🗣️ On Cuba’s placement on the US' state sponsors of terrorism list:

“The state sponsors of terror list is an arbitrary list that was designated by the State Department to essentially punish countries with whom they disagree… It's a way in which they are able to continue to punish countries with whom they have policies that they disagree… So it's a way to identify Cuba as the boogeyman, the terrorists,” Gail Walker, executive director of Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Walker’s analysis in our podcast By Any Means Necessary

🇸🇪🇺🇸 Sweden is doing its utmost to avoid becoming a member of NATO, but Washington is exerting pressure on Stockholm, which wants to use the country as a foothold for access to resources in the Arctic region, a Turkish newspaper wrote on Thursday.

"Sweden is doing everything it can to avoid becoming a member of NATO. It is trying to use Turkiye as an excuse. If it really wanted to become a NATO member, none of this would have happened. It would have reached a real compromise with Turkiye. It wouldn't have led to provocative actions like the burning of the Quran. On the contrary, in the last few days Sweden is doing everything to avoid reconciliation. Why? Because it doesn't want to join NATO. There are both strategic and social reasons for this," the publication wrote.

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🇺🇸🇷🇺 US imports of goods from Russia more than doubled in May to $504 million, according to data released by the US Census Bureau on Thursday.

By comparison, in April, the United States imported $215.6 million worth of goods from Russia.

In February, the US imported $642.8 million worth of goods from Russia, an all-time high for 2023.

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🇨🇳 Tech mogul extraordinaire Elon Musk lavished praise upon the people of China during his address to the attendees of the annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai.

Speaking via a video link, Musk said he admires the “wisdom and determination” of the Chinese people who, according to him, can “do well” in the AI sphere if they so decide.

“I think, really, China is going to be great at anything it puts its mind into. That includes many different sectors – sectors of the economy, but also artificial intelligence,” he said as quoted by the media.

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🗣️ On the threat of a false flag attack on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant by the Ukrainian regime:

“Russia got control of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant very early on in the conflict… the Kiev regime has been shelling the plant for about eight months now with artillery and with kamikaze drones. They tried to claim for a long time that Russia was responsible for shelling the plant that Russia controlled, but those are much like the accusations of that, that the Russians bombed their own Crimean bridge and bombed their own Nord Stream pipeline,” Mark Sleboda, international relations and security analyst, told Sputnik.

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

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble

🇺🇸 US Navy losing its bureaucratic battle with Boeing to get 20 new F/A-18 Super-Hornet aircraft

Boeing will only build 16 more Super Hornets instead of the 20 the Navy ordered before shutting down its production line, US media reported.

The shortfall in production was caused by a dispute over property rights.

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Ukrainian troops shelled Donetsk, firing 13 NATO-standard 155 mm shells in 15 minutes, local authorities have reported

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🇺🇸 US president with 81 million votes: Biden opens speech by kicking his podium setup

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🇫🇷 French lawmakers push EU-wide ban on TikTok amid violent protests in country

An investigation by a parliamentary commission has set a deadline of January 1, 2024 to receive an explanation on how TikTok is tied to its parent company, Chinese Internet technology company ByteDance, and what kind of data is being sent to China.

Here are the key takeaways from their recommendations:

▪️Social media platforms must filter content published during mass riots and calls to participate in them;

▪️Employees of organizations necessary for the survival of the population should be banned from using TikTok;

▪️Measures should be strengthened to filter disinformation and content created by AI;

▪️Social media platforms should limit the time of use of applications for minors and conduct studies to identify the effects on the health of users.

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🇧🇬 Zelensky receives cold reception in Bulgaria

An Orthodox priest in Sofia “cursed” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's motorcade on his Bulgaria trip, saying “anathema to Zelensky, fascist Ukraine and the Western Satanists,” while the country’s president, Rumen Radev, refused to supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, citing security concerns.

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🇷🇴 Romania to open F-16 pilot training center, strengthen ties with NATO

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis discussed the topics for the upcoming NATO Summit in Lithuania's capital Vilnius, scheduled for July 11-12, including the security in the Black Sea region — the topic of "strategic interest for Romania, as well as the entire Euro-Atlantic security."

Romania was also ready to contribute to strengthening the alliance "both in cooperation with allies as the host nation of NATO's multinational structures and by increasing defense spending to 2.5% of GDP starting this year."

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🇮🇳🇷🇺 #BrahMos Aerospace Announces Talks With 6 Nations Over Sales of Supersonic Cruise Missiles 🚀

🗯 "BrahMos is in talks with six countries on the sales of missiles. There are countries with whom we are negotiating at a more advanced stage, it is practically a pre-contact work," Praveen Pathak, the company's chief general manager, told Sputnik.

In January 2022, the Philippine 🇵🇭 Defense Ministry and BrahMos concluded a $375 million contract for the supply of ground-based anti-ship missile systems. The contract also includes training for operating personnel and a logistics support package.

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💰 BlackRock CEO now praises Bitcoin after once calling it “index of money laundering”

Larry Fink, who was known as a skeptic of crypto, has made a 180 on Bitcoin, saying it could “revolutionize finance,” praising it for “digitalizing gold,” and calling it an “international asset.”

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Hey, everyone! A fresh New Rules episode is coming out today. We're going to be talking about the Ukrainian counteroffensive, how it will impact the NATO summit in Vilnius, and what sort of implications the Ukraine conflict has on US plans in the Asia-Pacific region

Catch us on Rumble at 8:30 am EST| 5:30 am PST| 2:30 pm CET

Don't forget to check out our previous episodes:

💥 Karen Kwiatkowski 'Bad News for Biden From Ukraine'
💥 Pepe Escobar 'The Twilight of US Hegemony'
💥 Scott Ritter 'Ukrainian Counteroffensive is a ‘Suicide Mission’