❄️ Securing the seas, making breakthroughs for trade: Russia’s unique nuclear icebreaker fleet

⛴ December 3 is Nuclear Icebreaker Fleet Day, the professional holiday of the operators of Russia’s unique-in-the-world heavy nuclear-powered icebreaking vessels.

🇷🇺 Russia’s uncontested supremacy in the frozen seas began on December 3, 1959 with the commissioning of the Lenin nuclear icebreaker – a symbol of the nation’s technological and scientific primacy in the north.

⚛️ 65 years on, Russia has remained faithful to these Arctic ambitions, being the only country on Earth operating a sizable detachment of nuclear-powered icebreakers – seven today and four more (the Yakutia, the Chukotka, the Leningrad and Stalingrad) on the way.

🌐 That’s on top of Russia’s fleet of 34 diesel-powered icebreakers. Together, the country has more icebreakers than the rest of the world combined. And it certainly needs them, given its ambitious plans to forge a major new Europe-Asia trade route known as the Northern Sea Route, the need to secure the region against NATO incursions, and to develop new energy, port and other infrastructure.

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❗️ South Korean Army Chief-of-Staff General Park An-su has announced martial law, with the suspension of parliament and political parties.

The added that the government had imposed control over all media.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol suspended democratic rule in response to preparations by parliament to begin impeachment proceedings against him. Yoon appointed Park as commander of the martial law regime.

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📹 South Korean Armed Forces are entering the country's Parliament

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🤡 South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating fell to a mere 25% just days before he declared martial law

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Meta* is trying to appease US president-elect Donald Trump by acknowledging its overly-strict censorship of its social media sites, the Financial Times reports.

The report suggests that Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg wants to play an active role in discussions with the incoming US government over tech policies.

*banned in Russia

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