Russia Is Revising Its Nuclear Doctrine, Kremlin Says 

Russia's President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a meeting with the leadership of the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow, Russia June 14, 2024. (Reuters)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a meeting with the leadership of the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow, Russia June 14, 2024. (Reuters)
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Russia Is Revising Its Nuclear Doctrine, Kremlin Says 

Russia's President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a meeting with the leadership of the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow, Russia June 14, 2024. (Reuters)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a meeting with the leadership of the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow, Russia June 14, 2024. (Reuters)

Russia, the world's biggest nuclear power, has started updating its nuclear doctrine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, citing an earlier statement by President Vladimir Putin.

"President Putin has said that work is under way to bring the doctrine into line with current realities," Peskov told a briefing, without elaborating.

A senior member of the Russian parliament said on Sunday that Moscow could reduce the decision-making time stipulated in official policy for the use of nuclear weapons if it believes that threats are increasing.

Putin said last month that Russia might change its official nuclear doctrine setting out the conditions under which such weapons could be used.

The war in Ukraine has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.



At Least 52 Dead after Helene's Deadly March Across Southeastern US

John Taylor puts up an American flag on his destroyed property in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
John Taylor puts up an American flag on his destroyed property in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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At Least 52 Dead after Helene's Deadly March Across Southeastern US

John Taylor puts up an American flag on his destroyed property in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
John Taylor puts up an American flag on his destroyed property in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Hurricane Helene caused at least 52 deaths and billions of dollars of destruction across a wide swath of the southeastern US as it raced through, and more than 3 million customers went into the weekend without any power and for some a continued threat of floods.

Helene blew ashore in Florida's Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday packing winds of 140 mph (225 kph) and then quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, uprooting trees, splintering homes and sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams.

Western North Carolina was essentially cut off because of landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads. Video shows sections of Asheville underwater.
There were hundreds of water rescues, none more dramatic than in rural Unicoi County in East Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were plucked by helicopter from the roof of a hospital that was surrounded by water from a flooded river.
The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said. Several flood and flash flood warnings remained in effect in parts of the southern and central Appalachians, while high wind warnings also covered parts of Tennessee and Ohio.
At least 48 people have been killed in the storm; among them were three firefighters, a woman and her one-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose house was struck by a falling tree. According to an Associated Press tally, the deaths occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage.