🇺🇸 Barack Obama gets a midterm do-over to help boost Democrats

Barack Obama is trying to do something he couldn’t during two terms as president: help Democrats succeed in national midterm elections when they already hold the White House. With Biden’s job approval ratings in the low 40s amid sustained inflation, he’s an albatross for Democrats like Sens. Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada.

The itinerary, which includes rallies with Democratic candidates for federal and state offices, comes as Biden and Democrats try to stave off a strong Republican push to upend Democrats’ narrow majorities in the House and Senate and claim key governorships ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

With the Senate now split 50-50 between the two major parties and Vice President Kamala Harris giving Democrats the deciding vote, any Senate contest could end up deciding which party controls the chamber for the next two years.

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❗️Russian Units Advancing Along Almost Entire Line of Contact - DPR Head

🇯🇵 Japan Cabinet OKs $200B spending plan to counter inflation

Japan’s Cabinet approved Friday a hefty economic package including 29 trillion yen ($200 billion) in government spending to counter the blow to household budgets from inflation, signaling that the greater concern of its policymakers is that the economy will stall, not overheat.

While central banks around the world are raising interest rates aggressively to try to tame decades-high inflation, with its own inflation rate near 3%, Japan has stuck mainly to using fiscal measures, or government spending, to counter that challenge.

Globally surging prices and a weakening of the yen have amplified costs for Japan’s imports, pushing inflation higher. But its economy grew at a modest 2.2% annual pace in April-June.

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📹 “Where is the interpreter, they shouted”: A released Russian serviceman recounts how he was captured in Ukraine by English-speaking mercenaries.

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⚡️ Russia following evolution of US Defense Strategy, alarmed by growing number of scenarios involving use of nuclear arms - Foreign Ministry to Sputnik

🤔 Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that Democrats are concerned about the possible outcome of midterm elections in the United States in November.

💬 "Democrats are kinda worried about where this is going right now, and it's felt worse in the last week or so," Psaki said, adding that "people are fearful of where the momentum is going in some of these races."

▪️ She added that "numbers in some of the House races are not where they should be."

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🗣 Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov has called on US authorities to return all nuclear weapons stationed abroad to their homeland and to eliminate the infrastructure for their storage and use.

💬 "In this regard, I once again urge Washington to return all nuclear weapons stationed abroad to national territory and to eliminate the foreign infrastructure for their storage and maintenance. Also, to stop the practice of testing the use of such munitions with the involvement of military personnel of non-nuclear states, as part of NATO ‘joint nuclear missions,’ contrary to the fundamental principles of the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons)," Antonov said.

▪️ Earlier this week, it was reported that the United States had accelerated the deployment of a modernized B61-12 nuclear bomb at NATO bases in Europe, hoping to have them delivered by the end of 2022 rather than 2023.

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📹 “I just fired a shot in reflex”: A prisoner from the Azov Battalion* confessed to killing a civilian

*recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in Russia

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⚡️ Air defense systems in Sevastopol, Russia repelled drone attacks for several hours; all UAVs were shot down, and a surface drone was also destroyed, the governor says

🇺🇸 A group of US House and Senate Republicans have opposed a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would allow Washington to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine in aid, American newspaper reported on Friday, citing people involved with the negotiations.

▪️ According to the report, Republican staffers claim that the provision has not been "fully litigated" and questioned the effectiveness of the proposed measure. Moreover, Republicans believe that the provision should be reviewed by the US House and Senate judiciary committees.

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🇺🇸 Persistent shortages of parts and personnel will continue “to dog” the Pentagon’s top four defense contractors over the next two years as they currently deal with orders related to Washington’s ongoing security aid to Kiev amid Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine, a UK media outlet has reported, citing the companies’ chief executive officers (CEOs).

▪️ Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Technologies have been grappling with “snarled supplies” since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, something that is currently being worsened by “widespread cost inflation.”

▪️ Earlier this week, former Pentagon official Wesley Hallman told Sputnik that Washington’s push for sending military assistance to Kiev is stressing the US defense industry's ability to replenish its stockpiles.

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⚡️Ukrainian troops attempt to land near Zaporozhye NPP, retreat after suffering heavy losses, local authorities say

🇨🇳 🇺🇸 The Biden administration's new National Defense Strategy effectively declares economic and technological war against China, but Beijing will certainly react against it, analysts told Sputnik.

Check out our latest article dedicated to the topic

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❗️The gunman who assassinated 15 people at a major Shiite holy site in southern Iran earlier this week died in a hospital in the southern city of Shiraz on Saturday from injuries sustained during his arrest on Saturday, Iranian media reported.

The attack was claimed by the militant Islamic State group* but Iran's government has sought to blame it on the protests roiling the country.

*under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

🇷🇺 📹 Russia’s MoD has revealed footage showing the training of the armored crewmen of the Western Military District on T-72B3 and T-80U tanks

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📹 Have a look at the sense of humor of the US President, the leader of a nation with more than 330 million people, when he was faking an attempt to jump off a stage into the crowd during a speech in Pennsylvania

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🇷🇺 🇦🇲 Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Saturday that he is ready to sign a document on extension of Russian peacekeepers mandate in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh for 10-20 years at the upcoming meeting with Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev respectively, on Monday in Sochi.

🗣 "I officially declare that I am ready to sign a document in Sochi so that the representation of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh is unconditionally ensured for 10, 15, 20 years. I propose that the Russian president make this proposal, if necessary, I will make such a proposal. But Russia must support this proposal since I cannot determine the terms of the stay of the Russian peacekeepers, this is a trilateral document, and if we and Russia agree, we will be the majority," Pashinyan said, adding that Russia, as a mediator, can present this project.

▪️ Russia brokered a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan and deployed its peacekeepers to the region following a short conflict between Baku and Yerevan over a decades-long territorial dispute in Nagorno-Karabakh.

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❗️ Ukraine Armed Forces used nine air and seven sea drones in the attack on Sevastopol - Russian Defense Ministry.

As a result of the measures taken by the forces of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, all air targets were destroyed.

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🥴Another attempt at ‘humor’ by the US President leaving people wonder what he'd hoped to express

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