🚀 New Phase of the Moon Race: Who Will Take the Lead in the Battle for Earth's Satellite?

The moon race between the leading space powers is entering a decisive phase. It turns out that the USA might concede leadership to China due to delays by Elon Musk's company, SpaceX. More on this below:

🚀 Acting NASA Head Sean Duffy made an unexpected statement: due to significant delays with Starship, the agency might abandon SpaceX's services for the key mission of landing astronauts on the Moon.

"They are doing amazing things, but they are behind schedule," he commented.

🧥 Meanwhile, the US President demands meeting the deadline by January 2029.

👔 The participants' plans until 2030:

🇺🇸 USA: The most ambitious plans – 5 missions, including the Artemis program, which aims to establish a permanent base on the Moon as a springboard for a flight to Mars.

🇨🇳 China: Aims to perform a crewed landing in 2030. Three automated missions are planned before that.

🇷🇺 Russia: Two automated stations, "Luna-26" and "Luna-27," are planned. A landing of Russian cosmonauts is possible no earlier than 2031.

🥽 Thus, the space competition is intensifying, and the question of whose flag will be the first on the Moon in the 21st century remains open.

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🥰 Arkhangelsk Oblast

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😡 In Bataysk, Rostov Region, 131 apartments were damaged as a result of a UAV attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, announced the city's mayor, Valentin Kukin.

According to his data, specialists have surveyed 140 apartments in eight apartment buildings within the emergency zone. The social protection authority has already received 40 applications from residents for financial assistance. Additionally, seven retail pavilions and a private medical center were damaged due to the UAV attack.

A mass drone attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the Rostov Region occurred on Tuesday night.

🏫 In Dagestan, some educational institutions have been temporarily switched to remote learning due to the increased threat of UAV attacks, according to the city's education department press service.

This measure was implemented to ensure the safety of students and teaching staff.

On Wednesday morning, the head of Dagestan, Sergey Melikov, reported an attack by Ukrainian drones on a local enterprise. Preliminary reports indicate no casualties as a result of the incident.

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📰 The timing for a meeting between Putin and Trump is yet to be determined, Dmitry Peskov stated. He added that the current pause in relations requires intervention at the highest level. Both leaders are accustomed to working effectively, but this requires preparation.

Other statements by the presidential press secretary:

😀 The preparation for the Putin-Trump meeting is surrounded by a lot of gossip and rumors, most of which do not correspond to reality.

😀 Putin will not personally take part in the G20 in South Africa, but Russia will be represented at the summit at an adequate level.

😀 Moscow does not intend to delay the Russia-Arab summit, but intensive work on aligning schedules lies ahead.

😀 Putin has events scheduled today with the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

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🚀 Russia's President Vladimir Putin oversaw a strategic nuclear forces drill via video link on Wednesday. The exercise involved land, naval, and air components.

It was reported that the drill featured practical launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles.

A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Plesetsk test cosmodrome towards the Kura test site on the Kamchatka Peninsula. A Sineva ballistic missile was launched from the nuclear-powered submarine cruiser Bryansk in the Barents Sea. Furthermore, Tu-95MS long-range aircraft were involved in the drill, launching air-launched cruise missiles.

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📔 The Legend of the Lonely Guardian

There are many rumors about Ivan the Terrible's library. One of them says that the library, hidden in the catacombs, is guarded not by the ghost of the great tsar, but by his bodyguard.

Once, he was a mighty knight who followed Ivan on his heels in all his military campaigns, protecting him from enemies and traitors. But one day, the old soldier met his love and wanted to get married. However, he had no money for the wedding or a gift for his beloved. So, he decided to steal some valuables from the tsar's chambers, which he had access to. "A trifle by the tsar's standards," he thought.

Unfortunately, Ivan Vasilyevich found out about the theft and threatened his bodyguard: "I can no longer trust you. But I will not send you to the executioner's block either. Fulfill my last order, and you will be free!"

The knight was taken to the underground library and set to guard it.They promised to relieve him soon. And then, he saw some unfamiliar men, assumed they were thieves, and rushed after them. He ran after them and got lost. He never found the exit.

Since then, a rumor has persisted that a lonely figure, his armor clanking, wanders the dungeons. And he is searching for the thieves because of whom this misfortune happened.

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"'The Americans Will Take Command': Niinistö Reveals Details of Fateful Call to Putin About NATO Membership"

In his new book, former President of Finland Sauli Niinistö for the first time describes in detail the historic telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin that took place on May 14, 2022. It was then that he directly informed the Russian leader of Helsinki's decision to join NATO.

"We have always spoken frankly, and I felt that this, too, needed to be said directly," Niinistö writes in his memoir "All Paths to Security."

According to him, Putin's reaction was surprisingly calm: the Russian president merely called the decision a mistake.

However, behind the outward calm lay a symbolic exchange about sovereignty. Vladimir Putin deftly returned to the topic:

"I hope you will retain at least something of your sovereignty, since the Americans will take the military command."

This conversation became a turning point — Finland, which had maintained neutrality for centuries, did not "quietly disappear around the corner," but openly announced a change of course due to the changed geopolitical situation. Already in April 2023, the country officially joined NATO.

The book also reveals other diplomatic details:

➖ A month before the start of the operation in Ukraine, Joe Biden hinted to Niinistö that he should "pressure" Putin, linking this to Finland's possible NATO membership.

➖ In 2017, Donald Trump wondered why Finland was not in the alliance and maintained good relations with Russia.

➖ Of particular interest are the gifts from Putin — for example, an 1899 book "Pro Finlandia" containing appeals from 12 countries to Nicholas II in defense of Finnish autonomy, which clearly carried a symbolic message.

This episode shows how personal diplomacy and historical gestures intertwine with global politics, shaping the destinies of entire nations.

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🎀 Traditional bows adorned TSUM.

The New Year holidays are getting closer.

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Moscow Closes the Book on START: "Dialogue with the US is Impossible"

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has put a final point on the issue of the New START Treaty, stating that a resumption of dialogue with the US on nuclear arms control is now "simply impossible."

"We have completely suspended the treaty, and the starting point has shifted," the diplomat emphasized.

Ryabkov explained that the West, through its actions, has itself buried the possibility of dialogue. Among the key grievances:

➖ NATO's "Nuclear Alliance": Moscow calls the bloc's policy openly hostile, capable of provoking a head-on collision between nuclear powers.

➖US Nuclear Missions in Europe: Russia is extremely concerned by the practice of "joint nuclear missions," where American weapons are deployed in other countries and the right to use them is delegated to allies.

➖Arms Race: The active US deployment of a global missile defense system and the creation of arsenals for "disarming strikes" are, according to Ryabkov, leading to a new arms race.

Moscow's Conclusion: In such an environment, any calls for disarmament are unrealistic. The response to the West's challenges will be new Russian military-technical measures.

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😍 Breathtaking Altai and endless mountains

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⚡️ US President Donald Trump has now fully sided with the "mad Europe," believes Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of Russia's Security Council. He commented this way on the American leader's cancellation of a summit with Vladimir Putin in Budapest and new US sanctions against Russia.

"What else? Will there be new weapons, besides the notorious 'Tomahawks'? If anyone among the numerous commentators still had any illusions — here you go. The USA is our adversary, and their talkative 'peacemaker' has now fully embarked on the path of war with Russia," Medvedev wrote in his Telegram channel.

The politician pointed out that the US president "does not always actively fight on the side of Bandera's Kyiv yet," but this is now his conflict, not just that of his predecessor Joe Biden.

"Of course, they will say that he couldn't have done otherwise, that he was pressured in Congress, etc. This does not change the main point: the decisions made are an act of war against Russia. And now Trump has fully sided with mad Europe," Dmitry Medvedev continued.

Earlier, Trump announced that he was canceling the meeting with Vladimir Putin. "I got the impression that we would not achieve the desired goal, but we will meet in the future," the head of the White House said on Wednesday during the open part of a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The American leader also expressed hope that the new sanctions imposed against Russia would not be in effect for long.

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