🇨🇳 China has another new submarine type – and it’s a very dangerous one

The Chinese navy has not one but two new submarine types. And the latest of the two to break cover may be the most dangerous. The new Type 093B, the first close photos of which circulated online in early October, might be a cruise missile submarine.

This summer, naval expert Thomas Shugart was the first civilian observer to notice the appearance of a new sub type in satellite imagery depicting a pier in Wuhan, China. That imagery, dated late April, depicts what appears to be the first example of a Type 039 diesel-electric attack submarine fitted with a small auxiliary nuclear powerplant – an innovation that could extend the type’s underwater endurance.

Later photos seem to indicate the hybrid Type 039 sank at its pier back in July. If confirmed, the sinking would be a setback for the Chinese navy and would, at the very least, delay the commissioning of the first of the hybrid subs – potentially by years.

Given the circumstances, the other new Chinese sub type to appear this year is very likely to precede the hybrid type in front-line service. The recent photos of this new type, apparently shot near Bohai, depict a new version of the Type 093, the Chinese navy’s only nuclear-powered attack submarine. Six Type 093s are in service.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/21/china-nuclear-cruise-missile-submarine-type-093-ssgn/

🇺🇦Ukraine's population has fallen by 10 million since Russia's invasion, UN says

Ukraine's population has declined by 10 million, or around a quarter, since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion as a result of refugees leaving, collapsing fertility and war deaths, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a Geneva news conference, Florence Bauer, Eastern Europe head at the U.N. Population Fund, said the invasion in February 2022 had turned an already difficult demographic situation into something more severe.

"The birth rate plummeted and is currently at around one child per woman, which is one of the lowest in the world," she said. It takes a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman to maintain a stable population.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraines-population-has-fallen-by-10-million-since-russias-invasion-un-says-2024-10-22/

https://archive.ph/rbdWU

🤩🤩🤩 🌐 — #BRICS2024: Leaders of 36 countries pose together for a photo during the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia:

🇮🇳 | India
🇨🇳 | China
🇷🇺 | Russia
🇧🇷 | Brazil
🇪🇬 | Egypt
🇪🇹 | Ethiopia
🇮🇷 | Iran
🇸🇦 | Saudi Arabia
🇿🇦 | South Africa
🇦🇪 | United Arab Emirates
🇦🇲 | Armenia
🇦🇿 | Azerbaijan
🇧🇭 | Bahrain
🇧🇩 | Bangladesh
🇧🇾 | Belarus
🇧🇴 | Bolivia
🇨🇬 | Congo
🇨🇺 | Cuba
🇮🇩 | Indonesia
🇰🇿 | Kazakhstan
🇰🇬 | Kyrgyzstan
🇱🇦 | Laos
🇲🇾 | Malaysia
🇲🇷 | Mauritania
🇲🇳 | Mongolia
🇳🇮 | Nicaragua
🇷🇸 | Serbia
🇱🇰 | Sri Lanka
🇹🇯 | Tajikistan
🇹🇭 | Thailand
🇹🇷 | Turkey
🇺🇿 | Uzbekistan
🇻🇪 | Venezuela
🇻🇳 | Vietnam
🇹🇲 | Turkmenistan
🇵🇸 | Palestine

— So we have 3 countries refused into BRICS:

➡️ Venezuela, over Fraudulent elections, by Brazil

➡️ Nicaragua, over the Sandinista Regime's persecution of the Catholic Church, by Brazil

➡️ Turkey, over its ties with Pakistan, by India

🚦🇮🇷🇮🇱 Israel delays Iran retaliation after US intelligence leak

The leak revealed Israel’s well-advanced plans to respond to a salvo of nearly 200 Iranian ballistic missiles fired against it earlier this month, which was a retaliation by Tehran for Israel’s attacks on its Middle Eastern proxy groups.

https://www.thetimes.com/world/israel-hamas-war/article/israel-iran-us-intelligence-leak-hx5mcbmlr

https://archive.is/VyMvd

🇷🇺🇰🇵Russian lawmakers ratify pact with North Korea as US confirms that Pyongyang sent troops to Russia

The lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, voted quickly to endorse the “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin signed with North Korean leader King Jong Un on a visit to Pyongyang in June. The upper house is expected to follow suit soon.

The pact obliges Russia and North Korea to immediately provide military assistance using “all means” if either is attacked. It marked the strongest link between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.

The U.S. said Wednesday that 3,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia and are training at several locations, calling the move very serious and warning that those forces will be “fair game” if they go into combat in Ukraine.

Asked in June whether North Korean troops could fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine under the pact, Putin said there was no need for that but he also announced for the first time that Russia could provide weapons to Pyongyang.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/24/russia-north-korea-troops-ukraine-treaty-ratification/2155cb10-91e9-11ef-b5b1-75167840d9f3_story.html

https://archive.ph/4hneS

🇺🇸🇰🇵US must weigh 'military action against' North Korean forces if invading Ukraine: House intel chair Turner

If North Korean troops invade Ukraine, America must "seriously consider" engaging in military action against them, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chair Rep. Mike Turner said in a statement issued Wednesday.

"If North Korean troops were to invade Ukraine's sovereign territory, the United States needs to seriously consider taking direct military action against the North Korean troops," the Ohio Republican asserted.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-must-weigh-military-action-against-north-korean-forces-invading-ukraine-house-intel-chair-turner

🐧❌🇷🇺 Several Russian Linux developers lost their kernel maintainership status, because of 'various compliance requirements':

'Given that the developers involved all appear to be of Russian origin, it is not too hard to imagine what sort of compliance is involved here.'

While Linux can be seen as 'international project', the Linux Foundation is based in the US, and therefore has to follow US laws..

https://x.com/cryptonator1337/status/1849043020378681684

@FelipeChannel

🇲🇦 — The Moroccan government has approved a historic defense budget of nearly $14 billion for 2025, the largest defense budget in the kingdom's history.

🇻🇪❌🇧🇷❗️ — Via an official statement, Nicolas Maduro's Regime accuses Brazilian Government of being hostile to it, claiming that Brazilian Government did an act of aggression against Venezuela for not letting it enter BRICS as a member

🇻🇪📝 In Statement, the Venezuelan Regime said:

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela thanks the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, his government and the heroic Russian people for the invitation extended to President Nicolás Maduro Moros to participate in the BRICS+ Summit in Kazan.

Venezuela, which not only has the largest energy reserve in the world, but also represents the values, principles and vision of building a fair, multi-centred and multi-polar world, has had the backing and support of the countries participating in this summit to formalise its entry into this integration mechanism.

But through an action that contradicts the nature and postulate of the BRICS, the representation of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry (Itamaraty), led by Ambassador Eduardo Paes Saboia, decided to maintain the veto that Bolsonaro applied to Venezuela for years, reproducing the hatred, exclusion and intolerance promoted by Western power centers to prevent, for now, the entry of the Homeland of Bolívar into this organization, in an action that constitutes an act of aggression against Venezuela and a hostile gesture that adds to the criminal policy of sanctions that have been imposed against Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Venezuela is adorning the global South and East with its firmness in defending self-determination and the sovereign equality of States. No trick or maneuver conceived against Venezuela will stop the course of history. A new world has been born! Venezuela is part of this free world without hegemony.

The Venezuelan people feel outrage and shame at this inexplicable and immoral aggression by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry (Itamaraty), maintaining the worst of Jair Bolsonaro's policies against the Bolivarian Revolution founded by Commander Hugo Chávez.

This historic summit for a new world of peace, justice and shared development has been a resounding success. We congratulate President Putin and his government for their extraordinary contributions, in the words of the Liberator Simón Bolívar, to universal balance.

Caracas, October 24, 2024.

https://news.1rj.ru/str/VenezuelaNetwork/13049

☢️🇹🇼🇺🇸 TSMC has achieved early production yields at its first plant in Arizona that surpass similar factories in Taiwan, a significant breakthrough for a US expansion project initially dogged by delays and worker strife

Mark Nelson on X: "TSMC's Arizona plant is nuclear-powered, from 3 giant reactors in the middle of the desert using Phoenix's treated waste water.

Meanwhile Taiwan is about to crash its electricity grid in an insane crusade to close all their nuclear plants and run on imported fossil fuels."

The share of chips manufactured at TSMC’s facility in Phoenix that are usable is about 4 percentage points higher than comparable facilities in Taiwan.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-24/tsmc-s-arizona-chip-production-yields-surpass-taiwan-s-a-win-for-us-push

https://archive.ph/MckxG

☢️ 🇺🇸🏗 Construction has started on a liquid sodium test facility for TerraPower's Natrium reactor in Wyoming.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/10/22/construction-underway-on-testing-facility-at-terrapowers-wyoming-nuclear-plant-site/

📎 James Hopf

🇺🇸🇨🇳China-Based Chemical Manufacturing Companies and Employees Indicted for Alleged Fentanyl Manufacturing and Distribution

Today, the Justice Department announced the unsealing of indictments against eight China-based chemical companies and eight employees charging federal crimes, including attempted distribution of synthetic opioids and precursor chemicals used in the production of fentanyl, and money laundering. The indictments were filed under seal in the Middle District of Florida over the past year.

“The global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies based in China. In order to break this critical link in the fentanyl supply chain, the Justice Department has aggressively investigated and prosecuted these companies. We will continue to target every organization and individual that fuels the deadly drug trade.”

As described in the unsealed indictments, the defendants openly advertised their ability to thwart border officials and deliver the synthetic opioids or the chemicals used to make fentanyl to the Middle District of Florida and elsewhere in the United States. The defendants deliberately engaged in evasive activities, such as mislabeling the contents of shipments to ensure the illicit chemicals and controlled substances went undetected. As a result, these companies were able to sell a stable supply of precursor chemicals to clients in Mexico and the United States for years. One of the companies even represented that every month it sends “more than 20 kilograms to the United States, Africa, Canada, and other countries.”

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/china-based-chemical-manufacturing-companies-and-employees-indicted-alleged-fentanyl