Robert Kennedy Jr. called on Democrats to elect a candidate for US president through an open process, rather than simply choosing Kamala Harris.

https://t.me/SputnikInt/62228

Russia is ready to counter US ‘satellite jammer’ space plans

The new “satellite jammers” the US intends to deploy in space to target Russian and Chinese satellites are meant to deprive Moscow and Beijing of “command, control, communication and intelligence systems during times of conflict,” says Bruce Gagnon, coordinator at Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.

According to him, these US jammers are “intended as offensive weapons” and have “nothing to do with defense whatsoever.”

The US' development of jammers, however, “is forcing Russia and China to develop similar technologies,” Gagnon adds.

“In the case of Russia, I know they're developing ways to block these jammers, to counter these jammers,” he says. “So this is all leading to the rise or the increase or the growth of tensions, escalation of warfare capabilities and space.”

Gagnon also observes that this development takes place as the US "refuses to have a treaty to ban weapons in space", which effectively forced Russia, China and India to pursue the development of “kinetic energy anti-satellite weapons.”

“For at least 25 years, Russia and China have gone to the United Nations General Assembly and introduced a treaty to prevent all weapons in space,” he laments, noting that the US and Israel “blocked this development of this treaty for more than 25 years” when it was brought to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

Meanwhile, Alexander Mikhailov, head of Russian think tank Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, argues that the US' move to deploy satellite jammers in space suggest that Washington’s previous attempt to establish a ground-based satellite jamming system was unsuccessful.

Not only did that previous scheme require considerable investments into new jamming facilities on the ground, but the system that “the Americans previously touted as a tested, effective system that can suppress any satellite signal and would thus be able to blind or silence Russian and Chinese satellites – it turned out that this system does not work,” Mikhailov observes.

He also notes that Russian electronic warfare systems are much more advanced than the ones developed by the US, and mentioned multiple reports about Russian systems successfully jamming Starlink satellite signals.

He specifically mentions the Tirada 2-S systems that “successfully jam satellite communication signals and ‘blind’ the units covered in Starlink satellite dishes.”

Tirada 2-S, Mikhailov explains, is not only capable of suppressing satellite signals – it can also scramble communications and “create false narratives, not only jamming communication channels but deceiving those receiving satellite signals and the satellite in space that receives signals from Earth.”

https://t.me/SputnikInt/62237

South Korea’s reactor venture highlights the loss of nuclear expertise by Western powers (Part 1)

South Korea’s plan to build two nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic, “effectively making a bridgehead for nuclear plant exports to Europe,” raises a number of interesting questions, says Dr. Chris Busby, a physical chemist and scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk.

“Why can’t Europe build its own reactors? Why is South Korea suddenly involved?” he inquires, noting that South Korea apparently also plans to export more reactors to the UK, the Netherlands, Poland and “other countries.”

“In Europe, if you (as a politician, as a State, as someone with no idea of the poisonous downstream effects) want to buy a nuclear power station, you have few choices. France, USA, Russia and South Korea. No one else is selling them, it seems,” Busby explains.

The United Kingdom essentially “gave up on building their own” and while France did “jump in… the French EDF just can’t seem to complete one, and costs go up and up and up,” he notes.

“As for the US reactors, they have all kinds of problems including cost problems. South Korea must have seen a gap in the market and dived in,” Busby adds. “The Czech government cannot deal with Russia because it is in the EU basket and mustn’t talk to the Russians. No doubt there was a good deal offered by South Korea, and the agreement was signed.”

https://t.me/SputnikInt/62239

South Korea’s reactor venture highlights the loss of nuclear expertise by Western powers (Part 2)

Russian political scientist and nuclear energy expert Alexey Anpilogov also suggests that South Korea’s foray into the nuclear reactor market is the result of the loss of expertise in nuclear power field not only in the United States but also in the EU and even in France who until recently “remained an island of stability of sorts for nuclear energy.”

“Because a large number of countries, like Germany and Italy, has given up nuclear power. Spain has also adopted a program of shutting down nuclear plants,” Anpilogov says. “And some countries, like Britain, have lost the expertise needed for building nuclear reactors while formally retaining their nuclear energy capabilities.”

Meanwhile, French nuclear power plant projects, both in France and in Finland, took much longer to complete than originally intended and cost a lot more than originally planned, he adds.

“In my opinion, it became apparent in the modern world that if you halt all production activity in some high-tech sphere even for 10-15 years, you end up losing key expertise because during that specialists [in that area] leave you so there is no more succession i.e. the passing of technology to new generations,” he explains.

Thus, the problems that could have been easily solved by American and European engineers in the 1970s or 1980s pose a serious challenge for their successors today, which, in the nuclear power field, leads to safety issues and to a serious increase of time and money spent on nuclear projects, Anpilogov concludes.

https://t.me/SputnikInt/62240

"Wreaks of a coup" — American entrepreneur, David Sacks, on Joe Biden's sudden exit from the presidential race.

https://t.me/SputnikInt/62245

Biden's decision to withdraw from the presidential race "did not have to do with any medical issues", CNN reports, citing a senior White House official.

https://t.me/SputnikInt/62246

The day before Biden announced his withdrawal, he had met with his two closest advisers, who said that a path to victory was “basically nonexistent”, CNN writes, citing a source familiar with the matter.

https://t.me/SputnikInt/62252

Kamala Harris’ second presidential campaign to fail - just like her first?

With Joe Biden endorsing Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee after his decision to exit the presidential race on Sunday, the first female US vice president “will likely have to answer questions” about her last botched campaign for the top job, the Washington Post has reported. 

Harris, who has said that she intends to "earn and win" the nomination, is now facing “an abrupt launch” of her surprise second presidential campaign, the success of which will depend on how she resolves the problems that hampered the first campaign, according to the newspaper. 

In this vein, the Washington Post cited an unnamed Democratic strategist as saying that Harris previously failed to live up to Democrats’ expectations because “she ran a terrible campaign (which kicked off in January 2019).”

 
Her efforts, which notably collapsed before a single ballot was cast, were disrupted by "declining cash, an inability to articulate a cohesive campaign message, and a steady patter of departing staffers", the newspaper pointed out. 

The report comes after Harris’ approval numbers dropped, following Biden’s “catastrophic” debate against former US President Donald Trump on June 27. According to FiveThirtyEight's average, the vice president’s disapproval rating stood at 51.2 % on July 5, compared to 49.4 % on June 27.

Last year's polls showed that Harris had the lowest approval rating of any first-term US vice president since Dan Quayle in the early 1990s. The surveys indicated that the 49th vice president’s approval rating dropped from 41.7% to 36.3% in early 2023. 

Previous polls revealed that Harris, who has been repeatedly criticized for turning a blind eye to the US migration crisis, and keeping mum on America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, is "not qualified" or "not at all qualified" to be US president.

https://t.me/SputnikInt/62253

Запад готовится к вооруженному конфликту с Россией намного быстрее, чем думают многие на Востоке, в Москве и Белграде, заявил президент Сербии Александр Вучич в эфире TV Pink. При этом, по его словам, к прямому столкновению в данный момент никто пока не готов.

«Будут ли? Думаю, что люди на Востоке, в России и Сербии обманываются, когда думают, что не будут», — сказал Вучич.

Ожидать, что они победят Россию, невозможно таким образом, как некоторые себе представляют. Это возможно, только если с [президентом России Владимиром] Путиным что-то произойдет. Путин хочет, чтобы его политическим наследием были результаты <...> Петра Великого и Екатерины Великой, он размышляет геополитически и как человек — объединяющий фактор, который все их черты смог объединить в себе, — сказал он.