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By Jonathan Neal

Published: 17:00 EDT, 23 September 2023 | Updated: 20:08 EDT, 23 September 2023

Vladimir Putin today put the world’s most powerful Armageddon nuclear rocket dubbed Satan-2 on combat duty.

The ‘unstoppable’ 15,880mph intercontinental missile system, known to Russians as Sarmat, is the size of a 14-storey tower block.

The announcement came from Yury Borisov, head of the Russian Space Agency.

‘The Sarmat strategic complex has been put on combat duty,’ he told students at an educational event.

He gave no further details.

The 208-ton missile had been due to go on duty at the end of last year but was mysteriously delayed.

Russian propagandists have boasted one strike could sink Britain under the sea.

The move comes as Russia is smarting from setbacks in the war in Ukraine, as Kyiv gains ground and subjects Putin’s territory to increasing drone attacks.

Yet its deployment – if the move is for real – comes after only one proven test launch.

Others were forecast but not announced.

It also comes soon after the Russian Space Agency faced international humiliation over its failed moon mission last month.

Nine months ago Putin threatened: ‘In the near future, Sarmat ICBMs will be put on combat duty for the first time.

‘We know there will be a certain delay in time but this does not change our plans – everything will be done.’

In June he boasted: ‘In the nearest future the first launch pads of Sarmat [Satan-2] with a new heavy missile will be put on combat duty…’

The Armageddon weapon can be loaded with multiple nuclear warheads.

Putin TV propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov – also deputy head of the company running state run Rossiya 1 channel – threatened Britain in revenge for a comment then premier Boris Johnson never made about striking Russia with a nuclear attack.

Downing Street dismissed the claim – widely repeated in Russia’ state media – as ‘another example of disinformation peddled by the Kremlin’, but it continues to be trumpeted in Moscow.

‘The island is so small that one Sarmat missile is enough to drown it once and for all,’ said Kiselyov.

‘Russian missile Sarmat [Satan-2], the world most powerful…is capable of … destroying an area the size of Texas or England.

‘A single launch, Boris, and there is no England anymore.

‘Once and for all.’

The first and only known full-scale test of Satan-2 was announced to great fanfare as soon as it took place on April 20, 2022, with Putin in touch by video-link.

The silo-based Satan-2 launch was from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

The following month, former head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, seen as a close Putin ally, said almost 50 Satan-2 missiles, which were in mass production, would soon be on combat duty.

In early June, a major ICBM test was scheduled and locals near the Kura test range were warned to stay clear of the target site in remote Kamchatka.

But this test never happened.

On 25 June last year Rogozin boasted: ‘We are absolutely on schedule, we are now preparing for the second flight test of the Sarmat.’

The following month Rogozin was fired for unknown reasons with his promised new job yet to arrive.

His successor, ex-deputy premier Borisov, in July 2022 repeated the claim that the missile is in mass production without reiterating Putin’s goal of Satan-2 being on combat duty by December of last year.

Defence analysts suspecting hypersonic hyperbole pointed out that Russia’s R-36M2 Voevoda missile was tested no less than 17 times before it was put on combat duty.

Some experts will doubt the reality of today’s announcement.

Another missile – RT-2PM Topol – was tested a dozen times before deployment.

‘In this context, the truth of the terms bandied about by Rogozin — that Sarmat is in [serial] production and is soon to be placed on ‘combat duty’ — appear dubious,’ defence expert Leonid Nersisyan has said.

‘It is far likelier that Sarmat will undergo the same testing, prototyping and experimentation programme as its predecessors,’ he wrote in Shephard Media.

‘Actual acceptance of the ICBM into service with the Strategic Missile Forces …is hardly achievable by 2024.’

More than a year ago, Rogozin visited the Krasmash defence factory in Krasnoyarsk, in eastern Siberia, which he labelled the ‘Doomsday Plant’, to inspect the process of producing Satan-2 for flight tests.

The missile was rolled out into a forest for the cameras – and sabre-rattling Rogozin said: ‘The world’s most powerful global-range nuclear-tipped missile is being prepared for new tests.’

Yet there is no evidence these tests happened.

The US House of Representatives approved a new anti-robocall bill by a nearly unanimous vote.

Called the TRACED Act, this law will penalize scammers and require phone carries to block robocalls and ensure all incoming calls are from real numbers.

The bill comes after complaints came pouring in about the scams, as more than 49 billion robocalls were placed just this year – 5.6 billion occurred in November alone.

The TRACE ACT, short for Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, was approved by a 417-3 vote and sponsored by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr, a democrat from New Jersey.

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Pallone said on the House floor Wednesday: ‘Today the House will take strong bipartisan action to protect consumers from illegal robocalls.’

‘A whopping 5.6 billion robocalls were made to Americans in November alone.’ 

‘Today, the House is giving Americans back control of their phones.’

Representatives Justin Amash (I-Mich.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) were the three votes against passing the bill, as reported by The Hill.

Massie worried that the law would give the Federal Communications Commission ‘too much authority.’

The summary of the bill reads: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) shall promulgate rules establishing when a provider may block a voice call based on information provided by the call authentication framework, but also must establish a process to permit a calling party adversely affected by the framework to verify the authenticity of their calls.’

‘The FCC shall also initiate a rulemaking to help protect a subscriber from receiving unwanted calls or texts from a caller using an unauthenticated number.’

‘This bill requires the Department of Justice and the FCC to assemble an interagency working group to study and report to Congress on the enforcement of the prohibition of certain robocalls.’

‘Specifically, the working group will look into how to better enforce against robocalls by examining issues like the types of laws, policies, or constraints that could be inhibiting enforcement.’

Cell phone carries will be required to block all robocalls under the new law and do so for customers free of charge.

It will give government regulators more time to find scammers and penalize them more harshly than ever before

The FCC will also be tasked with providing reports to Congress about what measures are in place to take down illegal scamming operations and oversee a group of companies that will determine where the calls are coming from.

In addition, the act would push the Department of Justice to take action against Many carriers, such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, are on board with the new bill and plan to provide customers with tools to block the calls and will implement call-blocking technology at no extra cost.

The bill is supported by the Senate, making it likely, according to The Hill, reach President Trump’s hands by the end of the year.

 

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By Gina Kalsi For Mailonline

Published: 02:29 EDT, 23 June 2023 | Updated: 03:45 EDT, 26 June 2023

A Chinese language uncrewed fight plane has flown round Taiwan, the island’s defence ministry stated, showcasing Beijing’s capacity to assault its fall-back east coast bases, as a U.S. maritime patrol plane transited the Taiwan Strait.

China, which views democratically ruled Taiwan as its personal territory, has elevated army stress on the island over the previous three years because it tries to drive Taipei to simply accept its sovereignty declare.

This month, China staged conflict video games round Taiwan after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen met U.S. Home of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.

Taiwan’s defence ministry, in an early Friday replace of Chinese language army actions over the earlier 24 hours, stated 38 army plane had entered the island’s air defence identification zone.

A type of was a TB-001 drone, nicknamed the twin-tailed scorpion, which flew round Taiwan, first crossing the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan from the Philippines, then up the east of Taiwan earlier than crossing again towards the Chinese language coast, based on a map supplied by the ministry.

It was noticed between 6 am (1000 GMT) Thursday and 6 am Friday.

Chieh Chung, a army researcher at Taiwan’s Nationwide Coverage Basis suppose tank, stated that in a conflict, China was prone to ship the TB-001 to identify targets on the island’s east coast, the place Taiwan would shelter reserve forces, as bases there don’t face China.

‘It should enable the communist’s army’s naval and air forces within the Western Pacific, together with air drive strike teams or service battle teams, to launch assaults’ on the east coast, he stated.

He added that it was not the primary time a Chinese language drone has flown round Taiwan, however was most probably to first time it did so fully inside Taiwan’s air defence zone.

Chinese language state media has referred to the TB-001 because the ‘twin-tailed scorpion’ and has proven footage of it carrying missiles, saying it’s able to high-altitude, long-range missions.

China’s air drive has flown what it calls ‘island encirclement’ missions with the crewed, nuclear-capable H-6 bomber.

The tensions round Taiwan have alarmed Washington and its allies, which have repeatedly expressed concern at China’s behaviour and known as for no pressured change in the established order.

A U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance plane flew by way of the Taiwan Strait on Friday, and a senior French lawmaker confirmed a warship from his nation had lately transited the delicate waterway.

The US, and sometimes its allies, have routinely despatched warships and plane by way of the Taiwan Strait lately.

The U.S. Navy’s seventh Fleet stated the Poseidon flew in worldwide airspace.

‘By working throughout the Taiwan Strait in accordance with worldwide legislation, the USA upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations,’ it stated in a press release. ‘The plane’s transit of the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the USA’ dedication to a free and open Indo-Pacific.’

China’s army stated it monitored the plane, and accused the USA of provocative behaviour within the strait.

China stated final 12 months that it has sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait, and stated it was ‘a false declare’ to check with the strait as worldwide waters.

The US and Taiwan each say China’s place isn’t right.

Assembly Tsai at her workplace in Taipei on Friday, a French lawmaker and former defence minister stated sending a warship by way of the strait confirmed his nation’s dedication to safety.

‘I wish to inform you that our parliament’s view is that the safety of Taiwan is a vital concern for us and we’re encouraging our authorities to remain alert on safety within the Strait, because the latest passage of our warship has once more demonstrated,’ French Senate Vice President Alain Richard stated.

He didn’t say when the crusing occurred, and neither the French nor Taiwanese governments has formally confirmed particulars. Taiwan’s defence ministry stated this month it was conscious of the transit.

French President Emmanuel Macron lately warned in opposition to being drawn right into a disaster over Taiwan pushed by an ‘American rhythm and a Chinese language overreaction’.