Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block B:  One Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re: DPRK missile launch?  5.3 earthquake seismology in Pyongyang: consonant with a missile test.   USGS said: artificial.   Yonhap: An explosion – 20 to 30 kilotons. North Korea making a lot of progress. Significance is that it occurs three days after DPRK nuclear envoy visited Beijing; would never test now unless China approved.  Pyongyang, capital of a predatory rogue state, is furious at South Korea’s Terminal High-Altitude Defense/THAD.  NoDong tests during the G20 – that did embarrass China. 
 Two  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Sunni-Shiite Middle East rivalry and hatred. Last  year at the hajj: a stampede and tragedy; Iran has used this to speak ill f Saudis, have called for internationalizing control over the two hold cities.  US needs to study and watch the effort to amplify bad relations.  Supreme Leader called Saudis incompetent; Saudis said Iranians are not Moslems! Head of Iraq’s Hezbollah will visit Iran tomorrow.  There could be a simple spark that will set this all off. Sons of the Prophet: moving troops into southern Syria to challenge rebels” in Kunetra.