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Russia Walks Back Risk of Dirty Bomb Plot Amid NATO Warnings

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Russia has downplayed the risk of a dirty bomb plot in Ukraine just days after claiming Ukrainian officials planned to stage such an attack following a chorus of NATO warnings rejecting the allegation.

“We have got what we wanted,” Russian deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters at the United Nations. “If this all does not happen, I do not mind people saying that Russia is crying wolf because we are speaking about a terrible disaster that might potentially threaten the whole Earth.”

That sanguine tone makes a marked contrast with charges leveled over the first two days of the week as Russian military officials claimed that Ukrainian officials had reached the “final stage” of a scheme to detonate a dirty bomb and blame Moscow. Western officials denounced the allegation as “transparently false” and aired their suspicions that the Kremlin had a similar plan in mind.

“Russia often accuses others of what they intend to do themselves,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday while visiting the USS George H.W. Bush, the American aircraft carrier leading NATO’s Neptune Strike exercises in the Mediterranean. “We have seen this pattern before, from Syria to Ukraine. Russia must not use false pretexts for further escalation. The world is watching closely.” (Read more from “Russia Walks Back Risk of Dirty Bomb Plot Amid NATO Warnings” HERE)

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INSANITY: 101st Deployed for First Time in 80 Years, Miles from Ukraine; Russia Warns of “Uncontrolled” Escalation

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‘Ready to Defend Every Inch of NATO Soil:’ U.S. Military Sends Elite Troops to Eastern Europe Amid Russia/Ukraine War: Report

By Daily Wire. U.S. military forces have deployed one of the nation’s most elite groups of airborne division soldiers to Europe for the first time since World War II, vowing to fight alongside Ukrainian troops in the war against Russia, according to a report.

CBS News reported Friday that the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, a group trained to deploy anywhere in the world and fight within hours, deployed approximately 4,700 soldiers from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to Romania, where soldiers stand ready to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank on a moment’s notice.

“We’re ready to defend every inch of NATO soil,” the division’s Deputy Commander, Brigadier General John Lubas, told the outlet, adding their presence is necessary because of the group’s unique light infantry force capabilities.

“We bring that mobility to our aircraft and our air assaults,” Lubas said.

Division soldiers, nicknamed the “Screamin’ Eagles,” are now the closest American forces to the ongoing fighting in Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched military operations there earlier this year. Since then, Russian troops have advanced on the Crimean Peninsula and scaled the Black Sea coast into the Kherson region, including Mykolaiv and Odesa port cities. (Read more from “‘Ready to Defend Every Inch of NATO Soil:’ U.S. Military Sends Elite Troops to Eastern Europe Amid Russia/Ukraine War: Report” HERE)

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Russia Hits Homes in Ukraine, Warns of “Uncontrolled Escalation”

By NDTV. Under pressure in the south of Ukraine, Russia fired missiles and drones into Ukrainian-held Mykolaiv on Sunday, destroying an apartment block in the ship-building city near the front and said the war was trending towards “uncontrolled escalation”.

Mykolaiv lies roughly 35 km (22 miles) northwest of the front line to occupied Kherson, the southern region where Russia has ordered 60,000 people to flee a Ukrainian counter offensive “to save your lives”.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who some Russian nationalists have blamed for Moscow’s setbacks since the Feb. 24 invasion, discussed the “rapidly deteriorating situation” in calls with French, British and Turkish counterparts, the ministry said.

He also spoke by phone with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for the second time in three days. The Pentagon’s readout of the call said Austin told Shoigu he “rejected any pretext for Russian escalation.”

Without providing evidence, Shoigu said Ukraine could escalate by using a “dirty bomb” – conventional explosives laced with radioactive material. Ukraine does not possess nuclear weapons, while Russia has said it could protect Russian territory with its nuclear arsenal. (Read more from “Russia Hits Homes in Ukraine, Warns of “Uncontrolled Escalation” HERE)

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Major European Internet Cables Cut In Suspected Retaliation for Nordstream Sabotage

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A major internet cable in the south of France was reportedly severed on Wednesday night, triggering internet issues across the world – and it occurred just hours within a “major incident” that left residents of the Shetland Isles off the coast of Scotland without connectivity following damage to a submarine cable. According to cloud security company Zscaler Trust, the damage to the cable in France impacted connectivity to Europe, Asia, the US and potentially other parts of the world. The incident reportedly affected three cable links: Marseille-Lyon, Marseille-Milano and Marseille-Barcelona. Zscaler reported that its “customers may see packet loss and or latency for websites and applications which traverse these impacted paths”.

While the incident has since been resolved, Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry has claimed that it was an “act of vandalism”.

He wrote on Linkedin: “Zscaler detected a strange traffic anomaly. From Europe to India, access to certain applications became sluggish. Latency to impacted applications spiked, but others kept on operating normally. Our investigation identified that the issues were a result of a severed fibre cable in Marseille, France. . .

Mr Chaudhry also that this cable that he suspects was likely targeted was a hugely important one, further raising his suspicions. . .

This also comes after reports emerged that the French Presidency was consulting with leading experts to strengthen the security of submarine cables amid growing fears that France could be Russia’s next target, following its suspected “sabotage” of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines last month. (Read more from “Major European Internet Cables Cut In Suspected Retaliation for Nordstream Sabotage” HERE)

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DRAMATIC ESCALATION: Russian Jet Fires Missile While Tailing Hi-Tech British “Nuke-Sniffer” Plane Near Ukraine; Russia Envoy to U.S.: Channel That Stopped Nuclear War 60 Years Ago Is Dead

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By The Sun UK. [British] Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the unarmed RAF Rivet Joint was on routine patrol in international airspace last month when it was tailed by two Russian Su-27 fighter jets. . .

“During that interaction however, it transpired that one of the SU-27 aircraft released a missile in the vicinity of the RAF Rivet Joint beyond visual range. . .

The RAF RC-135W “soaks up” enemy signals and is also known as a ‘nuke sniffer’ because of its capability to test the atmosphere for evidence of radioactivity. . .

Fears of an imminent nuke test on the Ukraine border were raised earlier this month after a train was seen carrying supplies.

And NATO warned Russia has deployed its giant new Belgorod submarine which can be armed with terrifying nuclear “doomsday drones”. (Read more from “DRAMATIC ESCALATION: Russian Jet Fires Missile While Tailing Hi-Tech British “Nuke-Sniffer” Plane Near Ukraine” HERE)

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Russia Envoy to U.S.: Channel That Stopped Nuclear War 60 Years Ago Is Dead

By Newsweek. Asecret, direct channel between the Kremlin and the White House helped to prevent nuclear war 60 years ago, as Moscow and Washington engaged in a nuclear standoff known in the United States as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Today, however, with U.S.-Russia relations at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War and new talk of nuclear contingencies emerging from both sides, Moscow’s envoy in Washington has told Newsweek that no such communication now exists, setting the stage for a new and dangerous era for the two nations, and for the rest of the world.

Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., recalled the words of his predecessor, Anatoly Dobrynin, who said in his time that “the Cuban missile crisis revealed the mortal danger of a direct armed confrontation of the two great powers, a confrontation headed off on the brink of war thanks to both sides’ timely and agonizing realization of the disastrous consequences.”

Antonov also quoted U.S. President John F. Kennedy, who, shortly after the October 1962 crisis resolved with an agreement for Moscow to withdraw missiles from Cuba and Washington to pull back its own weapons in Turkey, told Soviet Council of Ministers First Deputy Chairman Anastas Mikoyan, “What we have now is, although our two countries do not challenge each other directly, we keep running into each other almost everywhere, which in our nuclear age is fraught with serious dangers for world peace.” (Read more from “Russia Envoy to U.S.: Channel That Stopped Nuclear War 60 Years Ago Is Dead” HERE)

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Putin ‘Willing to Do Anything’ to Avoid Defeat in Ukraine

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is “willing to do anything” to avoid defeat in his war against Ukraine, including targeting civilians, a Russia expert has said, as Moscow launched a fresh wave of strikes in multiple regions of the country.

A day after targeted strikes in Kyiv killed at least four people on Monday morning, Russia conducted massive airstrikes on residential areas and energy infrastructure in many regions of Ukraine, including the capital city, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Zhytomyr.

An air alert was declared throughout Ukraine on Tuesday morning.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Tuesday morning that a critical infrastructure facility in the city’s Desnyansky district was hit, while Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, said three explosions rocked an energy supply facility. (Read more from “Putin ‘Willing to Do Anything’ to Avoid Defeat in Ukraine” HERE)

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US Military Rated as ‘Weak’ With Worries It May Not Be Able to Win a War

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The US military may not be able to win one war — let alone two — as the Pentagon struggles to keep its forces equipped against potential threats from China and Russia, according a new report on American military strength.

Years of underfunding and “poorly defined priorities” has led the military to become “weak relative to the force needed to defend national interests on the global stage,” the conservative Heritage Foundation said in its annual “Index of U.S. Military Strength.”

“[T]he current U.S. military force is at significant risk of not being able to meet the demands of a single major regional conflict,” the report said. “The force would probably not be able to do more and is certainly ill-equipped to handle two nearly simultaneous [major conflicts.]”

At the same time, the possibility of two-front fighting has increased as Russia continues to wage war on Ukraine and China grows increasingly aggressive in the Pacific, according to the report.

“In the aggregate, the United States’ military posture can only be rated as ‘weak,’” the report said. (Read more from “US Military Rated as ‘Weak’ With Worries It May Not Be Able to Win a War” HERE)

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Air Force Warplanes Intercept Russian Bombers Near US State

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Two Air Force warplanes intercepted a pair of Russian bombers flying in international airspace near Alaska, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said Tuesday.

NORAD said it “detected, tracked, positively identified and intercepted” the two Russian Tu-95 Bear-H bombers “entering and operating within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).” They were intercepted by a pair of F-16 fighter jets.

“The recent Russian activity in the North American ADIZ is not seen as a threat nor is the activity seen as provocative,” NORAD said in a statement.

Air defense identification zones are airspace areas in which the identification, location and control of all aircraft is required in the interest of national security, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. (Read more from “Air Force Warplanes Intercept Russian Bombers Near US State” HERE)

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Russia to Hold Large-Scale Nuclear Weapons Exercise: A Drill or Real?

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Russia is expected to hold large-scale exercises of its nuclear forces soon, leaving the West hard-pressed to spot whether Moscow is just carrying drills or an actual nuclear attack, according to a report.

Every year, Russia holds nuclear exercises around October. However, this year’s drills come just weeks after President Vladimir Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons “if the territorial integrity of our country is threatened.” His statement, coupled with the upcoming drills, have some Western officials worried as Russia continues to post losses in Ukraine.

“This is why you don’t want to have extraordinarily overheated rhetoric at the same time you’re going to do a nuclear exercise,” a Western official told Reuters. “Because then we do have an additional challenge to really be sure that the actions that we see, the things that are occurring, are actually an exercise and not something else.”

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby vowed that the United States would monitor Russia’s so-called “Grom” drills, adding that they expect Moscow to include live missile launches during the exercise.

“While Russia probably believes this exercise will help it project power, particularly in light of recent events, we know that Russian nuclear units train extensively at this time of year, again, routine, and obviously, we’re going to continue to monitor that accordingly,” Kirby told reporters on Thursday. (Read more from “Russia to Hold Large-Scale Nuclear Weapons Exercise: A Drill or Real?” HERE)

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China, Russia Could Launch ‘Space Pearl Harbor’ on Aging US Satellites: Expert

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The United States is not prepared for strategic space competition against a united China and Russia, according to one expert.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is nearing technological parity with the United States in key space domains, according to Brandon Weichert, an independent geopolitical analy
st. That means that it will soon threaten the United States’ ability to project power in space.

“You’re already seeing China being able to catch up to us in certain areas,” Weichert said during an Oct. 13 interview with NTD, a sister media outlet of the Epoch Times.

“They are still able to do things that we were not anticipating that they would be able to do, such as getting this new space station of theirs in orbit as quickly as they did and getting many of our key allies to sign on in support of the new China space station. And that’s just the beginning.”

Weichert said that the United States was not ready to face the combined aggression of the CCP and Vladimir Putin’s Russia simultaneously because the nation had failed to capitalize on its dominance in space following the end of the Cold War. (Read more from “China, Russia Could Launch ‘Space Pearl Harbor’ on Aging US Satellites: Expert” HERE)

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Entrepreneur: Same Companies That Pulled Out of Russia ‘Will Not Say a Peep’ When China Invades Taiwan

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Strive Asset Management Executive Chairman Vivek Ramaswamy argued on Wednesday that the same American companies which left Russia after the invasion of Ukraine are too financially dependent on China to do the same if the nation attacks Taiwan.

More than 1,000 companies in the Western world have decreased operations within Russia beyond the extent required by international sanctions, according to an analysis from the Yale School of Management. During an interview with Fox Business, Ramaswamy predicted that economic conditions will bar companies from leaving China in the way that did not apply to firms leaving Russia.

“It’s easy for multinational corporations to shun Russia. Multinational corporations are not going to shun China in the same way,” Ramaswamy commented. “Many of them depend on China for their growth. So I think the same multinational corporations that condemned Russia for taking action against Ukraine will not say a peep — I think you can mark my words on this — will not say a peep as China makes its move on Taiwan.”

China has heightened aggression toward Taiwan in recent months. As the United States pursued trade talks with the island nation, the Chinese military sent a “readiness patrol” near Taiwanese sea and airspace. As Russia began the invasion of Ukraine, China likewise sent squadrons of jets into Taiwanese airspace following a similar incursion one month earlier. (Read more from “Entrepreneur: Same Companies That Pulled Out of Russia ‘Will Not Say a Peep’ When China Invades Taiwan” HERE)

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