Egyptians injured in bombing of ambulance facility in Taba
Al-Manar | October 27, 2023
Taba, Egypt, was hit by a rocket on Thursday night, injuring six individuals and leaving the source of the attack unknown.
The incident is said to have caused damage to a building serving as an ambulance facility and the administration block for the Taba hospital.
Images have emerged online, showing the extent of the carnage caused by the missile, including burnt-out vehicles and damaged buildings.
The origin of the rocket remains a mystery, and an investigation is currently underway to determine its source. A high-ranking source was quoted as saying, “once the source of the rocket in the Taba incident is identified, all options are available to deal with it.”
The attack comes just days after the Israeli occupation forces fired on an Egyptian army post, causing minor injuries to several Egyptian border guards. While ‘Israel’ expressed regret over the incident, tensions in the region are high, with Egypt reserving the right to respond to the attack at any future time.
As it stands, there have been no official statements from any known group claiming responsibility for the attack. It is also worth noting that no alert systems were activated in ‘Israel, no rocket barrage from the Gaza Strip was detected, and no alert of a missile launch from Yemen was reported.
The situation remains fluid, and more details are expected to emerge as the investigation into the attack continues.
Biden Inches Towards Military Disaster in Middle East
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 27.10.2023
The US has dramatically beefed up its presence in the Middle East, sending two carrier strike groups, thousands of Marines, multiple THAAD and Patriot missile batteries, and more warplanes to the region amid the Palestinian-Israeli flare-up. But these forces can’t guarantee victory in case of a shooting war, says military observer Andrei Martyanov.
Tehran issued its strongest warning to Washington to date over the Palestinian-Israeli crisis on Thursday, cautioning that the US wouldn’t be able to escape if the conflict continues unabated.
“I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine that we do not welcome [an] expansion of the war in the region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in New York during an emergency United Nations General Assembly session. America “will not be spared from this fire” if the crisis endures, Amir-Abdollahian emphasized. “It is our home, and West Asia is our region. We do not compromise with any party and any side, and we have no reservation when it comes to our home’s security.”
Tehran has so far moderated its response to US and Israeli actions during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, ignoring efforts by Tel Aviv to goad the country into a military response by attacking Iranian allies in Syria and Lebanon, and snubbing threats by loudmouth officials and lawmakers to bring the war home to “Iran’s backyard.” Instead, Tehran has joined countries including Russia, China, Brazil and Turkiye in calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Netanyahu cabinet minister Nir Barakat threatened last week to cut off the Iranian “head of the snake” and launch attacks against the Islamic Republic if Hezbollah tried to open a second front against Israel from the north. Meanwhile, President Biden on Wednesday said he had issued a “warning” to Iran’s supreme leader that if Iran “continue[s] to move against” American troops in the Middle East, the US “will respond, and he should be prepared.”
But as observers with an understanding of Iran’s military capabilities observe, tackling Iran would be unlike anything either Israel or the US have ever attempted, with the Islamic Republic’s combination of natural defensive geography, powerful indigenous military-industrial complex, advanced missile and drone programs, and readiness to defend its interests even against much more powerful foes, making it an extremely difficult target.
US Carriers in Eastern Med ‘Sitting Ducks’ for Missiles
The centerpiece of the US forces deployed to the Middle East amid the Palestinian-Israeli crisis are the USS Gerald Ford and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike groups. Each armada theoretically has enough firepower to level a small country, with each carrier carrying a complement of up to 90 combat aircraft, and the giant warships themselves flanked by between four to six cruise missile-equipped destroyers.
The armadas are certainly no threat to be taken lightly, but do have important weaknesses when stacked up against countries with modern missile capabilities, transforming into “white elephants” from a bygone era, says veteran military analyst and best-selling author Andrei Martyanov.
“In terms of their real power projection,” carriers “are big fat sitting targets against modern weaponry such as anti-ship missiles and hypersonic missiles,” Martyanov told Sputnik’s New Rules podcast.
“In this respect, they are not a real asset, but rather a liability against any major power such as Russia or China,” the observer explained. “In this particular case, those aircraft carriers and their battle groups, which usually comprise two or three ‘Aegis’-carrying destroyers – they are not really any more a serious military asset except for their ‘fear factor’…They could be sunk or basically disabled, and that’s pretty much it,” he said.
Israel-Palestine War: Is the US Preparing to Attack Iran?
The same can be said even for a mid-tier military power like Iran, given its vast arsenal of thousands of medium and long-range ballistic and cruise missiles, and recent development of a hypersonic missile known as the Fatah. Many of these weapons are theoretically in range of US warships, plus dozens of US bases dotting the Middle East – some of them conveniently just across the Persian Gulf separating Iran from the Arab Gulf oil states.
“Iran will be able to deliver both an asymmetric and a very symmetrical” response, Martyanov observed. “Iran has a vast number of highly sophisticated, highly developed ballistic missiles… And they have a vast number of cruise missiles. [The response] can be very symmetrical. And every single air base, military base of the United States will be under attack.”
Combined with carriers’ vulnerabilities is their massive cost, Martyanov said, pointing out that the new Ford-class carrier alone costs some $13 billion, plus $5-6 billion for its complement of aircraft.
“So you have a single weapon, a single carrier, a single ship, which carries on itself almost $20 billion worth of military assets and could be taken out by two or three missiles such as Zircon or Kinzhal. Can you imagine the impact, apart from fact of them having a very serious cultural and mental influence within the United States? The loss of a single ship can escalate…to the nuclear threshold because of the political, emotional, cultural and of course military impact of such a loss. Don’t forget, you also have more than 6,000 people onboard this carrier,” the observer stressed.
Even the Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship missile possessed by Syria – which can reach up to Mach 3 at the terminal stage of flight and has a range of some 300 km, can pose a serious challenge to the American carrier groups, Martyanov said, not to mention the various missiles possessed by Hezbollah – which together force the US to stay further away the region’s coasts.
Israeli or US attack on Iran Would Result in Massive Retaliation
Asked to comment specifically on Lindsey Graham’s threats against Iran, Martyanov emphasized that the “blowhard,” “certified war criminal” lawmaker “doesn’t know what he’s talking about” when it comes to the consequences of the actions he’s proposing.
For one thing, Martyanov said, Graham “doesn’t understand that the United States is not capable” of mounting “any kind of serious ground operation at all” against Iran.
“They know if they go in” that they “can send some Tomahawks there. Well, guess what? Iran is not even Syria. Iran is a serious regional power with actually quite significant military potential. And it has some high-tech weapons, including extremely advanced air defense. So in the United States, obviously, those statements are primarily made for public and for the benefit of Israel, too,” the observer said.
The same is the case for Israel, Martyanov noted, with Tel Aviv’s spate of anti-Iranian rhetoric constituting “empty threats,” since the Jewish State lacks the resources to mount a ground operation against Iran even if it were technically feasible.
“It would be decimated, but don’t forget, there are 1,200 kilometers separating Israel and Iran. Neither side can actually provide serious deployment of forces to fight a real war,” the observer said, pointing out that neither country would be able take advantage of combined arms multipliers fighting at such great distances.
“So what’s left is primarily air operations. And even this, on the part of Israel, will require direct interference and support from the United States because, as already stated, it’s 1,200 kilometers and they would have to fly over the territory of Jordan, Saudi Arabia. Good luck getting permission to do that. Or you can try to circumnavigate them, but then you have to refuel them nonstop. And that’s where the United States comes in,” Martyanov said.
“People forget that Iran has not only good air defense – they have a pretty outstanding variety of all kinds of operational tactical and operational ballistic missiles. And those are not Katyusha [rockets]; they are very serious, highly sophisticated missiles with great targeting. As the United States experienced in 2020, when Donald Trump ordered the absolutely irresponsible assassination of [IRGC Quds Force Commander Qasem] Soleimani,” the military analyst noted, recalling Iran’s bombardment of a pair of US bases in Iraq using precision missiles.
“Iran can literally blow up every single American base in the Middle East as a retaliation. So we have these dynamics there. And that’s why, for the most part, these are pathos statements or chest thumping,” Martyanov summed up.
Slovakia Says Europe Should Not Supply Arms to Ukraine
By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | October 26, 2023
The new government of Slovakia has followed through with its campaign pledge to terminate arms transfers and is calling on the rest of Europe to adopt Bratislava’s policy. Slovakia’s new leader, Robert Fico, has called for the European Union to take on a peacekeeper role in the Ukraine war, and Bratislava will not support further sanctions on Moscow.
Fico told members of Slovakia’s legislature on Thursday that Bratislava was abandoning the West’s proxy war against Russia. “I will support zero military aid to Ukraine… An immediate halt to military operations is the best solution we have for Ukraine. The EU should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker,” he said. Adding, Slovakia will “no longer supply weapons to Ukraine.”
As well as terminating support for Kiev’s war effort, Fico explained Slovakia will no longer support Washington’s economic war on Moscow. “I will not vote for any sanctions against Russia unless we see analyses of their impact on Slovakia.” He continued, “If there are to be such sanctions that will harm us, like most sanctions have, I can see no reason to support them.”
Additionally, Fico said, “the people in Slovakia have bigger problems than (dealing with) Ukraine” and “further killing [in Ukraine] will not help anyone.”
Fico’s left-wing Smer-SD won Slovakia’s election early this month on a platform that highlighted ending arms transfers to Ukraine.
While President Joe Biden insists that Washington will support Ukraine for “as long as it takes,” several Eastern European countries have started to terminate support for Kiev. Poland announced it would end weapons transfers after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed Warsaw during his UN address.
Boris Johnson gets job with arms industry-funded pro-NATO lobbyists
RT | October 26, 2023
Britain’s former prime minister Boris Johnson has been hired by the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), a Washington, DC think-tank notoriously bankrolled by the US government, NATO and Western military contractors.
Johnson will be a member of CEPA’s International Leadership Council, described as “a high-level advisory group,” the think-tank announced this week.
According to CEPA’s head Alina Polyakova, Johnson’s “commitment to Ukraine’s victory” makes him an “invaluable addition to this distinguished group of thought leaders,” at what she described as a “pivotal moment for the transatlantic alliance.”
Johnson himself issued a statement about the move, calling the “transatlantic bond” more important than ever, “not just for the freedom and independence of Ukraine but for freedom across the world.”
CEPA describes itself as a “nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy institution” that is “focused on strengthening the transatlantic alliance.” Among its fellows and experts are former Economist editor and anti-RT crusader Edward Lucas; former US envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker; and former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves.
The think-tank’s own website lists among its major supporters military-industrial complex companies such as BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Leonardo, as well as NATO, the US State Department and the US European Command.
Johnson has been one of the loudest champions of Kiev in the West, infamously torpedoing the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in April 2022. According to Ukrainian media, Johnson made a surprise visit to Kiev and informed the government that it would lose all support from the West if it made peace with Moscow.
Just three months later, in July, Johnson faced a cabinet revolt over appointing a party official accused of sexual misconduct. He announced his resignation as prime minister and stepped down in September 2022. In June this year, Johnson also resigned as the member of Parliament for Uxbridge & South Ruislip, a post he’d held since 2015, citing the parliamentary investigation into the so-called Partygate scandal related to misconduct during the Covid-19 lockdowns. His next public appearance was a trip to Ukraine in September, where he was received by President Vladimir Zelensky and granted an honorary doctorate from the Lviv National University.
Hungarian parliament refuses new vote on Sweden’s NATO accession
Hungary will make a sovereign decision on Sweden’s application without pressure from abroad, Turkish ratification will ‘change nothing’
MANDINER | October 25, 2023
Tensions over Sweden’s membership of NATO have been reignited after Turkish President Erdogan on Monday submitted a protocol to the Turkish parliament approving the country’s accession to NATO, bringing the Scandinavian country a step closer to joining the military alliance.
Following Erdogan’s move, international attention has again turned to Hungary.
In order for Sweden to join, it needs the support of all 31 allied countries. That is why many were caught off guard by the decision of the Hungarian parliament on Tuesday to once again refuse to vote on Sweden’s application for membership.
One reason why Hungary is dragging its feet on ratification is the fact that lawmakers from Hungary’s governing Fidesz party believe that Swedish politicians have spread “preposterous lies” about the state of Hungarian democracy, accusing the country of democratic backsliding, reported the Associated Press.
The Hungarian position has long been clear
Speaking from New York ahead of Tuesday’s U.N. Security Council meeting, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said that the ratification process in the Turkish parliament “does not change anything” and that Hungarian lawmakers “will make a sovereign decision on this issue.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also confirmed last month that Hungary was “in no hurry” to ratify Sweden’s accession to the EU, saying in response to a question from journalists that a senior Fidesz lawmaker saw “little chance” of parliament voting on the issue this year.
The Swedish application was submitted to the agenda by opposition MP Ágnes Vadai, a member of the liberal Democratic Coalition (DK). Vadai said that Hungary’s opposition and Sweden were in constant dialogue.
“I believe that the two countries (Turkey and Hungary) will ratify it, if not at the same time, then very close together,” Vadai added.
Russia Receives Proposals From US on Arms Control
By Oleg Burunov – Sputnik – 25.10.2023
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov touched upon a spate of pressing issues, including US arms control proposals, Moscow-Tehran cooperation and prisoner exchange.
Russia has received proposals on strategic stability and arms control from the United States that are currently being studied, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told a news briefing earlier in the day.
According to him, there are no new elements in these proposals and Moscow will respond to Washington in due time.
Ryabkov added that the US is “proposing to discuss strategic stability and arms control on a systematic basis” and “in isolation from current events”. The Russian diplomat stressed that Moscow is “not willing to do that.”
“We believe that a return to the dialogue on strategic stability, including the issue of strategic offensive weapons and other issues, is simply impossible in its previous form without a change in the fundamentally hostile attitude of the United States towards Russia,” Ryabkov pointed out.
Russia-Iran Cooperation
Separately, Ryabkov touched on Iran-related issues, saying Russia intends to use the lifting of UN Security Council restrictions on the Islamic Republic’s missile program to develop cooperation.
“We will continue to develop our cooperation on a mutually beneficial basis in full accordance with international obligations and existing regimes in this area. Now, after the expiration of some restrictive provisions of [UN] Resolution 2231, there are fewer such restrictive regimes. Of course, we will take advantage of this, and this should not raise any questions for anyone,” he told reporters.
Moscow cooperates with Iran within a strictly legal framework, the Russian diplomat said, adding that the Kremlin foresees all politicized attempts to prevent this and will try to stop them.
Prisoner Exchange
In addition, Ryabkov commented on a recent statement by the US State Department by saying that the Russian Foreign Ministry had not received any additional proposals from the US on the exchange of prisoners through its channels.
Ryabkov was referring to Washington’s “serious proposal” to Moscow for the release of former US Marine Paul Whelan, who is serving a prison sentence in Russia for espionage.
“The issues of prisoner exchange, or rather, the issues of release of Russian citizens who, in the vast majority of cases, have received long sentences on unjust verdicts and false charges, are being discussed through the special services. The Russian Foreign Ministry has not recently received through its channels any additional ideas or proposals in this regard from the American side,” Ryabkov stated.
“If such proposals are received, they will be forwarded to those involved in the distribution of responsibilities on this issue so that the proposals can be considered. At the moment, there is no news or updates on this issue,” the Russian diplomat added.
Russian authorities charged Whelan with espionage and arrested him in December 2018, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Moscow court. Whelan, who is a citizen of Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, has maintained his innocence, claiming that he came to Russia for a friend’s wedding.
Pentagon Report Hypes ‘China Threat’ to Sustain Own Hegemony
By Wang Qi | Global Times | October 20, 2023
The US’ “China Military Power report,” like its previous editions, ignores the facts and is filled with bias, spreading the “China threat” theory which only serves as an excuse to maintain its military hegemony, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday, in response to a Pentagon report that warned Beijing is building up its nuclear and long-range missiles arsenal “faster than previous projections.”
The newly-released annual Pentagon document claimed that China has more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023, surpassing earlier projections, and forecast that China would likely have more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030.
Describing China as a “pacing challenge,” the US Defense Department report also said that Beijing may be exploring the development of conventionally-armed long-range missiles that could reach the US. It said that Beijing has completed the construction of three new fields of long-range ballistic missiles silos.
Mao Ning, a spokesperson from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Friday that China is firmly committed to a defensive nuclear strategy, and has always maintained nuclear forces at the lowest level required for national security, and has no intention of engaging in a nuclear arms race with any country.
China has a unique nuclear policy among nuclear weapon states and has maintained a high degree of stability, consistency and predictability, Mao said, “No country will be threatened by China’s nuclear weapons as long as it does not use or threatens to use them against China.”
We urge the US to abandon its Cold War mentality and hegemonic logic, to view China’s strategic intentions and national defense development objectively and rationally, to stop publishing such irresponsible reports year after year, and to take practical actions to maintain the stability of the military-to-military and overall relations between the two sides, Mao said.
Chinese military expert Zhang Junshe said that it’s hilarious that a country with more than 5,000 nuclear warheads says another nation poses a threat.
In 2020, Fu Cong, then director general of the Department of Arms Control and Disarmament, cited statistics from renowned international think tanks, pointing out that the US nuclear arsenal stands at about 5,800 nuclear warheads.
Even if China does have 500 nuclear warheads, they are not even close to the size of the US’ arsenal. In addition, the number of US strategic nuclear submarines, strategic bombers, and the number of warheads they carry are far higher than any other country in the world, including China, Zhang remarked.
For fiscal year 2024, the US defense budget request hit another record high of $842 billion, more than the gross domestic product of Saudi Arabia for the entire year of 2021, and 20 percent higher than the combined defense budgets of nine countries, including China, Russia, India, and the UK, according to Xinhua.
According to Zhang, the US is developing a new generation of strategic nuclear weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), sea-based strategic missiles and airborne nuclear weapons, a new generation of nuclear submarines, and strategic bombers.
In addition, the US is miniaturizing nuclear weapons for so-called tactical use, namely, lowering the threshold for the use of tactical nuclear weapons, Zhang said. “The US is also considering resuming the storage of nuclear weapons in other countries, such as the UK, a Cold War era practice of nuclear sharing with allies.”
The hyping of the “China threat” is nothing but a search for excuses for Washington’s uncontrolled nuclear arsenal expansion, and to discredit and suppress China’s normal military development, so as to maintain absolute military superiority, Zhang said.
‘Undesirable hobby’
The report smeared China’s military modernization as a means of projecting power across the Pacific region and ultimately around the globe, saying China’s strength is growing in all the domains of warfare, including the traditional land, air and sea, as well as nuclear, cyber and space, according to CNN.
The 212-page report also mentioned the word “Taiwan” 261 times, highlighting the Chinese mainland’s “military pressure” against the island.
The US is worried that the increase of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s military capability could pose challenges to US military hegemony, thus affecting the US political hegemony and global hegemony, Chinese military expert and TV commentator Song Zhongping told the Global Times on Friday.
Given that the report was released ahead of the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, a China-hosted platform on defense and security issues, Chinese analysts believed it was also aimed at entrapping Chinese neighbors, cajoling them to resist and oppose China’s normal military development so that they can be better “utilized” by the US in the Asia-Pacific region.
As the world’s largest nuclear state, the US has not made a commitment not to be the first to use nuclear weapons, as China has done, as well as a commitment not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries and regions. Instead, the US has even been aggressive, emphasizing the pre-emptive use of nuclear forces, according to Zhang.
The nuclear strategy of the US is global in its scope. When it provides nuclear umbrellas and even nuclear sharing to some allies, it poses a serious threat to other countries, and at the same time is extremely destructive to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation around the world, and ultimately exacerbates regional tensions, Song said.
In July, the US deployed a nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine to South Korea for the first time since 1980s. North Korea later fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern waters as a response to the “grave provocation,” media reported.
The problem that the US poses to global security is its nuclear superiority and military power, said a Beijing-based expert. “When it comes to the resolution of regional crises, the US is inclined to resort to the use of force, either by itself or through its allies. And the US’ absolute military strength and nuclear power has further encouraged that undesirable hobby.”
“The US, with the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal in the world, follows a first-use nuclear deterrence policy, keeps making enormous investment to upgrade its nuclear triad, advances forward deployment of strategic forces, and strengthens extended deterrence for its allies,” Mao said. “These policies and acts heighten the risk of a nuclear arms race and nuclear conflict, and will only adversely affect the global strategic security environment.”
Russia’s top lawmaker slams Biden’s ‘new world order’ plan
Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin © Sputnik / Vladimir Fedorenko
RT | October 24, 2023
Russia’s State Duma chairman has compared the US government to a company executive, who has run a business into the ground and now wants to try again with a new corporation.
Vyacheslav Volodin was reacting on Tuesday to remarks by US President Joe Biden, who said last week that a new international order was needed, and that Washington can “unite the world in ways that it never has been”.
The speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament said that just as a corporate manager with a bankruptcy on their hands would not be trusted with someone else’s money again, “nobody in the world will accept Biden and the US, who have destroyed the global security system, to build a new world order in their interests.”
The Russian official claimed the US has inflicted harm on the world “in attempting to save its hegemony,” causing a disruption of international commerce through trade wars, a deep crisis in the European Union, tensions over Taiwan, and hostilities in Ukraine and the Middle East.
“Attempts to reshape [the world] to fit the American mold will not lead to anything good and can only result in a global disaster,” Volodin warned, urging the US leader to be isolated “before he unleashes a world war”.
Biden’s “new world order” remark came on Friday, while he was meeting with donors as part of his re-election campaign. He touted the US as an indispensable nation and exemplified whipping up support of Washington-friendly governments for Ukraine as an example of his administration’s unifying endeavors.
He insisted that the US was up to the task of leading humanity, and that there has never been a crisis from which the country did not emerge stronger.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Biden was correct in saying that the old system of global governance has become obsolete, but that Moscow rejects the notion that another “American-centric world order” should replace it. Peskov stressed that Russia supports a multipolar world, in which the US would be one stakeholder among many equals.
Europe is suffering from ‘war psychosis’ in its unyielding military support for Ukraine: Hungary’s foreign minister
MAGYAR NEMZET | October 24, 2023
Instead of looking for ways to foster peace, the European Union’s current and planned actions only serve to extend the war, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said after a meeting of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council.
“It is all about war, there is no peace. Brussels is still pro-war, as shown by the fact that they would give €5 billion a year for arms over the next four years, which also shows that they expect the war to continue,” Szijjártó said. “No one in Western Europe is talking about peace, Europe is suffering from a war psychosis.”
He added that it is clear there will be no solution to the war on the battlefield. Europeans expect nothing but destruction and death, and the conditions for peace are getting worse.
“Taking arms production and training to Ukraine would drag the EU into an immediate war. We find this totally unacceptable. Nor should arms transfers be just about supplying the Ukrainians with as many weapons as possible, because the EU is not a security organization, and justifying a country’s future accession on security grounds is completely unacceptable,” Szijjártó added.
Energy sanctions are hurting Hungary, Szijjártó claimed
Speaking of the EU’s bans on Russian fossil fuels, Szijjártó said that Hungarians do not want to give up energy security in the name of some ill-defined ideals.
“On energy supplies: We didn’t talk nonsense by saying that it’s not a political issue, it’s a physical issue. We are not willing to risk the security of Hungary’s energy supply or the results of cuts in tariffs. Hungarians are not responsible for the war, we are not willing to make them pay for it,” he said.
The Hungarian foreign minister accused other member states of being covert about their dealings with Russia, unlike Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who has been honest and transparent through his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing.
“My colleague, the Lithuanian foreign minister was blunt. He said that he expected me to clarify whether what is being said here is our own position or the Kremlin’s position. This is unacceptable to me. I reassured him that Hungary is a sovereign country with a sovereign opinion,” Szijjártó explained.
“As long as this government is in power, we are not prepared to accept any opinion from anywhere, from any geographical direction, whether there is a lot of water between us or not. I said to my Lithuanian colleague that I hope he can say the same thing with his hand on his heart,” he added.
US Treasury Deficit Doubles as Biden Bankrolls Multiple Foreign Conflicts
By James Tweedie – Sputnik – 23.10.2023
The US is going further into the red with as it arms its client states for a series of conflicts. Sergio Rossi, professor of macroeconomics and monetary economics at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, said the strategies to avoid a default would only prove to be a “time-bomb.”
US President Joe Biden’s appeal for cash to arm Ukraine and Israel could meet resistance from Congress thanks to the runaway federal budget.
Treasury department figures released late last week showed the government deficit had hit almost £1.7 trillion, up from £1.37 trillion a year earlier, a 23 percent increase in the public debt — although lower than the $2.78 trillion left by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
The news was worse than it sounded however. The 2022 deficit included the budget for Biden’s student loan repayment program, money that was never spent as the Supreme Court struck it down. The treasury then claimed those unspent public funds as a “saving” in 2023 — meaning the true deficit doubled from $1 trillion in 2022 to $2 trillion this year.
That news came a day before Biden asked Congress for a $106 billion emergency foreign military aid budget. The lion’s share, $61.4 billion, is earmarked for Washington’s proxy conflict with Russia in Ukraine, while another $14.3 billion is to arm Israel for its latest attempt to destroy the Hamas movement in the besieged Gaza Strip.
That request dwarfs the $77 billion in arms and cash gifted to the Kiev regime since the start of Russia’s de-Nazification operation in February 2022.
Economist Sergio Rossi told Sputnik that the mounting deficit would make it harder for Biden to persuade Congress to approve his $100 billion budget request for more arms to Ukraine and Israel “in light of the problematic economic situation and outlook for the US stakeholders, namely, households, firms, and a variety of financial institutions.”
“Usually, when the domestic economic situation worsens, these stakeholders and their political supporters reduce the volume of foreign aid, to focus on supporting their own national economy first of all,” Rossi said.
He said the funding the conflict in Ukraine — while preparing for a Pacific showdown with China over Taiwan — had already put too much strain on Washington’s finances before the Palestinian Hamas movement launched a surprise attack into southern Israel.
“The US government cannot continue financing two military conflicts, particularly if the latter will continue without any foreseeable peaceful agreement before long,” Rossi stressed. “There are already signs that the political consensus for such a financial support is diminishing across the US economy, notably where both the labour and the product markets are in a difficult situation for a number of middle-class workers and several small or medium-sized firms.”
The state of the US economy was “worrying,” he said, and the outlook for the next two years was “even worse,” thanks to “global macroeconomic issues related to different geopolitical problems.”
The “mushroom” of ensuing inflation has badly affected consumer purchasing power. “As a result, firms’ investment is discouraged, both because of this inflationary pressure and the Fed’s repeated increases in the policy rates of interest.”
“The US economy is even closer to a recession than it was one year ago,” Rossi warned, although “there is no potential risk of a default of the US federal government.”
He pointed out that Congress could simply raise the public debt ceiling and the US Federal Reserve could buy up government bonds as an effective loan.
“This, however, is a time bomb that eventually can burst, particularly once some viable and credible alternative to the US dollar will emerge across the global economy,” Rossi said. “The BRICS community could provide such an alternative in a not-too-distant future.”
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From the Archives
Invisible harm from ionizing radiation
By Bjorn Hilt | International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War | December 8, 2015
Besides the terrible effects of the burst of light that causes eye damage, the heat that sets everything flammable on fire, the electromagnetic pulse that knocks out all electronic devices, and the blast that produces winds with ten times the force of a hurricane, demolishing everything, the detonation of nuclear weapons also leads to the emission of large amounts of ionizing radiation, which has serious deleterious effects on humans and many other species. Ionizing radiation is, in fact, a lurking danger as we cannot see it, we cannot smell it, we cannot hear it, and we cannot feel it immediately. But we certainly get harmed from it.
To reduce exposure to ionizing radiation and the risk of deleterious effects, we doctors usually warn our patients against having frequent examinations or procedures that involve x-rays. That is because x-rays are ionizing radiation that can harm your body in the same ways as radiation emitted by nuclear detonations. The main difference is that, for medical purposes, the radiation is applied in a controlled way.
The international standard unit for the dose of ionizing radiation is the Sievert. National guidelines in many countries warn against people having a cumulative dose of ionizing radiation exceeding 0.001 Sievert/year. The dose from a full body CT scan is 0.01 – 0.03 Sievert.
The ionizing radiation to which everybody in the vicinity of a nuclear detonation is exposed is so high and immediate that measuring in Sievert does not have much meaning. Such exposures are measured in Gray, where five Gray is reckoned to be lethal to 50% of those exposed (LD50). Even though these types of exposures are not directly comparable, for the common types of ionizing radiation, 1 Gray equals approximately 1.3 Sievert. … continue
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- Iran War Just Got Much Bigger / Matt Bracken & Lt Col Daniel Davis
- Qatar Warns of ‘Industrial Catastrophe’ If Strait of Hormuz Remains Closed
- Israeli Army Closes Tulkarem Zakat Committee Headquarters
- Blaming the Victim in the Gaza Genocide
- If Americans Knew
- ISRAELI MEDIA: Revealed: Netanyahu Received an Explicit Warning Days Before Oct. 7. He Didn’t Brief Israel’s Security Chiefs
- “Israel is a wonderful, safe place,” according to this totally objective expert
- The UK just announced it will comply with Int’l Court of Justice ruling from 2024. What does the ICJ ruling require states to do?
- Israel’s Quadcopter Drones Have Become a Weapon of Everyday Killing in Gaza
- Israel’s grip on American politics is finally being questioned
- Photos: Palestinians rebuild Gaza’s ruins with mud bricks, scrap
- Too many preemies in Gaza, no room in the NICU – Daily Update
- Front Row At the Revolution: Angry Americans are demanding liberation from the Israeli yoke
- Evangelical Zionist Huckabee attacks Jewish Ed Miliband, accuses UK government of ‘Jew hate’
- Macklemore Responds to Backlash Over “Free Palestine” Plea: “Wanting All Humans to Be Treated Equal Should Never Be Controversial”
- No Tricks Zone
- New Study: The Antarctic Ice Sheet Gained Mass From 2020-2024 Due To Staggering Snow And Ice Accumulation
- Study: Ocean Heating Rates From Thousands Of Years Ago ‘Dwarf’ Modern Ocean Heating Rates
- Climate Extremists Target, Attack Large-Scale Power Grid Infrastructure In Germany!
- New Study: Antarctic Ice Melt Has Contributed Less Than 1 Centimeter To Sea Level Rise In The Last 30 Years
- Fear Of Debate: Alarmist German Climate Scientist Calls On Mainstream Media To Discredit Skeptic Voices
- End-Of-August Arctic Sea Ice Extent Hasn’t Fallen In 20 Years, Official Data Show!
- News-Making Nepal Region Has Had As-Warm Or Warmer Periods Than The 2000s In The 1600s, 1700s, 1800s
- 2025 Study: ‘There Exists No Unequivocal Experimental Evidence For The CO2 Greenhouse Effect’
- 2026 Atlantic Cyclone Energy Index Running At 85% Below Normal!
- New Research Shows Soil Respiration And Temperature Drive CO2 Change, Not Humans
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