🎙 In build-up to the Second Russia-Africa Summit just a week from now, a group of journalists representing ten African nations share their expectations from the upcoming event in St. Petersburg in our new #AfroVerdict podcast from Sputnik Africa.

Participants of the just-ended EU-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit in Brussels failed to agree on a joint declaration due to Nicaragua’s position on the Ukraine conflict, a UK newspaper has reported.

The media outlet added that Nicaragua reportedly was “the sole holdout on a text approved by 59 other nations that expressed ‘deep concern’” over the Ukraine standoff.

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🗣️ On US fighting its main competitor - Russia:

“The US is watching the global marketplace sort of tightening. And I think that this is another move where it's like ‘Look, we won't Russia out as a competitor. We want to make sure Russia displays the resources in there.’ And obviously the US wants to displace Vladimir Putin. And I think that they're willing to let things ride out until then. Ukraine is not valuable to that. I mean, Eastern Europe, for the most part, isn't valuable to them. I think that peace obviously isn't the objective here… The US wants to make sure there's no competitors. And if we can't have the direct war to do that, obviously, because it leads to nuclear war,” James Carey, host of The Left is Dead podcast, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Carey’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour

🇯🇵🇦🇺 Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) will launch for the first time its Type 12 surface-to-ship missile (SSM) into Australian waters ahead of the Talisman Sabre military drills, Talisman Sabre exercise director Brig. Damian Hill said on Tuesday.

"This is the first time the JSDF have tested this capability in Australia," Hill told the US broadcaster, adding that the Japanese armed forces will launch the missile from Beecroft Weapons Range into the East Australia Exercise Area off the coast of Jervis Bay.

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The White House halted the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s federal funding for allegedly failing to provide documents, US media said, citing a memorandum.

The Department of Health and Human Services, after a review that began in September, told the lab that it found the facility to be noncompliant with federal regulations and is seeking to debar it completely, the report said Tuesday, citing a memo sent from the Department to the lab.

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🇺🇸 US's military supplies to Ukraine will include VAMPIREs - the Vehicle Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipments - a portable kit capable of firing laser-guided rockets. The producer L3Harris technology announced that the US Department of Defense awarded them a $40 million contract to deliver 14 VAMPIRE weapon systems for Kiev forces.

However, according to Russian military expert Yury Knutov, this weapon is of dubious effectiveness due to the difficulty of hitting maneuverable air targets, as well as the poor performance of the laser guidance system in bad weather.

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⚡ At Least Two Dead, Multiple Injured After Gunman Attacks Construction Site in New Zealand

🇺🇸 US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that he plans to back the dollar with hard currency - gold, silver, platinum or bitcoin - adding that it's inappropriate to print money to fund the war and tax the public through the hidden tax of inflation.

Kennedy also pledged that, if elected, his administration would end the current policy of charging capital gains tax on bitcoin transactions when holders cash in for dollars.

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🇺🇸🇨🇳 US disrupts the global semiconductor supply chain and causes irreversible damage to the global economy, stated the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA), adding that as a consequence, the interests of global consumers will be harmed and the competitiveness of the US semiconductor industry might be jeopardized.

The China Semiconductor Industry Association pointed out that any damage to the current global supply chain can lead to the fragmentation of the semiconductor global supply chain, but also could risk the integrity of the global market and the prosperity of the global economy, the CSIA said.

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Latin American countries’ refusal to adopt the European position on the Ukraine conflict at the third summit of the EU and the CELAC is motivated by their historically grounded antipathy toward the US, which is viewed as an agenda setter for the EU and NATO, Francois Asselineau, a French geopolitical analyst, told Sputnik, adding that all Latin American countries are fiercely proud of their sovereignty, the exact opposite of the European Union's will to dismantle its member nations.

The EU failed to convince CELAC member states during the third EU-CELAC Summit on July 17-18 to directly condemn Russia's special military operation in the final declaration.

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Turkiye is unlikely to help Ukraine to escort ships and ensure the work of the food corridor in the Black Sea after the grain deal expired on Monday, according to an official familiar with the matter who spoke with a US newspaper on Tuesday.

So far, despite Ukrainian officials' appeals, NATO has been hesitant to involve its members directly into the conflict, opting instead to funnel weapons to Kiev and turning the Ukrainian Armed Forces into a NATO proxy force.

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Western troops unlikely to enter Ukrainian battlefield, stated UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Wednesday.

"I hope not. I don’t expect so. I genuinely don’t expect so," he answered to the corresponding question during an interview at The Aspen Institute Security Forum, when asked if he thinks US or UK troops could end up on the ground in Ukraine.

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A teenage girl has been killed and four administrative buildings have been damaged in an enemy drone strike in the northwest of Crimea, Crimean head Sergey Aksenov said 

Aksenov expressed deep condolences over the death of the girl, saying that her family will be provided with all necessary support.

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📹 Hundreds of protesters reportedly stormed the Swedish embassy early Thursday in Baghdad, Iraq, and set it on fire amid backlash over recent Quran burnings

Unconfirmed footage shared across social media appeared to capture individuals at the embassy as smoke billowed and protesters appeared to be cheering on the events. Citing insiders, US media reported people gathered at the building at about 1 a.m. local time before storming the facility an hour later.

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Nearly 3,800 people were detained during the weeklong unrest that gripped France following the fatal police shooting of a teenager, French interior minister said

A third of those detained during the week of unrest were child rioters, the minister estimated. The average age of people taken into custody was 17-18 and 90% were French nationals. Some 60% of them had no previous police record.

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📹 The Russian Airborne Forces' artillery units ravage (0:10) (0:25) (0:34) the enemy on the outskirts of Artemovsk (Bakhmut)

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🗣 “If anyone in the UK is watching, listening, particularly you prime minister, I very much want to stay put … I very much want to stay put as foreign secretary. It’s a job that I love, I think it’s an important job.”

James Cleverly tells Sunak he wants to ‘stay put’ as foreign secretary, amid speculation of imminent cabinet reshuffle

The UK foreign secretary, who has been tipped in some reports as a contender to replace Ben Wallace as Sunak’s defence chief, clarified his desire to remain at the Foreign Office during an interview at the Aspen Security Forum in the US.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russia, China kick off joint naval exercise "North/Interaction - 2023" in Sea of Japan

The main goal of the exercise is to strengthen naval cooperation between Russia and China, and to maintain stability and peace in the Asia-Pacific region.

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