🇨🇳🇿🇦 Chinese leader Xi Jinping on new level of partnership between China and South Africa

🗣 "I ... am absolutely ready to work together with the [South African] president [Cyril Ramaphosa] to elevate comprehensive strategic partnership between China and South Africa to a new level," Xi said at a meeting with Ramaphosa.

The Chinese leader also said that it is important for the two countries to strengthen and expand cooperation and pass the bilateral friendship from one generation to another especially at a "new turning point in history."

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🇿🇦 Trade within BRICS topped $762Bln in 2022, South African President says

"As we celebrate the 15th anniversary of BRICS, trade between BRICS countries totaled $762 billion last year. Foreign investment has played an important role in the growth of BRICS economies. Total annual foreign direct investment into BRICS countries is four times greater than it was 20 years ago," Ramaphosa stated during the bloc's annual top-level summit, which is taking place from Tuesday to Thursday in Johannesburg.

The economic growth of BRICS countries "must be underpinned by transparency" as well as "be compatible with a multilateral trading system that supports a developmental agenda," the president of South Africa, which chairs the bloc in 2023, noted.

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🔺Biden compares the blaze-ravaged island of Maui to a kitchen fire
🔺Frozen frontlines loom: Ukrainian officer predicts standstill as winter approaches
🔺Day one of the 15th BRICS Summit in South Africa

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BRICS to deepen financial cooperation to reduce reliance on US dollar

The member states of the BRICS, the emerging market group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, are widely anticipated to deepen financial cooperation in an upcoming gathering, in particular in the payment and currency sectors to counterbalance the hegemony of the US dollar, which has left emerging economies and developing countries struggling financially.

Based on the trade scale of the BRICS members and the increasing willingness of more countries to join the bloc, the process of de-dollarization, which has become an irreversible trend, will be accelerated, experts told the Global Times.

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📹 The combat work of Russia’s crews of the 57-mm anti-aircraft gun S-60 in the zone of the special military op

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❗Ukraine attacked Moscow using three unmanned aerial vehicles overnight, of which two were shot down by air defenses and the third jammed by means of radio and electronic warfare equipment, the Russian Defense Ministry said early on Wednesday. No injuries were reported.

The US Space Development Agency (a division of the US Space Force) has signed a contract with Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin for 72 satellites

The first launch is scheduled for 2026. The satellites will provide global communications access and end-to-end encrypted communications to support missions such as targeting, warning and missile launch tracking.

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📹 Russian FPV-drone operators destroy (0:03) (0:07) (0:12) Ukrainian pickup trucks delivering fighters and ammunition to the front line

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Gas futures in Europe have increased by 9%, exceeding $500 per 1,000 cubic meters, according to the data presented by the London-based ICE exchange on Tuesday.

September futures on the TTF index — Europe's largest hub — opened at $451.2 per 1,000 cubic meters (-1.8%). As of 12:10 GMT, they were trading at $500.3 (+8.8%).

Since 2021, the EU has been experiencing the rise of energy prices as part of the global trend. Sanctions imposed on Russia after it launched the special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022 have accelerated the growth of gas prices, encouraging the European nations to consider contingency measures.

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The US military awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth more than $600 million for materials in support of maintaining on-time production of 173 F-35 jets

Most of the work will be performed in Texas and California, in addition to other US locations, along with the UK and Italy, the Defense Department said in a press release.

The work is expected to be completed in January 2028, the release added.

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The BW Lesmes tanker carrying liquefied natural gas has collided with the Burri oil products tanker in the Suez Canal

The Marine Traffic tracking service has posted a video showing towing operations monitoring data, which revealed that Burri has already been towed away from BW Lesmes after the collision.

The vessels were located next to each other in the southern part of the Suez Canal.

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💬 [The] majority of the countries in the world are yearning for a platform where they could cooperate at a mutual level without being dominated by the so-called superpowers. 

🗣 Countries are looking to join BRICS for a mutual partnership that does not make them subordinate to superpowers, Sihle Zikalala, South Africa's minister of public works and infrastructure, told Sputnik.

The minister went on to say that the BRICS+ initiative aimed at including other countries in the group's framework represents an alternative to "the unipolar world" and will facilitate change in the global balance of power and trade. 

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