₦airaland Forum

🇮🇳 India has successfully tested a domestically developed long-range hypersonic missile, it said on Sunday, attaining a key milestone in military development that puts it in a small group of nations like 🇷🇺 Russia, China, North Korea and Iran possessing the advanced technology.

The global push for hypersonic weapons figures in the efforts of some countries, such as India, which is striving to develop advanced long-range missiles, along with Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and the United States.

The Indian missile, developed by the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation and industry partners, is designed to carry payloads for ranges exceeding 1,500 km (930 miles) for the armed forces, the government said in a statement.

"The flight data ... confirmed the successful terminal manoeuvres and impact with high degree of accuracy," it added.

The test-firing took place from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam island off the eastern coast of Odisha state on Saturday, it said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called the test a "historic achievement" in a post on social media, adding that it placed India among a select group of nations possessing such critical and advanced technologies.

🇸🇪 Swedish tabloid Expressen revealed Wednesday that government officials have been ensuring in advance that all places frequented by Gender Equality Minister Paulina Brandberg are free of bananas due to the minister’s strong phobia of the yellow fruit.

In several emails seen by Expressen and described and quoted from in its report, Brandberg’s staff specifically ask for any bananas to be removed before official visits.

“Paulina Brandberg has a strong allergy to bananas, so it would be appreciated that there are no bananas in the areas where she will be staying,” states one of the emails from the ministry addressed to the Norwegian Judicial Agency ahead of a VIP lunch, which was met with a positive response.

“It’s sort of an allergy, you could say,” Brandberg told Expressen on Wednesday, then added, “It’s something that I get professional help with” in a follow-up email to the news outlet.

Brandberg’s office did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

Another email from Brandberg’s team sent to a county administrative board said that “no bananas are allowed on the premises.”

In yet another advance warning, her staff told Swedish Parliament Speaker Andreas Norlén that there should be “no traces of bananas” in the spaces Brandberg would be during a meeting.

The minister herself admitted to having a phobia of bananas in several posts on X in 2020, which appear to have been deleted after the news broke this week.

“I have a phobia of bananas,” wrote Brandberg in one post on Sept. 11, 2020, while in another on Aug. 6, 2020 she said it is the “world’s craziest phobia.”

Bananaphobia is not a common ailment, and therefore is not classified officially; but fears of food are categorized as specific, isolated phobias, according to the International Classification of Diseases.

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🇷🇺 Russia has deployed up to 200 troops to Equatorial Guinea in recent weeks to protect the Presidency, sources told Reuters, showing Moscow is expanding its footprint in West Africa despite a recent defeat in 🇲🇱 Mali.

The sources said the Russians were training elite guards in the two main cities of the tiny oil-exporting country of 1.7 million people, where U.S. energy firms invested billions of dollars in the first decade of the century before scaling down.

The deployment fits into a wider pattern of waning Western influence and increasing Russian interventions in West and Central Africa, where Moscow has sent thousands of mercenaries to protect military regimes and help them fight insurgents.

For Russia, the assignments are a way to make money from government fees and economic opportunities in mining or energy, while defying the West as part of a global geopolitical confrontation playing out most dramatically in Ukraine.

In Equatorial Guinea, where 82-year-old President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled since seizing power in a coup in 1979 and is grooming his favourite son to succeed him, Russian security could ward off any threat to the ruling dynasty.

On a visit to Moscow in September, Obiang thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for sending "instructors" to strengthen Equatorial Guinea's defences, state news agency TASS reported.

Reuters interviewed three diplomatic sources, another source from the opposition, one from civil society and two people close to the government in the former Spanish colony.

The sources, who did not want to be identified, confirmed a Russian presence in Equatorial Guinea. Three of them estimated that 100 to 200 Russians had arrived in the past two months.

Two of the sources said the military personnel may include troops from Russia's ally Belarus, while Reuters identified one as coming from an elite Russian paratrooper unit. Two of the sources said the men were likely to be part of Africa Corps, a Kremlin-controlled paramilitary force.

🇺🇦 Ukraine could develop a rudimentary nuclear bomb within months if Donald Trump withdraws 🇺🇸 US military assistance, according to a briefing paper prepared for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.

The country would quickly be able to build a basic device from plutonium with a similar technology to the “Fat Man” bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945, the report states.

“Creating a simple atomic bomb, as the United States did within the framework of the Manhattan Project, would not be a difficult task 80 years later,” the document reads.

With no time to build and run the large facilities required to enrich uranium, wartime Ukraine would have to rely instead on using plutonium extracted from spent fuel rods taken from Ukraine’s nuclear reactors.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is approaching its 3rd year. In search of security guarantees like NATO membership, Ukraine has been left in limbo due to Russian-occupied territories and Western bureaucracy.

In light of Russian advances and Western indecision, Kyiv has stated that NATO membership is one path to victory and negotiations on its own terms. If membership remains out of reach, Ukraine may restart its nuclear program, triggering a domino effect of nuclear proliferation, a consequence the West would directly bear due to its failure to manage escalation.

After two years of negotiations and no security guarantees from major Western powers, as well as a stalled NATO path, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that a resolution to the war would include NATO membership or a pathway to nuclear weapons.

After the Soviet Union separated, Ukraine hosted Russian Nukes which were some of the largest nuclear arsenals in existence. Many Soviet-era missile silos were located within its borders with Russia holding the launch codes.

HurricaneLanter:
😂😂

Concerns for the health of the NASA astronauts stranded on the International Space Station have grown after recent images showing one of them looking severely drawn surfaced.

Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore have been stuck on the ISS for 6 months (since June 6), when their Boeing Starliner broke down due to technical malfunctions.

The two Americans, who were only slated to be at the space station for eight days, have now spent 153 days among the stars — and doctors are raising concerns about their health after a new photo shows Williams, 59, appearing jarringly gaunt.

The two astronauts are seen chowing down on an ad hoc dinner consisting of uncooked pizza, ketchup, mustard and various sundries.

Though she is smiling and seems to be in good spirits, Williams looks remarkably hollow-cheeked than when she first boarded the orbiting workplace.

“What you’re seeing there in that picture is somebody that I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at a very high altitude, even in a pressurized cabin, for extended periods,” Dr. Vinay Gupta told the Daily Mail.

Williams’ notably sunken cheeks are likely a result of a “significant” calorie deficit, he added.

The human body burns more calories in space than it does on terrestrial ground due to low temperatures and general harsh conditions, Gupta explained.

credit: New York Post

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🇷🇺 Russia launched a new nuclear-powered icebreaker named Chukotka. The latest vessel has joined the fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers. The launch was overseen by Russian President Vladimir Putin via video link.

The vessel in the Russia’s Project 22220 series is expected to have a life of 40 years and can endure extreme Arctic conditions. It can also plow through ice up to 2.8 meters (9.2 feet) thick.

The launch is aimed at boosting cargo traffic on the Northern Sea Route.

Putin emphasized that expanding Russia’s icebreaker fleet is key to developing Arctic territories.

“I would like to repeat that our plans to develop our Arctic territories and to increase cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route rely on expanding Russia’s icebreaker fleet,” said Putin.

“We have ambitious plans in this area. There is a great deal to be done. In this context, I suggest holding a special meeting on this subject, thoroughly preparing and comprehensively discussing all aspects of advanced development of the Northern Sea Route, so that we find concrete practical solutions.”

Three new-generation nuclear-powered vessels – the Arktika, Sibir, and Ural – have been floated out from the Baltic Shipyard and are now working in the waters of the Northern Sea Route.

The Chukotka icebreaker has joined this group. In the coming weeks, Russia is planning the delivery of another icebreaker, the Yakutia, which is more than 95 percent complete.

Putin underlined that Russia needs to consider options to create a more efficient pricing model for icebreaker freight transit, so that more carriers and shippers can afford such services, especially since both Russian and foreign companies are showing more and more interest in this route with each passing year.

Russia has also claimed that next year, as agreed, icebreaker Stalingrad of the same series should be laid down. In addition, the next-generation nuclear icebreaker Leader, the most powerful so far, is being built at Zvezda shipyard in the Far East.

“The construction of these powerful modern vessels is yet another embodiment of Russia’s industrial, scientific, technological and human resources potential. It is on the basis of domestic technologies and breakthrough scientific solutions that the national economy should develop,” said Putin.

The Chukotka is 173 metres long (567 ft), 34 metres wide and with a height from the waterline to the mainmast of 57 metres. The height of its side is 15.2 metres and it has a speed of 22 knots in clear water. The Project 22220 icebreaker will be powered by two RITM-200 reactors which each have a thermal capacity of 175 MW. It already has the reactors and most of its main equipment on board, reported World Nuclear News.

It’s also being said that the vessel is the largest and most powerful icebreaker in the world. With a crew capacity of 54 people, the vessel has a water displacement capacity of 33.5 thousand tons. The vessel has RITM-200 reactors, which have a thermal capacity of 350 MW.

WriterNig:
🎥 Special Ops: Lioness S01-2 (2023 - 24) = 6.2/10 ✔️ ❤️

WriterNig:
🎥 Special Ops: Lioness S01-2 (2023 - 24) = 6.2/10 ✔️ ❤️