Putin hails Russia's test launch of new ICBM known as Satan II, calls it "most powerful missile in the world"

Putin hails Russia's test launch of new ICBM known as Satan II, calls it "most powerful missile in the world" 

CBS/AP

Russia on Tuesday test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile as part of efforts to modernize the country's nuclear forces, a launch hailed by President Vladimir Putin just days after his claim that the fighting in Ukraine is nearing an end.

Putin said that the nuclear-armed Sarmat missile would enter combat service at the end of the year. It was built to replace the aging Soviet-built Voyevoda.

"This is the most powerful missile in the world," Putin declared, claiming that the combined power of the Sarmat's individually targeted warheads is more than four times higher than that of any Western counterpart.

The Russian leader has repeatedly brandished the nuclear sword after sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022 to try to deter the West from ramping up support for Ukraine.

Since coming to power in 2000, Putin has overseen efforts to upgrade the Soviet-built components of the Russian nuclear triad - deploying hundreds of new, land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, commissioning new nuclear submarines and modernizing nuclear-capable bombers.

Russia's effort to revamp its nuclear forces pushed the United States to launch a costly modernization of its arsenal.

The Sarmat — designated "Satan II" by NATO — is meant to replace about 40 Soviet-built Voyevoda missiles. Its development began in 2011 and before now, the missile had only one known successful test and reportedly suffered a massive explosion during an abortive test in 2024. A satellite image analyzed by CBS News at the time showed a large crater and remnants of a possible explosion on a launchpad at Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. 

The Sarmat is classified as a "heavy" ICBM and is capable of carrying up to 10 tons in payload, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Missile Defense Project.

Putin said Tuesday that the Sarmat — part of a slew of new weapons that Putin revealed in 2018, claiming they would render any prospective U.S. missile defenses useless — is as powerful as the Voyevoda but with a higher precision. It is capable of suborbital flight, he said, giving it a range of more than 21,700 miles and an extended capability to penetrate any prospective missile defenses.

Moscow's new weapons include the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound. The first vehicles have already entered service.

Russia has also commissioned the new nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, and used its conventionally-armed version twice to strike Ukraine. Oreshnik's range of up to 3,100 miles makes it capable of reaching any target in Europe.

Putin also announced Russia was in the "final stages" of the development of the nuclear-armed Poseidon underwater drone and the Burevestnik cruise missile powered by miniature atomic reactors. The Poseidon is designed to explode near enemy coastlines and cause a radioactive tsunami. The Burevestnik has virtually unlimited range thanks to nuclear propulsion, allowing it to loiter for days, circling air defenses and attacking from an unexpected direction.

Trump's Board of Peace: Is Globalism Being Undermined, Supercharged, or Re-imagined?

Trump's Board of Peace: Is Globalism Being Undermined, Supercharged, or Re-imagined?

Alex Newman

With the emergence of a powerful new global organization dubbed the “Board of Peace,” Americans and people everywhere are asking some big questions. Is globalism being undermined, super-charged, or given a makeover? What will happen to it after President Donald Trump? Will it truly bring peace? Is it even legal or constitutional?

The details are still being ironed out, it seems. But the Board of Peace — launched with much fanfare just months ago — continues to make headlines worldwide. Its first big project: Turning Gaza into what supporters say will be a model of peace and prosperity even as critics are slamming the plan as a prototype for future technocratic 15-minute cities.

American taxpayers have already been hit with some big bills. The State Department quietly transferred $1.25 billion to the new body. And President Trump has pledged a staggering $10 billion in U.S. support, without any hint of congressional approval. The organization is hard at work, mostly behind closed doors. And it has a lot of money.

But it is also drawing criticism and skepticism. Author and researcher Patrick Wood, one of the world’s top experts on technocracy, is among those sounding the alarm. From legal concerns to criticism of the structure and the people involved, Wood argued last month that the Board of Peace was an illegitimate institution aimed at building world order by undermining national sovereignty piece by piece.

Wood said: “Its scope is unlimited. Its chairman is permanent. Its legal basis is fabricated. Its headquarters is a seized building whose ownership is contested in federal court. Its operating capital is money stripped from disaster relief funds without a vote of Congress. Its operational staff comes from the Chairman’s son-in-law’s personal network. And it was launched beneath the Great Seal of the United States — the one symbol that tells the world: this is official, this is legitimate, this is America.”

Details of the Board of Peace

While almost 30 governments have joined as full members, many key U.S. allies are sitting on the sidelines for now. Inaugural meetings have wrapped up, praise from allies in the Middle East is flowing, and optimistic statements from administration officials paint a picture of hope for a region and a world long plagued by conflict.

President Trump, who is serving as the board’s inaugural chairman and potentially chairman for life “independent of his presidency of the United States,” has hailed the outfit as “one of the most consequential bodies ever created.” In his words, it offers “the first steps toward a brighter day for the Middle East and a much safer future for the world.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed that sentiment, crediting Trump’s “vision and courage” for achieving what many thought “impossible.” Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and others have spoken of hostages returned, hope restored, and a chance to apply free-market principles to give Gazans dignity and opportunity rather than endless aid dependency and perpetual war.

Even Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, dubbed “Special Envoy for Peace” as he co-leads aspects of the Gaza effort and serves in multiple key roles in the administration’s Middle East policy, has emphasized shifting from 85 percent aid-driven GDP to real economic activities. Kushner ally and associate Aryeh Lightstone is one of the primary players involved in the new outfit.

On the surface, this sounds like classic “America First”/“Make America Great Again” leadership: bold, results-oriented action to end decades of suffering without dragging the United States into another forever war. It’s already making all the right people mad. Jacobin magazine was outraged at what it called the “board of naked power.” And no one can deny the appeal of practical efforts for peace after decades of failed globalist interventions, power-hungry international bureaucracies, and endless neoconservative wars.

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Nuclear Debt Bomb: U.S. Debt Reaches Red Zone — 100% of GDP

Nuclear Debt Bomb: U.S. Debt Reaches Red Zone — 100% of GDP

Selwyn Duke

For decades, there would be much talk among politicians about United States budget deficits (and the national debt). Yet this faded sometime after 2010, at the latest, after which our debt achieved elephant-in-the-room status. It’s perhaps just too scary or inconvenient — when you want or are promising free stuff — to discuss. Regardless, what just happened is discussion-worthy. To wit:

U.S. public debt has reached 100 percent of GDP for just the second time (first was during the Covid pandemic) since the WWII-era. We’re now in league with debtor nations such as Greece, Italy, France, and Canada.

Fox News reported on the story recently, writing:

The national debt held by the public reached $31.27 trillion as of March 31, while nominal gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated at $31.22 trillion for the 12-month period ending in March.

 

That pushed the debt held by the public as a percentage of GDP above 100%, meaning that the public debt is now larger than the size of the U.S. economy. Public debt as a share of GDP is a measure preferred by economists in assessing a country’s government debt burden because it excludes debt held in government accounts.

 

With the latest data showing the public debt eclipsing the size of the U.S. economy, the federal government is quickly approaching the all-time record debt to GDP percentage of 106%, which was set in 1946 as the U.S. was in the process of demobilizing after the end of World War II.

 

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a 10-year budget and economic outlook earlier this year that projected the U.S. will break the post-WWII record in 2030 with the debt held by the public estimated at 108% that year. A decade from now, debt held by the public as a share of GDP is projected to reach 120%.

 

Making the budget picture even worse, the CBO estimates that the debt held by the public is expected to grow faster than U.S. GDP as projected in the years ahead, which could have far-reaching implications for the nation’s fiscal and economic outlook.

 

Regarding these implications, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget explained April 30:

The higher we allow our debt to grow, the more we erode our own prosperity and that of future generations. Rising debt compromises affordability by slowing income growth, pushing up interest rates, and increasing inflationary pressures. Debt squeezes our budgets with massive interest costs. It exposes us needlessly to challenges from geopolitical rivals. And without corrective action, rising debt could spark a devastating fiscal crisis.

What’s more, the United States’ unfunded liabilities — projected obligations (e.g., Social Security) minus projected revenue — are now $88.4 trillion. (This is more than twice our $39 trillion national debt. Note, too, that some unfunded-liability estimates are higher still.) This is, of course, much as if I owe you $1 million but my projected future earnings are only $400,000. You’d be right to assume you’ll never see most or even all of that money.

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WEF’s Polycrisis: The rhetoric follows the plan

WEF’s Polycrisis: The rhetoric follows the plan

Rhoda Wilson

Former BlackRock fund manager Ed Dowd recently joined the Coffee and a Mike Show... During the discussion, he highlighted that the World Economic Forum has been promoting the idea of a “polycrisis” for years.

The clip in the tweet above is taken from a discussion with Michael Farris and Dave Collum  uploaded on to Rumble on 10 May 2026.  You can watch the full video HERE.  In the clip, Dowd said:

“Well, let’s go back to what the WEF told us two, three years ago in a paper called ‘Polycrisis’. So, you know, first of all, none of us knew who the WEF was before CV. They had a coming out party with like, you know, Bond-like villains, Harari and Schwab.

“So these Bond villains come out and tell us about the Great Reset. Then they start talking about the next problem is the “polycrisis.” And they said cyberattacks, another pandemic and war. What do we have now? We got Bessent talking about AI could steal your money from the bank. You got war, you got a hantavirus, and let’s just toss in aliens as a distraction on top of that.

“Yeah, you need people begging for money printing. So that’s where – so you cannot just print money out – and say we’re going to print a bunch of money. You need an excuse, and covid was a perfect excuse.”

Polycrisis Meets A New Competitive Order

There appears to be no paper titled ‘Polycrisis’ as Dowd had mentioned.  The World Economic Forum (“WEF”) propagated the term “polycrisis” in its 2023 Global Risks Report.

According to the Institute of Development Studies (“IDS”), “the term ‘polycrisis’ was popularised by Columbia University academic Adam Tooze, and in early 2023 the World Economic Forum followed suit by warning in its annual Global Risks Report that the world was on the brink of a polycrisis in relation to ‘shortages in natural resources such as food, water, and metals and minerals’.”

While reading IDS’ article, it’s worth noting that IDS is not as “independent” as it claims.

IDS is located at and has close links with the University of Sussex.  And, “The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the Institute’s largest funder. IDS also receives funds from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the European Union, various UN agencies and a wide range of aid agencies, trusts and foundations,” IDS says.

Related:

• We’re on the brink of a polycrisis. How worried should we be? World Economic Forum, 13 January 2023
• This is why ‘polycrisis’ is a useful way of looking at the world right now, World Economic Forum, 7 March 2023
• Welcome to the age of the polycrisis: the Global Risks Report 2023, World Economic Forum, 11 January 2024

We highlighted WEF’s dystopian Global Risk Report 2023 in an article titled ‘Davos 2023: Referring to The Great Reset is out but censorship, hypocrisy and god complexes are still in’.  We wrote that “the report has the expected alarmism, fear-mongering, hysterical narratives and predictions of chaos and collapse.  The authors even managed to link climate change to terrorism.”

All WEF’s alarmism is summed up in a table of risks ranked by WEF in order of severity priority.  Here is the top 20 from the table for 2023:

Ursula von der Leyen referred to WEF’s table of risks during her speech at WEF’s annual meeting in Davos in 2024.  She referred to the table of 10 risks produced in WEF’s Global Risks Report 2024:

In its 2026 Global Risks Report, WEF boasted, “Three years ago, the 18th edition of the Global Risks Report considered the possibility of a ‘polycrisis’, as risks from multiple domains unfold at the same time. This 21st edition of the Global Risks Report explores how a new competitive order is taking shape and its impact across multiple concurrent risk domains.”

So, it seems they have now combined a ‘polycrisis’ with a “new competitive order.”

Here is the same table, adjusted for WEF’s new severity priority ranking for 2026:

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Saudi Arabia launched secret attacks on Iran during Middle East war

Saudi Arabia launched secret attacks on Iran during Middle East war

REUTERS

Saudi Arabia launched numerous, unpublicized strikes on Iran in retaliation for attacks carried out in the kingdom during the Middle East war, two Western officials briefed on the matter, and two Iranian officials said.

The Saudi attacks, not previously reported, mark the first time that the kingdom is known to have directly carried out military action on Iranian soil and show it is becoming much bolder in defending itself against its main regional rival.

The attacks, launched by the Saudi Air Force, were assessed to have been carried out in late March, the two Western officials said. One said only that they were "tit-for-tat strikes in retaliation for when Saudi [Arabia] was hit."

Reuters was unable to confirm what the specific targets were.

In response to a request for comment, a senior Saudi foreign ministry official did not directly address whether strikes had been carried out.

Uncontrolled escalation carries unacceptable costs

The Iranian foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Saudi Arabia, which has a deep military relationship with the United States, has traditionally relied on the US military for protection, but the 10-week war has left the kingdom vulnerable to attacks that have pierced the US military umbrella.

The Saudi strikes underscore the widening of the conflict - and the extent to which a war that began when the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on February 28 has drawn in the broader Middle East in ways that have not been publicly acknowledged.

Since the US and Israeli strikes, Iran has hit all six Gulf Cooperation Council states with missiles and drones, attacking not only US military bases but also civilian sites, airports, and oil infrastructure, and closed the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global trade.

The United Arab Emirates also carried out military strikes on Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Together, the Saudi and Emirati actions reveal a conflict whose true shape has remained largely hidden - one in which Gulf monarchies battered by Iranian attacks began hitting back.

But their approach has not been identical. The UAE has taken a more hawkish stance, seeking to impose costs on Iran and engaging in public diplomacy with Tehran only rarely.

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