Putin test-fires hypersonic missiles in the Mediterranean as part of Russian Navy military drills in fresh threat to the West
Putin has test-fired hypersonic missiles in the eastern Mediterranean as part of drills by the Russian Navy in a fresh threat to the West.
The crews of the frigates fired Zircon (Tsirkon) hypersonic anti-ship missiles, while a Russian submarine launched a Kalibr cruise missile, another weapon capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, the Russian Defence ministry said.
The nuclear-capable cutting-edge Zircon missiles can travel at speeds of nearly 7,000mph. Putin as previously claimed the missiles have 'no equivalent in the world'.
A missile system at the coast nearby also carried out a live launch of an Onyx anti-ship missile, the ministry added.
The military, which did not state where the drills took place, said the number of Russian troops stationed in the eastern Mediterranean had been 'increased' to take part in the exercises.
On December 3, during an exercise to test the combined activities of Russian Navy and Air Force troop groups, precision sea-based missiles were launched in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea,' Russia's defence ministry said in a post on Telegram.
Russian vessels test fired hypersonic Zirkon missiles and a Kalibr cruise missile, the ministry added. An Onyx cruise missile was also launched 'from a designated area on the Mediterranean coast'.
Russia has a naval base in Syria at Tartus but the statement did not say where the drills were carried out.
A Russian Navy frigate fires a Zircon (Tsirkon) hypersonic anti-ship missile during drills conducted in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, in this still image from video released on December 3, 2024
Putin (pictured) as previously claimed the missiles have 'no equivalent in the world'
A Russian Navy frigate fires a Zircon (Tsirkon) hypersonic anti-ship missile during military drills conducted in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, in this still image from video released on December 3, 2024
'In the course of preparing for the exercise, the Russian armed forces' troops grouping in the eastern Mediterranean was increased,' the ministry added.
Footage shows his major warning to the West by firing Tsirkon [Zircon] 6,900 mph hypersonic missiles in the Mediterranean.
They were blasted by modern frigates Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral Golovko.
The ministry published images showing the launch of several missiles from ships and land and images of a target in open water being hit and exploding.
The missile test coincides with deep tension in Ukraine, and was aimed to show he has a global reach beyond Russia's backyard.
It was a show of Russian strength to the West, which comes as Russia's ally Syria lost ground to Islamist rebels.
Russia has been a key ally of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad since the Syrian civil war started in 2011 and al-Assad is said to be currently staying in Moscow with his family.
The drills were carried out under the supervision of Russian naval commander in chief Admiral Alexander Moiseyev, who several days ago was despatched to Syria.
Russian MOD footage from the naval exercise in the Mediterranean
It shows an explosion after the missile hit during their test
One of the missiles is pictured after it was fired off during the naval missile test
An aerial view shows Russian Navy frigate Admiral Golovko during military drills conducted in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, in this still image from video released on December 3, 2024
A key message of today's war games may be to warn that Russia's naval port in Syria - Tartus - will be vigorously defended.
A key reason for the rebel advance was that Putin had moved forces from Syria to fight in the Ukraine war.
Today the Russians said that its military strength ahead of the war games in the eastern Mediterranean Sea had been increased.
Its forces conducted 'missile, artillery and torpedo firing, as well as bombing.'
They did not show or report launches of the 9.200mph Dagger ballistic missiles.
'The exercise involves over 1,000 servicemen, ten ships and support vessels, 24 aircraft, including MiG-31I fighters of the Russian Aerospace Forces with Kinzhal [Dagger] hypersonic missiles and the Bastion coastal missile system,' said the Russian Defence Ministry.
'The exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean is being conducted in compliance with current international law, as well as agreements between the Russian Federation and foreign states on the prevention of incidents at sea outside territorial waters, as well as in the airspace above them.'
Цитата:
READY FOR WAR
Putin stages hypersonic war games in Med as two warships blast 6,900mph missiles in message to West over Syria & Ukraine
A MENACING Vladimir Putin staged provocative war games in the Mediterranean today in a blatant show of strength to the West.
Putin fired 6,900 mph hypersonic missiles in a major warning to the West
The missiles were fired in the eastern Mediterranean on Tuesday
They were blasted by modern frigates Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral Golovko
Tuesday's drills were the Kremlin despot's latest show of force
It coincided with deep tension in Ukraine, and was aimed to show he has a global reach beyond Russia’s backyard.
Video shows Putin's major warning to the West by firing Tsirkon [Zircon] 6,900 mph hypersonic missiles in the eastern Mediterranean - Europe’s favourite holiday destination.
They were blasted by modern frigates Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral Golovko.
Both warships were operating as part of the Russian Navy strike group, Russian TV network Zvezda reported.
The Kremlin dictator's diesel-electric submarine Novorossiysk also launched a Kalibr cruise missile at a maritime target position.
The Russian Defence Ministry said a Bastion coastal missile system from the Mediterranean coast - presumably Syria - carried out a "combat launch of an Onyx cruise missile”.
The Ministry added it was all part of military exercises involving more than 1,000 servicemen, 10 ships and support vessels, 24 aircraft, including MiG-31I fighters armed with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.
Russia's Bastion coastal missile system was also involved in the exercises, according to Zvezda.
The drills were carried out under the supervision of Russian naval commander in chief Admiral Alexander Moiseyev.
Several days ago, he was dispatched to Syria amid turmoil in the country as rebels took Aleppo and put on the back foot Putin’s close ally President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.
A key message of today’s war games may be to warn that Russia’s naval port in Syria - Tartus - will be vigorously defended.
A crucial reason for the rebel advance was that Putin had moved forces from Syria to fight in his bloody Ukraine war.
Today the Russians said that its military strength ahead of the war games in the eastern Mediterranean Sea had been increased.
Its forces conducted “missile, artillery and torpedo firing, as well as bombing.”
The Russian Defence Ministry said: “The exercise involves over 1,000 servicemen, ten ships and support vessels, 24 aircraft, including MiG-31I fighters of the Russian Aerospace Forces with Kinzhal [Dagger] hypersonic missiles and the Bastion coastal missile system."
They did not show or report launches of the 9.200mph Dagger ballistic missiles.
“The exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean is being conducted in compliance with current international law, as well as agreements between the Russian Federation and foreign states on the prevention of incidents at sea outside territorial waters, as well as in the airspace above them."
NATO Secretary General pre-ministerial press conference at Foreign Ministers Meeting, 03 DEC 2024
Цитата:
Nato chief warns Trump not to push Ukraine deal that would see Putin ‘high-fiving’ Iran
Mark Rutte called on allies to step up military aid to strengthen Kyiv’s hand should it enter negotiations with Moscow over an end to the war, as he warned Russia is ‘not interested in peace’
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But, in an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Rutte warned of the risks of Russia supplying missile technology to North Korea and cash to Iran.
In what was seen as a reference to Taiwan, he said that Chinese President Xi Jinping “might get thoughts about something else in the future if there is not a good deal [for Ukraine]”.
He added: “We cannot have a situation where we have [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un and the Russian leader and Xi Jinping and Iran high-fiving because we came to a deal which is not good for Ukraine, because long-term that will be a dire security threat not only to Europe but also to the US.”
He revealed he had made this point to Mr Trump when the two men met in Florida on November 22, as part of an effort to persuade the US president-elect to stick with Nato allies and keep up American support for Ukraine.
On Monday night, Sir Keir made it clear that he believes Mr Trump will not abandon Ukraine, despite appointments to the incoming president’s cabinet which suggest he plans to end the current flow of financial and military aid to the country.
In a speech on foreign affairs the prime minister said: “There’s no question it’s right we support Ukraine. But we must also be clear that it is deeply in our self-interest. I would encourage everyone here to stop and think for a moment about what it would mean to us, to our continent, to the world, if Russia wins. What would it mean for our values – for democracy, commerce, and liberty?”
Цитата:
Tarcza Wschód już w budowie. Polska szykuje się na najgorsze scenariusze na granicy
Minęło 10 miesięcy, od kiedy Donald Tusk podjął decyzję o szybkiej modernizacji zapory na granicy z Białorusią. Premier obiecał inwestycje i adekwatne środki. Wygląda na to, że deklaracja zamienia się w konkrety.
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Liczba osób nielegalnie przekraczających granicę Polski z Białorusią spadła o dwie trzecie, jednak i tak w tym roku dochodzi tam do średnio 100 takich prób dziennie.
• Deklaracja o budowie Tarczy Wschód na granicy z Rosją oraz Białorusią zamienia się w konkrety. Pierwszy odcinek na granicy z Rosją jest już gotowy. To strefa bezpieczeństwa – głęboka, sięgająca 200 m od granicy.
• Rząd zapowiada również podobną zaporę na granicy z Ukrainą. Tu jednak motywy są inne niż przy Tarczy Wschód.
O budowie zapory na granicy z Białorusią premier Donald Tusk poinformował podczas konferencji prasowej, w której uczestniczył również premier Finlandii Petteri Orpo. Początkowo miała ona mieć 400 km długości.
Budujemy Tarczę - czas najwyższy. Ale szczegóły muszą pozostać tajne
Potem dowiedzieliśmy się więcej o koncepcji Tarczy Wschód, która zakłada budowę fortyfikacji obronnych i systemów monitorowania granicy na odcinku 800 kilometrów. Szczegółów technicznych jest nadal niewiele i zapewne tak pozostanie. To zrozumiałe, bo jako część obrony państwa plany rozbudowy umocnień inżynieryjnych przy granicy nie mogą być jawne.
Przeciwnik przecież nie śpi. Jeśli będzie wiedział, gdzie są nasze bunkry, fortyfikacje, to w pierwszej kolejności te obiekty staną się celami jego ataku bronią precyzyjną - przypomina w rozmowie z WNP.PL gen. Stanisław Koziej, były szef Biura Bezpieczeństwa Narodowego.
- Najlepiej byłoby, gdyby do prac nad umocnieniami przystąpić wówczas, kiedy zagrożenie wojną będzie naprawdę poważne, a przeciwnik zacznie grupować swoje wojska na granicy.
Wcześniej jednak powinniśmy przygotować wszystko, co konieczne i niezbędne do budowy tych umocnień i fortyfikowania granicy
- podkreśla gen. Koziej.
Najwyraźniej teraz, kiedy wojna na Ukrainie weszła w decydującą fazę, czas na rozpoczęcie budowy Tarczy Wschód wydaje się uzasadniony. Armia już od pewnego czasu bez rozgłosu pracuje nad umacnianiem granicy, a rząd zabiera się zdecydowanie za ochronę wschodniej granicy.
- Z jednej strony mamy do czynienia z agresją hybrydową reżimu białoruskiego przy wsparciu Rosji, z drugiej z przestępczym procederem, który instrumentalizuje migrację, wykorzystuje ludzi, którzy szukają lepszej przyszłości dla siebie i swojej rodziny - przypomniał Tomasz Siemoniak, minister spraw wewnętrznych i administracji, w Niemirowie na Podlasiu.
To działa. Tam, gdzie granica jest uszczelniona, nie notujemy nielegalnych przekroczeń
Na uszczelnienie całej wschodniej granicy mocny akcent kładzie Rada Ministrów, która 15 października przyjęła dokument pn. "Odzyskać kontrolę. Zapewnić bezpieczeństwo. Kompleksowa i odpowiedzialna strategia migracyjna Polski na lata 2025-2030".
Pod koniec listopada szefowie kluczowych resortów mówili o modernizacji zabezpieczeń i nowych siłach do ochrony polsko-białoruskiej granicy. Dowiedzieliśmy się m.in., że
w drugiej połowie przyszłego roku pojawią się tam nowe, specjalnie skierowane do bezpośredniej, fizycznej ochrony granicy oddziały Straży Granicznej.
Rekrutacja do nich ruszy za kilka tygodni, a po przejściu szkoleń oddziały trafią na miejsce. Oddziały te będą budowane poprzez nabór do służby kontraktowej w SG, co umożliwiła niedawna nowelizacja przepisów. Powodem jest nie tylko wojna.
Wszystkie te decyzje podejmowane są z myślą o tym, jak powiedział Czesław Mroczek, wiceszef Ministerstwa Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji, by "wygasić szlak migracyjny" organizowany przez grupy przestępcze, wspierany przez służby białoruskie.
- Tam, gdzie granica została uszczelniona, nie notujemy przypadków nielegalnego jej przekroczenia. Obecnie modernizowana jest bariera optoelektroniczna, budowana także na odcinkach rzecznych. Wiosną przyszłego roku ma być gotowy odcinek zapory optoelektronicznej na Bugu - zapowiedział minister Siemoniak.
W skuteczniejszą ochronę granicy wpisuje się również wprowadzenie strefy buforowej (od czerwca 2024 r. w głąb kraju do 60 km od granicy z Białorusią) wymierzonej głównie w przemytników, którym znacznie utrudnia działanie.
Liczba osób nielegalnie przekraczających granicę z Białorusi do Polski spadła o dwie trzecie
, jednak i tak w tym roku dochodzi tam do średnio 100 takich prób dziennie.
Z tych też względów Polska chce zabezpieczyć nie tylko granice z Rosją i Białorusią, ale również granicę z Ukrainą. Donald Tusk poinformował o tym, wizytując budowę jednego z odcinków Tarczy Wschód; podkreślił po raz kolejny, że inwestycja ta zwiększa gwarancję utrzymania pokoju.
Pierwszy odcinek Tarczy Wschód na granicy z Rosją jest już gotowy
Polskie granice liczą ponad 3572 km. Ta z Białorusią ma ponad 418 km, z czego odcinek najbardziej zagrożony, który wymaga szczególnej ochrony, liczy 172 km. Z rosyjskim obwodem królewieckim graniczymy na długości 232 km, a z Ukrainą na ponad 535 km.
Projekt Tarczy Wschód to przede wszystkim zabezpieczenie granicy z Rosją i Białorusią. Ma się łączyć z podobnymi fortyfikacjami i umocnieniami granicznymi budowanymi na granicy z Rosją przez państwa bałtyckie.
Donald Tusk, będąc z wizytą na budowie pierwszego odcinka Tarczy Wschód na granicy z Rosją, który jest już gotowy, zapowiedział, że wzmocniona zostanie również granica polsko-ukraińska.
Pierwszy odcinek Tarczy Wschód na granicy z Rosją jest już gotowy. W trakcie mojego spotkania z żołnierzami 200 metrów od granicy czułem się naprawdę bezpieczny - powiedział premier.
Wyjaśnił przy tym, że decyzję tę podjęto z innych powodów niż w przypadku odcinków granicy z państwami rządzonymi przez Alaksandra Łukaszenkę i Władimira Putina.
- Nasze działania będą dotyczyły także zabezpieczenia granicy z Ukrainą z innych powodów, ale chcemy, żeby na całej długości wschodniej granicy Polacy czuli się bezpieczniejsi - zapowiedział Tusk.
Granica z Ukrainą ma być odporna na przemyt, a legalne przejścia graniczne przestaną być wąskim gardłami
Według premiera taka konieczność wynika z wyzwań związanych z przestępczością, która może pojawić się zarówno w czasie wojny, jak i po jej zakończeniu, polegającej na przemycie broni, ludzi czy narkotyków. Dlatego
zgodnie z przyjętą strategią migracyjną będą rozbudowywane i modernizowane przejścia graniczne -
tak, aby uniknąć ryzyka tzw. wąskich gardeł dla legalnej wymiany handlowej oraz transportu materiałów do odbudowy i modernizacji Ukrainy.
Według danych MSWiA w tym roku na granicy z Ukrainą i z Białorusią wśród przemycanych towarów w czołówce są samochody. Wartość tego przemytu wzrosła mniej więcej o jedną trzecią wobec tego samego okresu w 2023 r. Sporo z kradzionych aut było kupowanych przez Ukraińców nieświadomie.
Do tego dochodzą tytoń i papierosy, które kiedyś szerokim strumieniem wpływały do Polski zza wschodniej granicy. Teraz nie są już przemycane na taką skalę, przynajmniej z Ukrainy, gdzie przemyt radykalnie spadł. Za to z Białorusi wzrósł o 36 proc.
Budowanie zapory na fragmentach granic nie ma sensu. Skuteczna jest dopiero ochrona przed atakiem z każdego możliwego kierunku
Wszystko wskazuje, że granica z Ukrainą nie będzie tak ufortyfikowana, jak z Rosją i Białorusią, ale wojskowi specjaliści wskazują, że decyzja ta wpisuje się również w
ważny aspekt naszego bezpieczeństwa.
Wojskowe strategiczne myślenie nakazuje bowiem wskazanie wszelkich, także najgorszych, przewidywalnych zagrożeń, by móc się do nich przygotować. W tym kontekście decyzja ta znaczy znacznie więcej.
- Jej podjęcie oznacza mądrość i rozwagę. Od początku mówię, że nie byłbym zdziwiony, gdybyśmy postanowili zbudować taką zaporę również na granicy z Litwą albo Słowacją. Niezależnie od tego, że są to państwa nam przyjazne, a ze Słowacją jesteśmy w jednym bloku - uważa gen. prof. Bogusław Pacek, były rektor Akademii Obrony Narodowej.
Przypadek Linii Maginota (pas fortyfikacji na granicy niemiecko-francuskiej, który nie powstrzymał Hitlera) przypomina, iż
żadne rozbudowane fortyfikacje nie gwarantują zatrzymania przeciwnika
. Z drugiej strony doświadczenia z wojny w Ukrainie, która buduje fortyfikacje na granicy z Rosją w rejonie Chersonia, czy też silnie, głęboko rozbudowana i ufortyfikowana obrona wojsk rosyjskich, która zatrzymała ukraińską kontrofensywę, wskazują, że fortyfikacje we współczesnej wojnie wcale nie odeszły do lamusa.
Wiadomo, że - jeśli tylko jest taka możliwość - przeciwnik zrobi wszystko, by umocnienia obejść.
- W związku z tym od początku było jasne, że budowanie takiej silnej zapory tylko na fragmencie naszych granic jest bzdurą, ponieważ bardzo łatwo byłoby przeciwnikowi zaatakować nas w wybranym przez niego miejscu, np. przez Ukrainę, i wejść na teren Polski gdzieś pod Lublinem, Rzeszowem czy Przemyślem. Dlatego ochrona polskich granic - z każdego możliwego kierunku - jest dla nas ważna. Tak po prostu nakazuje rozsądek - uważa gen. Pacek.
Generał wyjaśnia, że
nie oznacza to obaw, że Ukraina kiedykolwiek stanie po przeciwnej stronie niż Polska
. Jego zdaniem decyzja ta wynika z tego, że Ukraina graniczy z Białorusią będącą faktycznie częścią Rosji i w przypadku eskalacji wojny zapewne udostępni swoje terytorium Rosjanom do uderzenia na Ukrainę.
- Dlatego decyzja o zaporze na granicy Ukrainy jest przykładem rozwagi, co świadczy o kompleksowym myśleniu rządu o obronie państwa - przekonuje gen. Pacek.
Martial Law in South Korea Tests Biden and a Key U.S. Alliance
The Biden administration has hailed South Korea as a model democracy and bolstered military ties as it relies on the country as a bulwark against North Korea, China and Russia.
President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea visited President Biden at the White House last year.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
For decades, South Korea has been one of the most important U.S. allies in Asia — not only because nearly 30,000 American troops are stationed there, but because it stands as a beacon of democracy in a region where powerful authoritarian nations vie with democratic ones.
President Biden has put a special emphasis on South Korea, choosing it as the first non-U.S. site for his annual international conclave, the Summit for Democracy. And in 2023, he hosted President Yoon Suk Yeol for a state dinner at the White House, where the tuxedo-clad Mr. Yoon sang “American Pie” to an adoring audience. Mr. Biden has also relied on Mr. Yoon to provide munitions for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion.
Now, with Mr. Yoon imposing martial law after wildly accusing the opposition party of conspiring with North Korea to undermine him, the American alliance with South Korea faces its biggest test in decades. And Mr. Biden, who has used democracy versus autocracy as a defining framework of his foreign policy, will have to make hard choices on how to handle the crisis, after years of cultivating relations with Mr. Yoon, a conservative leader, and enhancing military ties to better counter China, North Korea and Russia.
Mr. Yoon’s move appeared to catch the Biden administration by surprise.
On Tuesday afternoon in Washington, hours after Mr. Yoon made his shocking announcement, the White House National Security Council released a terse statement, using an abbreviation for South Korea’s formal name, the Republic of Korea: “The administration is in contact with the R.O.K. government and is monitoring the situation closely as we work to learn more. The U.S. was not notified in advance of this announcement. We are seriously concerned by the developments we are seeing on the ground in the R.O.K.”
Officials said that aides had briefed Mr. Biden, who was visiting Angola.
There was speculation in Washington that Mr. Yoon might have chosen this moment because the U.S. government is in a transition from the Biden administration to the second Trump one, and because Mr. Biden is overseas. Mr. Yoon, a first-term president who barely won the 2022 election, has a low approval rating among South Korean citizens, and his move against the opposition party and the legislature has echoes of the effort by Donald J. Trump to prevent Mr. Biden from taking office after he won the 2020 election.
At a U.S.-Japan diplomatic event in Washington, Kurt Campbell, the deputy secretary of state and former Asia adviser to Mr. Biden, said that “our alliance with the R.O.K. is ironclad, and we stand by Korea in their time of uncertainty.”
He added that “we have every hope and expectation that any political disputes will be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law.”
The upheaval is particularly stinging for an American president who has made the promotion of democracy one of his top priorities, in part because of the rise of anti-democratic forces in the United States. Seoul hosted this year’s installment of the global democracy summit that Mr. Biden launched several years ago.
At the opening ceremony, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken hailed South Korea as a democratic model, saying that it was fitting, “even a little bit poignant,” that the country was hosting the event.
South Korea, Mr. Blinken noted proudly, was “a nation that transformed, over a single generation, into one of the strongest, most dynamic democracies in the world, a champion of democracy for the world.”
Mr. Blinken noted the many threats to the democratic model but said that he remained “more than optimistic that we will meet the challenge of this moment.”
The declaration of martial law also raises questions about what the Pentagon might do with its nearly 30,000 troops and assets in South Korea. United States Forces Korea operates under the Indo-Pacific Command and in coordination with the South Korean military. American soldiers are posted by the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea and in bases elsewhere in South Korea, including in Seoul, where U.S. soldiers wander the streets in uniform.
One of Mr. Biden’s main strategies for trying to establish deterrence against China has been to build up military relations with allies in Asia. He established a new trilateral security partnership with South Korea and Japan, and last year he hosted Mr. Yoon and Fumio Kishida, then the prime minister of Japan, at Camp David in Maryland to announce the new arrangement, an important achievement given the historical enmity between South Korea and Japan.
Mr. Biden called the two nations “capable and indispensable allies.”
In his remarks, Mr. Yoon said that “the ties between our three countries, which are the most advanced liberal democracies in the region and major economies leading advanced technology and scientific innovation, are more important than ever.”
The three nations, he added, have proclaimed they “will bolster the rules-based international order and play key roles to enhance regional security and prosperity based on our shared values of freedom, human rights and rule of law.”
As sabotage allegations swirl, NATO struggles to secure Baltic Sea
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NATO exercise in Baltic Sea faces weather and storm challenges
• NATO uses new tech to detect undersea anomalies, but admits prevention is difficult
• Service disruptions best avoided by adding redundant cable capacity, expert says
TURKU, Finland, Dec 3 (Reuters) - On Nov. 18, hours after two communication cables were severed in the Baltic Sea, 30 NATO vessels and 4,000 military staff took to the same body of water for one of northern Europe's largest naval exercises.
The 12-day 'Freezing Winds' drill was part of a push to step up the transatlantic defence alliance's protection of infrastructure in waters that carry 15% of global shipping traffic and are seen as increasingly vulnerable to attack.
The Baltic Sea is bordered by eight NATO countries and Russia. There have been at least three incidents of possible sabotage to the 40-odd telecommunication cables and critical gas pipelines that run along its relatively shallow seabed since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.
"NATO is stepping up patrols, ... allies are investing in innovative technologies that can help better secure these assets," said Commander Arlo Abrahamson, a spokesperson for NATO's Allied Maritime Command.
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Цитата:
Один из разрывов интернет-кабеля между Финляндией и Швецией произошел не из-за диверсии, его случайно перерезал экскаватор, сообщает газета Helsingin Sanomat со ссылкой на телекоммуникационную компанию Elisa.
Цитата:
Новые разрывы интернет-кабеля между Финляндией и Швецией, случившиеся текущей ночью, могли произойти из-за диверсии, заявил шведский министр гражданской обороны.
P.S.
А.п. напоминает Уважаемым коллегам, что начиная с 25.11.2024, по независящим от него техническим причинам, все публикации будут возможны только с 9.00 утра, до 23.59 вечера текущих суток.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
Opinion / How Trump can end the war in Ukraine for good
No more Munichs, Yaltas — or Budapests.
A destroyed residential building in the town of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region of Ukraine in November. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)
As the bloodiest century in human history drew to a close, Americans looked back at the catastrophic mistakes that paved the way for World War II and the Cold War. Chief among them: the 1938 Munich agreement, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s misguided effort to appease Adolf Hitler, and the disastrous 1945 Yalta agreement that partitioned Europe and left the world teetering on the brink of nuclear Armageddon.
At the start of a hopeful new century came a new axiom of U.S. foreign policy: No more Munichs, no more Yaltas.
To which we must add: No more Budapests.
On Dec. 5, the world will mark the 30th anniversary of the Budapest Memorandum of Security Assurances, the disastrous agreement that paved the way to today’s bloody war in Ukraine. As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to negotiate an end to that struggle, he should heed the lessons of Budapest — so he does not repeat them.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ukraine inherited nearly 2,000 nuclear weapons, along with intercontinental ballistic missiles and strategic bombers to deliver them — making it the world’s third-largest nuclear power. So, in 1994, President Bill Clinton brokered an agreement among Russia, Ukraine, the United States and Britain in which Ukraine agreed to give up those weapons. In exchange, Russia pledged to “respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine” and to “refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine.” Moscow also agreed to refrain from the “threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used.” And the United States and Britain gave Ukraine security guarantees, promising “to provide assistance to Ukraine … if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression.”
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Those guarantees proved empty. In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea, in direct violation of the pledges Russia made in Budapest. In the face of this aggression, President Barack Obama’s administration failed to hold up the United States’ end of the bargain, refusing to provide Ukraine with weapons to defend itself. Instead, out of fear that arming Ukraine would provoke Moscow, Obama offered Ukraine only nonlethal aid.
When Trump took office, he reversed Obama’s policy of appeasement and became the first president to provide Kyiv with lethal aid. Trump also got tough on Putin in a host of other ways — imposing crippling sanctions on Moscow, expelling Russian diplomats, launching a cyberattack on Russia targeting St. Petersburg’s Internet Research Agency, giving the green light for the U.S. military to take out hundreds of Wagner Group mercenaries in eastern Syria and persuading NATO members to increase their defense spending by $400 billion. Result? Putin paused his aggression during Trump’s term.
But after Joe Biden took office, Putin resumed his conquest of Ukraine. In the wake of Putin’s 2022 full-scale invasion, Clinton acknowledged that the Budapest agreement he negotiated was to blame. “I feel a personal stake because I got them to agree to give up their nuclear weapons,” Clinton told Irish broadcaster RTÉ. “None of them believe that Russia would have pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had their weapons.”
What lessons can we learn from the failure of the Budapest accord?
First, Putin does not want peace; he wants Ukraine. He will violate any international agreement Russia signs to achieve his objective. The only way to stop him is to make his objective impossible to achieve. As we have seen, Putin believes he can wait out a strong U.S. president until another weak one replaces him. If allowed to do so, he simply will use a cessation of hostilities to pause, reconstitute his forces and resume his invasion when the time is right. If Trump wants a peace that outlasts his presidency, that agreement must create conditions that make a resumption of war impossible.
Second, Western security guarantees are worthless unless they are backed up with Western military might. A lasting peace will require that whatever agreement Trump negotiates creates defensible borders, with a demilitarized zone enforced by an international peacekeeping force (made up of European, not U.S., troops). Putin must understand that this agreement is final, and that if he ever tries to resume his invasion, he will not be fighting just Ukraine.
Third, Ukraine must be militarily strong enough to deter Russia. Giving up its nuclear deterrent, and depending on others to protect it, was a mistake. Ukraine will need to create a conventional deterrent so powerful that Russia will never take it on. This means that, even if Trump succeeds in forging peace, the imperative to arm Ukraine will continue. We must find mechanisms to increase the flow of U.S. weapons headed to Kyiv that do not require U.S. taxpayers to bear the cost.
If Trump wants to avoid presiding over a historic failure like Budapest, he needs to avoid the trap of trying to appease Putin with promises of Ukrainian neutrality and disarmament. He does not want to join Neville Chamberlain in the pantheon of leaders who promised peace in our time but delivered the opposite. Trump says he wants to prevent World War III. If that is the case, he should do what he did in his first term and secure peace through strength.
США могут лишиться крупнейшего союзника в Азии: кому выгоден переворот в Южной Корее?
Представьте, что в декабре 2021 года на территории одного из ключевых союзников США в Европе — Польши — происходит госпереворот и разворачивается гражданская война: как бы это отразилось на действиях Украины? Так зеркально выглядит ситуация у крупнейшего союзника США в сдерживании Китая в Азии — Южной Кореи. Ситуация необычная. Хотя страна не отличается высокой политической этикой и почти все её президенты были фигурантами уголовных дел, военное положение здесь не вводилось с 1987 года.
Союзник Демпартии США — Демократическая трудовая партия Южной Кореи с большинством в парламенте — готовил импичмент Юн Сок Ёлю, борцу с повесткой Демпартии. До истечения президентского срока Байдена им срочно потребовалось убрать потенциального союзника Трампа по урегулированию на Корейском полуострове, а возможно, и привести к власти сторонника конфликта с КНДР.
Тем не менее сам Юн Сок Ёль вряд ли бы решился на такой отчаянный шаг, если бы не имел негласной поддержки крупных внешних политических сил (в стране находится огромный воинский контингент США). Такими силами могли быть приходящие к власти республиканцы и мечтающие вывести из игры Южную Корею китайцы — нейтральная Южная Корея сильно бы увеличивала шансы Китая в противостоянии с США. Напомню, что первый, с кем встретился Юн после избрания в 2022 году, — посол КНР в Южной Корее.
Сейчас в Корее глубокая ночь, но через несколько часов ситуация может разгореться вновь. Армия вышла из парламента, но указ о военном положении, как сообщают СМИ (под контролем военного командования) не отменён, хотя, по данным информагентства Yonhap, президент Южной Кореи заявил на заседании правительства, что отменит военное положение. А ещё чуть позже стало известно, что правительство проголосовало за отмену военного положения.
Как бы то ни было, но пока сохраняются шансы на то, что США потеряют крупного военного союзника в Восточной Азии, если, конечно, не решатся вмешаться в гражданское противостояние. Что из этих двух сценариев для США хуже — неизвестно.
Цитата:
Свергнут, убит, приговорён к тюрьме: на фоне призывов к импичменту Юн Сок Ёля подписчик RT напомнил о судьбе других лидеров Южной Кореи.
Вот что выяснилось по открытым источникам:
▪️Ли Сын Ман (1948—1960) — свергнут на фоне массовых протестов;
▪️Юн Бо Сон (1960—1962) — смещён в результате военного переворота;
▪️Пак Чон Хи (1962—1979) — убит директором Центрального разведывательного управления республики;
▪️Чхве Гю Ха (1979—1980) — смещён в результате военного переворота;
▪️Чон Ду Хван (1981—1988) — обвинён в коррупции, ушёл в отставку;
▪️Ро Дэ У (1988—1993) — осуждён на 17 лет тюрьмы после отставки;
▪️ Ким Ён Сам (1993—1998) — попал под арест при президентстве Пак Чон Хи (№3 в списке), а на посту добился осуждения двух своих предшественников;
▪️ Ким Дэ Чжун (1998—2003) — сидел в тюрьме при президентстве Пак Чон Хи и был приговорён к смертной казни во время правления Чон Ду Хвана (№5), но позднее был помилован;
▪️Но Му Хён (2003—2008) — покончил жизнь самоубийством в связи с коррупционным скандалом;
▪️Ли Мён Бак (2008—2013) — после окончания президентского срока был приговорён к 17 годам тюрьмы по обвинению во взяточничестве и хищении;
▪️Пак Кын Хе (2013—2016) — объявлен импичмент, арестована по обвинению во взяточничестве.
Opinion/Notre Dame’s miracle and France’s meltdown: A pas de deux for the ages
The Notre Dame Cathedral’s reopening and government’s imminent fall show a can- and can’t-do country.
The restored interiors of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Nov. 29. (Stephane de Sakutin/AP)
PARIS — The Notre Dame Cathedral, a sprawling construction site for the past five years, is a quick stroll from where I live, and it is an amazement.
Its turbocharged reconstruction from a devastating fire, in a brief time span that many thought impossibly ambitious, is testament in stained glass, sculpture and masonry to a can-do France.
The rebuilt cathedral stands in magnificent, maddening counterpoint to a can’t-do France — a succession of floundering, failed and loathed governments in this century that have embittered millions of voters.
The paradox of those competing versions of France, as baffling to many French as to foreigners, reaches a moment of dueling denouements this week. Rather than resolving the contradictions of a can- and can’t-do republic, it is more likely to deepen them.
On Saturday, the archbishop of Paris will preside over Notre Dame’s reopening, striking the massive front doors with his staff three times in the presence of thousands of donors, clergy and dignitaries, including Donald Trump. President Emmanuel Macron will deliver an address in the cathedral’s forecourt, followed by a liturgical ceremony inside. An inaugural Mass will follow on Sunday.
Yet that high drama will be preceded by a low one. France’s government — in power less than three months, though “power” is too sturdy a term for so frail an entity — is tottering and probably won’t last until the weekend. Prayers are unlikely to help.
Should the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier be toppled in a no-confidence vote driven by populist extremists from the left and right, France’s already precarious political and fiscal situation could explode in full-blown crisis, including a run on its sovereign debt. Macron’s task in establishing a viable new government amid Parliament’s dysfunction “would mean finding a five-legged sheep,” Benjamin Morel, a constitutional expert, told Le Monde.
I often wander over to Notre Dame to gawk alongside the tourists. It has remained the essential Paris landmark, a place of religious devotion and secular pilgrimage even amid the scaffolding and cranes that have shrouded it since the 2019 blaze.
In May, the fencing in front of the cathedral was transformed into a multiracial, multiethnic photographic homage to craftspeople and others who helped rebuild it — the faces of can-do France.
Black-and-white portraits gave star billing to hundreds of stone masons, carpenters, architects, curators, plumbers, roofers, electricians, historians, scaffolders, equipment handlers, cleaning crews, site managers, administrators, and restorers of sculptures, paintings, and stained glass. They were a sampling of more than 2,000 workers involved in the reconstruction.
Some were highly skilled artisans, others journeymen or even apprentices. One was a friend of mine, Jean-Gabriel Levon, who left a position as a successful start-up executive two years ago to launch a new career in carpentry. Months later, he was tasked with hewing a thick oaken beam — square, shoulder height, thick as a linebacker’s leg — for the massive framework reinforcing the cathedral’s nave, using axes that were replicas of those used in the 12th and 13th centuries, during Notre Dame’s construction. Working methodically, it took him three days.
“I was grateful to work on a project for one of the most emblematic places in the world,” Jean-Gabriel told me. “And I was amazed at the quality of the people who were involved, their technical expertise and personal traits.”
France pulled off the nearly $1 billion reconstruction, on time, on budget — and funded by thousands of individual donors, some oligarchs, many ordinary — despite interruptions caused by the pandemic and disputes over furnishings, design and other features.
It is an awesome achievement by any standard, all the more given the seeming impossibility of executing major projects elsewhere in the world.
Americans, for whom major building projects are frequently emblems of dysfunction, should be envious. Recall New York’s Second Avenue subway, planned for nearly a century before the first, 1.8-mile segment was completed in 2017. Or the decade-long effort to relocate the FBI’s obsolete headquarters — still at least 10 years from the finish line at an estimated price of $10 billion, and counting.
France’s advantage, in addition to a fierce will to revive a national icon, was a highly centralized government under Macron, a president who staked his reputation on the project’s success.
Yet it was also Macron who plunged France into political dysfunction last summer with his colossal misjudgment in calling a gratuitous snap election that yielded a fragmented Parliament. That prompted him to form a jerry-built coalition whose survival depends on the sufferance of an outsider — his archrival, Marine Le Pen, leader of the populist far-right National Rally, the biggest party in Parliament’s lower house.
Now Le Pen, who has problems of her own — she is on trial for alleged embezzlement, and a guilty verdict could ruin her political career — says she will deliver the coup de grâce this week by voting to oust Barnier and his cabinet. The government’s collapse would leave France in a dire political, constitutional and debt-driven financial mess.
France’s can- and can’t-do split screen — workers who pulled off a miracle at Notre Dame and politicians who loosed a wrecking ball on the edifice of government — has produced emotional whiplash for the French. A week of joy and pride, tinged with fury and revulsion.
Цитата:
Ramaswamy muse on ending clock changes.
The “Department of Government Efficiency” may target the century-old practice, the men suggested on social media. It was not immediately clear whether they were serious.
Vivek Ramaswamy, tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to help run a new effort dubbed the “Department of Government Efficiency,” does not like daylight saving time. “It’s inefficient & easy to change,” he wrote on X. (Johnnie Izquierdo/for the Washington Post)
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy say they’re hunting for ways to make American government more efficient. One possible target: the semiannual changing of the clock that so many Americans dislike.
“Looks like the people want to abolish the annoying time changes!” Musk wrote last week on his social platform, X, linking to another user’s online poll that found most respondents wanted to end daylight saving time. The practice of shifting clocks forward one hour in March and back one hour in November is intended to maximize Americans’ exposure to sunlight during working hours but has long been derided for causing groggy mornings, missed appointments and even some public health problems.
“It’s inefficient & easy to change,” Ramaswamy wrote in a reply to Musk.
It was not immediately clear whether the two men, whom President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to run a new effort dubbed the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) were seriously floating a new policy priority or just spitballing on social media. It was also unclear how a Trump White House would seek to end clock changes, given that Congress — not the executive branch — has controlled the nation’s time shifts, and lawmakers’ recent legislation has stalled.
Ramaswamy did not respond to a request for comment. X and Tesla, which Musk also owns, did not immediately respond to requests sent to them asking for comment from Musk.
The simmering fight over how Americans set their clocks, and when they must do it, has drawn unusual coalitions in Washington based more on geography than on politics. Republicans and Democrats, mostly from the coasts, have called for year-round daylight saving time, saying that permanently advancing the clocks one hour and never “falling back” would allow more people to enjoy sunshine and avoid the frustrations involved with resetting clocks.
“Switching the clocks just doesn’t make sense for a country on the move,” Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts) said in a statement to The Washington Post. “But we need permanent daylight saving time — more hours of daylight in the evening means more hours to get things done.”
Politicians in the center of the country have often balked at the idea, warning that a year-round “spring forward” would mean winter sunrises that could creep past 9 a.m. in cities such as Indianapolis and Detroit.
Meanwhile, public health groups have said that permanent standard time would be more natural for our circadian rhythms, citing research that the clock changes increase the risk of heart attacks, stroke and other health problems.
“There is a significant stress on the body, and changes that occur, when we are not aligned to the right internal clock,” Lourdes DelRosso, a sleep medicine physician at the University of California at San Francisco-Fresno and co-chair of this year’s World Sleep Day awareness event, said in an interview earlier this year.
A March 2023 YouGov poll found that 62 percent of Americans want to end the practice of changing the clocks, but there was little consensus over what to do next. Half of respondents said they wanted year-round daylight saving time, just under one-third wanted permanent standard time and the remainder said they were unsure or had no opinion.
For more than a century, Americans have shifted their clocks forward every spring and back every fall, a tradition that was eventually enshrined in federal law.
Voters’ complaints about those clock changes are not new. Lawmakers in the early 1970s moved to permanently adopt daylight saving time, but the decision almost immediately backfired with nationwide complaints, such as children waiting in the dark for school buses to arrive. Congress rolled back the change after 10 months.
That defeat has not stopped Markey and other lawmakers who have steadily pushed to lengthen the number of days that Americans spend under daylight saving time, extending that period in 1985, and again in 2005. Most Americans now live with daylight saving time for 238 days a year — nearly eight months. (Two states, Hawaii and most of Arizona, have opted out of the semiannual time changes and remain on permanent standard time, which states are allowed to do.)
But states cannot adopt permanent daylight saving time unless Congress passes a bill that allows them to do so. There is a growing political movement attempting to do just that; the Senate in 2022 passed a bill that died in the House. Twenty states have also approved measures that would allow them to adopt year-round daylight saving time if Congress passed a bill making it permanent nationwide, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Other countries have ended their own clock changes, including Mexico, which moved to abolish daylight saving time in 2022.
Musk was born and spent his childhood in South Africa — which does not follow daylight saving time — and has previously mocked America’s semiannual time changes.
“Finally, an explanation for daylight savings that makes sense …” the billionaire entrepreneur wrote on social media in 2017, linking to a video by the Onion, a satirical news site, that lampooned the practice.
Finally, an explanation for daylight savings that makes sense ... https://t.co/kGpJHNgRJO
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2017
President Joe Biden’s views on time changes are unclear. The White House has not responded to questions in the past two years about whether Biden supported efforts in Congress to adopt year-round daylight saving time, which may have stifled lawmakers’ attempts to attract support for their bill. But the next president appears more receptive.
“Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!” Trump wrote on social media in March 2019, the Monday morning after the “spring forward” took effect that year.
The Transportation Department oversees the implementation of daylight saving time, and agency officials have said DOT does not have the authority to change it without an act of Congress.
It is not clear whether Musk and Ramaswamy, who have argued that recent Supreme Court decisions would allow the White House to make regulatory changes without going through Congress, see a path to doing so with daylight saving time. Their commission is supposed to make its recommendations to the president by July 4, 2026 — the date they’ve targeted to wind down their panel.
Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2019
Musk and Ramaswamy may have other allies in Trump’s emerging administration. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Trump’s pick to serve as secretary of state, has spent years calling to end clock changes and make daylight saving time year-round.
“My Sunshine Protection Act would end this stupid practice of changing our clocks back and forth,” Rubio said in a statement in March, referencing his legislation. His office did not respond to a request for comment about whether Rubio had spoken with Musk and Ramaswamy about ending the semiannual clock changes.
“Can we just stop changing our clocks twice a year?” Jim O’Neill, Trump’s pick to be deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, wrote on X in 2022. “The one industry that doesn’t need disruption is daylight.”
Цитата:
История летнего и зимнего времени в России
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Первое введение летнего времени
Впервые летнее время (сдвинутое на один час вперед относительно принятого в данном часовом поясе) было введено 14 июля (1 июля по ст. стилю) 1917 года постановлением Временного правительства, принятым 10 июля (27 июня по ст. стилю) 1917 года. Это было сделано по примеру западных стран в целях экономии электроэнергии. Летнее время должно было действовать до 13 сентября (31 августа) 1917 года. Однако из-за острого общественно-политического кризиса в стране стрелки часов перевести назад "забыли". Только Декретом Совета народных комиссаров (СНК) РСФСР от 4 января 1918 года (22 декабря 1917 года) было предписано вернуться к прежнему исчислению времени, и в ночь с 9 на 10 января 1918 года (с 27 на 28 декабря 1917 года) стрелки часов перевели на час назад.
Переход на летнее время и обратно на зимнее продолжал проводиться до 1921 года. Так, в 1918 году летнее время действовало с 31 мая по 16 сентября (согласно постановлению СНК РСФСР от 30 мая, или 17 мая по ст. стилю, 1918 год), в 1919 году - с 31 мая по 16 августа. В 1920 году стрелки часов на летнее время не переводились. А в 1921 году перевод времени на час вперед проводился дважды - 14 февраля и 20 марта.
Затем в РСФСР и СССР стали вводить часовые пояса (ныне - зоны), и начало действовать поясное время, не предусматривавшее ежегодного перевода стрелок.
Введение декретного времени
16 июня 1930 года постановлением СНК СССР время было переведено на один час вперед (так называемое декретное время) в "целях более рационального использования светлой части суток". После этого перевод стрелок не осуществлялся более 50 лет.
Возобновление перехода на летнее и зимнее время
Перевод часов на летнее время был возобновлен 1 апреля 1981 года, но уже относительно декретного времени. Таким образом, летнее время стало опережать поясное на два часа. Дата перевода стрелок несколько раз менялась, с 1996 года переход на летнее время и обратно осуществлялся в последнее воскресенье марта и последнее воскресенье октября соответственно.
4 февраля 1991 года кабинет министров СССР постановил отменить декретное время, сохранив ежегодный перевод стрелок на летнее и зимнее время. В связи с тем, что отмена декретного времени "привела к сокращению продолжительности светового дня на значительной части территории РСФСР, вызвала недовольство населения и привела к увеличению расхода электроэнергии", Совет Республики Верховного совета РСФСР 23 октября 1991 года принял решение о восстановлении декретного времени. Возврат был осуществлен 19 января 1992 года.
Отмена сезонного перевода часов
3 июня 2011 года президент РФ Дмитрий Медведев подписал федеральный закон "Об исчислении времени", согласно которому 11 часовых поясов в России были заменены девятью часовыми зонами. Исходным временем при исчислении местного было определено московское время. Состав территорий, образующих каждую часовую зону, и порядок исчисления времени в них устанавливается правительством РФ.
31 августа 2011 года правительство РФ приняло постановление, которым в Москве было установлено время UTC +4 ч (UTC - Всемирное координированное время) и отменен сезонный перевод часов. Таким образом, введенное 27 марта 2011 года летнее время не было отменено - предполагаемый переход в конце октября на зимнее время не состоялся. Россия стала жить по постоянному летнему времени.
Отмена постоянного летнего времени
25 сентября 2012 года президент РФ Владимир Путин заявил, что решение об установлении постоянного летнего времени может быть пересмотрено.
По данным Всероссийского центра изучения общественного мнения, в июле 2014 года 35% опрошенных россиян (из 1,6 тыс. в 130 населенных пунктах в 42 регионах) заявили, что их больше устраивало переводить стрелки два раза в год, чем жить по летнему времени. При этом перейти целиком на зимнее время хотели бы 33% граждан. Предпочтение летнему времени отдали всего 19% опрошенных.
21 июля 2014 года Владимир Путин подписал изменения в федеральный закон "Об исчислении времени", которые вступили в силу 26 октября того же года. Согласно документу, московское время стало соответствовать UTC +3 ч, число часовых зон увеличено с 9 до 11. В итоге Россия возвратилась к зимнему времени - в два часа ночи 26 октября 2014 года. большинство субъектов Федерации перевели стрелки часов на один час назад. Исключением стали регионы, где местное время после изменения зон увеличилось на один час: в Забайкальском крае и Магаданской области стрелки сдвинулись сразу на два часа назад.
Bidens’ final Christmas stays traditional — except for that weird tree
This year’s White House decorations include a heavy dose of “Peace and Light.”
Jill Biden unveiled the decorations for her last White House Christmas on Monday, including arches covered with garland and sleigh bells in the East Colonnade. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
After an election year filled with rancor and ultimately, voters’ rejection of the Biden administration, the White House is calling for a “Season of Peace & Light” with this year’s holiday theme.
“At the holidays, Americans come together every year in fellowship and faith, reminding us that we are stronger as a community than we are apart,” President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden wrote at the end of the holiday guidebook. “The strength of our country, and the soul of our Nation, come from you. May the promise of this ‘Season of Peace and Light’ guide your path forward.”
This year’s decorations, unveiled Monday morning in a media preview, largely stick with the tried-and-true, both in terms of aesthetics and messaging. The East Colonnade, the long hallway that welcomes visitors and sets the tone, is an homage to classic Noel baubles. It features arches of garland wrapped with sleigh bells and red ribbons holding brass-colored bells suspended from the ceiling, culminating in a present-filled red sleigh drawn by a stuffed horse.
White paper doves in the Red Room convey messages of peace. For the trees in the State Dining Room, families of those serving on U.S. Navy vessels provided colorful garland, and students from across the country created charming self-portraits that serve as ornaments. The China Room is an ode to baking bread, with a bountiful presentation of artisanal loaves — even the wreaths in this room are made of braided bread. The Library has a delightful assortment of vintage ceramic trees. And the Diplomatic Reception Room — which the public can now enter — features trees and a mantle place themed with holiday fruits — oranges especially — and flowers.
Orange-themed Christmas tree decorations adorn the Diplomatic Reception Room, which is now open to visitors as part of the recently revamped White House tour. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
The China Room celebrates breadmaking, with artisanal loaves and wreaths made of braided bread. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
White House staffers expect about 100,000 visitors this season, including the guests at about two dozen scheduled holiday parties. The entire operation comes with the kind of festive pomp and circumstance that would be appropriate at the North Pole itself, or at least an FAO Schwarz in its prime. That begins with the “President’s Own” Marine Corps Band playing holiday tunes as visitors step through the East Wing doors festooned with golden wreaths. Guests are never far from the sound of live music — whether old standards or newer classics, such as “Last Christmas” from Wham! — reverberating off the historic walls. Fireplaces in each room emitted warmth and the sounds of popping wood during the preview, which was followed by an event for National Guard families, where Jill Biden gave remarks.
…
For the Biden family’s last Christmas in the People’s House, the emphasis is on tranquility. But that doesn’t mean a Beige Christmas: Indeed, the decorations include a healthy heaping of color and, yes, a lot of candy.
The White House Christmas tree, an 18½-foot Fraser fir from Newland, North Carolina, that is displayed in the Blue Room, is decorated to look like an old-school carousel. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
Among the most vivid offerings is the annual White House Christmas tree, which has been turned into an old-school carousel, with carnival music playing in the Blue Room to match. The 18½-foot Fraser fir from Newland, North Carolina, has a large red-and-white striped base that covers the bottom of the tree entirely. Red ribbons strung from the top to the bottom resemble a circus big-top tent. Huge stuffed animals that move up and down circle the tree like real merry-go-round figurines. The effect is playful, though the tree itself takes a back seat in a discordant note. A Season of Peace and Light? Nothing feels particularly peaceful in this room, though there’s a bevy of lights.
The East Room, the largest in the house and the scene of bill signings, receptions and other key events, is more in tune with the broader theme. A sparkling canopy on the ceiling and windows resembles a particularly photogenic snowfall, and white and silver ornaments adorn the trees.
The “President's Own” Marine Corps Band plays festive holiday tunes at the entrance of the East Wing. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
The East Room, the largest in the house, sparkles with white lights and white and silver decorations. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
And the ever-popular Gingerbread White House, in the State Dining Room, also has a refined look this year — all white with deep green trees and white lights, and a scene of moving ice skaters on the South Lawn. The effort required 35 sheets of cookie dough, 65 pounds of pastillage, 45 pounds of chocolate, 50 pounds of royal icing, 40 pounds of poured sugar and 10 pounds of gum paste.
Lest one think this year’s theme is a pointed response to, well, anything that occurred in the past year, brainstorming for holidays at the White House begins in January, basically as soon as the previous year’s decor comes down. Planning starts in earnest after the annual Easter Egg Roll, and the execution phase kicks off in the fall, with the final push after the tree arrives. (This year’s tree arrival ceremony happened on Nov. 25.) The final 72 hours before the reveal is filled with the last-minute glue-gunning, manic ribbon-creating and holiday hustle familiar to many people scrambling to get their own decorations just right.
“We’ve been working, putting stuff together and doing, I mean, everything you could possibly think of,” says Darrion Cockrell, who was named Missouri’s Teacher of the Year in 2021. “There’s so many little things that you don’t think about, all the details, that I’m just so grateful to be a part of.”
Cockrell is one of more than 300 volunteers from across the United States who spent a week bringing the White House decorations to life. For this year’s project, they were armed with 9,810 feet of ribbon, more than 28,125 ornaments, more than 2,200 doves and more than 165,075 holiday lights for the garlands, wreaths, displays and 83 Christmas trees. (These numbers are largely in step with last year, though there are 15 fewer trees.)
This year's gingerbread reproduction of the White House required 35 sheets of cookie dough and 65 pounds of pastillage. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
Hand-drawn self-portraits from students around the United States decorate a Christmas tree in the State Dining Room. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
A teddy bear drives a red truck through the White House entrance hall. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
This year’s friendly feeling is in keeping with past Biden White House displays, all of which have been an elevated version of what many do in their own homes, rather than a more haute presentation. Last year, the White House aimed to capture the exhilaration of the holidays from a child’s perspective, including an East Colonnade with candy cane columns and holiday treats hanging from the ceiling. In 2022, the theme “We The People” was full of homespun touches designed to make the decor at the People’s House feel approachable, including a display of the first lady’s oft-used recipe cards. The Biden family’s first Christmas in the White House in 2021, which was scaled back because of the pandemic, had a “Gifts From the Heart” theme, with rooms designed to honor members of the military, front-line workers and first responders.
While the future of White House holiday decorations was not a salient question for voters in the 2024 election (nor should it be), either outcome would have promised a dramatic shake-up in this arena. Former and now incoming first lady Melania Trump made waves with her hallway of 40 crimson topiary trees in 2018, still among the most-discussed of any White House decoration. And a win by Vice President Kamala Harris would have meant the first-ever first gentleman and the first Jewish first spouse steering the merry ship.
This time next year, Melania Trump will once again be in charge of the holiday sparkle. But secret recordings released by a former confidante in 2020 show her frustration with the task traditionally left to First Ladies. “I’m working … my a-- off on the Christmas stuff, that you know, who gives a f--- about the Christmas stuff and decorations?” she said in 2018, according to the recordings. “But I need to do it, right?”
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
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