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WWIII Watch: Biden Reportedly Approves Ukraine Long-Range Missile Strikes in Russia Before Trump Comes to Power

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Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden has reportedly approved the use of long-range American missiles by Ukraine to strike within the Russian mainland, in a move which may escalate the conflict two months before President-Elect Donald Trump comes into office with a mandate to seek a peace settlement.

According to reports from the Democrat-aligned Washington Post and New York Times newspapers, both citing unnamed U.S. officials, lame-duck President Joe Biden has lifted restrictions barring Ukraine from using American Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles to strike targets within Russia.

The Biden White House previously approved the use of ATACMS by Kyiv to strike Russian targets within Ukrainian territory, including Russian-occupied lands such as Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Moscow under the Obama administration in 2014. The Biden administration had also approved the use of shorter-range American missiles for limited cross-border strikes within Russia.

However, President Biden had been hesitant to permit the Ukrainians to use ATACMS within Russia for fear of escalating the conflict, with reported concerns over the world’s largest nuclear power potentially using more powerful weapons within Ukraine, Moscow increasing assistance to American adversaries such as the Islamist regime in Iran or to the Houthi terrorists in Yemen in their quest to disrupt global shipping.

The apparent about-face from the Biden administration may be seen as an attempt to undermine peace efforts by incoming President Donald Trump, who has already embarked upon unofficial diplomatic efforts to fulfil his promise of negotiating an end to the war. (Read more from “WWIII Watch: Biden Reportedly Approves Ukraine Long-Range Missile Strikes in Russia Before Trump Comes to Power” HERE)

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Ukraine’s Plan for International Suicide: Zelensky May Build a Nuke If Trump Doesn’t Support War

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Ukraine could develop a rudimentary nuclear bomb within months if Donald Trump withdraws US military assistance, according to a briefing paper prepared for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.

The country would quickly be able to build a basic device from plutonium with a similar technology to the “Fat Man” bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945, the report states. “Creating a simple atomic bomb, as the United States did within the framework of the Manhattan Project, would not be a difficult task 80 years later,” the document reads.

With no time to build and run the large facilities required to enrich uranium, wartime Ukraine would have to rely instead on using plutonium extracted from spent fuel rods taken from Ukraine’s nuclear reactors.

Ukraine still controls nine operational reactors and has significant nuclear expertise despite having given up the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal in 1996. The report says: “The weight of reactor plutonium available to Ukraine can be estimated at seven tons … A significant nuclear weapons arsenal would require much less material … the amount of material is sufficient for hundreds of warheads with a tactical yield of several kilotons.” . . .

“That would be enough to destroy an entire Russian airbase or concentrated military, industrial or logistics installations. The exact nuclear yield would be unpredictable because it would use different isotopes of plutonium,” said the report’s author, Oleksii Yizhak, head of department at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies, a government research centre that acts as an advisory body to the presidential office and the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. (Read more from “Ukraine’s Plan for International Suicide: Zelensky May Build a Nuke If Trump Doesn’t Support War” HERE)

With Trump Returning To Power, Europe Chief Weighs Idea Of Buying More Natural Gas From U.S. Instead Of Russia

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President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said Friday that she proposed to President-elect Donald Trump the idea that the U.S. could supply more natural gas to Europe to decrease the bloc’s reliance on Russia, according to Barron’s.

The EU chief said the topic of tapping U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) could also be discussed in relation to the EU’s trade deficit with the U.S., Barron’s reported, citing AFP News. Von der Leyen also said it was “very important” that Brussels engaged around “common interests” with the president-elect.

The Biden-Harris administration has faced criticism for halting LNG exports after the Department of Energy (DOE) announced it was halting new and pending approvals for certain LNG export terminals in January. Some federal agencies are looking to interfere with Trump’s agenda to unfreeze approvals for LNG exports, according to various reports.

“Common interests are, for example — this is one topic that we touched upon, I would not say discuss — it’s the whole topic of LNG,” she told reporters in Budapest, Barron’s reported.

“We still get a lot of LNG from Russia and why not replace it [with] American LNG, which is cheaper for us and brings down our energy prices,” said von der Leyen, Reuters reported. (Read more from “With Trump Returning To Power, Europe Chief Weighs Idea Of Buying More Natural Gas From U.S. Instead Of Russia” HERE)

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North Korean Soldiers In Russia Reportedly Got Better Access To Internet — And Immediately Started Watching Porn

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North Korean soldiers who have been deployed to Russia are getting “unfettered” access to the internet in Russia and are using it to watch pornography, according to a Tuesday report.

The Pentagon estimates that up to 10,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to Russia in recent weeks as the two countries’ military alliance grows closer. Typically, North Korean soldiers and all civilians who live in the country have strictly restricted or zero access to the internet, but the troops who have been deployed to Russia now have more accessibility and are using this newfound internet access to watch pornography, according to an unnamed source who spoke to The Financial Times’ Gideon Rachman.

“A usually reliable source tells me that the North Korean soldiers who have deployed to Russia have never had unfettered access to the internet before. As a result, they are gorging on pornography,” Rachman wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.

What exactly Pyongyang’s goal in sending North Korean troops to Russia is unclear, although reports indicate that they are present to help Russian forces in their fight against Ukraine, whether through physical combat means or logistics support. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has commented on the matter.

The troops would, at the very least, bolster Russia’s manpower, which has experienced constant turnover since the war began. Russia recruits nearly 30,000 new troops a month, but that’s roughly equivalent to the amount of troops who are killed in combat in the same time frame. (Read more from “North Korean Soldiers In Russia Reportedly Got Better Access To Internet — And Immediately Started Watching Porn” HERE)

‘World War III Has Already Begun,’ Jamie Dimon Warns — Says He and His Team Are Preparing for Serious Conflict With Russia, China

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The head of America’s largest bank told an audience at the Institute of International Finance that his team is running scenarios in preparation for a global conflict involving nuclear powers.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, told the crowd that war was imminent and nuclear proliferation was a greater existential threat than climate change.

“World War III has already begun. You already have battles on the ground being coordinated in multiple countries,” Dimon said at the annual event in Washington, DC on Oct. 24.

Dimon also claimed the cooperation between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea to dismantle the Western world order far outweighed any financial issues.

Western powers, including NATO allies, have been pitted against Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Meanwhile, North Korea has sent an estimated 12,000 soldiers to fight with Russia in Ukraine, CNN reported. (Read more from “‘World War III Has Already Begun,’ Jamie Dimon Warns — Says He and His Team Are Preparing for Serious Conflict With Russia, China” HERE)

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‘Possible To Use Nuclear Weapons’: Putin Hardens Posture Against NATO Amid New Threats

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a warning to NATO members: if Ukraine gets permission to use long-range missiles, it will be an open declaration of war by NATO allies, and the Russian military is already prepared for it.

Polish news outlet Super Express reported Putin has stated Moscow military commanders are currently preparing troops for an eventual war against Western allies, because Russia’s reaction will be more than diplomatic.

“Our military command is thinking about it and will propose various options for response,” Putin said, adding Russia’s position on the matter should be taken seriously because “we will have to make some decisions on our side as well.”

During the BRICS Summit in Kazan last week, Putin accused NATO of hiding behind Ukraine to fight a war against Russia.

“NATO is at war with us, but with the hands of Ukrainian soldiers. Ukraine does not spare its soldiers in the interest of third countries,” Putin said.

(Read more from “‘Possible To Use Nuclear Weapons’: Putin Hardens Posture Against NATO Amid New Threats” HERE)

North Korea’s Troops in Ukraine Reveal Putin’s Weakness

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The war for Ukraine is widening. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed Wednesday that North Korea is dispatching thousands of troops to Russia, marking a significant escalation in its conflict with Kyiv.

Vladimir Putin is pulling Kim Jong Un deeper into the war — yet he is also revealing a weakness: The Kremlin is running low on recruitable troops at home.

North Korea’s infusion of fresh soldiers will remain practically risk-free for Pyongyang, unless the United States returns to its aggressive sanctions posture against the Kim regime.

The Kremlin is finding it difficult and expensive to entice more of Russia’s poor and desperate to sign up for the war — even with promises of bonuses and good pay.

In theory, Moscow could alternatively force millions of its fighting-age men into the Ukrainian meat grinder through conscription. (Read more from “North Korea’s Troops in Ukraine Reveal Putin’s Weakness” HERE)

At BRICS Summit, Russia To Push to End Dollar Dominance

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Russia is seeking to convince BRICS countries to build an alternative platform for international payments that would be immune to Western sanctions when it hosts the group’s leaders at a summit next week.

President Vladimir Putin is keen to build up BRICS – which has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates as well as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – as a powerful counterweight to the West in global politics and trade.

The October 22-24 summit in the city of Kazan is being presented by Moscow as evidence that Western efforts to isolate Russia have failed. It wants other countries to work with it to overhaul the global financial system and end the dominance of the US dollar.

Central to that is the proposal for a new payments system based on a network of commercial banks linked to each other through the BRICS central banks, according to a document prepared by Russia’s finance ministry and central bank, distributed to journalists ahead of the summit.

The system would use blockchain technology to store and transfer digital tokens backed by national currencies. This, in turn, would then allow those currencies to be easily and securely exchanged, bypassing the need for dollar transactions. (Read more from “At BRICS Summit, Russia To Push to End Dollar Dominance” HERE)

Book States Biden Blames Obama For Russia Invading Ukraine: He ‘F***ed Up’

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President Joe Biden blamed former President Barack Obama for Russia invading Ukraine in 2022, according to a new book from Bob Woodward, saying that the former president’s weakness in 2014 led to Russian President Vladimir Putin feeling emboldened to go further.

During a moment of political upheaval in February 2014, Russian soldiers, wearing uniforms with no insignias, seized government buildings throughout Crimea and later seized its airports. Russia illegally annexed Crimea the following month.

In his new book, “War,” journalist Bob Woodward says that Biden blamed Obama for Russia invading Ukraine.

“They f***ed up in 2014,” Biden said to a friend, according to Woodward. “That’s why we are here. We f***ed it up. Barack never took Putin seriously.”

“We did nothing. We gave Putin a license to continue!” Biden reportedly fumed. “Well, I’m revoking his f***ing license!” (Read more from “Book States Biden Blames Obama For Russia Invading Ukraine: He ‘F***ed Up’” HERE)

U.S. Intel Warns of ‘Lethal’ Response From Moscow if Ukraine Strikes Deeper Into Russia

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U.S. intelligence officials believe Russia could retaliate with lethal force if the Biden administration allows Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike deep within Russian territory, The New York Times reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

The warning comes as President Vladimir Putin this week announced plans to revise Russia’s nuclear weapons doctrine, with the Kremlin framing it as a clear message to the West. Under the proposed changes, Moscow would consider any attack by a non-nuclear country supported by a nuclear power as a joint attack by both.

According to the NYT report, Russia could escalate covert arson and sabotage operations in Europe and launch “potentially lethal attacks” on U.S. and European military bases if President Joe Biden allows Kyiv to fire long-range missiles further into Russia. According to recent media reports, Moscow is already in secret negotiations brokered by Iran to deliver anti-ship cruise missiles to Yemen’s Houthi militias.

Some of Biden’s senior advisers reportedly agree with intelligence warnings, citing heightened concerns following Putin’s “especially bellicose” recent statements. Earlier this month, the Kremlin leader said the West risks war with Russia if it allows Kyiv to use longer-range weapons to strike targets inside his country. (Read more from “U.S. Intel Warns of ‘Lethal’ Response From Moscow if Ukraine Strikes Deeper Into Russia” HERE)