very weapons we’re trying to prevent it acquiring,” said Sokolski.

On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that a US intelligence assessment concluded North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead, a disclosure that rapidly intensified an already tense standoff with the rogue nation. Soon after the report, President Donald Trump warned Kim against making further threats, saying North Korea “will be met with the fire and the fury like the world has never seen.”

Whether Kim truly possesses the ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead — and successfully launch it on an intercontinental missile — is unknown and remains hotly debated. Yet there is no doubt now that Kim has scored one major achievement: He is finally being taken seriously by the foreign policy establishment and intelligence agencies, evidenced by the latest assessment on his nuclear capabilities.

Moon Chung In, a national security adviser to South Korea’s president, said that Kim has taken rational steps to shore up his regime, with a goal of deterring any form of US attack or intervention. “North Korea is very, very stable,” said Moon during a recent interview in Seoul. “Kim Jong Un has consolidated power fully.”

Jonathan D Pollack, a Korea specialist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, recalled how Senator John McCain of Arizona this year labeled Kim Jong Un as a “crazy fat kid.” He said seeing North Korea’s leader this way is risky. “I treat it seriously,” said Pollack of North Korea. “It’s not a cartoon because of its increasing capabilities.”

Last September, the North Koreans detonated a nuclear device that was estimated to be in the 20 to 30 kiloton range, and back in January President Trump pledged to stop the North Koreans before they would ever have the capability to deliver such a weapon to US cities.  But now the North Koreans have already achieved that goal, and they plan to ultimately create an entire fleet of ICBMs capable of hitting every city in America.

Right now, North Korea and the Trump administration are locked in a game of nuclear chicken.  Kim Jong Un’s regime is never, ever, ever going to give up their nuclear weapons program, and so that means that either Donald Trump is going to have to back down, find another way to deal with North Korea, or use military force to eliminate their nuclear threat.

And time is quickly running out for Trump to make a decision, because now that North Korea has the ability to produce miniaturized nuclear warheads, the game has completely changed. The truth is that nobody actually knows how many nukes North Korea has at this point, and they are pumping out more all the time.

Yes, the Trump administration could order an absolutely devastating military strike on North Korea.  But if the North Koreans even get off one nuke in response, it will be the greatest disaster for humanity since at least World War II. But at this point Trump doesn’t sound like someone that intends to back down.  In fact, on Tuesday he threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” if they keep threatening us…

Most Americans appear to be completely oblivious to the seriousness of this crisis.  Once we hit North Korea, they will respond.  A single nuke could potentially kill millions in Tokyo, Japan or Seoul, South Korea.  And the North Koreans also have some of the largest chemical and biological weapons stockpiles on the entire planet.  If things take a bad turn, we could see death and destruction on a scale that is absolutely unprecedented.

Let us pray that a way can be found to derail North Korea’s nuclear program that does not involve us going to war. Because the moment that US forces start striking North Korea, the North Koreans could literally unleash hell if they are inclined to do so. It appears that we are now closer to nuclear war than we have been at any point since the Cuban missile crisis.  A nuclear holocaust was avoided back then, and hopefully a way will be found to avoid one now.

When complete around 2023, it will generate 2.2 GW of power from the Kwanza River in North Kwanza province, expected to meet more than half of the country's power needs. Nearly 10,000 local jobs will be created during the peak construction period.

Addressing the opening ceremony on Friday, Energy and Water Resources Minister Joao Baptista Borges called the project "crucial" to the economic construction of Angola. “It will solve the power shortage in Angola and bring jobs to the country,” he said.

Chinese state-owned conglomerates behind colossal dams like The Three Gorges and some of the world’s highest-situated dams on the Tibetan Plateau have flexed their engineering muscles in Africa. By late June, according to survey by People’s Daily Online, Chinese firms have raised or contracted to build hydropower plants in at least 24 out of 54 African countries.

After reports of the possibility that an early trade deal agreement with the US could allow the importation of chlorine-washed chicken, the media rushed to herald the death of food safety standards as another Brexit bad news story – and yet more evidence that the cost of exiting Europe is too high for Brits to bear.

An article in the Irish Times sneered over ‘Brexit-Flavoured Chlorination Chicken’, and in the Metro, Oliver Wheaton moaned: “We Might Start Getting Chlorinated Chicken Thanks To (You Guessed It) Brexit,” claiming that “the EU bans this practice on health grounds”. In fact, the European Food Safety Agency has passed chlorinated-washed chicken for safe consumption.