EU sanctions four ‘extremist’ Israeli settlers

By

 AFP

Te European Union on Friday imposed sanctions on four “extremist” Israeli settlers and two groups over violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, Brussels said.

The decision was the second part of an agreement among EU member states that saw Palestinian Islamists Hamas last week sanctioned over sexual violence during the October 7 attack on Israel.

The move to target violent settlers in the West Bank comes two months after the United States and Britain took similar steps. 

The EU put two “radical” organisations Lehava and the Hilltop Youth on its asset freeze and visa ban blacklist for their attacks on Palestinians.

It also included Hilltop Youth leaders Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered, along with settlers Neria Ben Pazi and Yinon Levi. 

“The listed individuals and entities are responsible for serious human rights abuses against Palestinians,” said an EU statement. 

It said abuses included “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” and “the violation of right to property and to private and family life of Palestinians in the West Bank.”

Separately, the United States on Friday said it was adding Ben-Zion Gopstein, the founder and leader of Lehava, to its own blacklist.

Washington also imposed sanctions on two groups involved in raising tens of thousands of dollars for settlers Yinon Levi and David Chai Chasdai, who were targeted in its earlier sanctions. 

The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has seen a surge in violence in the past year, particularly since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in Gaza.

At least 468 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers across the West Bank since the October 7 Hamas assault on Israel that triggered the war, according to official Palestinian sources.

US sanctions entities for funding West Bank extremists targeting Palestinians

April 19, 2024 
By VOA News

A Palestinian woman reacts to damage done to her house in Qusra, near Nablus, West Bank, April 14, 2024. Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank had gone on an extensive rampage in the area; witnesses said settlers assaulted a number of communities.

The United States on Friday sanctioned two entities accused of raising tens of thousands of dollars for extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

In a statement, U.S. Treasury Department officials said the two sanctioned entities — the Mount Hebron Fund and Shlom Asiraich — generated $140,000 for settler Yinon Levi and $31,000 for settler David Chai Chasdai, respectively.

U.S. officials said they sanctioned Levi and Chasdai in February in connection with West Bank violence — Levi for leading a group of hard-line settlers who assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, burning their fields and destroying their property; Chasdai for initiating and leading a riot that involved torching vehicles and buildings in Huwara, resulting in the death of a Palestinian civilian.

"Such acts by these organizations undermine the peace, security and stability of the West Bank," said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. "We will continue to use our tools to hold those responsible accountable."

Also sanctioned Friday was Lehava founder Ben-Zion Gopstein, whose followers have engaged in violence in the West Bank, including assaulting Palestinian civilians.

"We are deeply concerned about the escalation of violence in the West Bank in recent days," said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller in a statement Friday.

Miller added that the U.S. was calling on Israel "to take all appropriate measures to prevent attacks by violent extremist settlers and hold those responsible accountable."

The sanctions on the three entities will freeze all U.S. assets, prevent them from using the U.S. financial system, and ban Americans from working with them.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.

BOURSE BURNED DOWN

Situation ‘unstable’ at Copenhagen landmark after blaze

By

 AFP

Three days after a fire which ravaged Copenhagen’s historic former stock exchange broke out, emergency services said Friday that the situation was “unstable” due to equipment issues and a strong breeze.

In the morning, during work to dismantle the scaffolding surrounding the building, a crane’s cutters came loose for as of yet unknown reasons.

It is currently wedged between the scaffolding — put up for the renovation of the historic building that was ongoing — and what remains of the walls.

“It is affecting our efforts”, Tim Ole Simonsen, leader of the operation at the rescue services, told a press conference.

Coupled with the wind picking up, the incident, which has temporarily halted work on dismantling the scaffolding, has made the situation “unstable”.

“The wind is blowing harder and harder, and there are tarps over the scaffolding that can catch the wind,” Simonsen said.

He added that this increases the risks, in particular of further collapse of the burnt-out facade which started collapsing late Thursday afternoon.

Located close to the Christiansborg parliament and seat of government, the Borsen building was commissioned by King Christian IV and built between 1619 and 1640. It was the stock exchange until the 1970s.

The fire began Tuesday morning under the copper roof of the building, which was undergoing renovations ahead of its 400th anniversary.

The cause of the blaze was unknown and Copenhagen police said Wednesday that a major investigation had been launched.

AHA!

Lacking storm drains, Dubai sees persistent flooding

By

 AFP

When record downpours sent water flooding into his Dubai home, Riaz Haq expected the levels to drop once it stopped raining. But instead of falling, the water kept rising higher.

“We went to bed, the water was half-a-metre (half-a-yard),” the British lawyer said, recalling Tuesday’s tempest that flooded homes, malls, offices and roads.

“We woke up and it was one metre. My cars were submerged, water to our waist. Everything is ruined.”

Haq, his wife and their dog spent more than two days trapped on the upper floor of their two-storey home before they were finally rescued by a neighbour’s boat on Thursday.

The couple, who were only able to salvage some bread and snacks, did not eat for most of that time, surviving on a few bottles of water.

“Fridge, freezer, even my car was floating. Everything was floating,” he told AFP. “I had a brand new car. It’s all ruined.”

“It’s a natural disaster situation. No one was prepared for this level of carnage,” he added.

During their ordeal Haq, his wife and their neighbours — about 18 families in a suburban residential community — were too scared to wade out through the waist-high, smelly water, fearing electrocution.

– ‘Water is locked in’ –

The failure of water to drain away has proved a major obstacle to recovery efforts in the desert country, with persistent flooding blocking roads around Dubai days later.

Impassable roads have affected basic services, with supermarkets unable to restock and many employees struggling to reach their workplaces.

Dubai’s airport, the world’s busiest for international passengers, has suffered badly from staff shortages with flight cancellations and delays expected to continue into the weekend.

Karim Elgendy, associate director at the Buro Happold engineering consultancy, said drainage for storm water had not been widely included in planning for the city, much of which is only a few years old.

“Someone must have vetoed this because of the fact that it hardly rains. This conversation, I think, when it happened, was short,” he told AFP.

“Water is locked in. If you have a hard surface like the road or the airport, where will it go? The ground is too hard (to absorb water),” Elgendy added.

Without drainage for excess water, authorities rely on pumping trucks to suck it up with giant hoses and drive it away.

Elgendy called this a “stopgap” measure. But he said it was very difficult to install storm water systems once infrastructure has been built.

“Once a city is built in a certain way, retrofitting storm water management is next to impossible,” he said.

– ‘Brand Dubai’ –

Four people died after the heaviest rainfall on record in the oil-rich UAE, including two Filipino women who suffocated inside their vehicle in Dubai’s flooding.

Climate change will make extreme weather events more common, Elgendy warned, saying the storm — which dumped up to two years’ worth of rain on the Gulf country — was consistent with the effects of global warming.

“What this particular incident highlights is that the historic calculus on (whether to install storm water systems) has changed, because there is a cost,” he said.

“There’s also a reputational cost. These scenes of the runways and airplanes taking off in water –- I don’t think that’s consistent with Brand Dubai,” he added, referring to widely shared footage of planes taxiing through standing water on Tuesday.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed has ordered at-risk families to be moved to safety and directed an urgent study of the country’s infrastructure.

While Haq is reassured by the support, uncertainty remains.

“We don’t know when we will be able to come back to normality,” he said.

“They are using tankers to remove the water.It will take days. But I’m sure the authorities will do everything they can to get us back to our homes.”

by Sahar Al Attar

The female gamers competing for thousands of pounds at first event of its kind in UK

One of the women taking part remembers when she used to compete for "a case of Red Bull". This weekend, teams are battling it out for £15,000.


By Mickey Carroll, science and technology reporter
Saturday 20 April 2024 

Michaela 'mimi' Lintrup competes at the World Finals in Brazil in 2022. 

Pic: Fabio Piva/Red Bull Content Pool

The UK's first professional women's gaming tournament of its kind starts on Saturday.

Four teams of professional gamers will play the first-person shooter game Valorant, which is the most-watched esports game in women's leagues.

It is the first time Europe's best teams have battled it out in the UK, and organisers hope it will bring more women into gaming.

Meg 'Megsoundslikeegg' Gardner is one of the hosts of the Red Bull Instalock tournament

"The more people see you can enjoy gaming as somebody who's not native to it, the more confident they'll get and the more they'll enjoy it," said host and streamer Meg 'Megsoundslikeegg' Gardner.

The players are competing over two days at London's Red Bull Gaming Sphere for a prize pool of £15,000.

Michaela 'mimi' Lintrup, who is the one of world's best Valorant players and has been professionally gaming since she was 18, said: "Back then it was not a big thing like it is today."

The 26-year-old Dane added: "We fought for a case of Red Bull or something, it was not a prize pool with money. I just played because I had passion for it and I loved it."

But that's all changed.

Last year, fans watched more than 28 million hours of professional women's esports, according to industry tracker Esports Charts. The competitions are usually streamed on places like Twitch, TikTok and YouTube.

Those figures don't even include people watching in China, where esports are so big that more people watched them than traditional sports at the 2023 Asian Games.

In esports, where people play competitively in a variety of video games, there are leagues, prizes and hordes of fans just like in other sports.

Professional gamer Mathilde 'Nelo' Beltoise plays for French team Karmine Corp

French player Mathilde 'Nelo' Beltoise, who is in a team called Karmine Corp, said the level of fandom in France is off the scale.

"Karmine Corp is so huge that everywhere you go, someone will recognise you. Every time I go into the street, I see someone with the jersey. It's really huge," she said.

The popularity of her team in France helped Beltoise's parents, who are teachers, warm to the idea of her playing video games for a living.

"Sometimes one of their students has a Karmine Corp jersey on and they're like, 'Is that you?' Now they just love it," she explained.

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Being a professional gamer means glamorous-sounding international travel and online streaming, but it is also a regular nine to five job.

"We practice from Monday to Friday but when we get close to tournament time, we will add Sundays," said Lintrup.

"We have four games a day which usually last for 50 minutes. Then we can talk a little bit about the mistakes we made [for 10 minutes before the next one]. Then we have about one and a half hours of theory time."

Michaela 'mimi' Lindtrup is one of the world's best Valorant players

Lintrup is the in-game leader of G2 Gozen and her role is fairly similar to that of a football captain.

She said: "After practice, I will usually stream or review which means I will go back and watch our games and point out the mistakes. I have to put in a bit of extra work. I love it like that."

British competitor Sarah 'sarah' Ahmed is 18 years old and from Derby. She has been playing professionally for six months and became interested in gaming because of her brother.

She said: "He had a laptop and I didn't so when I was 16, I got my first PC, and that's when I started playing games, just like my brother."

Now, she is travelling the world, having recently competed in Turkey in the first-ever mixed-gender tournament. She described the moment she discovered the women's gaming scene on Valorant.

"When I was younger, none of my friends played video games so whenever I played, it was just by myself, it was hard making girl friends.

"So when I saw there was a big community with a lot of girls just playing, I wanted to be a part of it."

Sarah 'sarah' Ahmed from Derby has been playing professionally for six months

Valorant was released during one of the COVID lockdowns, when there was a surge in the number of people playing video games. Host Meg Gardner thinks it is more popular with women because of its storytelling.

She said: "Valorant is very good at being inclusive so you'll see a lot of female characters that aren't just in a supportive role, but like people that are very strong in the game. People want to pick them to play with."

The Red Bull Instalock tournament is being streamed live on Twitch from 12pm UK time on Saturday and Sunday.

 

U.S. urged to cease 'far-fetched' allegations about China's steel, shipbuilding sectors

Xinhua, April 20, 2024

U.S. allegations about China's industrial policies in steel and shipbuilding sectors are groundless and against common sense of economics, a Chinese spokesperson said on Friday, urging the United States not to turn economic and trade issues into security ones.

The United States has recently threatened to triple the tariff rates for both steel imports and aluminum imports from China. It also blamed the Chinese government's practices in the shipbuilding industry.

Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, said those comments are far-fetched, and China expresses grave concern and dissatisfaction over those comments.

China's steel sector is mainly aimed at meeting domestic demand and receives no export-oriented subsidies. Only 5 percent of its steel is exported, far lower than Japan, the Republic of Korea and other steelmakers, which means the influence of Chinese steel exports on the international market is very limited, Lin said.

"The U.S., on the other hand, spends hundreds of billions of dollars on discriminatory domestic subsidies and abuses export controls citing 'national security', which hinders normal international trade in chips and other products," he said. "What a double standard for the U.S. to accuse China for 'non-market practices.'"

Citing various U.S. studies, Lin said that the U.S. shipbuilding industry lost its competitive advantage many years ago due to over-protection.

The growth of relevant industries in China is a result of companies' tech innovation and participation in market competition. It also benefits from China's fully-fledged industrial manufacturing system and vast domestic market, he said.

According to a World Trade Organization ruling, the former U.S. administration was wrong to impose additional steel and aluminum tariffs on certain WTO members and launch Section 301 investigation and raise tariffs on China, Lin said.

"Instead of correcting its mistake, the U.S. chose to double down on it by threatening with new tariff hikes and announcing a new Section 301 investigation," he added.

"We urge the U.S. to be prudent in its words and deeds, stop manipulating issues on China in the election year, stop turning economic and trade issues into security ones, lift additional tariffs on China and stop imposing new ones," Lin said, adding that China will take all steps necessary to firmly defend its own rights and interests.

SEE

China Calls Accusations “Untenable” in Response to US Shipbuilding Inquiry

Rep. Ilhan Omar says she’s ‘enormously proud’ of Isra Hirsi in first remarks since daughter’s arrest at Columbia anti-Israel protest

By  Victor Nava

NY POST
Published April 19, 2024


Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's daughter arrested at Columbia protest


Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is “enormously proud” of daughter Isra Hirsi’s arrest during an anti-Israel protest, she said Friday in her first public comments since the 21-year-old was busted in New York City.

“I am enormously proud of my daughter,” the far-left “Squad” congresswoman wrote on X.

Omar then detailed Hirsi’s history with activism, going back to her teenage years, which culminated Thursday with her suspension from Barnard College and arrest during a disruptive anti-Israel protest at Columbia University.

The Minnesota Democrat also suggested in her post that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza.

Hirsi, 21, was arrested on the campus of Columbia University Thursday and suspended from Barnard College.   Instagram/Isra Hirsi

“She has always led with courage and compassion, from organizing a statewide school walk out on the 20th anniversary of Columbine at the age of 15, to leading the biggest youth climate rally at our nation’s Capitol at 16, and now pushing her school to stand against genocide,” the 41-year-old wrote.

EXPLORE MORE

AOC, Rashida Tlaib call out arrest of ‘Squad’ member Ilhan Omar’s daughter at Columbia anti-Israel protest: ‘appalling’

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter Isra Hirsi busted at Columbia anti-Israel protest

Rep. Jamaal Bowman accuses Columbia of ‘political reprisals’ over suspension of ‘Squad’ Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter

“Stepping up to change what you can’t tolerate is why we as a country have the right to speech, assembly, and petition enshrined in our constitution,” Omar added.

Hirsi was one of more than 100 people arrested and summoned for trespassing by NYPD officers after the group of demonstrators set up a tent encampment on the Ivy League school’s campus to protest Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists.

Earlier in the afternoon, Hirsi revealed that she was suspended from the Columbia-affiliated Barnard College, where she is a junior, over her involvement in the protest.

Hirsi was summoned for trespassing and released hours after her Thursday arrest.William C Lopez/New York Post

Omar said she was “enormously proud” of her daughter for “pushing her school to stand against genocide.”REUTERS

Omar has repeatedly called for a cease-fire of Israel’s military operation in Gaza.

Congressional colleagues of the Minnesota Democrat have accused her in the past of making antisemitic comments, and the Somali American has a long history of making statements against Israel, including equating the Jewish nation with the Taliban and co-sponsoring legislation officially describing Israel’s founding as a “catastrophe.”

The progressive Democrat was booted by Republicans from the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee in February last year over her antisemitic comments.

Gaza civilians voice out their chilling encounters with Israeli torture

Palestinians abducted in Gaza by Israeli military were subjected to beatings, water deprivation, and bound by plastic ties while some were confined in cages and suffered vicious dog attacks, leading to significant bodily harm, according to UNRWA.



OTHERS

Israeli army detains Palestinian men after stripping them in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya in this image from X


A new UN report has shed light on a harrowing pattern of abuse and systematic torture endured by Palestinians detained by the Israeli army.

The report released by United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) documents the distressing treatment faced by Palestinian detainees, including men, women, and children.

Data gathered at the Karem Abu Salem crossing and direct testimonies from those released from Israeli detention, paint a grim picture of the conditions within detention facilities across Israel and the occupied territories.

As detailed in the findings, detainees are transported to makeshift military barracks and other locations where they are held incommunicado, subjected to repeated interrogations, and then often moved to the Israeli prison system.

"[Detainees were] subjected to beatings while made to lie on a thin mattress on top of rubble for hours without food, water or access to a toilet, with their legs and hands bound with plastic ties. Several detainees reported being forced into cages and attacked by dogs. Some released detainees, including a child, had dog bite wounds on their body. Detainees were threatened with prolonged detention, injury or the killing of family members if they did not provide requested information," the UN report said.


'We saw worms coming out of his body'

The types of ill-treatment reported are chilling: detainees have faced physical beatings, confinement in cages, and attacks by dogs, with some bearing visible dog bite wounds upon their release.

Others recounted experiences of being forced to endure prolonged periods kneeling, blindfolded, with their limbs bound, often while being exposed to harsh conditions such as constant light exposure, cold air blasts, and wet blankets.

Sleep deprivation, psychological abuse, and humiliation form a core part of the mistreatment, with detainees subjected to degrading treatment, including being forced to act like animals or subjected to urination.

Physical violence was frequently reported, with specific cases involving blunt force trauma, threats, and the use of metal bars and gun butts, leading to serious and sometimes permanent injuries.

A 41-year-old male detainee told UNRWA: "They made me sit on something like a hot metal stick and it felt like fire – I have burns [in the anus]. The soldiers hit me with their shoes on my chest and used something like a metal stick that had a small nail on the side...They asked us to drink from the toilet and made the dogs attack us…There were people who were detained and killed – maybe nine of them. They put the electric stick up his [anus]. One of them died....he got so sick; we saw worms coming out of his body and then he died."

A female detainee told UN officials that she was shown her entire neighbourhood on a computer screen by notorious Israeli Shin Bet intelligence agency and was asked to tell them about all of the persons they pointed to.

"If I didn't recognise someone, the soldier threatened to bomb my home. She [Shin Bet official] asked me who in my home did not evacuate to the south. I told her my brothers and my father stayed at home. She said if you don’t confess with all information, we will bomb your home and kill your family," the 34-year-old said.




'Male soldier took off our hijabs'

Particularly alarming are the accounts of sexual violence and harassment. Detainees, both male and female, reported threats and acts that may amount to sexual violence, including being forced to strip naked, exposure to inappropriate touching during searches, and psychological abuse.


"They were beating us as we moved and saying they would put pepper on our sensitive parts [genitals]. They pulled us, beat us, they took us in the bus to the Damon prison after five days. A male soldier took off our hijabs and they pinched us and touched our bodies," a 34-year-old female detainee revealed to the UN body.


UNRWA staff, who were among those detained, reported similar ordeals, highlighting the systemic nature of this mistreatment. They were subjected to the same harsh conditions, faced beatings, threats, and coerced into making forced confessions.

ICYMI
UN warns 800,000 people in Sudan city in 'extreme, immediate danger'

A handout photograph, shot in Jan 2024, shows a woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan.

APRIL 19, 2024 


UNITED NATIONS — Some 800,000 people in a Sudanese city are in "extreme and immediate danger" as worsening violence advances and threatens to "unleash bloody intercommunal strife throughout Darfur," top UN officials warned the Security Council on Friday (April 19).

War erupted in Sudan one year ago between the Sudanese army (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), creating the world's largest displacement crisis.

UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the 15-member Security Council that clashes between RSF and SAF-aligned members of the Joint Protection Forces were nearing El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.


"Fighting in El Fasher could unleash bloody intercommunal strife throughout Darfur," DiCarlo said, echoing a warning by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday.

The UN has said nearly 25 million people, half of Sudan's population, need aid and some eight million have fled their homes.

"The violence poses an extreme and immediate danger to the 800,000 civilians who reside in El Fasher," said the UN aid operations director, Edem Wosornu.

"And it risks triggering further violence in other parts of Darfur — where more than nine million people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance," she said.

A UN-backed global authority on food security said late last month that immediate action is needed to "prevent widespread death and total collapse of livelihoods and avert a catastrophic hunger crisis in Sudan."


Donors pledged more than US$2 billion (S$2.7 billion) for war-torn Sudan at a conference in Paris on Monday.

Wells Fargo bond saleswoman sues over 'unapologetically sexist' workplace

A Wells Fargo logo is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada 
PHOTO: Reuters file
PUBLISHED ONAPRIL 19, 2024 

Wells Fargo was accused of sex discrimination in a lawsuit by a bond saleswoman who said the fourth-largest US bank denied pay and promotions available to men and tolerated an "unapologetically sexist" workplace.

The complaint filed on Friday (April 19) in federal court in Chicago by Michal Leavitt is the latest in a long line of lawsuits accusing big US banks of bias against women.

Leavitt said Wells Fargo's practice of steering larger accounts toward men in its financial institutions group cost her up to one-third of her potential pay, and forced her to wait nine years for a promotion to director from vice president.

She said she expressed frustration at missing out on large accounts, but was told her mostly male group thought of her as a mere "second income" for her husband.

Leavitt also said male managers routinely had inappropriate sexual relations with female subordinates, and men often made degrading jokes about women, including over their appearances and how their wives were only "spending their husbands' money."

"The financial institutions group is a self-acknowledged 'boys club' where locker room talk on the sales floor is de rigueur," creating an "unapologetically sexist working environment," Leavitt said.

Wells Fargo had no immediate comment.

Leavitt joined the San Francisco-based bank in 2013 from Bear Stearns. The Illinois resident is seeking unspecified damages and changes in how Wells Fargo assigns accounts.

The Philippines is one of the most marine resource rich countries in the world.

Last November, Citigroup was sued by managing director Ardith Lindsey, who said the third-largest US bank tolerated a "notoriously hostile" work culture where a former top equities banker subjected her to sexual harassment and death threats.

And last May, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay US$215 million (S$293 million) to settle a class action alleging widespread bias against women in pay and promotions.

Wells Fargo has separately spent years trying to rebound from a series of scandals for mistreating customers.

These scandals led to billions of dollars in fines, the toppling of two chief executives, and a still-existing Federal Reserve cap on assets that limits the bank's growth.

US to Build First Nuclear Warhead in 40 Years

By Michael Katz    |   Friday, 19 April 2024 |  NEWSMAX

Two top Biden administration officials told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the U.S. will be building its first nuclear warhead in 40 years and will do so without any nuclear testing.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Agency, revealed the W93 warhead will be used on submarine-launched ballistic missiles, the Washington Times reported Thursday. It will be built with $19.8 billion requested by the NNSA for weapons in the 2025 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

The W93 has been in an early phase of design at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico since May 2022 and is on track for production beginning in the mid-2030s, Granholm and Hruby told the committee.

"The W93 is a new warhead program based on existing designs that will not require new underground nuclear explosive testing," Granholm and Hruby said in a joint written statement.

The Navy’s ballistic missile submarine force is currently equipped with two warhead types: the W76 and W88, the NNSA said on its website. The W93 will reduce over-reliance on the W76 system and allow the U.S. to keep pace with future adversary threats.

The Pentagon also is modernizing five warhead types — the B61-12, the B61-13, the W88, W87, and W80 warheads under a funding request of $2.84 billion, Granholm and Hruby wrote. The B61 is a nuclear gravity bomb dropped by aircraft, and the newer variant will be built by 2025.

The Biden administration did not request funds for the new submarine-launched nuclear cruise missile known as SLCM-N in the current budget, the officials stated, blaming the timing of last year’s defense authorization enactment, the Times reported. The SLCM-N likely will be armed with the W80 warhead, Hruby said. The W80 will also be used on the Air Force’s new air-launched, long-range missile.

The number used for the warhead — W93 — comes after the W89 and W92 were canceled following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Times reported.

The U.S. is adhering to a nuclear testing moratorium despite the Senate having rejected the proposed Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1999.

"The W93 will meet Defense Department requirements to enhance operational effectiveness of the U.S. ballistic missile submarine force," Granholm and Hruby wrote.