The German economy is expected to be the worst-performing among the G7 nations this year

Germany is facing further economic decline and deindustrialization, Friedrich Merz, the chairman of the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has told a German news agency.

He pointed to the country’s grim economic indicators, including a summer rise in unemployment, a contraction in industrial production and a 16% increase in bankruptcies in the first half of 2023.

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📹 Russia’s ‘Alligator’ at work in the zone of the special military zone

A crew of the Ka-52 Alligator reconnaissance and attack helicopter, having detected an enemy IFV advance and struck (0:08) the target with a guided missile.

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Putin: Russian Navy Fleet to receive 30 ships in 2023

The ships put on combat duty include the Mercury missile corvette, on which the St. George naval flag has been hoisted "as a sign of the inviolability of [Russian] naval traditions, a symbol of courage, bravery and firmness of military sailors," the Russian President stated.

"Today, Russia is implementing the tasks of a large-scale maritime policy with confidence, consistently building up the power of its fleet. This year alone, 30 ships of different types will join it," Vladimir Putin said at the parade in honor of the Navy Day.

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🗣️ On the diminishing chances of NATO defeating Russia in the Black Sea:

“[Russia has] the range of the modern Onyx missile, which is a part of the shore based bastion complex… Russia has SU-24 - around 45 to 50 modern strike aircraft such as its fleet of SU-30 Sms, which belong to the Black Sea fleet. The Black Sea Fleet is not just ships. And then, of course, Russia has some excellent submarines. How do you even defend against this, they don't have even the air defense capability to basically mitigate the first salvo,” Andrei Martyanov, a military and political analyst, told Sputnik.

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

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

📹 Giatsint-B howitzer takes out (0:12) moving Ukrainian tank with direct hit

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A federal judge has rejected a $475 million defamation lawsuit brought by former US president Donald Trump against CNN for labeling his election fraud claims as the "Big Lie" and associating him with Germany's Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

"Even if the phrase 'the Big Lie' could somehow plausibly compel a reasonable viewer to perceive Trump as 'Hitler-like,' or 'authoritarian,' such terms are not statements of fact subject to defamation laws ... CNN's statements while repugnant, were not, as a matter of law, defamatory," Judge Raag Singhal said in his ruling circulated by US media.

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Russia Rolls Out Digital Ruble: New Form of National Currency Takes Shape

According to the Central Bank's leadership, test transactions will kick off next month, but full-scale usage of the digital ruble is scheduled for 2025. The digital ruble will become the third form of national currency, along with cash (paper money) and non-cash (bank cards). From a technical standpoint, the digital ruble is a computer code that is stored in the Central Bank and the monetary authority will issue this code.

The public was quick to notice its resemblance to cryptocurrencies. However, as economists emphasize, there is one crucial difference: the digital ruble is issued and backed by the state, while cryptocurrencies are created in the process of mining and are propped up only by crowd psychology.

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Europe Faces Hike in Vegetable, Olive Oil Prices as Heatwaves Decimate Greek Crop

Cretan farmers have complained to Sputnik about a succession of heatwaves decimating vegetable and olive crops on the Greek island, putting agriculture prices on track for one of their worst performances in years.

Wave upon wave of heat have rolled across Europe this July. In Greece, Europe’s third olive oil producer, heatwaves have been pushing temperatures above 104 degrees Fahrenheit, triggering huge wildfires that have scorched large swathes of farmland, burned down olive groves and claimed at least four lives.

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With Kiev’s desperate counteroffensive attempts still stuck in the mud, Russian forces keep marching on, laying Ukrainian tanks to waste in the special military operation zone.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Ukraine had suffered heavy losses in manpower and materiel during the course of Kiev's botched counteroffensive. He noted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had changed tactics, saying, “they bring people to the front line in armored vehicles, throw them out, and the equipment immediately vanishes. Apparently, they are preserving the equipment, they are afraid to lose it, and advance on foot.”

So how many tanks has Kiev already lost, and were there Western­-made ones among them?

Check this Sputnik's article to find out.

France urges Niger to ensure security of embassy in Niamey

Earlier in the day, thousands of people in Niger participated in an action against France and ECOWAS, as well as in support of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland formed by the coup participants. The action, among other things, took place in front of the French embassy in Niamey.

Paris is urging the authorities of Niger to ensure the security of the French embassy in the capital city of Niamey, the French Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

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More than 1,000 have been displaced after wildfires forced people to evacuate the Greek island of Rhodes.

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At least 35 people were killed and over 200 others injured in a blast at a convention of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a local newspaper reported on Sunday.

The explosion occurred at around 4:00 p.m. local time (11:00 GMT) in the Khar Bajaur Tehsil area of the province, the newspaper reported. JUI-F leader Hafiz Hamdullah reportedly condemned the blast, noting that he missed the convention due to some personal commitments. Hamdullah also called the incident an act of "terrorism," adding that the blast was a deliberate attack on humanity.

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The launch of an Electron rocket carrying an Earth remote sensing satellite from a spaceport in New Zealand has been canceled right before the start, California-based aerospace company Rocket Lab said on Sunday.

"Today's launch was aborted on ignition, so we're standing down," the company wrote on Twitter. Rocket Lab specified that the launch had been canceled by an automatic system.

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A Ukrainian battalion, trained in the West and equipped for the counteroffensive, has lost nine out of 10 available US-made MaxxPro armored vehicles and lost most of its troops, with only 10 servicepeople of the unit remaining at the forefront, a American daily reported on Sunday, citing a Ukrainian soldier.

Ukraine launched its much-touted counteroffensive in early June after repeatedly delaying the campaign over a lack of military supplies from its Western donors. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that progress was "slower than desired."

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Scientist: meteorite 'returning to Earth' is not implausible

A meteorite recently identified as probably the first known piece of terrestrial rock that returned home after being flung into space millennia ago may be a unique occurrence, but it does not contradict the laws of physics, a Russian scientist said.

Meteorite NWA 13188, originally discovered in Africa a few years ago, made headlines earlier this month when a team of scientists voiced their suspicions about this rock originating from our planet.

If an artificial object could return to Earth after spending years in space, then a piece of rock can probably make the same journey as well, the researcher argued.

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The devastating aftermath of Ukraine's bombardment of Donetsk's Kuibyshevsky district: a shell struck an apartment building

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Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is uneasy over the fact of the Russian air defenses successfully downing advanced missiles that the US delivers to Kiev, foreign policy expert and former Pentagon adviser Douglas Macgregor has told a YouTube channel.

According to him, Russia downing HIMARS missiles prompted “the frustration that we saw in Mr. Zelensky,” who was “furious, angry, and distraught.”

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NSA reportedly opposes Congress' attempts to curb its spying on US citizens

The amendment in question, brought forth by House Representatives Warren Davidson and Sara Jacobs, would essentially bar US agencies such as the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency from “purchasing data that would otherwise require a warrant, court order, or subpoena” to procure, according to a US media outlet that first reported on this matter.

Now, NSA officials have been reportedly approaching lawmakers and trying to convince them to oppose the aforementioned amendment.

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Even as Washington and its allies seem willing to pull all the stops in its economic war against Russia, it seems that the West's sanctions failed to harm Russia’s naval projects, says Earl Rasmussen, a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel and an international consultant.

He pointed out that Alexei Rakhmanov, who heads the United Shipbuilding Corporation, earlier revealed that the West's sanctions against Russia’s shipbuilding industry were feeble and had next to no effect whatsoever, brading them “practically unnoticeable,” since only 5 percent of the components for military shipbuilding are “dependent on foreign imports.”

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🇩🇰 Denmark will consider imposing restrictions on Quran-burning actions and other similar events that offend religion, culture and other countries, as well as threaten the country’s security, the government said on Sunday.

"The Danish government will explore the possibility of intervening in special situations where, for instance, other countries, cultures, and religions are being insulted, and where this could have significant negative consequences for Denmark, not least with regard to security," the government said in a statement.

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The potential threat of nuclear war is no more dangerous than the existential problem of climate change and there is no hierarchy in this regard, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday.

"Well, you can't, I think, have a hierarchy. There are some things that are front and center – the wolf at the door – including potential conflict, but there's no doubt that climate represents an existential challenge to all of us," Blinken told Australian show, when asked what he considered to be a greater challenge for humanity — nuclear war or global climate change.

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