🔺BRICS Summit in Johannesburg: What to expect?
🔺Donald Trump says that he won’t take part in the first Republican primary debate as he is leading the field of candidates by "legendary" numbers
🔺US, Japan, South Korea announce "multi-year" military exercises

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Pentagon mulls allowing calculators on entrance exams amid recruiting shortfalls, according to reports

The US Defense Department is weighing a change in a policy that would lift a ban on the use of calculators on entrance exams amid one of the worst recruiting crises in history, an American broadcaster reported on Monday.

The new policy will make it easier to pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test as many young recruits have not been able to get high enough scores to qualify for military service, the report said.

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Poland receives first South Korean K239 Chunmoo rocket system

"The first Korean K239 Chunmoo rocket artillery system has arrived in Poland. It was mounted on a Polish Jelcz truck. New launchers will also arrive later this year," Blaszczak wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

A total of 288 such rocket launchers will be delivered under the agreement between Poland and South Korea. The first 18 systems, integrated into Polish Jelcz vehicles, will be delivered together with ammunition in 2023.

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❗Air defense forces shot down two strike drones on their way to the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Tuesday.

What's on BRICS' 2023 summit agenda?

The 15th BRICS Summit will take place in Johannesburg's financial district of Sandton on August 22-24 headed by the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – the states which constitute the rapidly-evolving format.

This year, a whopping 67 heads of states, including 53 from Africa, as well as others including Bangladesh, Bolivia, Indonesia and Iran, have been invited to the forum.

Sputnik has focused on the main topics on the agenda of the largest-ever summit

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📹 The crew of the Ka-52 helicopter destroyed (0:06) an armored personnel carrier of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with an accurate strike of a guided missile

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❗Russia’s Su-30SM fighter jet of the Black Sea Fleet destroyed a reconnaissance boat of the Ukrainian armed forces, which was discovered near Russian gas production facilities in the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

👏 Russian Alexandra Goryachkina has become the winner of the World Chess Cup in Baku, beating Nurgyul Salimova from Bulgaria in a tie-break

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🇷🇸 The president of Serbia will meet with Zelensky

Aleksandar Vucic said that he would discuss "recognition and non-recognition of territorial integrity" with his Ukrainian counterpart.

“We respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine, I hope that Ukraine also respects our territorial integrity,” the Serbian leader added.

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An attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out terrorist attacks by unmanned aerial vehicles was thwarted tonight

▪️Two UAVs were detected by air defense systems and suppressed by electronic warfare systems, crashed over the territory of the Bryansk region.

▪️Two UAVs were detected and destroyed by air defense systems over the territory of the Moscow Region.

▪️There are no casualties as a result of the thwarted terrorist attacks.

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Key statements made by Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev:

▪️Mankind, having reached a high level of economic and technological development, has come up against the challenge of losing its moral compass and stable moral principles. Russia has a vital and necessary role to play - to save the world from the madness promoted by the West.

▪️Russia firmly and consistently defends its cultural sovereignty, history and Russian moral ideals that unite our multinational country. The victory over neo-Nazism in Ukraine will certainly contribute to the formation of a polycentric and fair world order based on the cultural and civilizational diversity of the world.

▪️For a long time it’s been known that Washington and London, in their own interests, organize coups worldwide, unleash wars and wage them "by proxy", just like in Ukraine.

▪️Following in the footsteps of US policy, Tokyo is heading toward militarization, as it’s imperial slogans are again being heard.

▪️Those who falsify history cynically suggest to the Japanese that Russia was the aggressor, and the Americans came to them as saviors. But they completely distort the fact that they incinerated hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians alive in an atomic inferno.

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💬 Thanks for nothing!

📹 US President Joe Biden finally touched down in Hawaii after the devastating blazes that had swept through and scorched the island of Maui

However, not all residents are happy about his arrival on the island.

It was previously reported that many residents of the affected part of the island, who were forced to flee their homes, receive much more help from volunteers than from the government.

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Russian paratroopers repulse Ukrainian offensive attempt on western outskirts of Artemovsk

Drone operators from Russia’s Airborne Troops spotted several groups of Ukrainian infantry advancing towards the positions of Russian units.

Having let the enemy up to a certain point and then allowing him to occupy several wooded areas, the paratroopers unleashed a barrage of rocket-propelled grenade fire on the advancing Ukrainian units.

The attempted assault by the Ukrainians was repulsed, and most of the enemy military personnel were destroyed.

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🇷🇸 Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic insisted that the provision calling for the imposition of sanctions against Russia be removed from the text of the final declaration of the informal summit of EU and Western Balkan leaders in Athens, a source told Sputnik

Leaders of several Western Balkan countries that want to join the European Union met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel in the Greek capital on Monday.

With the exception of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, all other countries participating in the summit have previously supported the restrictive measures of the West against Russia.

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💬 The Ukrainian Army is not winning. In fact, it is losing badly. Ukraine is being destroyed and its population is being slaughtered in lopsided battles with a technologically superior enemy, or scattered by the millions to the rest of the globe as refugees.

Ukraine is running out of soldiers. As that happens, the question will inevitably arise, who is going to replace them? If the Ukrainians can't beat Putin, who will? The answer, of course, will be us. American troops will fight the Russian Army in Eastern Europe. That's most likely.

And the assumption is that we will win. But will we win? Probably not, says former Army Col. Douglas MacGregor, a decorated combat veteran who advised the secretary of defense in the last administration. The U.S., says MacGregor, is on the brink of a catastrophic war that could very easily destroy us.

Tucker Carlson has blamed the mainstream US media for lying about the course of the Ukrainian conflict, emphasising that every single one of their claims is false

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