The White House: The threat concerns Russian anti-satellite capabilities
The national security threat that was raised yesterday in the US Congress concerns a Russian "anti-satellite capability", says National Security Council spokesman John Kirby according to Reuters.
- It is not an active ability and it has not yet been put into use. The US has long known about this capability.
He does not go into detail about what it is, but says that there is no immediate danger and that it is not something that could cause harm to the Earth.
President Biden has taken steps to inform Congress and establish diplomatic contacts with Russia, Kirby adds.
Yesterday, sources told ABC News that the threat is about Russia wanting to place nuclear weapons in space in order to attack targets in space.
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Kremlin on space nuclear weapons: "A trick of the White House"
Kremlin condemns US warnings about Russian nuclear weapons in space. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov calls it "another trick" by the White House, Reuters reports with reference to Russian state media.
It was yesterday that the chairman of the US intelligence committee, Mike Turner, sounded the alarm about a "serious threat to national security". According to sources for ABC News, it was about Russia wanting to place nuclear weapons in space.
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NATO's future
Trump repeats NATO threat: No money - no protection
Donald Trump repeated his threat not to protect NATO countries that are below the two percent target during a campaign meeting in South Carolina last night, writes The Guardian.
- Look, if they don't pay, we won't provide protection, okay? said the ex-president.
He added that the NATO countries that do not spend enough money on defense are "laughing at America's stupidity".
Over the weekend, Trump said that as president he would urge Russia to "do whatever the hell they want" with NATO countries that don't pay enough.
The statement attracted a lot of attention, not least in Europe, and started a debate about the extent to which European countries can rely on military support from the United States in the future.
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Analysis: For Trump, market price applies for protection
Donald Trump does not see the world in an ideological light - defending democracies in distant countries is not that important to him, writes Juri von Bonsdorff in Hufvudstadsbladet.
Both bilateral and multilateral relations are pure business for Trump, he continues.
"If any country wants to come under the protective wings of the United States, you have to pay the market price for it. Everything else Trump sees as a blow and he cannot tolerate that.”
European leaders are beginning to realize that even if Trump loses the election, the days when large aid packages for Ukraine sailed through the US Congress are over, write Steven Erlanger and David E Sanger for the New York Times.
"This means that Europe, whose future commitments to Ukraine are already greater than Washington's, will likely have to spend much more on its own defense and prepare for a potentially reduced US role in NATO."
However, it is unlikely that Europe can replace the United States as guarantor of its security in the near term, they continue.
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