Are we heading towards a third world war?

Iran will exercise "strategic patience", in other words they won't really do much.
 

Tel Aviv GPS is scrambled over fears of Iran revenge attack after consulate strike​


Navigational signals were scrambled over the Tel Aviv metropolitan area on Thursday as Israel braced for a potential Iranian attack on the country’s economic center.

Traffic was delayed, food delivery was disrupted and transportation applications showed Tel Aviv residents to be in Beirut, Lebanon. The preemptive measure aimed to disrupt GPS-navigated drones or missiles fired by Iran or its proxies.

On Monday, a strike at a diplomatic compound in Syria is widely assumed to have been done by Israel killed senior Iranian military officials. Iran vowed to retaliate.

Israel hasn’t issued new security directives to its citizens since that strike, but the military paused leave for all combat units and bolstered manpower in its air defense units.

For months, the military has been interfering with navigational signals in northern Israel and the Red Sea port city of Eilat. Both have come under frequent rocket and drone fire from militants in Lebanon and Yemen.

The military hasn’t publicly acknowledged the GPS disruption in Tel Aviv although it has dominated all conversations in the city. Thursday marked the first time that step was extended to the area during the past six months of the Israel-Hamas war.

The GPS interference affected numerous applications without warning, including Waze, Google Maps, Gett Taxi, Moovit and Wolt.

Netanyahu says Israel taking defensive and offensive actions against Iran​


Israel braced on Thursday for the possibility of a retaliatory attack after its suspected killing of Iranian generals in Damascus this week, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would harm “whoever harms us or plans to harm us.”

His comments came after Israel’s armed forces – stretched by nearly six months of war in the Gaza Strip and on the Lebanese front - announced they were suspending leave for all combat units, a day after they said they were mobilizing more troops for air defense units.

The possibility of Iran retaliating for Monday’s presumed Israeli air strike on Iran’s embassy compound in Damascus has raised the specter of a wider war, though two Iranian sources said Tehran’s response would be calibrated to avoid escalation.

“For years, Iran has been acting against us both directly and through its proxies; therefore, Israel is acting against Iran and its proxies, defensively and offensively,” Netanyahu said at the start of a security cabinet meeting late on Thursday.

“We will know how to defend ourselves and we will act according to the simple principle of whoever harms us or plans to harm us, we will harm them,” he said.

The White House said US President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu and they discussed Iran’s threats. Biden made clear that the United States strongly supports Israel in the face of that threat, Washington said.

Reuters journalists and residents of Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv said GPS services had been disrupted, an apparent measure to help ward off guided missiles.

Iran, Israel’s arch-enemy, has sworn revenge for the killing of two of its generals along with five military advisers in an air strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in the Syrian capital on Monday.

Israel is believed to have carried out the strike, among the most significant yet on Iranian interests in Tehran’s close ally Syria. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement. Netanyahu made no mention of the attack.

Israel has been pressing its war on Hamas in Gaza since the Palestinian militants led a cross-border killing and kidnapping spree on Oct. 7, and has also been trading fire almost daily with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Yemen’s Houthis, which are aligned with Tehran, have launched occasional long-range rockets at Israel’s Eilat port.

 
so it means Israel deliberately wants a one to one war with Iran.
 

How true

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Annie Jacobsen: 'What if we had a nuclear war?’​


Not long after the last world war, the historian William L. Shirer had this to say about the next world war. It “will be launched by suicidal little madmen pressing an electronic button. Such a war will not last long and none will ever follow it. There will be no conquers and no conquests, but only the charred bones of the dead on an uninhabited planet.”

As an investigative journalist, I write about war, weapons, national security and government secrets. I’ve previously written six books about US military and intelligence programs – at the CIA, The Pentagon, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – all designed to prevent, or deter, nuclear world war III. In the course of my work, countless people in the upper echelons of US government have told me, proudly, that they’ve dedicated their lives to making sure the US never has a nuclear war. But what if it did?

“Every capability in the [Department of Defense] is underpinned by the fact that strategic deterrence will hold,” US Strategic Command (STRATCOM), which is responsible for nuclear deterrence, insists publicly. Until the autumn of 2022, this promise was pinned on STRATCOM’s public Twitter feed. But to a private audience at Sandia National Laboratories later that same year, STRATCOM’s Thomas Bussiere admitted the existential danger inherent to deterrence. “Everything unravels itself if those things are not true.”

If deterrence fails – what exactly would that unravelling look like? To write Nuclear War: A scenario, I put this question to scores of former nuclear command and control authorities. To the military and civilian experts who’ve built the weapon systems, been privy to the response plans and was responsible for advising the US president on nuclear counterstrike decisions should they have to be made. What I learned terrified me. Here are just a few of the shocking truths about nuclear war.

The US maintains a nuclear launch policy called Launch on Warning. This means that if a military satellite indicates the nation is under nuclear attack and a second early-warning radar confirms that information, the president launches nuclear missiles in response. Former secretary of defense William Perry told me: “Once we are warned of a nuclear attack, we prepare to launch. This is policy. We don’t have to wait.”

The US president has sole authority to launch nuclear weapons. He asks permission of no one. Not the secretary of defense, not the chairman of the joint chief of staff, not the US Congress. “The authority is inherent in his role as commander in chief,” the Congressional Research Service confirms. The president “does not need the concurrence of either his [or her] military advisors or the US Congress to order the launch of nuclear weapons.”

When the president learns he must respond to a nuclear attack, he has just 6 minutes to do so. Six minutes is an irrational amount of time to “decide whether to release Armageddon,” President Ronald Reagan lamented in his memoirs. “Six minutes to decide how to respond to a blip on a radar scope… How could anyone apply reason at a time like that?” And yet, the president must respond. This is because it takes roughly just 30 minutes for an intercontinental ballistic missile to get from a launch pad in Russia, North Korea or China to any city in the US, and vice versa. Nuclear-armed submarines can cut that launch-to-target time to 10 minutes, or less.

Today, there are nine nuclear powers, with a combined total of more than 12,500 nuclear weapons ready to be used. The US and Russia each have some 1,700 nuclear weapons deployed – weapons that can be launched in seconds or minutes after their respective president gives the command. This is what Shirer meant when he said: “Such a war will not last long and none will ever follow it.”

Nuclear war is the only scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end civilization in a matter of hours. The soot from burning cities and forests will blot out the sun and cause nuclear winter. Agriculture will fail. Some 5 billion people will die. In the words of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, “the survivors will envy the dead.”

I wrote Nuclear War: A scenario to demonstrate – in appalling, minute-by-minute detail – just how horrifying a nuclear war would be. “Humanity is one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the world in 2022. “This is madness. We must reverse course.”

 
If Iran strikes Israel, they may struggle to exist after the Americans & Israeli's violate them in retaliation.... Best for Iran to just sit back and do nothing...
 
If Iran strikes Israel, they may struggle to exist after the Americans & Israeli's violate them in retaliation.... Best for Iran to just sit back and do nothing...

They won't strike directly. They can still damage supply chains etc and hurt Western economies like they did through the Houthis in the Red Sea etc.

Now, North Korea can probably do the same in the East China Sea and hurt American allies like the South Koreans and the Japanese.
 
If these two (East and West) blocs were to engage in a third world war, which one would you support?
 
If Iran strikes Israel, they may struggle to exist after the Americans & Israeli's violate them in retaliation.... Best for Iran to just sit back and do nothing...
So now that Iran has attacked Israel directly, can you guide us further?
 
So now that Iran has attacked Israel directly, can you guide us further?
Yeah I have hypothesised of a scenario that is all I can do.

One thing I can say for sure: Pakistan won't be helping Iran here, so that part of Ummah has been put on ice.
 
So now that Iran has attacked Israel directly, can you guide us further?
The attack was a warning if anything, for their public with literally zero damage unlike Israel’s on Iranian embassy.
 
The attack was a warning if anything, for their public with literally zero damage unlike Israel’s on Iranian embassy.

Yeah, it was more like a power show otherwise Iran could have done more damage to them as they are very much capable of it. But it's good to see they are now trying to defuse the situation.
 
Yeah I have hypothesised of a scenario that is all I can do.

One thing I can say for sure: Pakistan won't be helping Iran here, so that part of Ummah has been put on ice.
Yes Pakistan won't be a party to Iran, because Pakistan is America ka Pitthu
 
‘World War 3’: Iran’s attack on Israel brings back Nostradamus's eerie 2024 prediction of naval war

Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East following Iran's recent attack on Israel, parallels are being drawn to the prophetic musings of Nostradamus. On April 13, Iran launched a suicide drone, missiles and rocket attack on the Jewish country startling the whole world. With air raid sirens sounding across multiple regions, spanning from northern and southern Israel to the northern West Bank and even the Dead Sea, Nostradamus's references to naval warfare and geopolitical strife have resurfaced.

As Iran launches a multifront attack using suicide drones, missiles, and rockets, directly challenging Israel, internet users are concerned about the possibility of a third world war. Many users believe that if World War 3 breaks out, there would be two sides: one with NATO, the United States, Israel, and the United Kingdom, and the other with Russia, China, Iran, Yemen, and North Korea. A user wrote, “Fears Iran and Israel's rivalry 'could spark World War III' with Vladimir Putin 'rubbing his hands.” “Germany joining forces with the United States, Great Britain, France, and Poland during World War III.” Wrote another.

Are you familiar with the famous 16th-century French astrologer, Nostradamus? He's known as the prophet of doom, and his predictions have often sent shivers down people's spines. In his book 'Les Prophecies' (The Prophecies), Nostradamus made some terrifying predictions for the year 2024, and some of them have already come true while others are in progress. For instance, he predicted a terrible naval war that the world will witness in 2024. It's quite eerie, isn't it?

One of the translated verses reads, "Red adversary will become pale with fear, putting the great Ocean in dread". There are some opinions that the particular statement is related to the tensions between China and Taiwan, but recent attacks by the Houthis on ships in the Red Sea looks more relevant.

The series of attacks in the nearby regions have seriously hampered international trade, especially in the Red Sea-dependent oil industry. Additionally, Iran's attack on Israel has added another layer of complexity further destabilising the condition of the Middle East.

Israel, which was already engaged in a conflict with Palestine, experienced consecutive attacks on April 13, when Iran used its allies Syria, Yemen, and Iraq's land to launch a drone directed towards Israel.

The attack comes on the heels of an air strike in Damascus that destroyed the Iranian consulate, in which 12 people were killed, including two high-ranking Iranian generals, and after Tehran threatened to invade Tel Aviv. Earlier missile strikes by the US and UK against Iranian-backed rebels in western Yemen have resulted in threats of retaliation from the Shia group. This conflict has persisted for several years, with Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and its allies, being involved on the Sunni side.

 
‘World War 3’: Iran’s attack on Israel brings back Nostradamus's eerie 2024 prediction of naval war

Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East following Iran's recent attack on Israel, parallels are being drawn to the prophetic musings of Nostradamus. On April 13, Iran launched a suicide drone, missiles and rocket attack on the Jewish country startling the whole world. With air raid sirens sounding across multiple regions, spanning from northern and southern Israel to the northern West Bank and even the Dead Sea, Nostradamus's references to naval warfare and geopolitical strife have resurfaced.

As Iran launches a multifront attack using suicide drones, missiles, and rockets, directly challenging Israel, internet users are concerned about the possibility of a third world war. Many users believe that if World War 3 breaks out, there would be two sides: one with NATO, the United States, Israel, and the United Kingdom, and the other with Russia, China, Iran, Yemen, and North Korea. A user wrote, “Fears Iran and Israel's rivalry 'could spark World War III' with Vladimir Putin 'rubbing his hands.” “Germany joining forces with the United States, Great Britain, France, and Poland during World War III.” Wrote another.

Are you familiar with the famous 16th-century French astrologer, Nostradamus? He's known as the prophet of doom, and his predictions have often sent shivers down people's spines. In his book 'Les Prophecies' (The Prophecies), Nostradamus made some terrifying predictions for the year 2024, and some of them have already come true while others are in progress. For instance, he predicted a terrible naval war that the world will witness in 2024. It's quite eerie, isn't it?

One of the translated verses reads, "Red adversary will become pale with fear, putting the great Ocean in dread". There are some opinions that the particular statement is related to the tensions between China and Taiwan, but recent attacks by the Houthis on ships in the Red Sea looks more relevant.

The series of attacks in the nearby regions have seriously hampered international trade, especially in the Red Sea-dependent oil industry. Additionally, Iran's attack on Israel has added another layer of complexity further destabilising the condition of the Middle East.

Israel, which was already engaged in a conflict with Palestine, experienced consecutive attacks on April 13, when Iran used its allies Syria, Yemen, and Iraq's land to launch a drone directed towards Israel.

The attack comes on the heels of an air strike in Damascus that destroyed the Iranian consulate, in which 12 people were killed, including two high-ranking Iranian generals, and after Tehran threatened to invade Tel Aviv. Earlier missile strikes by the US and UK against Iranian-backed rebels in western Yemen have resulted in threats of retaliation from the Shia group. This conflict has persisted for several years, with Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and its allies, being involved on the Sunni side.

Have you happened to know about this French astrologer before?
 
hearing reports that Amerixans won't support a retaliation on Iran. So this could mean it all ends well without any further escalation. Ball on Israel's court if true.
 

North Korea fires missile off east coast, South Korea, Japan say​


North Korea fired “several” ballistic missiles on Monday toward the sea off its east coast, South Korea’s military said.

A Japanese government alert and its coast guard also said North Korea had fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile. The projectile appeared to have landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone area, the NHK broadcaster said.

Japan’s NTV broadcaster said the projectile was a short-range ballistic missile, citing a Japanese government official.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North launched what it suspected to be several short-range ballistic missile from near its capital, Pyongyang. The missiles flew about 300 kilometers (186 miles) and landed in the sea.

The reports of the launch came as South Korea said its top military officer, Admiral Kim Myung-soo, had hosted the commander of US Space Command, General Stephen Whiting, on Monday to discuss the North’s reconnaissance satellite development and growing military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

After a summit between the two countries’ leaders in September, North Korea has been suspected of supplying arms and munitions to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, although both deny that claim.

The North is believed to be preparing to launch another spy satellite, after successfully putting a reconnaissance satellite in orbit in November.

North Korea said last week that it had fired a strategic cruise missile to test a large warhead, and a new anti-aircraft missile.

Earlier in April, the North fired a new hypersonic missile as part of its development of solid-fueled missiles for all ranges of its arsenal.

The North has defied a ban by the United Nations Security Council on developing ballistic missiles, rejecting Council resolutions as infringing on its sovereign right to defend itself.

 

Tehran says North Korean delegation visited Iran to discuss trade​


Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday a North Korean delegation attended an Iranian expo in Tehran last week and discussed bilateral trade with government officials and the private sector.

North Korea and Iran have long been suspected of cooperating on ballistic missile programs, possibly exchanging technical expertise and components that went into their manufacture.

Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani denied such claims, saying that some media outlets had sought to make “biased speculations by publishing untrue and baseless news.”

It was reported last week that a North Korean delegation led by the cabinet minister for international trade was making a rare visit to Iran.

Iran has provided a large number of ballistic missiles to Russia for use in its war with Ukraine, Reuters reported in February.

North Korea is also suspected of supplying Russia with missiles and artillery, although both countries have denied the allegation.

Tehran is hosting the sixth Export Potential Exhibition of the Islamic Republic of Iran from April 27 to May 1.

 
Have you happened to know about this French astrologer before?
Yes, Nostradamus is quite famous. I happen to have his book as well. But a lot of his "prophecies" are vague and can be attributed to many events. And a lot of his prophecies have been false as well.
 
Russian troops enter base housing US military in Niger, US official says

Russian military personnel have entered an air base in Niger that is hosting U.S. troops, a senior U.S. defense told Reuters, a move that follows a decision by Niger's junta to expel U.S. forces from the country.

The military officers ruling the West African nation have told the U.S. to withdraw its nearly 1,000 military personnel from the country, which until a coup last year had been a key partner for Washington's fight against insurgents who have killed thousands of people and displaced millions more.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russian forces were not mingling with U.S. troops but were using a separate hanger at Airbase 101, which is next to Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger's capital.

The move by Russia's military puts U.S. and Russian troops in close proximity at a time when the nations' military and diplomatic rivalry is increasingly acrimonious over the conflict in Ukraine.

It also raises questions about the fate of U.S. installations in the country following a withdrawal.
"(The situation) is not great but in the short-term manageable," the official said.

The Nigerien and Russian embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


Reuters
 
Putin orders tactical nuclear weapons drills in response to Western ‘threats’

President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian forces to rehearse deploying tactical nuclear weapons, as part of military drills to respond to what he called “threats” by the West.

Since invading Ukraine in 2022, Putin has repeatedly made veiled threats to use tactical nuclear weapons against the West, but Monday marked the first time Russia has publicly announced drills.

“During the exercises, a set of measures will be carried out to practice the issues of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons,” Russia’s defense ministry said.

Non-strategic, or “tactical,” nuclear weapons can be used in battlefield situations, carrying less power than strategic nuclear weapons, which have the potential to level entire cities.

Russia’s defense ministry said the drills were ordered after “provocative statements and threats” by Western officials against Russia, which Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said had reached “unprecedented levels.”

French President Emmanuel Macron last week reaffirmed that he would not rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine, as he warned of the risks Russia poses to European security and other countries near its borders.

“I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out,” Macron told The Economist magazine. “I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine. If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe. Who can pretend that Russia will stop there?”


 

‘New Nostradamus’ predicts exact date World War III will start​


An astrologer dubbed the ‘New Nostradamus’ has revealed his prediction for the exact date World War III will start.

Kushal Kumar uses a Vedic astrology chart based on planetary and star alignments to forecast the future.

He claims the chart previously envisaged rising tensions between Israel and Hamas, North and South Korea, China and Taiwan and Russia and Ukraine.

Some might say you don’t need astrology to tell you that, but he’snevertheless released what he says is the exact date a third world war could kick off.

According to The Daily Star, Kushal believes there’s a high chance World War III will start next month, on June 18.

The Indian astrologer said the date had the ‘the strongest planetary stimulus to trigger WWIII although June 10 and 29 may have a say as well’.

Michel de De Nostredame, who became known as Nostradamus, was a French astrologer who published the book ‘Les Propheties’ in 1555.

The book was a collection of 942 poetic quatrains that apparently foretold future events.

Many people believe he correctly predicted the Fire of London, the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon and Hitler, both world wars, 9/11 and even the death of Diana, the Princess of Wales.

He also allegedly foresaw the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 – and even guessed her age correctly.

‘Queen Elizabeth II will die, circa 22, at the age of around 96,’ the premonition read, according to analyst Mario Reading.

He also apparently predicted King Charles could abdicate, with Prince Harry possibly taking up the throne, despite now being fifth in line.

The book reads: ‘King of the Isles driven out by force… replaced by one who will have no mark of a king.’

 
World War 3 on brink as Russia told to light 'demonstrative' nuclear explosion

In a provocative proposal, Dmitry Suslov, a senior member of the Moscow-based Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, has suggested that Russia should consider a "demonstrative" nuclear explosion.

The suggestion comes amid escalating tensions with the West over Ukraine use of Western-supplied arms against Russian targets.

The proposal from Suslov, whose think tank's ideas occasionally influence government policy, emerged just a day after President Vladimir Putin issued a stern warning to NATO members.

Putin cautioned that allowing Ukraine to use Western weapons for strikes inside Russia could ignite a global conflict, a sentiment he underscored with warnings of dire consequences.


 
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia should start producing short and intermediate-range missiles that were previously banned under a now-defunct arms treaty with the United States

Putin was referring to missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometres (300-3,400 miles) that were banned under the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Washington withdrew from the deal in 2019, citing Russia's failure to comply. The Kremlin said at the time that it would abide by a moratorium on production if the US did not deploy missiles within striking distance of Russia.

In a televised address to his top security officials on Friday, Putin said the United States had started using such missiles in training exercises in Denmark.

"We need to react to this and make decisions about what we should do next in this area. It seems that we need to start producing these strike systems," Putin said.

"And then, based on the reality of the actual situation, make decisions about where to deploy them for our security," he said.

Several Cold War-era arms deals between the two countries, designed to limit a nuclear arms race and cool tensions at the height of superpower rivalry, have lapsed or been terminated in recent years.

Russia suspended last year its participation in the New START treaty, the last nuclear weapons pact between the two sides.

The United States has supplied shorter-range missiles to Ukraine to support Kyiv in the conflict with Russia.

Last month it partially lifted a ban on Ukraine using those weapons against targets on Russian territory, drawing warnings of a potentially dangerous escalation in Moscow.

Source: AFP
 
We have seen a major war between Russian axis and American axis in the middle east front and the eastern Europe front.

It is a world war in all but name.

The world must seek to settle the Ukraine issue and Palestine issue. Otherwise we are one stray missile away from all out escalation.
 

North Korea denounces drills by US, Japan, South Korea as ‘Asian NATO’​


North Korea denounced on Sunday joint military drills by South Korea, Japan and the United States, calling them an “Asian version of NATO” and warning of “fatal consequences.”

It comes a day after the allies wrapped up three-day exercises, dubbed “Freedom Edge,” in ballistic missile and air defenses, anti-submarine warfare and defensive cyber training.

US, South Korean and Japanese leaders agreed at a trilateral summit last year to conduct annual drills as a sign of unity in the face of North Korea’s nuclear threats and China’s rising regional influence.

“We strongly denounce... provocative military muscle-flexing against the DPRK,” Pyongyang’s foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency Sunday, referring to the North’s official name.

“The US-Japan-ROK relations have taken on the full-fledged appearance of an Asian-version NATO,” it said, warning of “fatal consequences.”

“The DPRK will never overlook the moves of the US and its followers to strengthen the military bloc.”

The latest joint drills involved Washington’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, Tokyo’s guided-missile destroyer JS Atago, and Seoul’s KF-16 fighter jet.

Pyongyang has always decried similar combined exercises as rehearsals for an invasion.

The two Koreas have meanwhile been caught in a ***-for-tat balloon campaign in recent weeks, with Pyongyang sending trash-filled balloons southwards in retaliation to similar missives sent northwards from the South carrying pro-Seoul propaganda.

South Korea has also grown anxious over the North’s warming relations with its isolated neighbor Russia.

North Korea is accused of breaching arms control measures by supplying weapons to Russia to use in its war in Ukraine, and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit with leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang this month in a show of unity.

 
The flashpoint of WW3 in all probability is gonna be Taiwan. I believe around 2027, there is the greatest chance of war happening.
 

USS Abe Lincoln arrives in Middle East, making it two aircraft carriers​


The USS Abraham Lincoln has arrived in the Middle East after orders from the US secretary of defense to accelerate its transit from the Indo-Pacific, a source familiar with the operation told Al Arabiya English.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered the Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group to maintain a strike group presence in the region.

The Roosevelt will remain in the region for a short period of time, giving the US two Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the Middle East, before its scheduled return to the United States.

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said the Lincoln, equipped with F-35C and F/A-18 Block III fighters, entered the area of responsibility (AOR) on Wednesday.

It is accompanied by Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 21 and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 9, CENTCOM said alongside a video posted on X.

The move comes amid an increase of US military assets and troops to the region following threats from Iran and its proxies to retaliate against Israel for assassinating top Hamas and Hezbollah figures in attacks in Tehran and Beirut.

The Pentagon says it is preparing for a wide variety of possibilities during a tense period in the region. “I understand the focus on this moment in time, but we in the [Pentagon] are a planning organization,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Tuesday. “And in addition to being ready for now, we’re going to be ready for that wide variety of contingencies of what may come. To do that, you have to have capability and you have to have capacity. And so, that’s exactly what we’ve done and that’s exactly what we’d be prepared to do going ahead into the future.”

Austin has also ordered the USS Georgia, a nuclear-powered submarine, which has been in the Mediterranean Sea to deploy to the CENTCOM AOR. It is still in transit, according to the Pentagon.

Among the other moves to bolster force posture in the Middle East, the US military has shifted destroyers from the Gulf of Oman to the Red Sea.

Additional fighter jets along with additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and more destroyers to Europe and the Middle East have also come in response to the recent threats.

In contrast to April’s Iranian retaliation against Israel for a deadly strike against diplomatic facilities in Syria, Tehran has done little to telegraph the timing or type of its anticipated retaliation. It is also unclear if the so-called ‘axis of resistance’ will carry out a coordinated operation or conduct separate responses.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah has vowed to strike at the heart of Israel in response to the assassination of its top military commander, Fuad Shukr. The group has yet to do so.

Iran said it would retaliate against Israel over the killing of a top Hamas political figure, Ismail Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for a ceremony to inaugurate the new Iranian president. They, too, have yet to respond.

Separately, the top US military general spoke to his Lebanese counterpart on Wednesday about current tensions along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown expressed the need to avoid further escalation in the region in coordination with allies and partners, Joint Staff Spokesman Capt. Jereal Dorsey said. “The US and Lebanon share a strong commitment to pursuing durable and sustainable security and stability in the Middle East region,” Dorsey added.

 
Russia warns the United States of the risks of World War Three

Russia said the West was playing with fire by considering allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with Western missiles and cautioned the United States on Tuesday that World War Three would not be confined to Europe.

Ukraine attacked Russia's western Kursk region on Aug. 6 and has carved out a slice of territory in the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two. President Vladimir Putin said there would be a worthy response from Russia to the attack.

Sergei Lavrov, who has served as Putin's foreign minister for more than 20 years, said that the West was seeking to escalate the Ukraine war and was "asking for trouble" by considering Ukrainian requests to loosen curbs on using foreign-supplied weapons.

Since invading Ukraine in 2022, Putin has repeatedly warned of the risk of a much broader war involving the world's biggest nuclear powers, though he has said Russia does not want a conflict with the U.S.-led NATO alliance.


 
Iraq army says it downed Turkish drone over northern city

The Iraqi military said it downed a Turkish drone over the northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday, as Ankara kept up its operations against Kurdish militants inside Iraq.

Falling debris damaged a house in the city center, police and army officials told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

There were no reports of any direct casualties but the police official said a carpenter working on a nearby building site had been admitted to hospital after a fall.

“A Turkish drone which penetrated Iraqi airspace has been shot down,” the deputy air defense commander for Kirkuk, General Abdel Salam Ramadan, told a press conference at the site of the downing.

The aircraft had come “from the direction of Sulaimaniyah,” second city of the Kurdish autonomous region to the north, Ramadan said.

Ethnically mixed Kirkuk and its surrounding oil fields do not form part of the autonomous region but are directly administered by the federal government in Baghdad.

Turkey has maintained dozens of military bases in northern Iraq for the past quarter of a century as part of its campaign against militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Its troops routinely carry out operations against PKK targets but it comments on them only sporadically.

The Iraqi federal government discreetly outlawed the PKK as a “banned organization” in March and earlier this month agreed a military cooperation deal with Ankara that will see joint training and command centers set up in the fight against the militants.

The leftist group, which has waged a deadly on-off insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is blacklisted as a “terrorist organization” by Ankara and its Western allies.

 

Putin: lifting Ukraine missile restrictions would put Nato ‘at war’ with Russia​

Vladimir Putin has said that a western move to let Kyiv use longer-range weapons against targets inside Russia would mean Nato would be “at war” with Moscow.

Putin spoke as US and UK top diplomats discussed easing rules on firing western weapons into Russia, which Kyiv has been pressing for, more than two and a half years into Moscow’s offensive.

“This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict,” Putin told a state television reporter

“It would mean that Nato countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia,” he added. “If that’s the case, then taking into account the change of nature of the conflict, we will take the appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face.”

Clearing Kyiv to strike deep into Russia “is a decision on whether Nato countries are directly involved in the military conflict or not”.

Putin’s comments came a day after the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, gave his strongest hint yet that the White House is about to lift its restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons supplied by the west on key military targets inside Russia.

Speaking in Kyiv alongside the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, Blinken said the US had “from day one” been willing to adapt its policy as the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine changed. “We will continue to do this,” he emphasised.

Blinken said he and Lammy would report back to their “bosses” – Joe Biden and Keir Starmer – after their talks on Wednesday with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The foreign secretary suggested that Iran’s dispatch of ballistic missiles to Moscow – revealed this week – had changed strategic thinking in London and Washington. It was a “significant and dangerous escalation”, he said.

He added: “The escalator here is Putin. Putin has escalated with the shipment of missiles from Iran. We see a new axis of Russia, Iran and North Korea.” Lammy urged China “not to throw in its lot” with what he called “a group of renegades”

Source: The Guardian
 
We are now living in a situation a nuclear war is possible at any give minute.

USA & UK not allowing but ASSISTING Ukraine to hit targets deep into Russia with western long range missiles is an act of war . If Russia is hit hard , it will have no choice but to attack western targets to stop this .

Ironically Afghanistan is safer than Europe right now
 
Doubt it.. more chance of proxy wars and cold wars and massive misinformation.

Everyone involved in wasting brain cells would regret these years of their life, focus on wealth creation rather, news is a joke nowadays.
 
We are now living in a situation a nuclear war is possible at any give minute.

USA & UK not allowing but ASSISTING Ukraine to hit targets deep into Russia with western long range missiles is an act of war . If Russia is hit hard , it will have no choice but to attack western targets to stop this .

Ironically Afghanistan is safer than Europe right now
Putin's an egoistic idiot. It's fully in his control to protect Moscow and interior Russia. All he has to commit is to not use long range missiles against Ukraine targeting Kiev and other interior cities.

If he commits to fighting only on the warfront, the west will immediately restrain Ukraine from using these weapons. As things stand, they've held Ukraine back on the leash for too long given the suffering Ukrainians are undergoing.
 
We are now living in a situation a nuclear war is possible at any give minute.

USA & UK not allowing but ASSISTING Ukraine to hit targets deep into Russia with western long range missiles is an act of war . If Russia is hit hard , it will have no choice but to attack western targets to stop this .

Ironically Afghanistan is safer than Europe right now
Leave Europe and UK then, go live in Peaceful Afghanistan
 
Leave Europe and UK then, go live in Peaceful Afghanistan

Please don’t insult Afghanistan.
They have a tribal culture and there’s nothing wrong with it.

Afghanistan as a country has been destroyed by US with the help of Pakistan.
 
Boomers to millennials(to some extent) was an era of highly motivated, testosterone driven masculinity that would leave no stone unturned to achieve triumphs for their motherland and their own ego ofcourse.

Our only hope of preventing future world-wars is a world controlled by GenZ, the candiest generation in humanity. There's still many decades to go before their time arrives, but I rest my hopes in GenZ.
 
Please don’t insult Afghanistan.
They have a tribal culture and there’s nothing wrong with it.

Afghanistan as a country has been destroyed by US with the help of Pakistan.
I know @Bhaijaan. But if someone firmly beliefs that UK is bad and Afghanistan is peaceful, they can get a visa and move there.
 
We are now living in a situation a nuclear war is possible at any give minute.

USA & UK not allowing but ASSISTING Ukraine to hit targets deep into Russia with western long range missiles is an act of war . If Russia is hit hard , it will have no choice but to attack western targets to stop this .

Ironically Afghanistan is safer than Europe right now

Accurate analysis.

The nukes can off any moment.
 
Russia can end war now, says PM as Putin warns West

Russia started the conflict in Ukraine and can end it "straight away”, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow would regard Western missiles being fired into Russia as a serious escalation of the war.

Putin told Russian state television that this would “mean nothing other than the direct participation of Nato countries - the US and European countries - in the war in Ukraine."

Sir Keir is in Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden on Friday, as allies of Kyiv discuss giving Ukraine permission to fire their missiles at targets inside Russia.

"It is their direct participation," he said. "And, of course, this substantially changes the very essence, the nature of the conflict.”

He added: “If that is the case, we will take corresponding decisions based on the threats that will be created to us.”

Asked for his response to the remarks on his flight to Washington, the prime minister struck a robust tone repeatedly stating that Russia had started the war.

“Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away,” he said.

He later added: “To reiterate, it was Russia who started this in the first place. They caused the conflict, they’re the ones who are acting unlawfully.”

The prime minister and Foreign Secretary David Lammy are on a blitz of international diplomacy, as Ukraine’s allies discuss how to respond to Iran stepping up its support for Russia.

Lammy told the BBC this “clearly changes the debate” as he visited Kyiv alongside the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

On Sunday, the day after the prime minister returns from Washington, he will fly to Rome to meet the Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni.

Italy currently holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of industrialised countries.

A week later world leaders will gather in New York for the annual UN General Assembly.

There has long been a hesitancy to allow Ukraine to fire Western missiles into Russia because of fears it could be seen as provocative and draw the US, European countries and others directly into the conflict.

But with winter approaching and Russia getting extra support from Iran, minds appear to be changing.

When asked about the prospect of allowing the Anglo-French cruise missile called Storm Shadow to be used, the public remarks of senior figures remain guarded.

“There are really important developments likely in the next few weeks and months, both in Ukraine and the Middle East, and therefore a number of tactical decisions ought to be taken,” the prime minister told reporters, without disputing the issue is on the agenda.

He noted that both Blinken and Lammy had recently visited Ukraine.

"They're obviously with us to report into the process on a really important joint trip.”

Speaking earlier in the day, Putin said: “This isn’t about allowing or banning the Kyiv regime from striking Russian territory. It does that already with drones and by other means.

"But when we talk about high-precision, long-range weapons made in the West this is a completely different matter... The Ukrainian army is not able to strike with modern, high-decision, long-range systems. It can’t do this.

"It is only possible with intelligence data from satellites that Ukraine doesn’t have, data that’s only from satellites of the European Union, the USA, Nato satellites."

"The key point," he added, "is that only servicemen of Nato countries can input flight missions into these missile systems. Ukrainian servicemen cannot do this. Therefore this is not about permitting or not permitting the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons.

"This is about whether or not Nato countries take the decision to directly participate in the military conflict.”

This is the prime minister’s second visit to Washington in a little over two months, having travelled here in July for the Nato Summit and a visit to the White House, shortly after winning the general election.

Sir Keir said he would not be meeting the vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris during the visit.

When asked by journalists on the flight to the US, he said: “No, because she will be in other parts of the US as you'd expect, rather than Washington, she'll be as you'd expect in swing states... That's fine.”

BBC
 
Atleast women are not getting raped in open day light like India.

No one said India is immune to crime, we have a population of North America, South America and Europe combined, there will be a lot of crime.

And I hope the level of debate can be higher than just throwing slurs, it's just a constant low-level back and forth that achieves nothing.
 
Boomers to millennials(to some extent) was an era of highly motivated, testosterone driven masculinity that would leave no stone unturned to achieve triumphs for their motherland and their own ego ofcourse.

Our only hope of preventing future world-wars is a world controlled by GenZ, the candiest generation in humanity. There's still many decades to go before their time arrives, but I rest my hopes in GenZ.
This isn't true. Millenials were definitely more peace-loving. Gen Z is radicalised and will absolutely not result in peaceful times.

Infact, this has less to do with ego and pride and more to do with shrinking resources, climate change induced disasters and historical enmities .
 
Putin orders Russia to boost size of army by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s military to increase its number of troops by 180,000, the third time he has expanded its ranks since launching his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The increase would take the overall number of Russian military personnel to nearly 2.4 million, including 1.5 million troops, according to the decree published by the Kremlin Monday. The new staffing will come into effect in December, it said.

Putin’s decree comes after Ukraine last month launched a lightning attack across the border on Russia’s southern Kursk region – the first foreign invasion of Russian territory since World War II. Last week, Russia stepped up its efforts to expel Ukrainian troops from Kursk and is inching forward toward the crucial Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donbas region.

Since 2022, Putin has ordered two previous expansions in the number of combat troops, in addition to a mobilization of military reservists and conscripts.

In August 2022, Putin ordered an increase of 137,000 troops by the start of the new year, which put the military’s staffing at just over 2 million personnel, including 1.15 million troops.

Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Russian aerial bomb struck a multi-story residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday Sept. 15, 2024.
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Russian strike hits apartment block in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, killing one person and injuring at least 40
The next month, after a sudden and successful Ukrainian offensive that liberated most of the eastern Kharkiv region, Putin ordered the immediate “partial mobilization” of Russian citizens. The mobilization meant citizens with military experience were subject to conscription and that military reservists could be called up.

The mobilization prompted hundreds of thousands to flee the country – many to neighboring Georgia and other formerly communist countries near Russia’s border – and sparked angry demonstrations, particularly in Russia’s ethnic minority regions that have borne the brunt of previous recruitment drives.

The mobilization was suspended in November 2023 after officials said the target of recruiting 300,000 personnel had been met.

Then in December, Putin ordered another official expansion of 170,000 troops, bringing the total to 1.32 million.

Source: CNN
 

South Korea warns of 'decisive' action against trash balloons​


Pyongyang has sent more than 5,500 balloons carrying payloads of garbage since May, disrupting flights, causing fires, and even hitting government buildings in the South.

Pyongyang says the tactic is a response to activists in the South sending balloons carrying propaganda to the North.

Seoul "will take decisive military actions if the North's trash-filled balloons post a serious safety threat or are deemed to have crossed a line", Lee Sung-joon, of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

The line would be crossed if anyone died as a result of the balloons he said, without giving details on exactly what the "decisive" measures would entail.

Most of the balloons sent by the North have bags of waste paper attached, which pose no specific health risk, but concerns have been raised after new devices attached to some caused fires in recent weeks.

"Our military is closely monitoring North Korean military and tracking the launch point of the balloons in real time," the JCS's Lee said.

The warning came hours after the latest balloon launch briefly disrupted flights at Incheon airport.

Shortly after the North's launch of trash-filled balloons in May, Seoul suspended a military deal with Pyongyang and restarted propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers along the border.

Relations between North and South Korea are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North recently announcing the deployment of 250 ballistic missile launchers to its southern border.

The North also earlier this month released images of its uranium enrichment facility for the first time, showing leader Kim Jong Un touring as he called for more centrifuges to boost his nuclear arsenal.

The country, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and is under rafts of UN sanctions for its banned weapons programmes, had never publicly disclosed details of its uranium enrichment facility before.

"The North could carry out its seventh nuclear test any time Kim Jong Un gives a greenlight... including before or after the US presidential election" in November, Shin Won-sik, the president's national security adviser, said Monday in an interview with Yonhap News TV.

 
Vladimir Putin warns west he will consider using nuclear weapons

Vladimir Putin has escalated his nuclear rhetoric, telling a group of senior officials that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if it was attacked by any state with conventional weapons.

His remarks on Wednesday came during a meeting with Russia’s powerful security council where he also announced changes to the country’s nuclear doctrine.

The comments marked Russia’s strongest warning yet to the west against allowing Ukraine to launch deep strikes into Russian territory using long-range western missiles.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been asking for months for permission to use British Storm Shadow missiles and US-made Atacms missiles to hit targets deeper inside Russia.

Putin said that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if Moscow received “reliable information” about the start of a massive launch of missiles, aircraft or drones against it.

Putin also warned that a nuclear power supporting another country’s attack on Russia would be considered a participant in aggression, issuing a thinly veiled threat to the west as foreign leaders continue to mull whether to allow Ukraine to use long-range weapons.

Putin said the clarifications were carefully calibrated and commensurate with the modern military threats facing Russia. “We see the modern military and political situation is dynamically changing and we must take this into consideration. Including the emergence of new sources of military threats and risks for Russia and our allies,” he said.

Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, dismissed the new nuclear doctrine, saying: “Russia no longer has any instruments to intimidate the world apart from nuclear blackmail. These instruments will not work.”

Several influential foreign policy hawks have previously pressed Putin to adopt a more assertive nuclear posture towards the west, lowering its threshold for using nuclear weapons in order to deter the west against providing more direct military support to Ukraine.

The current doctrine was set out by Putin in June 2020 in a six-page decree.

In the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin frequently invoked Moscow’s nuclear arsenal, the world’s biggest, repeatedly pledging to use all means necessary to defend Russia.

He later seemed to moderate his rhetoric, but officials close to the Russian president have recently warned Nato countries they risked provoking nuclear war if they gave the green light for Ukraine to use long-range weapons.

Earlier this month, Putin said that the west would be directly fighting with Russia if it gave such permission to Ukraine – and that Russia would be forced to make “appropriate decisions”, without spelling out what those measures could be.

THE GUARDIAN
 
The world’s situation is quite worrisome right now with two big wars going on and already involving a dozen countries or so.

With Israel, Russia fighting to secure this existence on the world in the future, it’s a terrible idea to provoke them any further. They’re not joking. When things get desperate they will fire the nukes and God knows where do we go from there. It’s as if people are almost on the verge of forgetting Hiroshima and Nagasaki ever happened and want new study material for children of the future.

These are both no nonsense countries.
 
5 Major International Conflicts Happening Around the World Right Now

The world is grappling with several major conflicts, fueled by long-standing historical, political, and social tensions. Here are five significant international conflicts:

-Ukraine-Russia War

The conflict between Ukraine and Russia continues to rage on, with Ukraine refusing to back down despite Russia's relentless invasion. The war began in February 2022 and has resulted in significant loss of life and destruction.

-Palestine-Israel Conflict

The situation in Gaza remains dire after Hamas' surprise attack on Israel in October 2023. Devastating airstrikes have resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis, with civilians trapped in the crossfire.

-Sudanese Civil War

Sudan has been plagued by brutal civil war since April 2023. The conflict between the military and the RSF has displaced millions and claimed countless lives.

-Myanmar Civil War

Myanmar's military coup in February 2021 sparked a violent resistance movement. Ethnic groups and pro-democracy forces are fighting against the oppressive junta, resulting in widespread human rights abuses.

-Haiti Gang Violence

Haiti is grappling with lawlessness and gang rule since the 2021 assassination of its president. The government is paralyzed, leaving civilians vulnerable to relentless violence.
 
Let's take a look at some of the longest wars in human history. It's crazy to think about how these conflicts shaped entire civilizations and nations.

-The Iberian Religious War (781 years!) - can you believe it? This was between the Spanish Empire and the Moors.

-Persian Roman Wars (720 years) - these guys were fighting over border cities for centuries.

-Roman-Germanic War (708 years) - territorial disputes, cultural clashes, and Rome's expansion.

-Arauco War (289 years) - Spain vs. the indigenous people of Chile.

-Byzantine Seljuk War (300 years) - Asia Minor was the main battleground.

-Polish Russian War (217 years) - territorial ambitions, dynastic claims, and religious differences.

-Ottoman Byzantine War (215 years) - marked the end of the Byzantine Empire.
 
Jamie Dimon says World War III may have already begun

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon isn’t hugely optimistic about the state of global politics. In fact, he thinks it’s the biggest threat facing the economy.

But he now fears conflicts in the likes of Ukraine and the Middle East have begun a chain of events that may spiral into a third world war.

Speaking at the Institute of International Finance last week, Dimon said the outlook on the next quarter and whether the U.S. will have a hard or soft landing is a “teeny” matter compared with geopolitics.

Russia, North Korea, and Iran—a trio Dimon previously labeled as an “evil axis”—as well as China, are actively working together to “dismantle” the systems set up by the allies following World War II such as NATO, he added.

“And they’re talking about doing it now,” he said in a recording obtained by Fortune. “They’re not talking about waiting 20 years. And so the risk of this is extraordinary if you read history.”

Referencing a Washington Post article, Dimon continued, “World War III has already begun. You already have battles on the ground being coordinated in multiple countries.”

“Mistakes happen,” he added. “Look at how we tripped into World War II. When Czechoslovakia was split up—sounds a little like Ukraine—that was the end of it. Until they invaded Poland.

“We shan’t be naive. What we should be thinking about is we can’t take the chance this will resolve itself. We have to make sure that we are involved in doing the right things to get it resolved properly.”

Luckily for those watching the news with a sense of impending doom, Dimon did have some faith that all-out war isn’t a foregone conclusion.

“It may diminish over time,” the Wall Street veteran added. There may be “armistices struck” in the likes of Ukraine and the Middle East.

Of course, the man who runs America’s biggest bank with a military tactic called the “OODA loop”—analyzing potential scenarios from every standpoint—isn’t betting on the situation improving.

Dimon, who was paid $36 million for his work in 2023, takes his concerns to the board of the financial giant.

“I talk about the risk to us if those things go south,” Dimon said. “We run scenarios that would shock you. I don’t even want to mention them.”

Source: Fortune.com
 
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