🔺What reaction to expect from the West? Russia is open to deepening military-technical cooperation with other states – Russia’s President Putin
🔺Will there be talks between the military leaders of Niger and ECOWAS? What is the deterrent?
🔺The US and Finland are negotiating a defense agreement that would see the deployment of American troops

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A statement released by the region's health ministry has revealed that the death toll has risen to 12, with a total of 50 others injured

The latest update issued by officials notes a total of 56 people sustained injuries, including 13 kids, as a result of the blast. Two other children were among the dead.

🇿🇼 Zimbabwe Marks 43rd National Heroes Day to Mourn 'Gallant Sons'

Zimbabwe is celebrating its 43rd National Heroes Day on Monday, August 14, 2023 under the theme "Remembering Our Heroes – Nyika Inovakwa Nevene vayo/Ilizwe Lakhiwa Ngabanikazi Balo" which means "a nation is built by its people" in the two main local languages, Shona and Ndebele.

🕯 National Heroes Day dates back to the early 1980s, after the end of white minority rule in Zimbabwe on April 18, 1980. The holiday is a tribute to the brave men and women who were part of the struggle for Zimbabwe's freedom and sovereignty.

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🇸🇬 Singapore’s deputy PM warns city-state facing ‘structural decline’ without immigration

🗣 “If we are not able to bring in immigrants to top up the population then we are in structural decline, and eventually the population will decline, the workforce will decline and Singapore will decline,” Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said at the Reinventing Destiny conference on Monday.

Singapore has suffered the tribulations of many other highly-developed economies, including a declining birth rate. Last month, the latest figures released by the Singaporean Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) showed that Singapore’s birth rate hit a record-low in 2022, including a 7.9% decrease in live births just from the prior year.

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🇬🇧 Former British home secretary has attacked plans to house asylum seekers at a disused RAF air base

Priti Patel wrote to current Home Secretary Suella Braverman and junior Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick to protest plans to turn the Wethersfield airfield site into a "migrant camp" for up to 1,700 asylum claimants over the next five years, accusing the government of being "evasive" and "secretive".

The Conservative MP said that the ministry had never made the period of use clear during previous consultations with local residents — or even in response to three Parliamentary questions she asked on the matter.

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⚡Former US President Donald Trump was indicted for a fourth time late Monday, this time for his and his allies alleged actions to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state of Georgia

🇺🇸 US believes military intervention in Niger ‘last resort’ option

Military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to address the military takeover in Niger ought to be an option of last resort, US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said.

🗣 "ECOWAS has been also very clear, and very clear publicly, that military intervention should be a last resort – something that we agree with, and we continue to be focused on finding a diplomatic solution and are in close contact with ECOWAS and their leadership on this," Patel said during a press briefing.

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🗣 The “collateral damage” in US-China competition could not be foreseen, making it “the biggest issue in the world," Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong warned

The measures Washington has adopted to curb the advance of the Chinese tech industry include blacklisting major firms from US markets, banning US companies from investing in Chinese companies tied to the government or military - which is most in the socialist state - and pressuring other nations to adopt similar policies, particularly with regards to 5G internet networks and the sale of advanced microchips to Chinese firms.

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📹 Russia’s tankmen fired (0:40) at the camouflaged fortifications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the zone of the special military op

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🇷🇺 Russian weapons used in the special military operation, including Kub kamikaze drones, Orion reconnaissance and Kornet anti-tank systems, today occupy top positions in sales of the Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, CEO Mikheev told Sputnik

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💬 ‘We have biolabs in Ukraine, because we're developing bioweapons‘

The United States has been setting up biolabs in Ukraine as part of its biological weapons programs, Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. has said.

He noted that in 2001, the United States began to invest a lot of money in bioweapons.

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🇷🇺🇰🇵 Vladimir Putin sent his congratulations to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Liberation Day, and expressed confidence in further building up cooperation in the interests of strengthening stability and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the region as a whole, the Kremlin said

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❗️ Ukraine’s police have launched an assault on three buildings of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Ukrainian Orthodox Church reports

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📹🇨🇳 Chinese defense head Gen. Li Shangfu has arrived at the ARMY-2023 military expo

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❗️📹 The 11th Moscow Conference on International Security kicks off in Kubinka’s Patriot Park outside Moscow

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📌 11th Moscow Conference on International Security begins in the Moscow region

Problems of global and regional stability will be discussed at the conference, as well as various aspects of security in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Europe.

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❗️Open discussions are important; most countries are ready to defend sovereignty, Vladimir Putin said in an address to the participants of the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security

The United States seeks to reformat system of interstate cooperation in Asia-Pacific region to meet its interests, the president said.

Western countries plan to integrate NATO forces with the AUKUS bloc, Putin added.

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Key statements made by Russian Defense Minister Shoigu in his address to the participants of the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security:

▪️ Western weapons, supposedly advanced NATO planning methods, and command and control methods cannot provide superiority on the battlefield

▪️ Foreign advisers use Ukrainian soldiers to practice various options for conducting military operations;

▪️ The preliminary results of hostilities show that Ukraine's military resource is almost exhausted;

▪️ In many cases, even Soviet-made equipment is superior in combat qualities to Western models;

▪️ Russia ready to share assessments of weaknesses of Western technology with its partners;

▪️ Kiev has launched the production of UAVs and marine controlled vehicles near the granaries, which strike targets in Crimea;

▪️ US declares Russia and China strategic adversaries, Russia and China bring relations to new level of strategic partnership;

▪️ The development of military cooperation between Russia and the DPRK meets the fundamental interests of the two peoples and does not pose a threat to anyone;

▪️ There is a high probability that the West will continue to provoke conflicts in the Middle East.

❗️Russia has so far not used cluster munitions in the conflict in Ukraine for humanitarian reasons, but this decision is subject to review, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu said