At least 13 people have been killed and dozens injured after a van in Barcelona Spain ploughed into pedestrians in a busy tourist street.  The attack happened in the area around Las Ramblas, a busy shopping and business promenade in the center of the city.

Local and national media are reporting that one suspect named Driss Oukabir, apparently from Morocco, has been arrested. A second suspect was been killed after a shootout on the outskirts of the city with police. It remains unclear how many attackers were involved in the incident, which is being treated by police as a terrorist attack.
Horrific footage recorded at the scene shows dozens of victims lying injured on the pavement. Police have confirmed that at least 64 people are hurt. Catalonia’s interior minister Joaquim Forn stated it is ‘very possible’ the number of dead will rise because of the ‘very serious’ wounds to victims.
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UPDATE: After popular request, I finally received a copy of “the map” McGurk is using and added it to the transcript to make it easier. /SD
Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS Brett McGurk follows up on the “around the globe” update speech delivered by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. With this update McGurk explains the current status of the D-ISIS campaign in Syria and Iraq. (additional emphasis regionally) WATCH:

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[Transcript] MS NAUERT: Good to see you back. I know, it’s Friday late in the day, summertime. So you all get good camper awards for coming in today. Thank you so much for being here on this Friday. We have our Special Presidential Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, Brett McGurk, who’s here with us. I know you heard from Brett just a couple weeks ago at the end of the ISIS – D-ISIS coalition meeting here in Washington. And so Brett wanted to come in today to provide you all with an update as to where things stand in the campaign.
So without further ado, Brett’s here with that.
MR MCGURK: Thank you. Okay, thanks everybody for coming. I thought what I’d do today – you heard from the Secretary for a kind of trip around the world six months in here since he arrived about everything going on in the world and the activity here at the State Department. And what I thought I’d do is drill in a little bit more on what he discussed about the very important – one of our key priorities here at the department, about the campaign against ISIS.
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Dangerous/Sketchy – An Inspector General investigation into a military recruitment program for non-Americans with foreign language skills has resulted in a dangerous level of foreign infiltration by potential terrorists.  Some of the dangerous recruits, potentially terrorists, are now “missing” and “unaccounted for”.

“The program has been replete with problems, to include foreign infiltration.”

(Via Fox News) Defense Department investigators have discovered “potential security risks” in a Pentagon program that has enrolled more than 10,000 foreign-born individuals into the U.S. armed forces since 2009, Fox News has learned exclusively, with sources on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon expressing alarm over “foreign infiltration” and enrollees now unaccounted for.

After more than a year of investigation, the Pentagon’s inspector general recently issued a report – its contents still classified but its existence disclosed here for the first time – identifying serious problems with Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI), a DOD program that provides immigrants and non-immigrant aliens with an expedited path to citizenship in exchange for military service.

Defense Department officials said the program is still active but acknowledged that new applications have been suspended.
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Today Secretary of State Rex Tillerson highlighted events over the past six months.  T-Rex takes another stroll around the globe discussing regional policy, specific state policy, and ongoing challenges.  Secretary Tillerson then takes questions from the media at the conclusion of his remarks.
Very informative. Very well worth watching (T-Rex Begins at 03:40):

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[*Note* We’ll capture and share transcript as soon as possible.]
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Prayers answered. After six long and intensely emotional weeks for the Scalise family, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who was critically wounded during an attempted assassination attempt at a baseball practice last month, has been discharged from a Washington Medstar hospital to continue his recovery at rehabilitation facility.

WASHINGTON – […] MedStar Washington Hospital Center said Wednesday that the six-term Louisiana Republican was released from the hospital on Tuesday and is beginning “intensive inpatient rehabilitation.” It did not identify the rehabilitation facility.
“Congressman Steve Scalise has made excellent progress in his recovery from a life-threatening gunshot wound six weeks ago,” the hospital said.

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Reports surface today that President Trump has cancelled the 2012/2013 covert CIA program giving weapons to ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria.  [Washington Post Link]

Various news organizations frame the issue as cancelling the program to “arm the moderate opposition to Bashir Assad”.  However, those news reports are entirely false.

We know the Obama administration was arming ISIS as part of the larger Syria strategy because Secretary of State John Kerry went on record admitting the Obama Syrian strategy was actually to arm ISIS and extremist Islamic groups (al-Nusra) against Assad.
We also know Secretary Kerry was being truthful in that media-hidden, albeit recorded, admission because CTH specifically tracked and investigated the CIA weapons shipments as an accidential outcome of the finalized Benghazi Briefing material in 2013/2014.
The Washington Post might be claiming today that President Trump is discontinuing a covert CIA plan that armed “moderates”.  But we know, if Trump is actually canceling this program, the actual recipients of the covert weapons plan were ISIS, al-Qaeda and al-Nusra in Syria – By their own damned admissions.
There simply is no doubt of that truth.   The Washington Post is lying, and despite their earnest efforts we can actually prove their framework is a substantive and factual falsehood.    Here’s some of the proof, including Kerry’s recorded admission:
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Many of you might remember the three brave Americans, Spencer Stone (U.S. Air Force), Alek Skarlatos (U.S. National Guard) and Anthony Sadler (Pittsburg, CA) who confronted a heavily armed Jihadist aboard a French train during a terrorist attack in 2015.
U.S. Air Force Spencer Stone charged the terrorist who was using an AK-47, tackled him and suffered severe wounds in the confrontation.  All three of the friends were heroes. The terrorist, Ayoub el-Qahzzani, had at least nine full magazines of ammunition holding almost 300 rounds, a hand gun and a box cutter.
For their bravery the three Americans and one British tourist were awarded France’s highest honor – The Légion d’Honneur medal.

Oscar winner, actor and director Clint Eastwood is making a movie based on the lives of the three friends and the events on that fateful day.  The movie is called “The 15:17 to Paris”.  And instead of hiring Hollywood actors, Mr. Eastwood is actually casting the three men to play themselves in the movie.   How cool is that?
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White House National Security Adviser, Tom Bossert, delivers a press briefing aboard AF1 en route back to the U.S. from France.  If you did not read and watch the information yesterday from President Trump’s Special Envoy, Brett McGurk, I would strongly suggest you review that prior to this press briefing.  -SEE HERE- Everything is connected.

[Transcript] Aboard Air Force One – En Route Newark, New Jersey – 3:01 P.M. CET
MR. BOSSERT: So let me just start the conversation by saying that President Trump and President Macron had private conversations yesterday, but also an extended bilateral conversation. And I wanted to talk you about that and give you a readout, and answer your questions if I might.
♦ Q Did they discuss the role that Syrian Kurds might have in a future Syria after ISIS?
MR. BOSSERT: So, among other things in the bilateral conversation yesterday, the Presidents discussed Syria — defeating ISIS in general, but Syria specifically; our desire to have a political solution outside and after our military solutions prevail. They discussed counterterrorism in general, as it will be an enduring and ongoing problem after our defeat-ISIS campaign takes the physical caliphate from ISIS.
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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been keeping an exhaustive schedule for the past week and especially in the past few days.  In the ongoing diplomatic effort against mid-east terror networks, the GCC/Trump coalition have kept up pressure against Qatar.
Kuwait is acting as the primary mediator between Qatar and the rest of the Gulf States; T-Rex conducted three days of shuttle diplomacy in an effort to assist and reassert the position of the Trump administration.  Tillerson traveled to Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and back to Qatar with extensive meetings within each nation.
It would take a bazillion words to explain all the nuances, shifts, agreements and diplomatic ongoing efforts.  However, to keep it simple we boiled it down to the current, most consequential, outcome within this graphic:
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The Trump directed Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS is known shortly as the acronym “D-ISIS”.
Though the media never reported on it much, you might remember immediately after taking office President Trump announced an immediate call for an international summit in Washington DC specifically purposed to readdress the Global Coalition and give the alliance specific focus toward the international defeat of ISIS.
In response to that call by President Trump, 68 nations traveled to Washington DC in late March to join together in an agreement of approach to eliminate ISIS.  Led by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis, that summit was the formation of the 2017 “D-ISIS” strategy. All 68 nations signed on to the united effort; everyone was on the same page.  Again, the media coverage was scant to non-existent.
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