Red robot panics

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/10/the-surge-virginia-governor-glenn-youngkin-terry-mcauliffe-democrats-bill.html

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Surge, your weekly politics newsletter available exclusively on the metaverse. We’re the gnarly red robot hangin’ out in space with Mark Zuckerberg!

A Youngkin victory in a state that President Joe Biden carried by 10 points just one year ago would bring all of the midterm-related anxiety Democrats have been feeling since Biden’s approval rating began plunging this summer to the fore, sending the national party into an unconcealed panic. If Youngkin wins on Tuesday, it will be difficult to go for a walk in D.C. Wednesday morning without encountering a lib running in the middle of the street haphazardly, screaming, wearing underwear on their head.

https://sputniknews.com/20211030/us-allies-reportedly-urge-biden-not-to-drop-possibility-of-preemptive-nuke-strike-on-russia-china-1090341199.html

China and India are currently the only nuclear weapons states with a definite ‘no first use’ policy – which commits them not to use their nukes unless such arms are first used against them. Russia’s military doctrine allows for nuclear weapons to be used in response to a conventional attack if it threatens the very existence of the state.

Major US allies in Europe and Asia are reportedly lobbying the Biden administration not to change America’s policy on the use of nuclear weapons amid concerns that the White House is considering adding a nuclear “no first use” declaration in an ongoing nuclear posture review assessment.

Unnamed officials speaking to Financial Times indicated that the UK, France, Germany, Japan and Australia are among the countries concerned over the proposed change in US policy.

Washington reportedly sent out a questionnaire to US allies on possible changes to America’s nuclear policy earlier this year, with allies said to have provided an ‘overwhelmingly negative’ response.

“Allies are essentially, in unison, collectively panicking,” a senior congressional source told the newspaper. “They don’t believe their numerous and repeated overtures are being reported up to Biden administration principals, and to the president himself.”