Ninety million Americans would be dead in the first 20 minutes of a nuclear war with Russia – Robert Kennedy Jr.

US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. warns that in the event of a nuclear war with Russia, half the US population would die in the first half year, and an only partially capable Joe Biden would have to make a decision within six minutes.

"What happens if we have to make a judgment call? President Biden is woken up at 3:00 in the morning and has to make that decision within six minutes of being woken up while he's being pushed down tunnels under the White House by six or eight secret servicemen. It's frightening," he said.

📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Some Republicans may rethink Trump vote after ‘hush money’ guilty verdict – poll

One in ten Republican voters are less likely to vote for Donald Trump following his “hush money” conviction, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

This potential loss is more significant for Trump than the stronger support of the rest, since many of the latter would most likely have voted for him regardless of the conviction, the survey says.

The case against the presumptive GOP nominee in the November presidential election would have no effect on the vote of 56% of the registered Republican voters. Another 35% said they were more likely to support Trump in any case.

As for independent registered voters, 56% said Trump’s conviction would not influence their decision, while 25% said it made them less likely to support him. Overall, 41% of voters said they would vote for Joe Biden if the election were held today, while 39% would pick Trump, according to the poll.

As for Biden, the Democrat is the most unpopular US president at this point in his first term since the 1940s. He notched a 38.7% job approval rating for the first quarter of 2024, as per a Gallup Poll survey.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 'This is our land, this is our blood, this is our life': MMA fighter Jeff Monson has told Sputnik the story that impressed him the most from his trips to Russia’s new regions.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Ukraine's energy nightmare: hydroelectric plants suffer critical hits

Two hydroelectric power plants in Ukraine were hit in the small hours of Saturday morning, state-owned firm Ukrhydroenergo said, describing the damage to equipment as critical.

Russian forces began attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure on 10 October, two days after the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian troops do not hit residential buildings and social infrastructure while fighting the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) lost up to 660 militants as a result of successful combat operations by the Russian Battlegroup Yug.

🇷🇺🪖 More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry’s daily briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

◻️ The Russian Armed Forces hit the UAF's western weapons storage arsenals.

◻️ The Russian Armed Forces struck the location of a group of technicians who were developing flight missions for Ukrainian attack UAVs.

◻️ Russian Battlegroup Sever repelled five Ukrainian counterattacks and hit HIMARS MLRSs during counter-battery operations; the UAF lost up to 240 militants.

◻️ Russian Battlegroup Tsentr repelled six Ukrainian counterattacks.

◻️ Russian air defense forces shot down 62 Ukrainian UAVs, 14 HIMARS rockets, and three 'Hammer' guided bombs.

◻️ The UAF lost up to 450 militants as a result of successful combat operations by the Russian Battlegroup Zapad.

◻️ The Russian Armed Forces Group Vostok took more favorable positions, resulting in the enemy losing over 120 militants.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

A peace march against Hungarian involvement in the Ukraine conflict and NATO's launch of a new war in Europe is taking place in Budapest.

Tens of thousands of people are participating in the event. Organizers note that the march has attracted Hungarians not only from the provinces, but also from abroad.

The march will end on Margaret Island, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban will address the crowd.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚢 Houthis’ Red Sea blockade makes Russia’s Northern Sea Route attractive to desperate West

With the US and Britain proving unable to dislodge the Houthis from their strongholds or stop the militia from attacking Israeli-linked, American and British vessels in the Red and Arabian Seas, commercial shippers have increasingly eyed Russia’s Northern Sea Route as an attractive potential alternative, a leading mainstream US news magazine has reported.

“The surging costs and fear of getting hit by Houthi drones and missiles have led some shippers to consider the Arctic as an alternative, as melting ice begins opening new potential on the so-called Northern Sea Route,” Foreign Policy wrote.

The article ‘discovered’ what Russian officials and media have been saying for years – that the 5,600 km Northern Sea Route is the shortest maritime route between Europe and Asia, and can shave 8,000 km or more of distance, and 40-60 percent in time, off shipments, compared to traditional Europe-Asia routes through the presently troubled waters in the Middle East.

“The ability to slash some 5,000 miles off a ship’s journey would mean much faster travel times – a major plus in today’s world of online retail and next-day delivery,” FP said.

Unfortunately for the West, there’s a catch: 70 percent of the Arctic, including virtually the entire length of the Arctic portion of the route, passes through Russian waters. “Ships wanting to use the route must secure the Russians’ permission and pay them transit fees. Given current relations between many Western countries and Russia amid the Ukraine war, that poses an obvious challenge,” the magazine lamented.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Insane escalation — US presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr condemned the White House’s decision to allow Ukraine to hit targets inside Russian territory.

"More insane escalation by the Biden administration — authorizing Ukraine to strike targets deep in Russia. Using our weapons, trained in their use by our trainers."

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Senior German lawmaker demands activation of 900,000 reservists amid anti-Russia hysteria

Germany needs to “activate [its] approximately 900,000 reservists,” first by making them register with the state, Bundestag Defense Committee Chairwoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann has said.

The lawmaker, whose Free Democratic Party is part of Chancellor Scholz’s Traffic Light Coalition alongside the Social Democrats and the Greens, has been a leading cheerleader of escalating tensions with Moscow over Ukraine, and has heavily promoted the delivery of German heavy armor, which now makes up the backbone of the Ukrainian Army’s NATO-provided tank fleet, to Kiev.

Her remarks come just days after Defense Minister Boris Pistorius apparently dropped plans to reintroduce connoscription under his campaign to make Germany a “war-ready” nation, and promised a new “largely voluntary” recruitment scheme.

German generals have complained of major problems with the Bundeswehr’s capabilities, including the inability to scrape together even a single 20,000 troop-strong combat-ready division, after giving away billions of euros in equipment to Ukraine.

Russian officials have said repeatedly that Moscow has no interest – “neither geopolitical, nor economic, nor political, nor military” – in getting into a conflict with NATO, while warning of the dangers of the Ukraine proxy war’s potential for escalation.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Thousands march in Geneva in opposition to the World Health Organisation (WHO)

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹More footage from the anti-World Health Organisation protest in Geneva.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💲 Ukraine warmongering burns gaping hole in France’s budget

French President Emmanuel Macron got a nasty wakeup call on Friday as Standard & Poor's cut its long-term sovereign credit rating from AA to AA−.

“France's general government debt as a share of GDP will increase because of larger-than-expected budget deficits over 2023—2027," S&P explained, adding that the country’s state debt will reach 112.1% of GDP in 2027.

The downgrade comes after France racked up a budget deficit of 5.5% of GDP in 2023 instead of the projected 4.9%. This fiscal shortfall, equal to an estimated 20 billion euros, will add to the massive sovereign debt. In 2024, France was officially reported as having a debt-to-GDP ratio of 112% by the IMF.

What are the potential consequences?

◻️ The rating cut is expected to further put a damper on Macron’s prospects for the European Parliament elections this month. His personal ratings swooped to their lowest record last year over his handling of the controversial pension reform and ensuing protests. In April, close to three-quarters of French respondents expressed dissatisfaction with his actions, an Ifop-Fiducial survey for Sud Radio showed.

◻️ As France currently spends 43.9 billion euros on the military, which is 1.94% of GDP, as per Ouest-France, Paris may now want to reassess its military expenditures. In February, France pledged to deliver up to three billion euros in military aid to Kiev in 2024. Government overall military support to Ukraine equaled 2.69 billion euros, according to the Ukraine Support Tracker, Kiel WP.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Scraping the barrel: the West’s proxy conflict is fast draining Ukraine of people

Not only is the Kiev regime's military facing manpower shortages due to heavy battlefield losses, the bite is also being felt in the economy. Industrial facilities, mines and building sites are all struggling to find enough able-bodied staff.

While Kiev hopes to plug personnel gaps in the military with its new mobilization law, keeping Ukraine’s economy afloat with such a shortage of manpower is another challenge.

Millions have fled the country, dodging the draft, unwilling to fight “to the last Ukrainian.”

The labor force has shrunk by some 27 percent since the Ukraine conflict escalated, Ukrainian Deputy Central Bank Governor Sergiy Nikolaychuk told Bloomberg.

Men have also avoided connoscription by working on the informal labor market, wary of the new requirement for employers to provide their details to army recruiters.

Billions-worth of weapons funneled to Ukraine cannot compensate for finite human resources, Bloomberg admitted. Despite Kiev encouraging immigrants and women to go to work in place of their menfolk, businesses still had to cut back their operations.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺❄️How Northern Fleet protects Russia’s Arctic

The Northern Fleet is an “operational-strategic” fleet, retired Russian Navy Captain 1st Rank Vasily Dandykin told Sputnik, commenting on the many tasks assigned to the powerful Russian naval formation as it marked its professional holiday on Saturday.

💬 “It is responsible for the security of our entire Arctic – from the Kola Peninsula to the Bering Strait, where the Pacific Fleet takes over. This is a very large amount of coastline,” Dandykin, who served in the Northern Fleet himself back in Soviet days, explained.

“This includes ensuring the security of the Northern Sea Route, islands. And that’s not counting the Northern Fleet’s missions to the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and if needed, seas or oceans anywhere in the world, because its capabilities relative to other Russian fleets are much greater. Then of course, there are the naval nuclear forces, including submarines from Projects Borey and Borey-A, and the 667BDRM Delfin project, which have Bulava and Sineva missiles onboard. The fleet also includes multipurpose subs capable of fighting enemy naval groups, including Yasen and Yasen-M subs – the first of which arrived in Severodvinsk precisely to the Northern Fleet,” the observer noted.

On top of that are the Northern Fleet’s surface components, which in addition to missile-armed warships including the Admiral Golovoko, Admiral Kasatonov and Admiral Gorshkov, Naval Infantry formations, naval aviation and air defenses guarding Russia’s Arctic coast, Dandykin said.

He is confident that the personnel and superior military equipment assigned to Russia’s Northern Fleet today far outmatch any and all potential adversaries in terms of “experience, nerves and combat potential.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

◻️ Houthis’ Red Sea blockade makes Russia’s Northern Sea Route attractive to desperate West

◻️ Ukraine warmongering burns gaping hole in France’s budget

◻️ How Northern Fleet protects Russia’s Arctic

◻️ Senior German lawmaker demands activation of 900,000 reservists amid anti-Russia hysteria

◻️ ‘Crazy politics’ hell-bent on dragging the continent into World War III

◻️ Some Republicans may rethink Trump vote after ‘hush money’ guilty verdict – poll

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt