🇷🇺 Barrett Killer: Russia’s 12.7mm Astarta AMR rifle with fourfold firepower outguns US rival

The Astarta surpassed its American counterpart (Barrett M82) in accuracy fourfold during tests and is a “Barrett killer,” a High-Precision Complexes developer company rep told Sputnik.

Named after the ancient goddess of war, beauty, hunting and love, this anti-materiel rifle (AMR) has a caliber designed to use against military equipment, structures, and other hard targets.

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🇺🇸🛢 Firefighters contain massive blaze at plastic and petroleum materials storage in San Saba, Texas

The fire is out, but hazmat crews remain to ensure flames don't erupt again, according to officials.

Last year, a series of explosions at natural gas facilities rocked the US in the space of just a couple of weeks. One of them, a gas fire at an ONEOK gas plant in Medford, Oklahoma, triggered the evacuation of over 800 residents from the area, leading to an insurance claim worth $930 million.

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🇬🇧 UK starts deliveries of new batch of reconnaissance drones to Ukraine - Defense Ministry

The UK government has also signed three contracts worth over $100 million to supply Ukraine with air defense systems.

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🇯🇵🇺🇸🇦🇺 Japan, US, and Australia to hold joint naval exercises in South China Sea on August 23, Japanese media report

The purpose of the exercise is to monitor Chinese ships, the agency said, citing sources.

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🇺🇸📉 Bidenomics boast fails to influence Biden’s approval rating as he gears up for reelection

Only 36% of US adults approve of Biden’s economic policies, with 42% approving of his overall performance, according to an AP-NORC poll.

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❗️Russian FM Sergey Lavrov will head Russian delegation at 78th session of UN General Assembly

The assembly will open on September 5.

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❗️Russian forces repel two Ukrainian attacks in the Zaporozhye region, eliminating up to 195 Ukrainian servicemen, the MoD said

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🇷🇺🇰🇵 First post-pandemic North Korea-Russia flight scheduled to take off on August 25

North Korea's Air Koryo has scheduled the first post-pandemic flight from Pyongyang to Russia’s Vladivostok next Friday, while another one after that is planned for August 28, the Vladivostok airport told Sputnik.

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

▪️The Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) lost up to 220 servicemen killed and wounded in the Donetsk direction.

▪️Russian troops repelled three UAF attacks in the Donetsk direction.

▪️Russian air defense systems shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft.

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 75 servicemen in the Kupyansk direction.

▪️Russian troops repelled an attack by the UAF in the DPR.

▪️The Russian Armed Forces successfully repelled seven enemy attacks and counterattacks in the Kupyansk direction.

▪️Russian troops repelled two UAF attacks in the Krasny Liman direction and eliminated up to 80 enemy soldiers.

▪️The Russian Armed Forces eliminated up to 30 servicemen in the Kherson direction.

▪️Russian troops eliminated up to 210 Ukrainian servicemen in the South Donetsk direction.

▪️Russian air defense systems shot down 26 Ukrainian UAVs.

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to up to 195 servicemen in the Zaporozhye direction.

▪️Russian troops repelled two attacks by the UAF in the Zaporozhye direction.

▪️Russian aviation shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 attack aircraft in the DPR.

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🇺🇸💸 Paul Craig Roberts: The End of US Dollar Hegemony

The Ukrainian crisis has resulted in tectonic shifts in the global economic order in ways unseen since the end of the Cold War. Renowned economist Dr. Paul Craig Roberts sat down with Sputnik to discuss the post-dollar world, how it will affect ordinary Americans, and what, if anything, might emerge in the greenback’s place.

👉Follow the link for more details

🇷🇺 Stayin' Alive: Russia creates its first-ever resuscitation robot

Before starting, the device analyzes the patient's condition for appropriate depth and force of pressure. It is able to perform an indirect cardiac massage 15 times longer than a human being can.

Mass production is set to start in 2025, the manufacturer Ruselectronics said.

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🗣️ On whether the world really needs a reserve currency:

“You take the Russian economy, it's a very and it's very powerful because of the enormous energy reserves, because of the enormous agricultural potential. And you look at the Chinese economy, it is a major manufacturing economy far greater than the United States. These are countries with currencies that have a real basis, and they are not vulnerable in the way that the dollar is,” Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, economist and former Reagan administration official, told Sputnik.

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

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

📹 ‘They didn't let me go’: Ex-Ukrainian servicewoman details how she ran away from the army and moved to her family in Russia, going through several European countries in the process.

🇷🇺 The escapee wants to apply for Russian citizenship.

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🇷🇺⚛️🇭🇺 Russia, Hungary ink documents on construction of Paks-2 NPP

The documents have been signed by Paksi Atomeromu Zrt CEO Gergely Jakli and ASE JSC (part of Russia's Rosatom state nuclear corporation) Vice President Alexander Merten.

The Paks-2 project is attracting the interest of the Hungarian industry, European countries and other states, Merten said

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🇧🇾🛡🇷🇺 Belarus shields Russia from NATO's 'backstabbing' during a special operation, Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said.

Belarus has done a lot to oppose the rehabilitation of Nazism and the spread of neo-fascism and to preserve the historical memory of the heroic deeds of the Soviet people in the Second World War, Khrenin said at the International Anti-Fascist Congress in Minsk. The position of preservation of historical memory and opposition to fascism is formalized in the key legal acts of Belarus, he added.

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🇷🇺🌍 Russia to expand its energy footprint in Africa as Europe snubs its gas

As the EU drastically reduced its gas imports from Moscow following the escalation of the Ukraine crisis and with Russian gas pipeline flows to Europe remaining historically low, Africa has been eyeing natural gas as a promising direction of cooperation with Russian energy companies in order to become an energy self-sufficient continent.

Russia is mapping a mutually beneficial energy relationship with African nations, while Europe continues to snub Moscow's gas as part of self-harming sanctions.

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🇺🇸☣️ The USA is engaged in biomilitary activity more than any other country in the world, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, commenting on the Pentagon's recent report on biological threats.

The US often fabricates reports on so-called threats for geopolitical purposes "to deter and suppress other countries, to protect its hegemonic interests," the diplomat said, adding that Washington thus provokes confrontation and damages the global biosecurity management system.

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🇺🇸🇰🇷🇯🇵 The USA, South Korea and Japan plan to invest in a trilateral hotline to engage in moments of crisis, a senior US administration official told reporters.

Leaders of the three countries will “take a pledge” to consult with each other in the event of a crisis or other significant circumstances, the official added.

The leaders of the United States, South Korea and Japan will underscore during their trilateral summit at Camp David on Friday their commitment to maintaining such discussion on an annual basis, the official said.

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