🗣️ On the devastating floods in Libya and how they are connected to the destruction of the country by NATO:

“Libya is the corruption central right now, is what I would call it. And of course, that is all because of the greed of the NATO states… Up to date, nobody has told us how many people were killed by the 24/7 bombing for 10 months, how much infrastructure was destroyed. In fact, these dams, these very dams that ultimately flooded, who knows if part of the structural condition of the dams were not weakened by the 10 months of NATO bombings and the corruption,” Milton Allimadi, chief editor of Black Star News, producer, and author, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Allomadi’s analysis in our podcast By Any Means Necessary

🇺🇸🇮🇷 Biden gave $6 billion for 5 people, Iran gave $0, he's dumb as a rock: Trump commented on the recent US-Iran prisoner exchange deal.

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🗣️ On the planned trip of President Zelensky to Washington, DC:

“My first reaction is hold onto your wallet, because this guy's coming to fleece us again. Didn’t he just get a billion dollars last week? I mean, this guy's got a spending problem. But seriously, this is a changed environment, now. This is not the world of when Zelensky was here last time and he addressed Congress... It's a different world now, especially when you look at the post-NATO summit, where he was almost shunned. So he's coming into a Washington that's heading into election season, and this has become a political issue. So this is not the slam dunk that it's been in the past for him,” Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of McAdams’ analysis in our podcast The Backstory

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble

🇮🇷 Demand for Iran’s military unmanned aerials vehicles has outpaced the defense sector’s ability to produce them, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Baqeri has revealed.

“Our defense industries have grown tremendously. We used to need to import the simplest equipment from abroad, but the defense industries of our country have made tremendous progress. We were once prohibited from buying anything [related to defense, ed.] but today we are prohibited from selling anything. Today, the customers of our drones exceed our production capacity many times over, and major countries of the world look to our weapons,” Baqeri said at a conference.

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❗️ In the Shebekinsky urban district of the Belgorod region, the air defense system shot down 3 air targets on approach to the city, the governor reported. Preliminary data shows there's no victims.

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Lavrov and the Chinese Foreign Minister have discussed during recent talks the situation in Ukraine, noting the futility of attempts to resolve the crisis without taking into account the interests of Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

The ministry added that Lavrov and Wang Yi noted the similarity of positions regarding US actions in the international arena that are anti-Russian and anti-Chinese.

It was also reported that the Chinese Foreign Minister informed Lavrov about the content of negotiations with US Presidential Adviser Jake Sullivan.

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💰 The US national debt has exceeded $33 trillion for the first time, the US Treasury Department revealed

❗️ Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will hold Russian-Chinese consultations on strategic security in Moscow on Tuesday - Russian Security Council

🔺Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow
🔺Gen. Mark Milley: US should avoid open armed conflict with China by all means
🔺Canada to allocate $24mln for supply of air defense systems to Ukraine

The Critical Hour will cover these and more stories! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6pm EST|3pm PST|12am CET via the website or app

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🇺🇸 The US officially surpassed 500 mass shooting cases for 2023 this past weekend, data collected by the Gun Violence Archive has revealed.

As of Sunday, the Archive's records paint a somber picture of 2023, with 501 reported shooting incidents. The 500-mark was reached after a shooting took place in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday night. The Denver Police Department detailed the incident resulted in four individuals being hospitalized, with a fifth victim subsequently found.

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🇨🇳 China's efforts to boost the renminbi have caused a surge in domestic gold prices and strained the currency, leading the People's Bank of China (PBoC) to strengthen it amidst robust gold demand. Anticipation is high for increased demand ahead of October's traditional bridal festivities.

To support the Chinese yuan renminbi (CNY), the PBoC has removed temporary restrictions on gold imports previously imposed on certain lenders. However, this move unintentionally caused a rise in gold prices within China.

The difference between Shanghai gold prices and London prices reached an unusual $121 per troy ounce, but it has since narrowed to $76 per troy ounce due to recent relaxation of precious metal import regulations by the Chinese Central Bank, as communicated to specific state and midsize commercial banks.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russia and China bear special responsibility for maintaining strategic stability in the world, with their bilateral cooperation not aimed against anyone, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday.

"Our cooperation is not aimed against anyone and is not a subject to disturbances and outside interventions. At the same time, China and Russia, as global superpowers and permanent members of the UN Security Council, bear special responsibility for maintaining strategic stability and progress in the world. The fiercer unilateral hegemony and bloc confrontation is, the more important it is for us to keep up with the times," Wang said during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.

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🇺🇸🇮🇷 The Biden administration is facing a delicate balancing act in its approach to Iran, as it aims to ease tensions with Tehran to refocus US efforts on countering China. This strategy, however, must also address domestic critics who view any deal with an adversary as a sign of weakness, according to a prominent US anti-war activist.

On Monday, the United States and Iran reached a deal in which Iran released five American prisoners in exchange for five Iranians held by the US and the unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian government assets.

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Israel-based international defense electronics company Elbit Systems said on Monday that it had signed a contract worth $95 million with a European country on supplies of SkyStriker loitering munitions.

SkyStriker LM is a completely autonomous loitering munition capable of locating, acquiring and engaging operator designated targets with a warhead of up to 10 kilogram (22 pounds), enabling high-precision performance, the statement added.

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🇺🇸 Former US President Donald Trump is reportedly set to address current and former members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union in Detroit, Illinois, instead of participating in the upcoming Republican primary debate.

An insider with the Trump reelection campaign relayed to US media that the former commander-in-chief is looking to speak with a crowd of current and former union members, as well as blue-collar workers in the plumbing and electrical industries.

However, the UAW union has expressed reservations about the event, with President Shawn Fain stating that Trump represents the billionaire class and an economy that benefits the wealthy at the expense of workers.

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🇨🇳 China may end up leading the world in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk said.

"To your point about which countries will have significant leadership in AI, China is certainly one of them, one of the very top, potentially number one," Musk said during a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Western leaders have expressed concern about China potentially lacking in AI regulation, Musk said.

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🇺🇸 The US Army has paused its reenlistment bonuses program due to surpassing retention goals while still expecting to miss annual recruitment targets. The suspension, effective immediately since September 12, was announced via an internal Army Military Personnel Center message.

This move follows the Army's announcement in April that it had met its yearly retention goal by keeping over 55,000 scheduled-to-retire soldiers. The program, officially called The Selective Retention Bonus Program, provides substantial bonuses to soldiers in specialized roles who choose to reenlist.

The program's temporary halt will continue until the end of the Army's fiscal year on September 30, when a new bonus initiative will be introduced. During this period, soldiers reenlisting may still be eligible for other benefits like specialized courses or career training.

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🇹🇷 Turkiye never needed help or support from the European Union, Erdogan said.

The Turkish President also called Sweden's steps to ratify its membership in NATO insufficient.

Ukraine has siphoned off all resources allocated for humanitarian efforts, although there are other hot spots across the globe that are in urgent need for assistance as well, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) Cindy McCain stressed.

"Ukraine, for better or worse, has sucked the oxygen out of the room. And... we certainly understand the need to support Ukraine. But there's other hot spots in the world that are deeply and as much desperate as Ukraine is," McCain told an American news agency.

McCain said that she had visited many countries where she had seen women with children fleeing from terrorist groups, which sometimes could be the only actors providing food for the local population. The official called it "an absolute national security issue."

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🇷🇺🇩🇪 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s recent remarks on the conditions for the start of talks between Russia and Ukraine are glaring proof that Berlin hardly understands the facts on the ground, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

"This is not Scholz's demand, these are Scholz's thoughts. It is unlikely that these thoughts indicate that the German side understands the real state of affairs," Peskov told reporters.

The condition for the start of peace talks in the Ukraine conflict was the "withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory", German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suggested.

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🇷🇺 Russian scientists from Belgorod State University, collaborating with an international research team, have uncovered a connection between the structure of a gene responsible for heat shock proteins and the progression of ischemic stroke. Ischemic stroke, a condition affecting cerebral blood circulation, is a leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization.

The researchers have clarified that the origins of this condition are influenced by both external factors and an individual's genetics. They believe that the identified patterns could have significant medical implications for predicting stroke severity and recovery duration. Heat shock proteins play a crucial role in stressful situations like strokes by aiding in the restoration of proper protein structure in brain tissue, thus preventing potentially fatal clumping.

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