The past several years have seen Washington partially losing its ability to develop nuclear warheads, Dmitry Stefanovich of the Moscow-based Institute of World Economy and International Relations with the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Sputnik.
The US has test-launched the unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from the Vanderberg Space Force Base in California, its press office said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the US Air Force Global Strike Command, the goal of the test launch was to validate and verify the safety, effectiveness and readiness of the country’s nuclear weapons system.
"The Minuteman III is a rather antiquated ICBM and it certainly yields to the Russian-made Yars ballistic missile in terms of characteristics," Dmitry Stefanovich said.
When asked why Washington had decided to test-launch the moth-balled ICBM, the Russian expert noted that the US has repeatedly dragged its feet on the process of fully-fledged modernization and renewal of its nuclear triad, which includes land-launched nuclear missiles, nuclear-armed submarines, and strategic aircraft with nuclear bombs.
“Namely, the US was not particularly interested in developing nuclear weapons after the end of the last Cold War, and before the start of a new one. Now, of course, this is again an extremely urgent issue [for Washington], who recently rolled out a new heavy bomber. Work is also underway to build a new submarine fitted with ballistic missiles and the Sentinel, [the Minuteman III’s successor],” Stefanovich said.
He added that one can also notice that the US had lost "some part of so-called expertise both in the field of creating nuclear warheads and technologies for the production of components for them."
Initially deployed back in 1970, the Minuteman III was fitted with several smaller warheads intended to destroy Soviet Union military facilities in the event of a nuclear exchange between the two countries......more below
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230906/minuteman-iii-launch-us-losing-expertize-on-nuclear-triad-upgrades-1113152235.html
China has suspended several 2025 export controls on strategic materials — including rare earths, superhard materials, and lithium batteries – for a year. Is this a concession to the US, or a move in a far more complex game?
"The first aim of China’s export controls was to consolidate its leverage in negotiations. The second was to establish a long-term framework for managing such controls," says Yana Leksyutina, deputy director at the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).
Сhina could activate this mechanism at any moment, and now everyone knows it’s a lever it holds, she explains to Sputnik.
Balancing the Mineral Market
"The moratorium on export bans to the US essentially resets the rare earth market to where it was previously," Jeff J. Brown, author of 'The China Trilogy' and founder of Seek Truth From Facts Foundation, tells Sputnik.
In the meantime, there will be a global rush by the US and its NATO allies to acquire as many rare earth ...
The Israeli regime has reportedly signed contracts worth millions of dollars in recent months to sway American public opinion as part of attempts to launder the occupying entity’s genocidal war crimes against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Friday that the multimillion-dollar campaign aimed to reshape US public opinion, both online and offline, through coordinated influence operations combining digital marketing, AI, geotagging, and religious messaging.
The contracts, signed between the Israeli regime and firms linked to US President Donald Trump, reveal a “hasbara [propaganda] campaign” and schemes to target millions of US churchgoers, deploy bots, hire influencers, and try to make ChatGPT more pro-Israel.
The largest contract, worth $6 million, was signed with Clock Tower X, owned by Trump’s former digital campaign chief Brad Parscale, to produce and distribute roughly 100 core pieces of pro-Israel content per month and thousands......
