US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has expressed sharp criticism of a warning from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov regarding a pending Third World War and the possible use of nuclear weapons. “You’ve heard us say a number of times that that kind of rhetoric is very dangerous and unhelpful. Nobody wants to see a nuclear war happen,” Austin said following an international conference on supplying weapons to Ukraine held at the US air base in Ramstein, Germany. “Dangerous rhetoric is clearly unhelpful. And something that we won’t engage in,” he added.