🎥 The Russian Ministry of Defense has released footage of a drone strike on a Ukrainian Armed Forces stronghold in the Zaporozhye direction. As a result of the strike by a quadcopter-type unmanned aerial vehicle, the Ukrainian stronghold with fighters and weapons was destroyed.

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🇳🇴 Norway hikes key rate to 15-year high in bid to fight inflation

The country’s Central Bank has raised its key policy rate by 50 basis points to 3.75% in a bid to curb inflation, setting its sights on yet another hike in August.

This baffled analysts, who, prior to the announcement, were split on whether the key policy rate would be hiked by 50 basis points or 25 basis points, but the majority nevertheless bet on a smaller hike.

This move raises the policy rate to its highest level since the outbreak of the global financial crisis of 2008. With that in mind, the Central Bank itself predicted the policy rate would rise further to 4.25% during the autumn.

Inflation is currently well above the central bank’s initial target of 2%, reaching 6.7% in May 2023.

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Ukrainian military commissars grab and assault men in the city of Ternopol amid a new round of mobilization, a video on social media appears to to show. The connoscripts are heard expressing their shock and outrage over this coercive treatment.

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🇷🇺🇺🇸 Moscow doesn’t want the New START treaty to go up in smoke because of the US, Deputy FM Ryabkov says:

▪️A likelihood exists that US will take some steps to exit the treaty;

▪️Potential future arms control talks may be defined along the lines of matching unilateral constraints;

▪️Russia probably won’t publish information on the number of nukes moved to Belarus;

▪️Moscow won’t need to notify the US about any tests of the Poseidon underwater drone.

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❗️Moscow significantly expands list of EU representatives banned from entering Russia in response to 11th package of EU sanctions, Foreign Ministry says

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Rosatom urges International Atomic Energy Agency to take concrete action to prevent attacks on Zaporozhye NPP

The head of Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, met with the director of the IAEA Rafael Grossi in Kaliningrad, with one of the topics for discussion being the Zaporozhye NPP.

Likhachev said that Russia is waiting for specific steps from the IAEA secretariat aimed at preventing the Ukrainian Armed Forces from striking the power plant.

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❗️Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

The Russian Armed Forces have launched a long-range air-based high-precision strike against Ukrainian missile storages, including foreign-manufactured ones. The goals of the strike have been reached. All the assigned targets have been neutralized.

▪️In South Donetsk, three attacks by Ukrainian combined units have been repelled close to Vremevsky salient;

▪️In Pologi direction, the action of two Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups was thwarted. The Ukrainian losses were over 130 troops, five tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles, three armored fighting vehicles, two D-20 howitzers, and Polish-manufactured Krab self-propelled artillery system;

▪️In Donetsk direction, Russian forces destroyed over 90 Ukrainian soldiers, two armored fighting vehicles, a D-20 and one Msta-B howitzers as well as an ammunition depot;

▪️In Kupyansk direction, Ukrainian losses amount up to 30 troops, two armored fighting vehicles, a Polish-manufactured Krab self-propelled artillery system. The actions of two Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups were likewise thwarted;

▪️In Krasny Liman direction, The actions of two Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups were overcome. The Ukrainian losses were up to 90 soldiers, two infantry fighting vehicles, two armored fighting vehicles, two Gvozdika self-propelled artillery systems, as well as one D-20 and one D-30 howitzers;

▪️In Kherson direction, the Ukrainian losses were over 40 troops and one US-manufactured M777 artillery system;

▪️Russian air defense facilities have intercepted four Tochka-U tactical missiles, 15 HIMARS multiple-launch rocket system projectiles and one US-manufactured JDAM guided aerial bombs, as well as 11 Ukrainian drones in Donetsk People's Republic and Zaporozhye region.

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🇷🇺🇦🇪 Made in Russia shines in UAE: Over 90 B2B meetings set stage for $9.6 million in deals

The ‘Made in Russia’ business mission showcasing IT and Smart City solutions took place on June 19-20 in the UAE.

The mission involved 15 Russian companies offering solutions for urban infrastructure, business process optimization, construction, and medicine, the Russian Export Center (REC, part of VEB.RF) reported. The total potential value of the meetings is estimated at over $9.6 million.

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💸🔄 Hunter Biden got cash back in tax returns for prostitute, sex club he filed under...'business expenses'

An unnamed IRS criminal investigator alleged this in his testimony. According to the investigator, Hunder went great length to avoid paying $106,000 in taxes, which included writing off his fleshly desires as “business expenses”.

💬 “He deducted payments that were made to who he called his West Coast assistant, but she was essentially a prostitute,” the whistleblower said.

Earlier this week, the US Department of Justice announced that Joe Biden’s son Hunter had entered a plea deal on charges that could have put him in jail for up to 15 years, including tax evasion and unlawful possession of a firearm.

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💬 “The idea of strategic independence is not a choice for India. It is not an option. It is deeply ingrained in the Indian psyche. There is nothing that can happen in the world that can change that,” Talmiz Ahmed, a former Indian diplomat and a strategic affairs expert told Sputnik

The US 🇺🇸 has been taking advantage of India's concerns with China to increase its influence in the Indian Ocean Region, according to former Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmed.

Ahmed thinks India and China 🇨🇳 have comparable regional interests and the US has no significant role in safeguarding India's borders. He believes the US seeks to escalate tensions between India and China for its own motives as it is in a geopolitical conflict with Beijing.

👉 Go to Sputnik India for details!

The Ukrainian counteroffensive is a 'suicide mission' and NATO knows it, former US Marine Intel officer and UN weapons instructor Scott Ritter told the New Rules Podcast.

NATO "in many ways needs a Ukrainian defeat, because a Ukrainian defeat allows them to say that the Russian military that's capable of defeating this Ukrainian force is a Russian military that can only be confronted by an emboldened, empowered, united NATO," he said.

👉 You can find the full interview on Rumble

🇬🇧🇪🇺 Brexit or Brentry? YouGov survey shows rising support for UK to rejoin EU

Support for rejoining the European Union among people in the United Kingdom has surged to 58%, with 42% saying they would opt to stay out if there was a new referendum on EU membership, a YouGov poll showed on Friday.

The figures come from the pollster’s latest Brexit tracker survey of 2,037 British adults.

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🇷🇺 Poseidon – the nuclear-capable, nuclear powered, unmanned underwater vehicle designed in Russia

The autonomous torpedo is 20 meters long, 1.8 meters in diameter, and weighs 100 tons.

Equipped with a nuclear reactor and operating autonomously with the help of satellite communications and artificial intelligence, Poseidons have what is essentially an unlimited range – allowing them to travel to any underwater location on Earth, and to remain operational so long as their technical resource allows.

The system has an estimated operating speed of between 60-70 knots (about 100-130 km/hour) respectively, and the ability to carry conventional explosives, or a nuclear warhead with an explosive power of up to two megatons.

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🗣️”I think even before this offensive was launched, the conflict is basically over. It's just a matter of how and when. It's a war of attrition that the collective West simply cannot win”: Brian Berletic, an ex-US Marine Corps, Bangkok-based independent geopolitical researcher and writer on Ukraine’s counteroffensive, told Sputnik

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

🇷🇺 Everything we know about ‘tsunami-causing’ Russian Poseidon drone subs

An informed source has given Sputnik exclusive new details on the Poseidon – the nuclear-capable, nuclear powered, unmanned underwater vehicle.

What do we know about the Poseidon’s carriers? what does the US say about Poseidon's?

Find the answers in the explainer on Sputnik's website

🇳🇱 Netherlands to stop main gas production for northwest Europe due danger of earthquakes

Although the gas tap in Groningen will be turned off on October 1, 2023, the gas plant will not be immediately dismantled, the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation (NOS) reported on Friday, citing a government decision.

Moreover, gas wells will remain open until October 1, 2024, in the event of a very cold winter, the broadcaster reported.

Dutch State Secretary for the Extractive Industries Hans Vijlbrief called the government's decision to stop gas production in Groningen an "important moment" for the people of the province, who have been suffering from the effects of gas production for decades.

The Groningen gas field in the Netherlands was discovered in 1959. It was once the main gas source for northwest Europe, but production has been limited since the 1990s due to earthquakes. The initial recoverable gas reserves of the field were 2.9 trillion cubic meters.

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❗️Russia's Ministry of Defense has stated that all messages and videos circulating on social media under the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin about alleged Russian Armed Forces strikes on the "rear camps of the Wagner PMC" are not true and are an information provocation.

The Russian Armed Forces continue to carry out combat missions on the contact line with the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of the special military operation.

❗️Russian President Vladimir Putin is aware of the situation unfolding around the founder of the Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin has confirmed.

"President Putin has been informed of all the events regarding Prigozhin, all the necessary steps are being taken," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.