🗣️ On the core of NATO:

“What is NATO, really? Jens Stoltenberg has no power. I mean, they're just told what to do. NATO is a sort of vassal state, meeting group, when all these major members are told what to do by Washington and when I say Washington as you implied, that it's not the people of the United States represented in Washington, it is those arms companies that lobby the politicians who then tell these NATO members how to act,” Afshin Rattansi, host of Going Underground, told Sputnik.

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

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"They put an empty flour sack on and wrap it with tape so tightly that the person actually suffocates"

📹 Andrei Sokolov, a civilian who was captured by the Nazis and spent almost two years in captivity, talks about barbaric methods of torture, used by Ukrainian nationalists

Read the full interview on Sputnik's website

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🇪🇹 🇪🇬 Leaders of Ethiopia and Egypt Discuss Crisis in Sudan, Disputed Blue Nile Dam

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed the conflict in Sudan, bilateral relations, and Ethiopia's Blue Nile Dam (also known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) at the presidential palace in Cairo, according to the Egyptian presidency.

On July 13, Egypt is hosting a conference of Sudan's neighboring countries to discuss the issue of putting an end armed clashes between opposing groups of the Sudanese military that have sparked a serious crisis in the region

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Biden promised $11-13 billion in IMF funds to Erdogan for the ratification of Sweden's application to NATO, Seymour Hersh said

The Turkish leader did not refuse the money, as he needs to restore the country's infrastructure after the devastating earthquakes, according to the investigative journalist.

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🔺Iran’s Raisi starts Africa trip by signing agreements with Kenya
🔺NATO expands to Asia-Pacific: Did Biden lie about not surrounding China?
🔺Germany to open tank factory in Ukraine

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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🇩🇪Mental diseases were the most common reason for hospitalization among minors aged 10-17 in Germany in 2021. In 2011, this type of illness accounted for just 13% of all cases in the same age bracket.

Among all mental disorders, depression was the most common reason for inpatient treatment of German teenagers, accounting for 27% of all hospitalization cases caused by mental illnesses in 2021.

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The Russian Army will "easily cope" with the Ukrainian offensive and will begin its own "massive" offensive in August, Seymour Hersh said

He noted that Kiev would face "real problems" and even US-supplied cluster munitions had no chance of changing the course of the conflict.

The investigative journalist is sure that the White House made a mistake in assessing the situation at the front and the Ukrainian offensive is failing.

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🗣️ On why corruption and war go hand in hand:

“We were hearing more about that [corruption in Ukraine] before Russia's invasion, as we were hearing a lot more about the Nazis and the neo-Nazis in Azov… And then, bam, ‘Russia invades’. And not only do we not get that kind of coverage, Bandera and all of these descendants in Azov are national heroes as far as we're concerned”, Mike Ferner, interim director of Veterans for Peace, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Ferner’s analysis in our podcast Political Misfits

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🇫🇷 Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said on Thursday that the cause of mass riots in France is lack of respect for the French government's authority among the citizens and not the influx of migrants to the country.

Earlier in July, French President Emmanuel Macron and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire admitted that there was a problem of authority in the French society.

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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that Sweden's entire territory is of interest for the alliance as it is strategically located at the Baltic Sea and has a well-trained professional army.

"Sweden has a strong, professional, well-trained defense and is strategically located at the Baltic Sea ... The borders with Norway and Finland allow for better coordination of land troops. In addition, there is Sweden's Navy in the Baltic Sea ... The entire territory of Sweden is of interest," he told a Swedish broadcaster.

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The Russian Embassy slammed US officials' statements that Kiev would use cluster munitions accurately as a "clumsy attempt to justify their own provocative actions"

The Embassy said "anyone who follows the conflict knows that Kiev has been using US security assistance to hit civilian targets in the hope of intimidating us and 'killing as many Russians as possible,'" adding that residential areas with no military facilities have been targeted in these strikes.

It would be "hard to imagine how many civilian casualties there will be, including Ukrainians, when the Kiev criminals start using US cluster munitions" the Embassy said.

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📹 A brawl erupted in the Kosovo parliament after an opposition lawmaker threw water on the prime minister, Albin Kurti, while he was speaking about government measures to defuse tensions with ethnic Serbs

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Donald Trump expressed confidence that the US Secret Service is aware of who left cocaine in the White House in July, despite the service's latest claims that it was unable to find out how it appeared at the presidential residence

"They know the answer, and so does everyone else!” Trump wrote on his page on the Truth social network, commenting on the completion of the Secret Service investigation into the drug found in the White House.

Earlier, US media reported that the Secret Service found marijuana twice in the White House in 2022, long before cocaine was located in the West Wing.

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The head of the Pentagon said that he used cluster munitions in combat

"I know how these munitions work; I actually used them on the battlefield," Lloyd Austin said in an interview, answering a journalist's question about whether he is aware of the dangers of using this type of weapon.

The US Secretary of Defense did not specify when and under what circumstances he'd used cluster munitions. He participated in US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Joe Biden signed an Executive Order augmenting Operation Atlantic Resolve in Europe with 3,000 reserve personnel

Operation Atlantic Resolve, which provides combat-credible forces to Europe, will also be newly designated as a contingency operation, Joint Staff Director for Operations Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims said.

The action reaffirms the United States’ commitment to the defense of NATO’s eastern flank amid Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, Sims added.

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"Ukraine has lost its sovereignty, it has no money, no military industry; it receives everything from the West" Hungarian Prime Minister Orban said

📹 Russian FM Lavrov and US Secretary of State Blinken at the ASEAN meeting wearing traditional Indonesian shirts

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There were no plans to hold meetings between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US representatives on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministerial events

"Negotiations were not planned and there were no contacts," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova siad.

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UN says North Korean missile launched on July 12 fell in Russia's Exclusive Economic Zone

Russia has no data confirming that a Korean missile fell in the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the UN statement.

Given the certainty and promptness of the UN in determining the direction of the missile's flight, Zakharova expressed the hope that the organization would soon answer Moscow's question about who is actually shelling the Zaporozhye NPP.

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US officials involved in the drafting of the final statement of the NATO summit in Vilnius considered scaling back the “invitation” for Kiev to join, The Washington Post reported, citing six people familiar with the matter

The Ukrainian leader’s public rebuke of the alliance stunned those assembled at the summit venue, an exposition hall on the outskirts of the Lithuanian capital, leaving the US delegation “furious,” according to one official familiar with the situation.

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📹 Kamikaze drone operators are actively trained in one of the Black Sea Fleet’s training centers

👀 Have a look at footage showing their training process

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