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Ukraine’s bridgehead across the Dnipro River expanded but probably still isn’t a major advance. A lot depends on what the Russian military does or does not do about it.
The post Ukraine’s Dnipro River Crossing Operation Widens, Kremlin Sources Say Bridgehead Will Be Crushed first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
One unverified Telegram post alleging Putin had a “heart attack” while dining in his Kremlin apartment sent the blogosphere and the world’s tabloids into a frenzied tailspin of unfounded speculation.
The post Putin’s ‘Cardiac Arrest’ and Social Media’s Snowball Effect first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
Russian women are being recruited by the Kremlin-linked private military company Redut via social media as snipers and UAV operators in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
The post Russian Army Attempts Recruiting Women in War Against Ukraine first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
Notable Ukrainians greeted the 12th Ukrainian World Congress, including spy chief Kyrylo Budanov, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, the leaders of the Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic churches, and more.
The post Ukrainian World Congress Elects President and New Board of Directors first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
Futures tracking Wall Street’s main indexes gained on Tuesday as a selloff in U.S. Treasuries eased a day after the benchmark 10-year yield crossed 5%, while investors assessed earnings from General Electric, Coca-Cola and other companies.
General Electric (GE.N) jumped 6.4% in premarket trading after the aircraft engine manufacturer raised its full-year profit forecast.
General Motors (GM.N) added 1.5% after beating third-quarter profit estimates, while 3M (MMM.N) gained 4.1% after raising its full-year adjusted profit forecast.
Coca-Cola (KO.N) advanced 1.6% after raising its annual sales forecast.
The yield on the 10-year note was last at 4.8631%, after rising above the 5% mark in the previous session.
“It is too soon to call a directional shift lower in yields and instead we could settle in a range between 4.50% and 5% for the 10-yr until incoming data challenges the readjustment,” strategists at Societe Generale said in a note.
“The shift is not driven by new macro insights from the data on the economy or Fed policy and therefore urges caution.”
Megacaps including Apple (AAPL.O), Tesla (TSLA.O), Meta Platforms (META.O) and Amazon.com (AMZN.O) rose between 0.3% and 2.2%.
U.S. technology giants are expected to post their strongest quarterly revenue growth in at least a year as their legacy businesses stabilized, with Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O) scheduled to report results after markets close on Tuesday.
Of the 86 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 78% have topped analysts’ expectations, LSEG data showed. Overall, third-quarter earnings are expected to rise 1.2% year-on-year.
The benchmark index has fallen sharply from its July highs on worries the Federal Reserve could keep its monetary policy restrictive for longer than expected against the backdrop of a still-strong economy, though the index is up nearly 10% this year as of last close.
The S&P 500 (.SPX) and the Dow (.DJI) ended lower on Monday, while the Nasdaq (.IXIC) managed to eke out gains as Nvidia (NVDA.O) and Microsoft climbed.
On the data front, investors will closely monitor S&P Global’s manufacturing and services Purchasing Managers’ Index to assess the strength of the American economy.
The Commerce Department will announce third-quarter GDP on Thursday, which is seen accelerating to 4.3%. Its wide-ranging Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report, due on Friday, is expected to show PCE slipping to 3.4% in September from 3.5% the month before.
The turmoil in the Middle East is also focus as Israel intensified its assault on Hamas in Gaza.
At 6:58 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 143 points, or 0.43%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 22.25 points, or 0.52%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 86.5 points, or 0.59%.
Nvidia (NVDA.O) rose 1.5% after Reuters reported the chip giant had quietly begun designing central processing units that would run Microsoft’s Windows operating system and use technology from Arm Holdings .
Arm was up 2.6% while Intel (INTC.O) was down 0.5%.
Crypto-linked stocks rose for a second consecutive session as Bitcoin jumped to a more than one-year high, lifting shares of Coinbase (COIN.O), Riot Platforms (RIOT.O) and Marathon Digital (MARA.O) between 7.7% and 13.5%.
The post Futures advance as Treasury yields take a breather; earnings in focus first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
Kremlin: Putin is alive and well, not using body doubles
The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected speculation about President Vladimir Putin‘s health, saying he was fit and well.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in a regular call with reporters, also denied suggestions that the president was using body doubles, calling that an “absurd hoax.”
Reporters asked Peskov about Putin’s health following an unsourced report by a Russian Telegram channel, picked up by some Western media, that the president had suffered a serious health episode on Sunday evening.
Putin, a judo enthusiast who has long cultivated an “action man” image, turned 71 on Oct. 7. He maintains an intensive schedule of meetings and public appearances, many of them televised.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China, October 18, 2023. (credit: Sputnik/Sergei Guneev/Pool via REUTERS)
His recent program included a visit to China last week, with stop-offs in two Russian cities on the way back.
In a 2020 interview, Putin denied longstanding rumors that he uses body doubles, although he said he had been offered the chance to use one in the past for security reasons.
In April this year, Peskov said talk of body doubles was “yet another lie” and that Putin was in enviable health.
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The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected speculation about President Vladimir Putin‘s health, saying he was fit and well.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in a regular call with reporters, also denied suggestions that the president was using body doubles, calling that an “absurd hoax.”
Reporters asked Peskov about Putin’s health following an unsourced report by a Russian Telegram channel, picked up by some Western media, that the president had suffered a serious health episode on Sunday evening.
Putin, a judo enthusiast who has long cultivated an “action man” image, turned 71 on Oct. 7. He maintains an intensive schedule of meetings and public appearances, many of them televised.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China, October 18, 2023. (credit: Sputnik/Sergei Guneev/Pool via REUTERS)
His recent program included a visit to China last week, with stop-offs in two Russian cities on the way back.
In a 2020 interview, Putin denied longstanding rumors that he uses body doubles, although he said he had been offered the chance to use one in the past for security reasons.
In April this year, Peskov said talk of body doubles was “yet another lie” and that Putin was in enviable health.
The post Kremlin: Putin is alive and well, not using body doubles first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
The German chancellor expressed support for Egypt’s efforts to mediate in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Egypt on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Israel and Gaza with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Scholz said he wanted to support Egypt’s efforts to mediate in the conflict and discussed opening a humanitarian corridor to Gaza as quickly as possible.
“Together with Egypt, we want to work to alleviate the terrible consequences of the war,” the German chancellor said.
El-Sissi said that Egypt did not close the Rafah border crossing, which aid convoys have not been able to cross in days.
Before heading to Egypt, Scholz visited Israel in a show of solidarity after the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules Gaza. Hamas is deemed a terrorist group by Germany, the United States, the European Union and several Arab states.
After meeting with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Scholz pledged to help free hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas as well as to help humanitarian aid reach Palestinians in Gaza.
Several German citizens are among the foreign nationals being held hostage by Hamas. Scholz met with some of their families while in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
Scholz also backed efforts by Egypt to mediate in the conflict.
“Together with Egypt, we want to work to alleviate the terrible consequences of the war,” the German chancellor said.
Aid vehicles waiting near the Egypt-Gaza borderImage: REUTERS
El-Sissi said Egypt did not close the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, where aid convoys have been held up for days, and instead said it was not operating due to being bombarded.
The Egyptian president also said he did not want to see Palestinians expelled from Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula, which he said would then be turned into a launching ground for “terrorist attacks” against Israel.
“We are rejecting the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and the expulsion of Palestinians to Sinai,” el-Sissi added.
zc/wmr (Reuters, AFP, epd, KNA)
The post Germany’s Scholz in Egypt to discuss Israel-Hamas war – DW – 10/18/2023 first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
Some of the ways in which Hamas initially attacked Israel over the weekend — taking down communication towers with improvised explosives, paragliding over the border and gunning down civilians — subverted one of Israel’s strongest defenses: its Iron Dome.
First deployed in 2011, the Iron Dome is a network of radar detectors and missile launchers that work together to intercept incoming rockets.
The highly sophisticated, multibillion-dollar defense system has been under constant redevelopment since its inception in the early 2000s.
Here’s how it works, who funds it and why we don’t see it in other parts of the world.
The Iron Dome is a mobile air defense system designed to protect against short-range rockets. It was conceived in the early 2000s and became operational in 2011.
Three parts make it work, says Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
First, there’s the radar. When a rocket is launched into Israel, the system detects it and collects data on its flight path.
Second, that information is sent to a computer that calculates where that rocket is going.
“For rockets and artillery, for ballistic missiles, it’s pretty predictable. So if you see something traveling on a particular arc, you kind of know where it’s going to be going on the rest of its trajectory. You also know where it’s going to end up,” Karako told NPR.
Third, if the system calculates that the rocket is going to land in a populated area or a place of strategic importance, it activates the last piece of the system — the launcher — which fires Tamir interceptors to collide with the rocket midair.
“If a rocket’s going off course and is just going to land in the Negev desert, they’re just going to let that one go,” Karako explained.
The system is expensive — each missile it launches costs about $40,000 to $50,000 — and the U.S. has poured billions of dollars into its development and maintenance (more on that in a moment).
More than 5,000 rockets have been launched into Israel since the attacks from Hamas began Saturday, according to the Israeli military, which says the Iron Dome successfully neutralized most of them.
In the past, the Israel Defense Forces has said the Iron Dome’s success rate is about 90% to 97% in its capacity to seek out and protect civilians from incoming weapons.
And as Karako explains, the aim of the Iron Dome isn’t necessarily perfection.
“The Iron Dome, in particular, is kind of the poster child for the ‘good enough’ high success rate,” he said.
“Their approach to acquisition has been not the most exquisite and most expensive interceptor, for the perfect interceptor rate — but rather, large quantities of interceptors that are lower cost and good enough to get after the threats.”
Development for the Iron Dome began in Israel in 2006, in response to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The project was spearheaded by RAFAEL Advanced Defense Systems, a state-run defense firm that would spend the next five years fine-tuning the technology. The U.S. has invested nearly $3 billion into its launchers, interceptors and general maintenance, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
And there is likely more U.S. aid in the pipeline, with President Biden saying on Tuesday that the federal government is “surging additional military assistance, including ammunition and interceptors to replenish Iron Dome.”
In addition to Biden’s pledge, a group of U.S. lawmakers in the House introduced a bipartisan bill this week that would appropriate an additional $2 billion to help bolster the Iron Dome.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., said the move would be “critical to increasing American security assistance for Israel’s missile defense system, which is saving millions of innocent lives.”
Thanks in part to the investment and collaboration with Israel on the Iron Dome, the U.S. has two Iron Dome batteries.
The Ukrainian government has made a number of requests for Israeli-made defense systems — including the Iron Dome — since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Israeli Knesset in March 2022, stating: “Everyone in Israel knows that your missile defense is the best … and you can definitely help us protect our lives, the lives of Ukrainians, the lives of Ukrainian Jews.”
Yet in June of this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that Israel would not be sharing technology or insight on its missile defense system with Ukraine, citing concerns that “if that system were to fall in the hands of Iran, then millions of Israelis would be left defenseless and imperiled.”
But Karako says Israel’s exclusive use of this technology could change.
“There are other countries in Europe and elsewhere in the world that are certainly looking at this … for its relatively lower cost, for its sooner availability and for its proven record.”
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
The German chancellor expressed support for Egypt’s efforts to mediate in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in Egypt on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Israel and Gaza with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Scholz said he wanted to support Egypt’s efforts to mediate in the conflict and discussed opening a humanitarian corridor to Gaza as quickly as possible.
“Together with Egypt, we want to work to alleviate the terrible consequences of the war,” the German chancellor said.
El-Sissi said that Egypt did not close the Rafah border crossing, which aid convoys have not been able to cross in days.
Before heading to Egypt, Scholz visited Israel in a show of solidarity after the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules Gaza. Hamas is deemed a terrorist group by Germany, the United States, the European Union and several Arab states.
After meeting with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Scholz pledged to help free hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas as well as to help humanitarian aid reach Palestinians in Gaza.
Several German citizens are among the foreign nationals being held hostage by Hamas. Scholz met with some of their families while in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
Scholz also backed efforts by Egypt to mediate in the conflict.
“Together with Egypt, we want to work to alleviate the terrible consequences of the war,” the German chancellor said.
Aid vehicles waiting near the Egypt-Gaza borderImage: REUTERS
El-Sissi said Egypt did not close the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, where aid convoys have been held up for days, and instead said it was not operating due to being bombarded.
The Egyptian president also said he did not want to see Palestinians expelled from Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula, which he said would then be turned into a launching ground for “terrorist attacks” against Israel.
“We are rejecting the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and the expulsion of Palestinians to Sinai,” el-Sissi added.
zc/wmr (Reuters, AFP, epd, KNA)
The post 6:41 AM 10/24/2023 – Here’s how Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ stops rockets — and why Ukraine doesn’t have it … Germany’s Scholz in Egypt to discuss Israel-Hamas war – DW first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
The battle for a huge slag heap in the town of Avdiivka continues with Russian forces advancing but unable to hold their positions due to intense Ukrainian artillery fire.
The post Russia Advances Near Avdiivka, but Suffers ‘Significant Losses’ first appeared on The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com.
