The Nuclear Hermit: North Korea appears to have conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb test, which is sure to escalate tensions with that isolated country. The North Koreans claim they detonated a hydrogen bomb that could be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The test is a thumb in the eye to President Trump, who threatened “fire and fury” if North Korea doesn’t calm down.

It’s unverified whether the bomb was actually a hydrogen bomb as opposed to less powerful nuclear bombs the North has previously tested. The North also does not yet have a missile capable of reaching the continental US, but they’re working on it.

To Complicate Matters: President Trump is preparing to withdraw the US from its South Korea trade agreement, The Washington Post reports. Trump is moving to fulfill his promise to get the US out of what he believes are unfair trade deals, but this complicates matters while both the US and South Korea are confronting the saber-rattling North.

The Post says according to its sources, “Although it is still possible Trump could decide to stay in the agreement to renegotiate its terms, the internal preparations for terminating the deal are far along, and the formal withdrawal process could begin as soon as this week.”

Wildfire: Firefighters in Los Angeles are dealing with a 5,000-acre fire that’s being described as the biggest in the history of the city. The fire is threatening about 1,000 homes in an area called La Tuna Canyon south of the 210 freeway. Temperatures have been running in the triple digits — always bad for wildfires.

Major fires are burning across the West. The California wine country is shrouded in smoke. The National Interagency Fire Center said more than 25,000 firefighters are battling uncontained wildfires, including 21 in Montana and 17 in Oregon.

Wherein Officials Visit the Scene: President Trump and wife Melania visited Texas yesterday and the President predictably said things are going great with disaster relief. “The message is that things are working out well. Really, I think people appreciate what’s been done. It’s been done very efficiently, very well, and that’s what we want,” the president said. “We’re very happy with the way everything is going. A lot of love. There’s a lot of love.”

A Big Wind in Texas: President Trump yesterday praised the Coast Guard for saving 11,000 people “by going into winds that the media will not go into. They will not go into those winds. Unless it’s a really good story, in which case they will.”

So, it appears all that television and newspaper coverage was faked and only the President noticed.

Drugged Out: About 64,000 people died of drug overdoses in the US last year, a 22 percent increase, notes the NY Times Upshot. Figuring large in the statistic is the number of deaths attributed to the synthetic opioid fentanyl, up 540 percent in three years. The Upshot describes it as “an epidemic of drug overdoses that is killing people at a faster rate than the H.I.V. epidemic at its peak.”

Outer Limits: NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson returned to Earth yesterday in Kazakhstan, after setting an American record of 665 days in orbit.  Whitson spent much of her time on experiments, including studies of cancerous lung tissue and bone cells. She said she’s looking forward to cooking fresh vegetables at home.

The Obit Page: Sumiteru Taniguchi, a survivor of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki who spent his life devoted to peace and disarmament, has died at age 88. Taniguchi spent two years in a hospital lying on his stomach to recover from his wounds and sometimes showed his scars to illustrate the effects of war.

Taniguchi was a 16-year-old delivering mail when the bomb dropped. “When I looked up,” he said in a 1994 interview later broadcast on PBS, “the house I had just passed had been destroyed. The last house to which I distributed mail was still there. I also saw a child blown away. Big stones were flying in the air and one came down and hit me, then flew up again into the sky.”

The Sports Page: A Minnesota college yesterday defeated its opponent by what amounted to a basketball score. Division III St. John’s (Minnesota) beat St. Scholastica. 98-0. St. Scholastica averaged .9 yards per play. They probably have actual students on the team.

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