Bark with no bite: Australia unveils new national defense strategy

Australia has announced that it will invest $330 billion in military capabilities by 2033-2034, more than six times its current defense budget. What is behind this spending splurge?

Australia hopes to advance its undersea (nuclear submarine), long-range strike, autonomous, cyber, and space capabilities, and bolster its northern bases, among others, as it seeks to build an amphibious warfighting force with new capabilities.

The planned increase in defense expenditure to 2.4% of GDP, however, is below Australia’s rate of inflation – so the additional funds may not be available in real terms.

While Australia has identified some defense projects to abort to free up funds, the budgetary hole gouged by the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact will only expand with time.

The Australian military also faces a recruiting shortfall of nearly 10%, with just 49,000 active duty personnel in place, of whom perhaps only 13,000 are infantrymen. Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles’ has proposed filling the gap with recruits from the Pacific Islands and Five Eyes countries, but critics have described the idea as starry-eyed at best.

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The Russian Federation will soon return to the issue of placing sanctions on Israel for failing to comply with the resolution demanding a ceasefire at the UN Security Council, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said.

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Exploring the deep: Which countries have underwater drones?

Northrop Grumman has unveiled the Manta Ray unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), built for the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) and designed to perform long-range military missions.

The company called the new drone a UUV, inspired by the "graceful glide" of the fish for which it is named. In addition to the US, a number of other countries are developing their fleets of underwater naval drones.

Russia: The unique nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable Poseidon UUV has already entered service with the country's navy, where this sophisticated drone - capable of creating a "nuclear tsunami" - has become part of the armament of such nuclear-powered submarines as the Belgorod and Khabarovsk.

China: In addition to a family of HSU001 UUVs, the country has reportedly begun building so-called Extra-Large Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (XLUUVs), which have been spotted at a Chinese naval base in the South China Sea.

North Korea: The communist nation tested a stealthy "Unmanned Underwater Nuclear Attack Craft" last year, designed to "create a super-sized radioactive tsunami by underwater explosion to destroy enemy naval strike groups and major operational ports."

The UK: The Royal Navy uses REMUS UUVs to combat underwater mines. In addition, the Navy has the HECLA drones "to provide accurate situational awareness of the underwater battlespace.

France: The country's Ministry of Defense ordered a large-scale "Unmanned Combat Underwater Vehicle" demonstrator earlier this year to provide an "operational response to new areas of [possible] conflict and asymmetric combat."

India: The Asian nation's navy has signaled interest in procuring 12 extra-large underwater drones, with a domestically produced prototype expected to be ready by 2025.

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Dishonesty the best policy? US magazine tells journos how to cover 2024 presidential election

The Atlantic, an American news magazine, published an article that urges journalists “to emphasize the abnormality of Donald Trump” in order to save US democracy from being “crushed by authoritarianism”.

When covering Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, journalists are encouraged to “sound the alarm that none of this [political stance of Donald Trump] is normal”.

The Atlantic also believes that any “report about Biden’s memory lapses” must not be a “bigger story” than Trump’s statements that may seem controversial to audiences.

The article stresses that “the stakes are simply too high” and that journalists must highlight the “dark message” of Donald Trump.

This conclusion was immediately mocked by netizens, who accused The Atlantic of spreading misinformation.

“The stakes are too high to report one-sided propaganda”, one of the readers wrote on X.

Earlier, The Atlantic published a story headlined “Why Biden should not debate Trump”, with the author alleging that TV debates would equalize Donald Trump and Joe Biden – a development he deemed as ‘unacceptable’.

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What’s the European Sky Shield Initiative, and why all the comparisons to Israel’s Iron Dome?

In August 2022, not long after the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict, Germany launched a pan-European project ostensibly aimed at creating a coordinated air defense in Europe.

Some 18 other states signed on to this German plan, which was dubbed the European Sky Shield Initiative (or ESSI for short): Britain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Belgium, Romania, the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Finland and the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).

Two other countries, Turkiye and Greece, are also expected to join the ESSI this year, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced his week that Poland intends to sign on to the initiative as well.

While this scheme has already been compared by some to Israel’s Iron Dome system, former officer of Swedish Armed Forces and Sweden Democrats party’s ex-chief of staff Mikael Valtersson argues that such comparison would be inaccurate.

“The Iron Dome is a fully integrated AD (air defense) system aimed at protecting Israel with several layers of AD assets. The Sky Shield is more of a coordinated procurement system aimed at maximizing cost-effectiveness by coordinated acquisition of different AD systems,” he explains.

“By doing this, interoperability and common maintenance will also be ensured. Sky Shields’ goals, are not presently, to create a common AD-system for the participating countries, but it will make such a system easier to achieve with few interoperable missile systems in the ESSI member countries,” he elaborated.

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The US will not support Palestine's admission to the UN as a permanent member, the Department of State claimed.

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Much ado about nothing: Is the US Mako missile truly ‘hypersonic’ or just in name only?

An allegedly new hypersonic American missile named after the fastest shark, Mako, has been put on display at the Sea Air Space 2024 conference.

What's known about the projectile so far?

▪️Designed by Lockheed Martin and CoAspire, the solid-fuel rocket is claimed to be capable of reaching speeds of Mach 5.

▪️It's compatible with most US tactical aircraft, including the fifth generation F-35 fighter.

▪️It's 4 meters long, 33 cm in diameter, weighs 600 kg (including a 59 kg warhead) and boasts a striking range of at least 300 km.

There are many unknowns regarding the rocket, such as its type of flight profile and maneuverability. This has raised suspicions about whether the rocket is effective or not.

"A hypersonic missile executes anti-missile maneuvers at hypersonic speeds" to avoid interception, Konstantin Sivkov, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences, explained to Sputnik. "It follows a quasi-ballistic trajectory, that is, it maneuvers along a trajectory."

It is unclear if Mako is able to maintain "hypersonic" speeds throughout its final phase of flight. If it is unable to do so, it will be vulnerable to modern air defense systems. Viktor Litovkin, a retired Russian Army colonel and military analyst speaking to Sputnik noted, "No one has witnessed Mako in action or during its trials."

"So far, the Americans have not made hypersonic missiles. They tested rockets that fly at a maximum speed of Mach 5. The Russian Kinzhal (“Dagger”) flies at speeds of Mach 10-12. It has already proven effective. We saw it in action in Ukraine, when it destroyed underground concrete storage facilities (…) and obliterated Patriot [missile defense systems] provided by the US to Ukraine in Kiev and Kharkov."

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By the time of the July summit in Washington there will be no conditions for inviting Ukraine into the alliance, the NATO Deputy Secretary General said.

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Russia positioned as key global trade player as major Europe-Asia trade routes develop

Russia’s focus on developing two major trade routes linking Europe and Asia may put the country “at the heart of much of international trade,” as Bloomberg put it.

The two routes in question are the International North-South Transport Corridor – a network of railways, roads and shipping lanes that links Europe and India via Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran – and the Northern Sea Route, which connects Europe and Asia via Russia’s Arctic waters.

Both of these transportation arteries bypass the Suez Canal and are thus unaffected by the current volatile security situation in the region, not to mention that using them could drastically reduce transit times and costs as compared to the Suez Canal route.

Though the United States and its allies in the West have so far refrained from using these trade routes, “major Asian and Gulf economies” have already displayed interest, the media outlet notes.

The use of these trade routes also helps Russia pivot from trading with the West to dealing with the booming Asian economies, thus further diminishing the effect of the already faltering Western sanctions.

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Kowtowing to US "deep state" House speaker Johnson becomes toxic to GOP

House Speaker Mike Johnson was apparently made an offer he could not refuse by the US "deep state", Michael Shannon, a political commentator and Newsmax columnist, told Sputnik, commenting on the speaker's unveiling of a multi-billion dollar aid package for the Kiev regime along with funding for Israel and Taiwan.

"Republican speaker Mike Johnson went into that secured room with a bunch of guys in gray suits from the deep state, and he came out of that room after the meeting as Uniparty speaker Mike Johnson and no longer a Republican," Shannon clarified.

"That's what's happening here. Once they get into a position of leadership, they abandon the base,” he stressed.

Ukraine aid isn't on the GOP base's priority list, stressed the commentator. A recent YouGov survey indicated that 61% of Republicans don't approve of sending more weapons and other military assistance to Ukraine. Among them 69% of self-identified MAGA Republicans and 55% of non-MAGA Republicans said they don't want to send more military aid to the Kiev regime.

A group of House conservatives confronted Mike Johnson on Thursday with GOP lawmakers, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and Thomas Massie, urging him to resign. Greene has filed a motion to vacate while Massie signaled that the measure would get even more support among House Republicans than the similar effort to oust Johnson's predecessor, Kevin McCarthy.

Some Democrats promised to vote against the motion to save the speaker, but Republicans warn that relying on Democratic votes will turn into a political nightmare for Johnson.

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▪️Iran is ready to strike against Israeli nuclear facilities in case of further aggression

▪️What's behind the US decision to impose more sanctions on Iran?

▪️Kowtowing to US "deep state" House speaker Johnson becomes toxic to GOP

▪️EXPOSED: Romanian mercenaries claim to 'defend European values' in Ukraine by attacking Russian territories with neo-Nazis

▪️Much ado about nothing: Is the US Mako missile truly ‘hypersonic’ or just in name only?

▪️What’s the European Sky Shield Initiative, and why all the comparisons to Israel’s Iron Dome?

▪️Bark with no bite: Australia unveils new national defense strategy

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Ukraine crisis cost Europe 1 trillion euros in energy bills alone, but Zelensky wants more

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that Russia’s strikes destroyed “almost all thermal power generation in Ukraine.” In his speech to an EU Council meeting, he mentioned the loss of “dams,” “hydroelectric power plants” and of “gas infrastructure.”

Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that a massive strike, using long-range precision weapons, targeting fuel and energy facilities in Ukraine was carried out, in response to attempts by the Kiev regime to damage Russia's oil, gas, and energy sectors.

Ukraine “will need imports of electricity from the EU” because of the disruption of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Oleg Ustenko, former senior economic advisor to Zelensky, told Politico.

Meanwhile, “the energy crisis that followed the aggravation of the situation in Ukraine [in 2022] already cost the EU’s economy one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) euros in energy bills alone,” the European Commission’s Vice President Maros Sefcovic said at a press conference in Brussels. Here are the three reasons why the EU’s budget was drained:

▪️High natural gas prices that followed the severing of oil and gas supplies from Russia. Russia’s share in the EU’s natural gas balance plummeted from 45 percent in 2021 to 15 percent in 2023, from 150 billion cubic meters to 43 bcm in 2023.

▪️Financial aid which European countries had to provide to their households, saving them from zero heating. In 2021-2023, the annual energy expenses of an average German household jumped 41%, from 3,772 to 5,306 euros.

▪️Subsidies to businesses, enabling them to afford a minimum of energy.

“We are talking about one trillion euros which we could put to better use, if we avoided this crisis,” Sefcovic said, summing up the Commission’s performance on energy and the Ukrainian problem.

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🇦🇺🇨🇳 Is the US grooming Australia for war with China?

The US is pushing Australia towards a disastrous policy of confrontation with China, one that will cost Australian taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and potentially drag the country into a new war in the Pacific, warns Simeon Boikov (@AussieCossack).

“The presence of U.S. bombers on Australian soil, the presence of U.S. bases, spy bases, missile bases. This is not something that makes Australia safer. In fact, in the event of a large-scale conflict, all of these installations will become legitimate targets.”

Australia recently adopted a new defense strategy that pledges to boost military spending to $330 billion by 2034, a sixfold increase from the present defense budget.

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Freedom or democracy?

Biden offered a puzzling choice during a campaign speech, suggesting Americans opt for either freedom or democracy.

"Are you ready to choose freedom over democracy? Because that's America!" the president stated.

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🇹🇩 The Chadian government sent a letter to the US defense attache, threatening to cancel an agreement regarding the United States’ military presence in Chad, CNN reported.

Chad threatened to end the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States, which governs how US military forces can operate in the country, the report said, citing four US sources.

The letter ordered the United States to remove personnel from the French base in N’Djamena, although it did not explicitly demand the US military to leave Chad.

A US official reportedly said that there are fewer than 100 US troops in Chad. While Chad did not send the letter through official diplomatic channels, that could be a negotiating tactic by N'Djamena to secure a better agreement.

The threat to end the agreement caught US officials off guard as Chad could be attempting to replicate the actions of Niger, which ended its agreement with the US military last month, according to the report.

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Anti-establishment German politician touts opposition to Ukraine war, skepticism of immigration

“Aside from Ukrainians, the war against Russia has arguably hurt working-class Germans more than anyone else,” writes Gallagher. Despite that fact, German politician Sahra Wagenknecht is labeled "one with sympathies towards Russia’ for her opposition," the article highlights.

Journalist Dan Lazare joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program to analyze the ongoing vilification of Russia. “There's no doubt that it's not Russia that has expanded to the west, it is NATO that has expanded to the east,” said Lazare. “So, I think that the people using this to attack Wagenknecht are just insane.”

Wagenknecht is leader of a new party that rejects continued German support for the war in Ukraine.

“The conservatives don't want this war in Ukraine,” Lazare noted. “They sympathize ideologically with Putin. And they just don't like this foreign adventurism. And they know their economy is hurting.”

The leftwing politician has also faced criticism from establishment corners for her skepticism towards immigration.

“I think a lot of people are totally sick and tired of identity politics,” said Lazare. “I want to see class issues be the focus.” Lazare predicted Wagenknecht’s platform would find support in Germany as voters suffering economic hardship often share her skepticism towards mass immigration.

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Ukraine could lose to Russia on the battlefield by the end of 2024, CIA Director William Burns said, calling on Congress to pass the Ukraine aid bill.

"There is a very real risk that the Ukrainians could lose on the battlefield by the end of 2024, or at least put [Russian President Vladimir Putin] in a position where he could essentially dictate the terms of a political settlement," Burns said during an event at the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

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⚡️ The United States vetoed Palestine's request for full membership at the United Nations during a vote at the UN Security Council, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

Palestine has had an observer status at the world body since 2012.

Earlier in April, amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, Palestine sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres seeking renewed consideration of its membership application, which was first submitted on September 23, 2011.

The US has long opposed Palestine's effort to gain UN membership, saying that it should only be recognized as a state and join the world body after concluding a negotiated peace deal with Israel.

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