🤔 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.

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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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❗️ Vessels with Ukrainian grain go to West rather than countries in need, calling into question sincerity of food scarcity premise - Moscow

📹 A Sputnik correspondent films the work of Russian Su-25 attack aircraft.

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⚡️ Switzerland has lost its neutral status and cannot represent the interests of Kiev in Russia - Russian Foreign Ministry

⚡️ Moscow urges US to not speculate on prisoner exchanges and to stop trying to put pressure on Russia - Russian Foreign Ministry

😮 📹 A small, single-engine plane made an emergency landing outside of Los Angeles on Tuesday. Remarkably and despite a fiery crash into the back of a pickup truck, no one was hurt.

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🇰🇵 Kim Jong Un 'solemnly declared victory' over coronavirus in North Korea, Yonhap News Agency reports

📹 Footage of Grad multiple-launch rocket systems being fired in combat.

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🇱🇻 Moscow may take retaliatory measures in response to Latvia's decision to designate Russia a "state that supports terrorism," a Russian senator told Sputnik.

According to Sergei Tsekov, the measures may firstly be of an economic nature, in particular, a ban on the transit of goods through Russia.

The Latvian parliament adopted a motion on Thursday in which "Russia is recognized as a state that supports terrorism," while Moscow's actions against the population of Ukraine are designated as "terrorism."

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❗️ Scholz has a hard time with the idea of a blanket visa ban for Russian citizens

⚡️ Moscow: Latvia was driven by xenophobia when it declared Russia 'sponsor of terrorism'

❗️ The Russian MoD’s latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ Active Allied Forces' offensive operations have eliminated more than 50 percent of the personnel in the AFU’s 14th and 66th mechanised brigades.

▪️ Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery strikes continue against military facilities in Ukraine.

▪️ As part of counter-battery warfare, three platoons of Grad multiple-launch rocket systems, two artillery platoons of Acatsiya guns and three platoons of D-30 howitzers have been suppressed at firing positions in the DPR.

▪️ Russian Aerospace Forces fighter aircraft have shot down 1 Mi-24 helicopter near in Dnepropetrovsk Region.

▪️ Russian air defences have destroyed 7 UAVs in Kharkov Region.

▪️ Some 267 Ukrainian airplanes and 146 helicopters, 1,727 unmanned aerial vehicles, 365 anti-aircraft missile systems, 4,287 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 797 multiple launch rocket systems, 3,290 field artillery and mortars, as well as 4,820 special military vehicles have been destroyed during the operation.

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