🇺🇸🇫🇷 France moves to block US buyout of reactor parts supplier amid covert energy war

French authorities are reportedly brainstorming ways to prevent nuclear reactor equipment and parts supplier Velan SAS from being bought out by US interests.

💬 “If the US gains control over a maker of equipment for Electricity de France, they could be able to prevent the export of French nuclear reactors to China,” French Senator Marie-Noelle Lienemann said of the US company’s takeover bid. “It’s not just defense industries that are strategic –the nuclear industry is key for France’s economic recovery and its transition,” the lawmaker said.

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🇨🇳🇺🇸 China's rare earth metals ban hits US chip trade restrictions where it hurts

Beijing's new restrictions on the export of eight gallium and six germanium products, on the basis that they have dual civilian and military uses, came into force on Tuesday.

Since other nations reportedly only have enough stockpiles to last two or three months, Beijing's measures could cripple semiconductor production in the rest of the world just when demand is on the rise as Western nations struggle to ramp up production of guided missiles and other arms.

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🌳💀 Russia's secret weapon? 'Bushes of doom'

According to a UK 'intelligence' report, Ukraine’s ‘counteroffensive’ is stuck in the mud because of Russia’s secret weapon - shrubs and weeds. British spies claim that these ‘warrior weeds’ are assisting “small stealthy infantry assaults” by providing cover and helping to “camouflage Russian defensive positions. Also, these ‘battlefield bushes of doom’ have been making “defensive mine fields harder to clear”.

Is British intelligence hinting that Mother Nature is a “Russian agent”?

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❗️Latest statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

▪️De-dollarization of global economy is an irreversible process;

▪️Peskov dismissed the EU’s claim that Russia aims to “create new dependencies” with cheap grain, adding that Russia has always been and remains a reliable supplier;

▪️Russia’s grain supplies would “do more,” if not for sanctions;

▪️The BRICS group is discussing accession of new countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Argentina;

▪️The expansion of the group will be discussed at the BRICS summit in August.

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🇮🇪 Ireland will not follow Sweden and Finland's route to NATO

💬 "[Ireland is] never going to be a significant military power, is never going to be a huge asset to NATO, if we ever were to join it," Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said.

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🇺🇸🇦🇺 US conducts first ever live firing of ATACMS missile in Australia

The missile was fired from an M142 HIMARS launcher at the Delamere range in Australia's Northern Territory, according to the report. The HIMARS was delivered by a US transport aircraft MC-130J from the Shoalwater Bay Training Area in the state of Queensland. 

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🇨🇳🇺🇸 US fails to recognize it's reached limits of its power, CIA veteran says

The US president's request to send $345 million military aid package to Taiwan shows the US has "no regard or concern for angering China", Larry Johnson, a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism, told Sputnik.

💬 “I think, unfortunately, the United States, if it persists in taking actions like this, will provoke a conflict that will be very damaging to the United States and will weaken it, not make it stronger. The United States can't even fund the one proxy war in Ukraine right now. It's been losing. It can't provide sufficient artillery shells, for example,” Johnson said.

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🇨🇳 Сhina enlists public support to promote private sector investment

According to a social media post by the State Council, the Chinese government will compile reports on various issues, such as obstacles private companies face when entering the market, unfair competition, favoritism towards local businesses, and unjust fines. Local authorities will be prompted to take action in some cases, while more severe instances will be handled by supervision teams sent from Beijing.

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❗️ Russian MoD briefing on progress of special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️ Russian forces carried out offensive operations on a broad front and destroyed up to 150 Ukrainian servicemen in the Kupyansk direction;

▪️The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 175 servicemen in the South Donetsk direction;

▪️ Russian forces repelled eight attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Donetsk direction, and counterattacked and improved their positions. The losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces amounted to 380 fighters;

▪️Russian air defense systems intercepted 11 HIMARS MLRS rockets and two HARM missiles, and destroyed 38 Ukrainian drones;

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 45 soldiers in the Zaporozhye direction and up to 30 soldiers in the Kherson direction

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🗣️ On how the American media has been tamed by the CIA in terms of publishing news about Ukraine:

“The Biden administration, through the American Central Intelligence Agency and British MI6, has succeeded in taming the press. So, the press, the American media – even my friends and former colleagues at Fox, are giving a version of these events which is not based in reality on the ground,” Judge Andrew Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court judge, author, and host of the Judging Freedom podcast on YouTube, told Sputnik.

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

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

📹 Nigerian media chiefs commend Russia's development, Sputnik Africa's work

Salihu Dembos (pictured left in the video), Director General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and Mansur Liman (pictured right in the video), Director General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), praised what they saw during their stay in Russia, noting that the expectations they had before coming were quite different, in an exclusive interview with Sputnik Africa.

"Agencies like yours should continue to project this image of Russia so that the world will know that its not the Russia that we hear from the Western media," says Liman.

Dembos, in his turn, states that "...of all the countries that I've travelled in the world, there is nothing compared to Russia."

👉The whole interview

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🔸 Sputnik Africa | TikTok | Odysee | Twitter 🔸

We'd like to draw your attention to a growing English-language news channel specializing in coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Be sure to follow/subscribe for updates!

Subscribe using the link here:

https://news.1rj.ru/str/ukraine_watch

💬 "Сheap noscript made using British money"

🇷🇺🇬🇧 Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova unravels cheap "Agatha Christie"-style mystery narrative showing the British government's fingerprints behind the ICC arrest warrants against Putin and Russia’s children's rights ombudswoman

👉 Follow this link for more details

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🗣️ On Biden’s chances to run for president in 2024:

“Biden is in serious trouble regarding his son's activities, and I think he could wind up paying an enormous price. And he himself seems to grow physically frailer by the week, which raises the question of as to whether he'll even be able to run in 2024. And if he's unable, what on earth will the Democrats do instead?” Dan Lazare, investigative journalist and author of "America's Undeclared War: What's Killing Our Cities and How We Can Stop It”, told Sputnik.

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