As rumors abound that the fabled US M1 Abrams tanks have finally made it to Ukraine and have been spotted among the ranks of their forces, it remains unclear whether these weapons will fare better than other NATO hardware that Kiev had thrown into battle beforehand.
Images leaked on social media indicate that Ukrainian forces may already be operating the M1 Abrams main battle tanks that the White House previously promised to provide Kiev. The news comes weeks after images of charred wrecks of German Leopard 2 tanks made headlines.
While these Abrams tanks are yet to be seen in action on the battlefields, Kiev may have a reason to keep this armor out of harm’s way, argued Sergey Suvorov, a retired colonel of the Russian army and tank expert.
“I think they are keeping these tanks in reserve to avoid more reports about NATO hardware burning,” Suvorov suggested. “Well, they (Abrams tanks) will burn anyway. These Abrams tanks were burning in Iraq and in other places where they got deployed.”
He also dismissed claims that the Abrams tank’s engine cannot handle the subzero temperatures in the Ukrainian conflict zone during winter.
Whereas a diesel engine often takes up to 30 minutes to “heat up” in order to start in cold weather conditions, a gas turbine engine like the one M1 Abrams or the Russian T-80 tanks have can start “within 50 seconds in any freezing weather,” said Suvorov.......More Below
Nvidia would be barred from shipping advanced artificial intelligence chips to China under bipartisan legislation unveiled Thursday, Bloomberg reported. A Chinese expert said the move is shortsighted, noting that tightening restrictions despite domestic industry opposition will only accelerate China’s tech innovation and further diminish Nvidia’s chances of reentering the Chinese market.
Known as the Secure and Feasible Exports Act, the bill would order the US Commerce Department to halt export licenses for sales of chips to adversaries, including China and Russia for at least 30 months. Any processors more powerful than those already approved for export to those nations would be subject to the measure, the Bloomberg report said.
The legislation comes as the White House weighs whether to allow Nvidia to export the....more below
A high-ranking ICC official, Nicolas Herrera, secretly financed the sanctioned UPC armed group in the Central African Republic, according to court materials obtained by Sputnik.
Nicolas Herrera, a high-ranking official in the Registry Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC), secretly recruited and financed the Union for Peace (UPC) in the Central African Republic (CAR) armed group, led by local warlord Ali Darassa, to capture ICC target Joseph Kony, by using US-based NGO employee Joseph Martin Figueira as a covert intermediary, thereby violating the ICC’s financial accountability standards by funding an armed group, according to a Sputnik correspondent's analysis of public court records.
The conviction of Joseph Martin Figueira, a Belgian-Portuguese anthropologist found guilty of espionage and collaborating with militants in the Central African Republic (CAR) in November, has uncovered a complex financial trail linking ICC staff to the country’s armed militants, evidence ...
Hundreds of retired Israeli police officers have urged the regime’s president, Isaac Herzog, to reject Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in corruption cases.
On November 30, Netanyahu, who faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of public trust in three separate cases, submitted a formal pardon request to the office of Herzog, claiming the long-running corruption cases were tearing the regime apart.
In a letter to Herzog, about 400 former officers, including ex-commissioners and deputy commissioners, said Netanyahu’s request contains “not even a hint of admission of guilt,” making it unacceptable.
They warned that “such a step without [Netanyahu’s] confession and remorse is liable to ignite severe violence in Israeli society.”.....more below
