📹 Russian POW speaks about horrors in Ukrainian captivity

The soldier explained that his ransom was $20,000 and that it did not guarantee that he would make it out alive. He also revealed that Ukrainian soldiers threatened him with death and beat him, but only on his torso, so as to be able to cover up the injuries before the arrival of a Ukrainian "reporter" to record his "confession" that the Russian military had been conducting strikes against Ukrainian civilians.

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🗣️ On the possibilities of a US-China war:

“It feels inevitable. And this is because the people making foreign policy decisions in the United States have a sense of impunity from the consequences of these decisions… If conflict is averted, it'll be because of decisions China makes,” Brian Berletic, ex-US Marine and geopolitical analyst, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Berletic’s analysis in our podcast New Rules

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble or YouTube

Russia's IT brain gain: professionals return home, reversing long-time trend

According to Alexander Khachiyan, the head of AWG IT integrator, approximately 85 percent of IT specialists who left Russia in 2022 have returned to the country. Khachiyan mentioned that the most significant wave of returnees occurred between February and March, around six months after September 2022.

Khachiyan concluded that many Russian IT expats started bearing the brunt of forfeiting their tax residency status because their personal income tax rose from about 13-15 percent to 30 percent upon returning to Russia. Employers were unwilling to make up for such a change, a significant motivator for IT specialists to return.

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Seven times Biden lied on Ukraine

The US announced last week that it would expedite the delivery of 155mm howitzer-launched cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite earlier characterizing the use of such weapons as a “war crime,” and promising to remove them from US inventories.

What other Ukraine-related promises has the Biden administration broken?

Here’s a partial list

🇪🇺🇦🇺 EU, New Zealand sign free trade agreement

The European Union and New Zealand have signed a free trade agreement that is expected to increase bilateral trade by up to 30% within 10 years, the European Commission said.

The European Union is already New Zealand's third biggest trade partner, and with the new agreement, EU investment in New Zealand will probably increase by 80%, even, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

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❗️Attempts to shell the Kerch Strait, Rostov and Bryansk regions of Russia on July 9 by Kiev would have been impossible without the assistance of the United States and its "coalition," Russian Foreign Ministry says

🇷🇺 🌍First Russia-Africa Summit: What Nations Agreed on at Historic Meeting in Sochi

The First Russia-Africa Summit, which took place in Sochi on October 23-24, 2019, was the largest event ever held in the history of modern Russia and was unprecedented in Russian-African relations.

Titled "For Peace, Security and Development," it outlined the goals and objectives adopted for the future development of Russian-African cooperation in various fields, including the political, security, economic, science and technology, cultural, and humanitarian spheres.

👉 Check out the full text of the declaration of the First Russia-Africa Summit

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🇺🇸 DeSantis threatens to cut off trade with China if elected president

Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis told a TV news interviewer on Sunday that he would revoke the normal trade status between Washington and Beijing if elected president in 2024, although he was unclear on how to achieve that.

DeSantis is currently running a distant second in an increasingly long field behind Trump in polling for the 2024 Republican primary race.

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🇺🇸 Matthew Miller, the head of the US State Department's press service, twice referred to the military conflict in Ukraine as a strategic failure on the part of Kiev, but eventually said that he had simply misspoken.

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🇮🇱🇺🇸 Israel, US kick off joint air force exercise to improve interoperability – IDF

The program of the drills includes long range striking, combat for aerial superiority and repelling cyber attacks, as well as midair refueling, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The Juniper Oak 23.2 life-fire drills, conducted from January 23-27, was the largest US-Israeli bilateral military exercise in history. It took place both on the territory of Israel and over the Mediterranean Sea with participation of over 140 aircraft, 6,400 US and 1,500 Israeli troops and several ships.

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⚡Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to forward the NATO accession protocol for Sweden to the parliament for ratification as soon as possible, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed on Monday.

Get the latest details here!

Majority of Poles concerned with migrant presence in country - survey

The majority of Polish citizens are apprehensive about migrants, a poll conducted by the IBRiS laboratory showed that 53.1% of respondents were concerned about the potential risks posed by the presence of migrants in their country.
Supporters of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) were most concerned about the migrant issue (83%), as compared to those of other Polish parties.

The survey of 1,100 people was conducted by computer-assisted telephone interview July 7-8.

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🔺Non-Aligned Movement reiterates support for Venezuela against US blockade
🔺Scott Ritter: cluster munitions will change nothing for Ukraine
🔺Latin American leaders reject presence of Ukraine’s President Zelensky at EU-CELAC meeting

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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🇷🇺🌍 Russia-Africa Summit 2023: everything you need to know

Dear readers, ahead of the Russia-Africa Summit 2023, Sputnik Africa has prepared a special dossier dedicated to this important diplomatic event, which in a couple of weeks will be attended by Russian leaders as well as representatives of more than 50 African countries.

🔍 Here you will find the latest updates, details on preparations, official statements, and even what is going on behind the scenes at the summit, which is to take place on July 27-28 in St. Petersburg.

✅ The dossier is available in English and French.

Stay tuned for more to come

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