Pope Francis repeated his previous warnings of a world conflict Thursday while speaking at an audience with pontifical representatives.
The pontiff reiterated a claim he first presented one week ago during a general audience — that the Earth is already enraptured in a "piecemeal" World War III.
Seems like most folks cannot see past the end of their nose.
Zelensky 
Ukrainian military has retaken territory in the north pushing the front line to within 30 kilometers in the north as Russia forces are in retreat.
The counterattack began in the final days of August and at first focused on the southern region of Kherson, which was swept by Russian forces in the opening days of the invasion. But just as Moscow redirected attention and troops there, Ukraine launched another, highly effective offensive in the northeast, near Kharkiv.
Facing the prospect of a large group of its forces becoming surrounded, Moscow pulled back its troops from Kharkiv in a dramatic shift in the state of play that posed the biggest challenge to the Kremlin since it launched the invasion Feb. 24.
Source CBS news
Russian officials urge Putin to get the hell out of there.
More and more Russian officials are urging Vladimir Putin to get the hell out of the Kremlin as Moscow suffered another series of humiliating defeats in Ukraine this weekend.
Just one day after several municipal deputies in Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg called on the State Duma to try the Russian leader for treason, their colleagues in Moscow joined in and demanded he step down because his views are “hopelessly outdated.”
The open letter to Putin from municipal deputies in the Russian capital’s Lomonosovsky district started out by seemingly trying to let him down gently, telling him he had “good reforms” in his first term and part of his second.
But then, “everything went wrong,” the deputies said.
“The rhetoric that you and your subordinates use has been riddled with intolerance and aggression for a long time, which in the end effectively threw our country back into the Cold War era. Russia has again begun to be feared and hated, we are once again threatening the whole world with nuclear weapons,” the letter read.
“We ask you to relieve yourself of your post due to the fact that your views and your governance model are hopelessly outdated and hinder the development of Russia and its human potential,” the deputies said in closing.
Though they made no mention of the war against Ukraine, their plea came as Putin’s deranged “special military operation” next door took a spectacular nosedive, with thousands of Russian forces fleeing as Ukraine’s military launched a series of surprise counter-offensives and reclaimed nearly 400 square miles of territory in a matter of days.
Meantime nations are requesting us military weapon packages.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As other nations see the impact of U.S. weapons in the Ukraine war, the Pentagon is getting more requests for them, including the high-tech, multiple-launch rocket system that Ukrainian forces have successfully used against Russian ammunition depots and other supplies, Defense officials said Friday.
Bill LaPlante, the department's under secretary for acquisition, told reporters that the Pentagon has been working with the defense industry to increase production lines to meet both U.S. and international demands for certain weapons. And he said some countries have already begun asking about buying the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.
As a result, he said, the U.S. has to both replace the HIMARS systems it sent to Ukraine — at a projected cost so far of about $33 million — but also predict the future demands in foreign sales.
According to the Pentagon, the department is already working to replace about $7 billion in weapons and equipment that was taken off the shelves so it could be delivered quickly to Ukraine. Of that, about $1.2 billion has already been contracted, and roughly half of that was for Stinger missiles.
Congress provided a total of $12.5 billion for such replacements so far this year, as well as another $6 billion to buy weapons and equipment directly from industry to send to Ukraine. The contracted items could take several years to come in.
Some of the money will be spent to invest in the defense industrial base so that companies can either expand or speed up their production.
“We remain committed to getting things on contract as quickly as possible, ultimately to send a clear and persistent demand signal to our partners in industry,” said LaPlante. As an example, he said, right now industry is producing about 14,400 rounds of ammunition for the Howitzer artillery gun every month, but the plan is to work up to 36,000 a month in about three years.
Even that amount, he noted, may not meet demand.
FGM-148 anti-tank missile Javelin, FAM-92 surface to air missile Stinger, M-777 howitzer with guided artillery round M982 Excalibur, and M142 HIMARS are the game changers provided by US and NATO to Ukraine to defend itself against Putin's Russia. Of these game changers, either have been produced by Raytheon or/and Lockheed Martin.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-government-and-politics-c05e9b99c2f65d30bfe0102fc9efc7c6
Ukraine war shows differences in military strategy learned from past wars. US values expensive, high quality and professional military. Whereas Russia favors cheap, high quantity and disposable military.
Why is Russia there in the first place? For funsies? What does Putin want in Ukraine? What would he admit he's wrong about? What's the purpose of this "war"?
Putin wants to restore the old Soviet union and overthrow Ukraine government. He falsely claims special operation is to fight threats from NATO, nazis, bio labs and genocide. Obviously, he underestimates Ukraine resistance and NATO support. After months of war, he has failed to achieve any goal.
Vladimir Putin tries to take Ukraine territory which does belong to him or Russia, Putin has made huge mistake thinking his Invasion of Ukraine will end quickly as soon as three days. Ironically, Putin is losing his cruel Ukrainian war dearly from international and internal perspectives.
Here is a related subject by PBS' interview from Poland President Andrzej Duda,
I believe russia invaded Ukraine to try and stop them from joining NATO,and stop them from further aligning themselves with western countries.At least that's what russia said,but they also insisted they wouldn't invade Ukraine,so I would take their word with a grain of salt.I believe that's just part of it,I think putin eventually wants to get back part of eastern Ukraine by taking the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk and bringing them back under russian control,like it was before the collapse of the Soviet Union.And if he's able to do that,I'm not sure he would stop there.I think his end goal would be to get back all of the country of Ukraine under russian control.
He would have to admit he is wrong on his opinion that he is justified in invading another country,that was only looking to protect themselves (by talking about joining NATO) from the thing he is actually doing right now,attacking them.If I was a much smaller country(Ukraine) and a much bigger country(russia) kept threatening me,I also would look into protecting myself any way possible.
Calling up 300,000 reservists is a sign of desperation. Russia is already struggling with professional army weakened by losses and low morale. Harder to train and equip thousands of amateurs who probably won't be ready until next spring. If send to front line, they are likely to be casualties. Ukrainians know they are defending their homeland. Russians have no idea why they are fighting in Ukraine.
Nice read. Thanks for sharing. I don't think Putin would ever admit he's wrong, even if he is.
@BigGame90
No I agree,politicians who try and portray themselves to the country they lead as big tough guys.I think will admit they were wrong,or even that they might be wrong,as a last resort.Especially in a country like russia,where he really doesn't have many competitors to running the country,he can basically do what he wants.I believe awhile ago(awhile after the invasion started,not before) Zelensky offered to agree for Ukraine not to join NATO,but putin rejected that proposal.So it seems his goal from the very beginning was for russia to be able to get back parts of Ukraine,and his whole story about it being about NATO was bullshit.He just didn't think he would run across so many problems overtaking Ukraine,he thought it would basically be a cakewalk.I think the only way he agrees to stop the fighting now is if there is a way he can save face to his people,where it doesn't look like he's been defeated in anyway.Some kind of compromise where at least in the minds of his people,he can bullshit them and make it look like he accomplished something by starting this invasion.It doesn't seem like he cares how many russian soldiers get killed,as long as he don't look bad(Which is the same as a lot of politicians unfortunately).
Tens of thousand Russian forces killed in the Ukraine War only because of ideology and autocracy from their sole dictator, Vladimir Putin. Other than thousands and thousands of deceased Ukrainians from Putin's cruel invasion, without Putin, these Russian soldiers would have been alive today as well.
History has repeated itself. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Hideki Tojo and now Vladimir Putin, all of these dictators have one thing in common, to incur mass population destruction, externally and internally.
You guys are such morons. Putin has Nuclear weapons on a higher scale than the United States by a mile.. He will end this fight in a split second. Biden declared war on all fossil fuels and of course Putin is now completely in charge as a result. Do you clowns understand anything?? read anything other than Facebook?
Embarrassing in here. 
Europa, Putin has started a war every single time on the spike of crude oil prices. EVERY single time. Do ya know who is responsible for that? No, no you don't. Please look up the value of the Ruple and tell me how those "sanctions" are going for Russia. Putin is an old Soviet through and through and he will always continue efforts to re establish that power. Read much about him? Nope.
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