🗣️”So the significance of this is yet another step in what we're just seeing happening across the globe and these are pushes towards a more regional integration”: Beirut-based journalist and editor of The Cradle, Esteban Carrillo, on the current tendency of regional integration

🎧Listen to more of Carrillo’s analysis in our podcast Fault Lines

What do Democrats and Republicans think of US debt ceiling bill?

The House has cleared the US debt ceiling deal that was earlier clinched between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avert a looming government default. How did Republicans and Democrats react to the bill and what was the GOP presidential candidates’ stance on the matter?

Sputnik answers these and other questions

🗣️”The whole point of a proxy war is you're fighting a war against your adversary without you actually putting your blood and your treasure on the line. You're doing it through someone else. You're doing it through Ukraine. It doesn't matter to you if they all die”: Ex-US Marine Corps independent geopolitical researcher and writer based in Bangkok, Brian Berletic, on the main point of a proxy war

🎧Listen to more of Berletic’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour

🎙 General press conference of BRICS foreign ministers is about to start

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EU 'disappearing' as global economic player due to high energy costs

French economist Jacques Sapir highlights the challenges Europe faces in rebuilding competitiveness and addressing the consequences of boycotting Russian gas. Despite Europe managing to avoid a severe energy crisis last winter, the substitution of Russian gas with liquefied natural gas (LNG) remains a concern. The complete transition from Russian gas to LNG will take several years, and if the upcoming winter is harsh, Europe could encounter significant problems.

The reliance on Russian gas, which had provided affordable energy for European economies, was disrupted by Western sanctions, resulting in higher costs and increased expenditure to protect households from rising energy prices. Sapir emphasizes the need to rebuild European competitiveness in the next decade, as the entry costs for oil and gas have risen and other countries like China and India benefit from lower prices.

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📹 The Russian Defense Ministry published a video of attacks on Ukrainian terrorists who tried to enter the territory of Belgorod region in the morning

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❗️ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, when asked about the expansion of the BRICS, replied that the issue of admitting Saudi Arabia was indeed discussed.

He also laughed off the question about rumors over the possible transfer of the BRICS summit from South Africa to China.

"As far as I understand, this news was published only in one yellow English newspaper. And I don't read English newspapers," Lavrov answered.

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DeSantis presidential campaign gets kiss of death from anti-Trump establishment

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' presidential run is facing challenges as he receives endorsements from Republican 'Never-Trumpers,' according to an attorney Tyler Nixon.

Despite his disciplined messaging, DeSantis is criticized for his lack of warmth and noscripted demeanor. His campaign's pitch to move on from Trump is met with resistance from socially-conservative Republicans who supported Ron Paul and were galvanized by Trump's defiance of the Republican establishment. DeSantis' support from establishment figures like Jeb Bush and Dick Cheney further undermines his attempts to portray himself as a conservative rebel.

Moreover, DeSantis is criticized for aligning himself with unpopular policies such as supporting Biden's arms supplies to Ukraine. The attorney argued that DeSantis is adopting positions that are not widely supported, including overseas interventions and militarism.

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Joe Biden falls again, this time at US Air Force Academy graduation ceremony

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🗣️”I think the first response is going to be sanctions, it is going to be that. But at this point, we've seen it proven time and again that economic sanctions are useless. They do not achieve the goal that the politicians want to achieve”: Beirut-based journalist and editor of The Cradle, Esteban Carrillo, on the US' possible moves not to allow countries to create a regional currency

🎧Listen to more of Carrillo’s analysis in our podcast Fault Lines

US advocacy group releases emails challenging Biden's statements on son's connections

America First Legal (AFL) has released a new package of emails challenging President Joe Biden's claim of ignorance regarding his son Hunter's business connections with foreign individuals. The emails, obtained from the National Archives, span from December 2009 to June 2010 and reveal communication between Hunter's former business partner and top aides of then-Vice President Biden. AFL highlighted an email discussing a "China lunch" before a visit by former Chinese President Hu Jintao, which the National Archives redacted due to its confidential nature.

The released emails suggest that Hunter received privileged information from the Vice President's Office about a state visit to Africa in 2010. AFL argues that these records, while only a fraction of the National Archives collection, provide further evidence of the Biden family's involvement in influence peddling and personal enrichment.

America First Legal's Vice President and General Counsel Gene Hamilton stated that each release contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the interplay between the Biden family's business interests and official US affairs.

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🔺Senator Lindsey Graham says US financing of Ukraine war against Russia is "the best money we’ve ever spent"
🔺Gun put to South Africa's head: the West is putting "extraordinary pressure" on Africa to renounce its neutral position over the Russia-Ukraine conflict
🔺Zelensky and Macron are planning a "peace summit" without Russia

The Critical Hour will cover these and more stories! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6pm EST|3pm PST|12am CET via the website or app

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EU ban on Twitter over refusal to censor posts is new 'McCarthyism'

The European Union is facing criticism for threatening legal action against Twitter if it does not censor user posts according to the bloc's definition of truth.

Financial consultant Angelo Giuliano argued that the EU's demand for social media sites to block "disinformation" represents a new form of McCarthyism and challenges Europe's claim to be a bastion of democracy. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton has warned Twitter owner Elon Musk that speech censorship deemed misleading by Brussels would be prohibited under the EU's Digital Services Act legislation, prompting concerns about freedom of expression.

Giuliano, who has experience living in China, expressed his irony at the West's shift toward building walls and censoring free speech.

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📹 The combat work of the engineering and sapper units of the Russian Airborne Forces

▪️ Footage shows the paratrooper destroying a wheeled drone with a mine.

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Trump vows to use US military to fight drug crisis if reelected in 2024

Former President Donald Trump outlined his plan to combat drug addiction and target drug cartels in a campaign video, stating that he would utilize the American military for maximum impact. His strategy involves seeking the death penalty for convicted drug dealers and human traffickers, imposing a naval embargo on drug cartels, and deploying the US military to confront them.

Trump emphasized the need for cooperation from neighboring governments in dismantling trafficking networks in South and Central America, while also directing federal law enforcement to combat local drug distribution by demolishing gangs and organized criminal organizations.

He criticized President Joe Biden for failing to secure the US-Mexico border and vowed to win the presidency in 2024 to prevent the country from deteriorating under the Democrats' administration.

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Ron DeSantis lashed out at a reporter, twice asking “Are you blind?”, at the end of his first campaign event in New Hampshire

Florida Gov. DeSantis, who delivered his stock speech to an audience of more than 100 people at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Laconia, turned noticeably agitated when a journo of the Associated Press asked why he wasn’t taking questions from the audience like the majority presidential candidates.

"People are coming up to me, talking to me," the Florida governor said. “What are you talking about? Are you blind? Are you blind? People are coming up to me, talking to me whatever they want to talk to me about.”

At the time, DeSantis was shaking hands and taking photos with individual members of the crowd on his way out of the VFW hall. But he did not answer questions from his lectern so that voters could all hear his answers at once.

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⚡US Congress has passed the debt ceiling bill to avert a government default, the measure will now go to Biden's desk

🗣️”We see now with those new laws about these disinformation acts, they are going to tell us what is right or not. And we know we've been lied all along. And you see actually the polls: people do not believe in the system. The polls that are actually run by the West, they say, is clearly that people clearly don't trust Congress, they don't trust the media”: Italian-Swiss financial consultant Angelo Giuliano on current-day freedom of speech in the US

🎧Listen to more of Giuliano’s analysis in our podcast The Final Countdown

Donald Trump said he will "shift gears" and put the United States in order within six months if he is reelected in the 2024 presidential election

"So I heard [Florida Governor Ron] DeSantis saying: 'Oh, I get eight years, I get eight years.' He gets what. You don't need four, and you don't need eight. You need six months. Within six months, I said, things can be done," Trump told an Iowa town hall when asked how much time he would need to deal with the border crisis, and get prices, inflation and crime rates in the country down.

"We gonna drill. We gonna get our energy down. When the energy comes down, other things come down. And we're gonna take care of things. We gonna immediately close up the border."

The former president added that the US currently has "the worst border in the history of the world."

Trump, who announced his presidential bid in November 2022, also said we would have not voted for DeSantis because "he said you need eight years."

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