US allocates another $250 million to Ukraine to allegedly support agriculture after Russia's decision on the grain deal.

According to media reports, another $1.3 billion military assistance package will be next.

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🌋 In the heart of Eurasia the world's largest permafrost depression is located in the Bagatayka crater.

Over the years, Siberia's Batagayka mega slump has grown to cover 0.8 square kilometers, making it the largest megaslump on Earth. The slump's headwall, the cliff at the top end of the formation, is 55 meters high.

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🗣️ On the use of cluster munitions in the conflict in Ukraine after the United States approved their provision to Kiev:

“The US is sending them [cluster munitions] not because they're particularly useful for the Kiev regime's offensive. Actually, they're not useful for an offensive really at all, not the type that the Kiev regime is conducting. But because they're completely out of anything else… So it's a desperation play, we're completely out, NATO's completely out,” Mark Sleboda, an international affairs and security analyst, told Sputnik.

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

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble

AI-powered ChatGPT matches the top 1% of humans in creativity test

Using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), Dr. Erik Guzik, assistant clinical professor in University of Montana's College of Business, together with his team, administered the tool to OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Twenty-four University of Montana students also took the test, and all these scores were compared with 2,700 students across the US who took the TTCT in in 2016. Not only were the chatbot's responses just as creative as those of the topmost creative humans who took the test, but the artificial intelligence-powered language model did better than the majority of all students.

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🗣️ On Russia allowing the Black Sea grain deal to expire:

“The deal never had any ability to provide those things because the West is the one who sanctioned those Russian facilities. And the West wasn't a party to the deal. It was Turkiye and the UN secretariat... Why should Russia allow Ukraine and the EU to benefit commercially while they're being led down the primrose path? So and not only that, but obviously neither side is capable of being trusted. Kiev lies with every taking breath. They refuse to fulfill their own part of the deal, which was to reopen the ammonia pipeline,” Mark Sleboda, an international affairs and security analyst, told Sputnik.

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

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble

The West needs years of training for Ukrainian pilots and billions of dollars to achieve parity with Russia in terms of fighter aircraft capabilities in Kiev, the Pentagon has said.

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Elon Musk wonders where US taxpayers' money goes after Washington announces another $1.3 billion military package for Ukraine

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🇷🇺 🇿🇦 Arresting Putin a 'declaration of war': South Africa's Ramaphosa says

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is trying to force the government's hand and ensure that the Kremlin leader is arrested and handed over to the International Criminal Court if he sets foot in the country.

Ramaphosa called it "irresponsible" in an affidavit responding to the DA's request that carrying out the arrest could threaten the "security, peace and order of the state," the South African president stressed.

🗣 "Russia has made it clear that the arrest of its sitting president would be a declaration of war," he said

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🗣️ On the Black Sea grain deal:

“If the West was really concerned about the threat of famine to the impoverished developing parts of the world, then they would reconnect Russia's agricultural bank to the SWIFT system. They would provide the ability, they've blockaded Russian ships full of fertilizer that it was going to provide to Africa free of charge. They have blocked them in the EU and forbidden them to transit on to Africa: 'You can't get this free fertilizer that you need from Russia because we hate Russia.' That's the cynicism that's involved,” Mark Sleboda, an international affairs and security analyst, told Sputnik.

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

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble

How grain deal suspension affects global food prices

Wheat steadied at $6.6 per bushel on July 18, which is slightly above the one-month low of $6.3 that was registered on July 12.

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🇬🇧 UK parliament passes illegal migration bill

The bill seeks to deport migrants to a third country like Rwanda who enter the UK illegally by boat across the English Channel. On June 29, the UK Court of Appeal ruled that the government's plan to relocate illegal immigrants to Rwanda to deter irregular arrivals by boat was illegal, paving the way for the matter to be considered by the Supreme Court.

Now, the bill awaits the final step of Royal Assent when it will become a law.

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🔺Democrat and Republican senators agree that NATO expansion into Asia was “inevitable” as the Western military alliance increasingly has its eyes on China
🔺Could the conflict of interest in Yemen evolve into a UAE-Saudi conflict?
🔺US’ biggest concern: inevitable de-dollarization and global recession are on the way

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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🎥 Destruction of a Ukrainian stronghold by a Lancet loitering munition in the Kherson direction

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China's first ultra deepwater drillship to be delivered in 2024

Research drilling vessel, which can collect samples at depths of more than 10,000 meters, is under construction and set for 2024 delivery, according to Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Co, the world's largest shipbuilder.

With a designed displacement of 42,000 tons, the vessel can operate in "unlimited navigation" areas in global seas. The ship will primarily undertake major national scientific and technological projects, as well as international large-scale scientific programs related to ocean scientific drilling tasks.

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🇬🇧 More than half of British voters want to re-join EU

The latest Brexit tracker poll by YouGov found that 51 percent of the 2,051 respondents would vote to re-join the EU in a hypothetical referendum — compared to 32 percent who would favour staying out and 18 percent who were unsure.

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North Korea has developed intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the United States, US Admiral John Aquilino says

The United States is still reviewing North Korea's nuclear capabilitied, the US top military official said.

Earlier in the day, media reported that North Korea had fired two possible ballistic missiles. According to sources, the projectiles likely fell into the Sea of Japan but outside of Japan's exclusive economic zone.

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Crimea's Tavrida Highway was blocked due to a fire at a training ground in the Kirovsky district, Crimean head Sergey Aksenov said

There are plans to temporarily evacuate the residents of four communities, which, taken together, are home to more than 2,000 people, from the areas located close to the site of the fire, Aksenov said.

Transport in Crimea has been redirected to bypass the blocked section of the Tavrida Highway, Russia’s Ministry of Transport said.

An operational headquarters was created to eliminate emergencies at the training ground.

The evacuation of four communities located close to the site of the fire has been carried out for about a day, local authorities said.

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If elected as president, Donald Trump will ask Europe to reimburse the United States for the cost of refilling US stockpiles sent to Ukraine, the former US president said

Former President Donald Trump highlighted that Europe has spent just a tiny fraction of the amount the United States has spent assisting Ukraine.

Earlier Tuesday, Lockheed Martin President and CEO James Taiclet said the United States currently plans to spend $44 billion of congressionally approved funding to refill US stockpiles of military assistance sent to Ukraine.

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Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom plans to start mining uranium in Namibia in 2029; the volume of investments in the project is up to $500 million, the state corporation told Sputnik

Rosatom plans to start pilot uranium mining in Tanzania in 2023-2025, the state corporation added.

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