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@ISIDEWITH submitted…4hrs4H
China’s likely strategy is to overwhelm Taiwan with a massive attack with little warning, Paparo said. Xi doesn’t want to repeat Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mistake in Ukraine in 2022, when Russia’s initial full-scale invasion failed and devolved into a long war of attrition.The key to thwarting Xi’s assumed strategy is a U.S. strategy called “Hellscape,” Paparo told me. The idea is that as soon as China’s invasion fleet begins moving across the 100-mile waterway that separates China and Taiwan, the U.S. military would deploy thousands of unmanned submarines, unmanned surface ships and aerial drones to flood the area and give Taiwanese, U.S. and partner forces time to mount a full response.“I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities,” Paparo said. “So that I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything.”There are some public signs the Hellscape plan is making progress. In March, the Defense Department announced it would spend $1 billion on a program called “Replicator” to build swarms of unmanned surface ships and aerial drones for this very mission. Paparo said the Replicator program shows that the United States is also learning lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war, where Ukraine has innovated with drone technology.
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@ISIDEWITH submitted…8hrs8H
The economy, migration and international conflicts were the top concerns for voters in the European Union election, data from the bloc's biggest member countries suggested on Monday.Provisional results in the European Parliament election on Sunday night showed gains for nationalist and euro-sceptic parties that campaigned on tickets including clamp-downs on migration, citizens' economic woes and scrapping green policies.Improving the economy and reducing inflation ranked highest among citizens asked what was the most important thing influencing their vote, in a survey by polling platform Focaldata, shared with Reuters.International conflict and war was the second most important concern, followed by immigration and asylum seekers, in the poll of 6,000 citizens in the EU's five biggest countries by population - Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland - plus Sweden.
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The cost of owning a home in the United States has increased 26 per cent since 2020, as expenses including taxes, insurance and utilities all soared during a period of high inflation across the economy.The average annual outlay for owning and maintaining a typical single-family home — not including mortgage payments — totalled US$18,118 in March, the personal finance website Bankrate found. That works out to US$1,510 a month more than four years earlier, when pandemic lockdowns began.The calculation is based on Redfin’s March median sales price of US$436,291.“It was really eye-opening to see just how much it costs to maintain a home,” said Jeff Ostrowski, an analyst at Bankrate. “Until you own a house, it doesn’t dawn on you how much money you’re throwing into the house every month and year.”In its analysis, Bankrate factored in property taxes, home insurance, energy costs, internet and cable bills, and 2 per cent of the sales price for maintenance — expenses many buyers tend to underestimate.Home maintenance accounted for the largest share of ownership costs in Bankrate’s findings, so states where purchase prices rose dramatically through the pandemic saw bigger percentage jumps in overall outlays. Property levies were the second-largest piece of the equation in high-tax states such as New Jersey and Connecticut. In others, energy bills came in second.
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@CynicalTradeTarifffrom Illinois submitted…8hrs8H
Israel has for years struck militant groups backed by arch-foe Iran in Syria and elsewhere, in a low-level campaign that burst into open confrontation after Israel and Palestinian group Hamas - another Iranian ally - went to war in Gaza on Oct. 7.Israel has since killed dozens of Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and Hezbollah officers in Syria, from just two last year before the Oct. 7 attack, according to a tally by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank.'A June 2 air raid that killed 18 people, including an adviser with Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, targeted a clandestine, fortified weapons site near Aleppo, three of the sources said. In May, an air strike hit a convoy of trucks headed to Lebanon carrying missile parts and another raid killed Hezbollah operatives, four said.
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“So Hezbollah has thousands of rockets they are routinely firing at Israel? and have amassed troops at the border... and…”
More armed conflicts took place worldwide in 2023 than any other year since the end of the Second World War, according to a Norwegian study published Monday.Last year saw 59 conflicts of which 28 were in Africa, the the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO) showed.But the number of countries which experienced conflicts declined from 39 in 2022 to 34.The number of deaths in combat also halved to around 122,000 over the previous year, according to data collected by Sweden's Uppsala University from NGOs and international organisations.That number remained nonetheless the third highest since 1989, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement."Violence in the world is at an all-time high since the end of the Cold War," said Siri Aas Rustad, PRIO researcher and the main author of the report covering trends during the period 1946-2023."The figures suggest that the conflict landscape has become increasingly complex, with more conflict actors operating within the same country," she explained.
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@DecimalPeacock from Florida submitted…7hrs7H
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Lets cut the bull **** - The PM of Canada Justin Trudeau knew China was manipulating elections in his favour while Justin…
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@PearTrinity from Minnesota commented…7hrs7H
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