🇷🇺 Russia plans to maximize its diplomatic ties with Africa

Russia plans to ensure maximum representation in Africa, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik on Saturday

🗣 "At a time when Russia's attention to Africa is steadily growing, Putin has set the task of increasing the diplomatic presence on the continent, which implies opening new facilities or increasing the staff in existing Russian foreign institutions," she said, commenting on Moscow's plans regarding diplomatic presence on the continent.

The spokeswoman also noted that Russia's diplomatic missions in Burkina Faso and Equatorial Guinea are due to open before the end of the year, adding that Russia is ready to provide any assistance to African friends in establishing the work of their diplomatic missions in the country

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🇬🇧🌪 Storm Antoni can lead to "injuries and danger to life from flying debris are possible," the UK Met Office said, warning of "large waves and beach material being thrown on to sea fronts, coastal roads and properties."

British weather reporter earlier cautioned that the storm would bring "potentially disruptive" weather in England and Wales, with Northern Ireland likely to see "some of the highest rainfall totals."

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🇬🇧 Around 21,000 illegal migrants entered the UK undetected last year, British press reported Saturday, citing a Home Office source.

The figures provided by the unnamed official show that some 30,000 asylum seekers entered the country by means other than small boats that illegally ferry migrants across the English Channel.

Almost 9,000 others were stopped by the Border Force at airports, seaports and other ports of entry. That leaves about 21,000 illegal immigrants who slipped into the country undetected, the daily estimated.

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🎉 The first victory salute: 80 years ago the Red Army liberated Orel and Belgorod

On August 5, 1943, the Red Army of the Soviet Union liberated Orel and Belgorod simultaneously from the Nazi invaders.

📹 Watch our video to learn more!

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🇦🇹💶 Austrian PM proposes constitutional 'Right to Cash'

As cashless payment methods proliferate across Europe, Austrian Prime Minister Karl Neuhammer has moved to legally preserve paying in the old-fashioned way, with banknotes and coins.

Speaking on Friday, the conservative Austrian leader proposed a "constitutional protection of cash as a means of payment,” saying he would direct Finance Minister Magnus Brunner and the country’s central bank to come up with a plan in the coming months to ensure a "basic supply" of cash remains in the economy.

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🇺🇳🤨 UN Secretary General Guterres, in his message on the occasion of the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, never mentioned the country responsible for the deaths of 140,000 people - the United States

At the ceremony in Hiroshima itself, Japanese politicians also did not mention the United States, while Japanese Prime Minister Kishida spoke about Russia during his speech.

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Russian and Syrian air forces struck at an Islamist command center in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib that was responsible for coordinating attacks on civilian and military targets, a senior Russian officer said.

🗣 "A joint airstrike launched by the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Syrian Air Forces destroyed a headquarters of Al-Nusra Front [banned in Russia] near the city of Idlib. It was run by people responsible for plotting and conducting terror attacks against Syrian government forces and civilians," Rear Adm. Vadim Kulit said.

The Al-Nusra Front [banned in Russia] has attacked neighboring Aleppo province four times in the past 24 hours. A strike at a car killed a Syrian serviceman and injured four others, he said.

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The air defense system destroyed two aircraft-type drones over the Karachevsky district of Russia's Bryansk region; there were no damages or injuries, the governor said

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Elon Musk pledged that his social media platform, X (formerly known as Twitter), will pay legal bills of those people who were "unfairly treated" at workplaces by their employers for posts and likes on the platform

He added that there would be "no limit" to funding the bills and called on people to inform the platform of such cases.

In late October 2022, Musk finalized the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, a US company founded in 2006 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. Twitter Corporation ceased to exist as a separate company as a result of its merger with X Corp. founded by Musk in 2006.

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🇷🇺🇺🇸 The US and Russia should avoid any nuclear threat rhetoric and enter a serious dialogue on risk reduction, US think tank head Daryl Kimball told Sputnik, reflecting on the lessons to be learnt from the first and only use of nuclear weapons in world history in 1945

Kimball called the two anniversaries "solemn reminders" that any threats to use nuclear weapons are unacceptable. He also pointed out the destructive power of nuclear weapons.

💬 "If a Russian or US President were to use nuclear weapons in a conflict in Europe today, for any reason, there is no guarantee it would not escalate and eventually involve the use of hundreds of nuclear weapons, many times more powerful than those that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki" Kimball said.

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The situation around Taiwan has aggravated as the Chinese leadership thinks that US President Joe Biden is "incompetent," Donald Trump said

The former president claimed that the Chinese leader "has no respect for our country anymore," adding that Xi "respected our country so much" during Trump's presidential term.

Tensions over Taiwan significantly increased last August after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taipei despite Beijing's warnings against such a visit.

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Kiev’s allies from the Western countries are “getting tired of the Ukrainian counteroffensive,” US analyst Johnston Harewood has argued

In an article for an American media outlet, he noted that it is becoming “increasingly difficult” for Western officials to conceal their irritation when it comes to the issues regarding Ukraine, not least its counteroffensive, which is “not progressing as originally envisioned.”

According to Harewood, those foreign partners of Ukraine who previously expressed strong support for Kiev, “are gradually changing their rhetoric, backing it up with difficult decisions for the Ukrainian government."

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📹 Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Colonel-General Viktor Goremykin presents state awards to servicemen of the Novorossiysk Guards Airborne Assault Mountain Formation

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⚡️ Today at around 11 a.m. there was an attempted attack on Moscow by a drone, it was destroyed close to the capital by air defense forces, Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin said

⚡ Today an attempt by Kiev to carry out a terrorist attack using a drone on objects in the Moscow region was thwarted, the Russian MoD reports

The UAV was destroyed by air defense systems on the territory of the Podolsk region. No casualties or damage have been reported as a result of the thwarted terrorist attack.

Scott Ritter: Who is responsible for Ukraine's failed counteroffensive?

The failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, according to the Ukrainian leadership, was directly attributable to the inability of Ukraine to suppress Russian artillery and airpower.

But the reality is that the Ukrainian counteroffensive was never going to work, under any circumstance.

Check out his full article on Sputnik's website

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The participants in the talks on Ukraine in Jeddah agreed to form working groups on key issues of the ten points of the so-called peace formula proposed by Kiev, Italian media report

The timing of the meeting of heads of state has not yet been determined, but it is considered likely to take place before the end of the year.

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🇺🇸 Trump says will launch investigations into Biden and his family if re-elected

"From the first day in office I will appoint a special prosecutor to study each and every one of the many claims being brought forth by Congress concerning all of the crooked acts including the bribes from China and many other countries that go into the coffers of the Biden crime family," Trump said during a speech at the Republican Party’s dinner in South Carolina.

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🇺🇸☢️ US narrative that WWII won thanks to atomic bombs makes more countries want to acquire nukes

The lessons of the US atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been forgotten, while today's tense relations between nuclear powers make arms reductions unlikely, experts told Sputnik.

👉Follow the link for more details