Important Takeaways:
- A major expansion underway inside Iran’s most heavily protected nuclear facility could soon triple the site’s production of enriched uranium and give Tehran new options for quickly assembling a nuclear arsenal if it chooses to, according to confidential documents and analysis by weapons experts
- At Fordow alone, the expansion could allow Iran to accumulate several bombs’ worth of nuclear fuel every month, according to a technical analysis provided to The Washington Post. Though it is the smaller of Iran’s two uranium enrichment facilities, Fordow is regarded as particularly significant because its subterranean setting makes it nearly invulnerable to airstrikes.
- Iran already possesses a stockpile of about 300 pounds of highly enriched uranium that could be further refined into weapons-grade fuel for nuclear bombs within weeks, or perhaps days, U.S. intelligence officials say. Iran also is believed to have accumulated most of the technical know-how for a simple nuclear device, although it would probably take another two years to build a nuclear warhead that could be fitted onto a missile, according to intelligence officials and weapons experts.
- In private messages to the IAEA early last week, Iran’s atomic energy organization said Fordow was being outfitted with nearly 1,400 new centrifuges, machines used to make enriched uranium, according to two European diplomats briefed on the reports. The new equipment, made in Iran and networked together in eight assemblies known as cascades, was to be installed within four weeks. A leaked draft of the Iranian plan was initially reported by Reuters.
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Important Takeaways:
- New Mexico Wildfires Force Evacuation of Thousands, 1,400 Buildings Destroyed, One Dead
- Savage New Mexico wildfires near Ruidoso led to the evacuation of approximately 8,000 residents. At least one person died and more than 1,400 structures were burned in the South Fork and Salt Fires. The fires consumed more than 23,000 acres by Wednesday morning.
- According to an EverythingLubbock.com article, some 8,000 residents near Ruidoso were ordered to evacuate as the South Fork Fire is zero percent contained.
- One Ruidoso resident, Christy Hood, a real estate agent, told the Associated Press that Governor Michelle Grisham’s state of emergency declaration and evacuation order came so quickly that she and her husband, Richard, only had time to grab their two children and two dogs.
- “As we were leaving, there were flames in front of me and to the side of me,” she told the AP. “And all the animals were just running — charging — trying to get out.”
- More than 1,400 homes, businesses, and other structures fell victim to the ravaging flames
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Important Takeaways:
- Tropical Storm Warnings Issued for Texas, Mexico Coasts Ahead of likely future Alberto
- Tropical storm warnings have been issued for parts of the Texas and Mexico coasts.
- This system will move west toward Mexico.
- Flooding rain, coastal flooding, gusty winds, high surf and rip currents will affect the western Gulf Coast of the U.S., especially Texas.
- Flooding rain is also likely in parts of Mexico and Central America.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel, Hezbollah on ‘brink’ of all-out war, officials warn
- The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) made the warning on Sunday, just a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to meet with Amos Hochstein, a top aide to President Biden. Biden’s administration is pushing Israel to avoid a war in Lebanon, but IDF officials continue to highlight the outsized threat posed by Hezbollah compared to Hamas.
- “Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation,” an IDF spokesman warned Sunday.
- “We are committed to the diplomatic process, however Hezbollah’s aggression is bringing us closer to a critical point in the decision-making regarding our military activities in Lebanon,” he told the Biden representative.
- Hezbollah, however, is far more well-equipped and has more manpower. Their rockets and drone attacks have already forced over 100,000 Israelis to evacuate their homes in northern Israel.
- “Hezbollah is the crown jewel in the Iranian empire of terror and evil and is by far the most powerful Iranian proxy, equipped with nation state capabilities and even more firepower than several European countries have today,” former IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus told Fox News.
- “In a military comparison, Hezbollah is far more powerful than Hamas,” he added.
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Important Takeaways:
- IDF: Half of Hamas Battalions Destroyed in Rafah; Operation to Last Two More Weeks
- The IDF entered Rafah in early May — against the wishes of the Biden administration — to destroy the four Hamas battalions that remained there, having destroyed at least 18 of the 24 battalions in fighting elsewhere in Gaza since late October. The White House relented but insisted on a slow pace, with limited use of heavy munitions, and care to avoid civilian casualties.
- The IDF raced to secure the Philadelphi Corridor — the road along the Gaza-Egypt border — and the Rafah border crossing. It has since fought a steady, methodical, house-to-house and tunnel-to-tunnel battle against Hamas there.
- The Jerusalem Post reported:
- The IDF on Monday said that its Division 162 has defeated half of Hamas’s battalions in Rafah, including killing at least 550 terrorists, as well as destroyed around 200 tunnel shafts, and eliminated the terror group’s last major rocket inventory.
- Further, the IDF said that within a couple of weeks it would likely be in control of all of Rafah and that the final battles with the remaining two Hamas battalions in parts of Tel al-Sultan and the eastern part of Shabura are already underway.
- Currently, the IDF says Division 162, commanded by Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, has already achieved operation control of over 60-70% of all of Rafah with all of the 1.4 million or so civilians having long fled to al-Muwasi on the coast, central Gaza and Khan Yunis.
- Once it is concluded, the IDF will shift to a counterinsurgency strategy in Gaza — and will likely shift focus to a potential clash with Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
- There are still 116 Israeli hostages in Gaza, of whom 41 are known to be dead. They are being hidden — possibly underground.
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Important Takeaways:
- Homes now threatened as LA wildfire grows to 15,000 acres and 1,200 are evacuated
- The blaze, nicknamed the Post Fire, started on Saturday afternoon in Gorman, an hour north of Los Angeles, and quickly rose to a 3rd alarm brush fire as it engulfed 500 acres and threatened structures. By Monday morning, the blaze had grown to 15,610 acres, with some 50 homes being threatened.
- Over the weekend, authorities evacuated residents who live in Hungry Park Lake, as crews worked to construct perimeter fire lines around the blaze.
- Airtankers were also working to stop forward progress but had limited visibility as the fire moved southeast toward Lake Pyramid. The lake was subsequently closed as firefighters worked to battle the flames.
- By Monday, authorities reported that the fire was eight percent contained. No fatalities have been reported in connection with the blaze but one person has been injured.
- An evacuation order remains in effect for Hungry Valley Park and Pyramid Lake
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Important Takeaways:
- Hundreds of thousands of Americans are going “Off Grid” in anticipation of what is coming
- As our society descends into chaos, vast numbers of people are choosing to pull the plug and walk away…
- According to Reuters, it has been estimated that there are now approximately 20 million “preppers” in the United States…
- There is a subset of that group that has decided that the best way to prepare is to go “off grid”.
- It is being reported that “more than 250,000 people in the U.S.” have chosen to adopt such a lifestyle…
- As energy costs and home prices continue to rise, more Americans are choosing to live off-grid. According to one estimate, more than 250,000 people in the U.S. have an off-grid lifestyle. While the potential cost savings are certainly attractive, technology and interest in tiny homes, shipping container homes and other energy-efficient housing alternatives are allowing families interested in sustainable lifestyles to move to off-grid living.
- [Daily Mail reported]
- A community of society-shunning Americans launched a survivalist haven in the Utah desert after finding themselves alienated from the modern world.
- Hundreds of people have set themselves up to live off the land under ‘Operation Self-Reliance,’ feeling that getting off-the-grid is the solution to a crumbling culture.
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korea Added 20 Nukes to Its Arsenal in 2023
- SIPRI’s “Yearbook 2024 Armaments, Disarmament and International Security” report assesses the known arsenals of nuclear states as well as global military development. It once again found that the vast majority of known nuclear weapons are in the possession of America and Russia, but that communist China is making significant efforts to expand and modernize its own arsenal. Notably, the report documented “the first time China is believed to have some warheads on high operational alert” in 2024.
- In its section on North Korea, SIPRI warned that evidence suggests communist dictator Kim Jong-un is “putting new emphasis” on Pyongyang’s nuclear assets.
- North Korea’s 50 warheads were counted alongside a complete global nuclear tally of 12,121 existing warheads as of January 2024. About a third of these – 3,904 – are believed to be actively deployed. Over 90 percent of them belong to Russia – whose leader Vladimir Putin is expected in Pyongyang this week – and America.
- ‘While the global total of nuclear warheads continues to fall as cold war-era weapons are gradually dismantled, regrettably we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads,’ SIPRI Director Dan Smith said in a statement. ‘This trend seems likely to continue and probably accelerate in the coming years and is extremely concerning.”
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Important Takeaways:
- China is almost ready for its war with the West
- Admiral Paparo, Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, recently declared his intention to turn the Taiwan Strait “into an unmanned hellscape” in order to buy time in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The idea was to use “classified capabilities” – likely including surface vessel and long endurance UAVs – to make the lives of Chinese soldiers “utterly miserable for a month”.
- In the meantime, the concern is that while the US is developing combat capabilities in the region, China is building ships at a rapid clip. Paparo has previously noted that while the US is “not overmatched”, he does not “like the pace of the trajectory”.
- With Europe distracted by Russia’s war in Ukraine and American assets diverted by the turmoil in the Middle East, the Chinese Communist Party has perhaps its best ever chance for a successful war of conquest. Xi’s deadline of 2027 for the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan is likely to fall in a period of geopolitical chaos elsewhere.
- Washington knows that it has spread itself increasingly thin, and that this cannot be sustained indefinitely. If it is divided between propping up European countries unprepared to financially commit to the security of their own continent and the Indo-Pacific when China’s preparations for war flip over to the real thing, then it is at serious risk of losing a great power war for the first time.
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Important Takeaways:
- Stoltenberg said nuclear transparency should be the cornerstone of NATO’s nuclear strategy to prepare the alliance for what he described as a more dangerous world.
- A decade ago, when the 65-year-old assumed his role at the top of the bloc, nuclear exercises were conducted in complete secrecy.
- Now he openly praises a number of its 32 allies for contributing to the deterrent, including most recently The Netherlands for investing in dual-capable fighter jets that can host US nuclear weapons.
- “Transparency helps to communicate the direct message that we, of course, are a nuclear alliance,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. “NATO’s aim is, of course, a world without nuclear weapons, but as long as nuclear weapons exist, we will remain a nuclear alliance, because a world where Russia, China and North Korea have nuclear weapons, and NATO does not, is a more dangerous world.”
- He warned that China in particular was investing heavily in modern weaponry including its nuclear arsenal, which he said would grow to 1,000 warheads by as early as 2030.
- Stoltenberg insisted that the US and its European allies were now modernizing their nuclear deterrent in the face of increased threat from Russia.
- The number of operational nuclear weapons is top secret but estimates suggest the UK has about 40 of 225 deployed at any one time. The US has about 1,700 of 3,700.
- France, NATO’s third nuclear power, does not make its atomic arsenal available to the alliance because of a long-held decision to maintain independence over its own deterrence.
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