📈 Miami's Republican mayor lays groundwork for possible presidential run

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and his political team are now looking to take their brand national — and, specifically, to states crucial for any presidential aspirant. He currently serves as president of the United States Conference of Mayors, which represents over 1,400 cities with populations of 30,000 or more.

Suarez, the son of Miami's first Cuban-born mayor, has received national attention as the GOP looks to build on recent gains among Latino voters and recapture urban support. He is considered a rising political star who's overseen the ascendance of one of America's fastest-growing and most dynamic cities.

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🏛 Trump took Fifth Amendment more than 440 times

Former President Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right more than 440 times Wednesday in refusing to answer questions at a deposition by lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump answered just one question — his name — and then cited the Fifth on every other question he was asked during the deposition, his lawyer Ronald Fischetti says.

Also the former President read aloud a statement in which he called James’ probe “the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country,” and accused the Democratic attorney general of “openly campaigning on a policy of destroying me,” Fischetti said.

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🔥 ‘Fire Tornado’ spotted in northwestern Los Angeles County

The Sam Fire, which was burning in Gorman near Old Ridge Route and Lancaster Road, had grown to approximately 150 acres as of 6:15 p.m., according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

More than 200 fire personnel were battling the blaze and Sky5 captured the footage in the evening.

Fire tornadoes, sometimes called “fire devils” or ‘firenadoes,” occur when extreme, rising heat is met with turbulent wind conditions. The vortex of the tornado sucks in combustible gases and burning debris.

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📅 The date of the referendum on the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) becoming part of Russia will be announced after the DPR's complete liberation, the head of the republic, Denis Pushilin, said.

🗯 "As for our main efforts, they are now aimed at the complete liberation of the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic," Pushilin told reporters.

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😏 Nicola Sturgeon has claimed Liz Truss quizzed her about how to land an interview with Vogue magazine when they met briefly at Cop26 last year.

▪️ Speaking at an Edinburgh fringe event on Wednesday, the Scottish first minister recalled meeting the Conservative leadership favourite at the global climate conference in Glasgow shortly after the interview – her second with the glossy magazine – had come out.

🗣 “I remember it quite well actually,” Sturgeon told the audience. “I had just done, and this is going to sound really up myself but I don’t mean to … I’d just been interviewed by Vogue, as you do … that was the main thing she wanted to talk to me about, she wanted to know how she could get into Vogue."

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⚡️ Moldova signs contract on audit of debt to Gazprom with two companies - deputy prime minister

⚡️ “We Europeans must be willing to pay a price for supporting Ukraine and maintaining unity”, Josep Borrell said in an interview with the newspaper El Pais

😮 Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was told by the Justice Department that he was a second target of a plot, revealed Wednesday, by an Iranian operative to murder former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton.

▪️ A source close to Pompeo told Axios that the DOJ "has confirmed directly to Secretary Pompeo that he is one of the individuals who has been targeted by those who are [charged] in the announced DOJ [documents]."

▪️ The DOJ on Wednesday unsealed charges against Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

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🔋 Russia is winning in the energy markets, getting the opportunity to cope with Western sanctions, while the EU may face an energy crisis in the fall, according to an article by Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas.

▪️ Blas said that in July, Russia's oil output returned to the levels observed before Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine, averaging about 10.8 million barrels per day.

🗯 "Russia has found new customers for the million barrels a day or so that European oil refiners have stopped purchasing due to self-sanctioning," the columnist covering energy and commodities wrote.

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🇰🇷 🇰🇵 South Korea bemoaned the repeated accusations of Pyongyang that Seoul introduced the coronavirus to North Korea, the South Korean ministry of unification said on Thursday.

🗯 "We strongly deplore the extremely harsh and threatening remarks that North Korea made to the South Korean government at the national meeting of reviewing the emergency anti-epidemic work, repeating its far-fetched claims about the infiltration routes of the coronavirus to the country," the South Korean ministry said.

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⚡️One of the bulk carriers with grain didn't manage to leave Ukraine's Port of Chernomorsk due to poor weather conditions, Turkish MoD said

❗️ Russian air defense repelled a Ukrainian missile and drone strike on the city of Energodar and the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant; Russian officials say Ukrainian firing positions are suppressed

🇨🇳 🇺🇸 China has overtaken the US as the world leader in both scientific research output and “high impact” studies, according to a report published by Japan’s science and technology ministry.

▪️ The report, which was published by Japan’s National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTP) on Tuesday, found that China now publishes the highest number of scientific research papers every year, followed by the US and Germany.

▪️ The figures were based on yearly averages between 2018 and 2020, and drawn from data compiled by the analytics firm Clarivate.

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🇷🇺 🇹🇷 Erdogan intends to discuss with Putin construction of Akkuyu nuclear power plant during phone conversations - Turkish Energy Ministry

❗️ An agreement on the purchase of Russian gas by Turkey in rubles has been reached; the nature of the schedule and prices will soon become clear - Turkish Energy Ministry

🤔 US President Joe Biden took a break last week for a nearly two-hour private history lesson from a group of academics who highlighted concerns about the precarious state of democracy at home and abroad, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

▪️ The conversation on August 4 supposedly took the form of a philosophical dialogue between the president and a small group of scholars who painted the current period as among the most dangerous in modern history for democratic governance.

DETAILS ⬅️

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🌍 African countries do not want to participate in the "new cold war" between Russia and the United States - Foreign Policy

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📹 The hackers said they had access to the data of employees of the American company Lockheed Martin, which also produces HIMARS.

Previously, Killnet hacked into the company's website and was able to obtain the data of all job candidates.

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⚡️ Turkey will not join energy sanctions against Russia, Ankara has valid contract with Moscow - Ministry of Energy

⚡️ Moscow slams Kiev's shelling of Zaporozhye NPP as 'act of nuclear terrorism'

📹 Footage of the combat work of Russian paratroopers performing reconnaissance and search operations.

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