🇦🇹 Austria has no alternative to Russian gas, EU lawmaker says

Roman Haider slammed Austrian Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler as a “delusional green-deal-fanatic”: "People are tired of these stupid games. Prices are on the increase, people cannot afford a normal live. So they don't care where the gas comes from, as long as the prices go back to lower levels."

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🇺🇸 Biden's CIA director pick made secret trip to Ukraine to discuss battle plans, ceasefire talks

Ukraine officials have told the espionage boss William Burns that they intend to open talks with Moscow after they move artillery and missile systems near the boundary line of Crimea and push further into eastern Ukraine by the autumn, US media has reported.

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🇮🇷🇺🇸 Peas in a pod: Biden’s Iran negotiator suspended over mishandling of classified docs

Robert Malley, US President Joe Biden’s special envoy for Iran, has been stripped of his security clearance and placed on unpaid leave while the State Department probes his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

The diplomat, appointed to his post in January 2021 as the Biden administration began an attempt to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Iran nuclear deal, has been replaced by Abram Paley, his deputy, who will serve in the role on an acting basis.

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🇫🇷 Nearly 1,000 people have been detained in France overnight, around 1,350 cars and 234 buildings were set on fire during the continuing unrest in the country, French media report.

The unrest also affected 31 police departments, 16 offices of the municipal police and 11 gendarmerie barracks, the broadcaster reported.

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🇷🇺🇵🇱 Russia’s Medvedev slams Poland’s request to host US nuclear weapons

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🇫🇷🎮 You forgot rap music: Emmanuel Macron blames social media and video games for civil unrest in France

The leader of France's Eurosceptic “The Patriots” party, Florian Philippot, lambasted Macron’s comments about video games "intoxicating" the protesters, adding that with that "level of analysis," the riots won't end soon.

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🇵🇸🇷🇺 The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, called Putin and expressed his full support for the actions to defend Russia’s constitutional system and law and order on June 24.

Putin confirmed in the conversation with Abbas his position in favor of resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the existing international legal basis.

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🇷🇺🦾Russian scientists create exoskeleton to aid special military op veteran

Andrey Semikashev, a Russian serviceman whose right hand was seriously injured was able to restore his arm’s mobility thanks to the Exar-34, an exoskeleton developed by a medical university in Volgograd, Russia.

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

Russian Forces delivered a strike with high-precision weapons using sea and land-based platforms on Ukrainian control points of the operational-tactical group. All the appointed targets were hit. The strike’s mission was accomplished. Ukrainian forces continued unsuccessful attempts at offensive actions in the Donetsk, Krasny Liman, and South Donetsk directions.

▪️In the Donetsk direction, Russian forces destroyed over 265 Ukrainian troops, one tank, two armored combat vehicles, one Msta-B and one D-20 howitzer, as well as one ammunition depot;

▪️In the South Donetsk direction, the actions of two Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups were thwarted;

▪️In the Kupyansk direction, Russian forces destroyed up to 75 Ukrainian troops and one D-30 howitzer;

▪️The actions of a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group were thwarted in the LPR;

▪️In the Krasny Liman direction, the actions of a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group were thwarted. Russian forces neutralized up to 90 Ukrainian personnel, two armored combat vehicles, one Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer, and one D-20 howitzer;

▪️In the Zaporozhyie direction, a fuel storage was hit. Russian forces neutralized up to 140 Ukrainian personnel, three armored combat vehicles, as well as one Msta-B and two D-20 howitzers;

▪️In the Kherson direction, Russian troops neutralized up to 30 Ukrainian soldiers and one US-made M777 artillery system. The actions of a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group were thwarted when trying to land on two motor boats on Antonovsky Island;

▪️Russian air defenses shot down two Storm Shadow cruise missiles and five HIMARS rockets, as well as 12 unmanned aerial vehicles in the DPR and Zaporozhye region.

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🇮🇶🇬🇧 Defiant Tony Blair insists ousting Saddam Hussein was 'important thing to do'

The former UK PM has returned to the limelight to defend his decision to join the US’s Iraq invasion of 2003, and to offer his opinions on the crises facing the world today: “I always say to people there are many things we would have done different. But I still think that ultimately, in the Middle East, the removal of Saddam Hussein was an important thing to do."

The politician, who now heads the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a US State Department-funded non-profit, did not elaborate on why removing the Iraqi leader – which destroyed Iraq and destabilized the Middle East – was so important.

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Scott Ritter: Ukraine’s growing addiction to foreign mercenaries

A Russian missile strike on a popular restaurant in the city of Kramatorsk has set off a wave of discussion over the presence of foreign military personnel in Ukraine.

The presence of these foreigners in such numbers under such conditions is suggestive of two unescapable realties: that there is a high demand for their services, and that foreign governments are actively facilitating the availability of personnel possessing skill sets attractive to the Ukrainian military.

👉 Read his full analysis here

🇺🇸 This is not a good time to be a young American, renowned US investor Jim Rogers told the New Rules Podcast, commenting on the current state of the American economy.

💬 “The United States is the largest debtor nation in history. Many countries have gone through periods like this in the past thousand years. The US is going to pay the price. My kids anyway are going to pay the price,” he said.

👉 The US economy's troubles, BRICS' new order, and dedollarization: You can find the full interview on Rumble

🇪🇺 EU's Borrell Hints at 'very important events' related to Ukraine to be revealed soon

The developments can be expected during Spain's six-month presidency of the European Union, the EU foreign policy chief underscored. He went on to clarify that these important things are going to happen both on the battlefield and in connection with the more or less closed-door negotiations on ending the Ukraine conflagration.

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🗣️On democracy in Ukraine:

“How can we talk about Zelensky in Ukraine and democracy? These are two different words... When we see that he's forbidden any other party that is not in approval with the government and how journalists are arrested for not supporting what Ukraine is doing”, Elijah Magnier, veteran war correspondent and political analyst, told Sputnik.

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

👉Watch full episode of our show on Rumble

🇺🇸🗺 Around the World: Watch Joe Biden's Top Five Geographic Blunders

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What types of tanks does Ukraine have and how many are left?

The NATO-Russia proxy war in Ukraine has demonstrated the folly of early 21st century predictions about tanks becoming obsolete in the conflicts of the future, with both sides flooding the battlefield with heavy armor. The conflict has also shattered a popular myth about the supposed superiority of NATO's expensive "high-tech" tanks.

What types of tanks did Ukraine have before 2022? What types of tanks has Ukraine received from NATO?

Sputnik explains

🗣️ On Joe Biden's economic plan:

“Instead of putting together a real plan, we're more worried about the debt ceiling. And that's part of Bidenomics: that's spend more money to try to buy more votes so that we can continue to maintain ourselves in office”, Todd Bubba Horwitz, Chief Market Strategist of BubbaTrading dot com, told Sputnik.

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

👉 Watch full episode of our show on Rumble

🇫🇷 30% of the 2,400 participants detained in the disorder in France are underage

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🇬🇧 Discriminated against for being normal

Center for Global Development researcher Maya Forstater was let go from her job in 2018 after tweeting that "male people are not women" and that "a man’s internal feeling that he is a woman has no basis in material reality." In a ruling by the UK Employment Tribunal this week, she won £106,404 ($135,200) in compensation from her former employer for lost earnings and emotional distress.

Forstater said the ruling in her favor has provided her a measure of "closure and vindication," and that her case had exposed "routine abuse and smearing of, people with perfectly ordinary believes about the material reality of sex."

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