🗣 Germany is gradually moving closer to Russia intellectually, mentally, and strategically, according to retired US Army Colonel and former Department of Defense adviser Douglas Macgregor.

He also predicts that in the coming months there will be a final rupture between the US and Germany, which will be the only opportunity to restore the economy of the European country.

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Canada to join US Indo-Pacific defense initiative, deploy military ships in region amid NATO-led militarization

Canada will join the US initiative for defense and industrial cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair said on Sunday at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

On May, 31 US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the initiative to “strengthen” military cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region with Washington's allies.

Bill Blair also stated that the HMCS Vancouver would soon leave for Hawaii to join the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024 exercise on June 26, alongside the HMCS Max Bernays, Motor Vessel Asterix, and 300 Canadian Armed Forces members. RIMPAC, the largest maritime exercise in the world, will involve 29 countries, 40 surface ships, 3 submarines, 14 national land forces, over 150 aircraft, and more than 25,000 personnel.

The exercise will be followed by Operation Horizon, involving the deployment of Canadian joint forces in the Indo-Pacific region.

Russia has repeatedly warned against militarization of the Asia-Pacific region. The penetration of NATO forces into the region threatens its stability, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The creation of closed military alliances is harmful and counterproductive, Russian President Vladimir Putin underscored after talks with China's leader Xi Jinping in Beijing.

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◾ The Houthis hit the USS Dwight Eisenhower, twice

◾ Canada to join US Indo-Pacific defense initiative, deploy military ships in region amid NATO-led militarization

◾ Chile joins South African UN ICJ case against Israel

◾ Bernie Sanders: Netanyahu is a war criminal

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NATO could start war over cyberattack

A cyberattack on a member state that disrupts essential services to a point where society cannot function could trigger Article 5, drawing NATO into war, Lieutenant Admiral Rob Bauer, chair of the NATO Military Committee, said at a Singapore defense summit.

This means NATO could collectively respond to cyber threats, potentially leading to a direct conflict with the responsible nation.

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Watch & learn from the best: Pentagon announces purchase of books on Russian military strategy

The Pentagon has announced a tender for the purchase of books on Russian military strategy written by Western authors, according to the government's System for Award Management (SAM) website on Saturday.

The report says that the purchase will be made for training pilots at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, where the Air Force Historical Research Agency and Air University, a prestigious military school hosting the National Security Forum, are located.

The tender touches upon six books, including Strategiya: The Foundations of the Russian Art of Strategy by lecturer at King’s College London Ofer Fridman, Russian Grand Strategy in the Era of Global Power Competition by Andrew Monaghan, and Samuel Ramani's work on the Ukraine conflict.

Books on China (The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China, translated by Ralph D. Sawyer), artificial intelligence (I, Warbot: The Dawn of Artificially Intelligent Conflict, by Kenneth Payne), and space strategy (Understanding Space Strategy: The Art of War in Space, by John J. Klein) are also included in the list, the website said.

The Pentagon plans to buy 600 copies for each book option. Tender fulfillment is scheduled for mid-June, the query added.

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Zelensky panhandles in the Asia-Pacific ahead of Ukraine ‘peace’ conference

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky got the begging bowl out again on Saturday as he arrived in Singapore on a surprise visit. This time, his soliciting is aimed at Asia-Pacific leaders gathered for their premier defense summit – the Shangri-La Dialogue.

With 45 countries in attendance, including US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin and Chinese Minister of National Defense Admiral Dong Jun, it is no wonder Zelensky made a bee-line for the event.

He descended upon Singapore as the Kiev regime’s forces scramble to fend off a steady advance by the Russian military. Meanwhile, Zelensly’s upcoming Swiss-hosted “peace conference” has failed to draw critically important attendees like Biden or Xi Jinping, let alone Russia.

With his Defense Minister Rustem Umerov in tow, Zelensky held talks with Lloyd Austin on Sunday, met with Singapore’s president and prime minister, Indonesia's President-elect Prabowo Subianto, Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta. The Ukrainian leader later boasted that the Timorese President had agreed to attend the peace summit.

China, however, has remained adamant that it will not partake in the Swiss gathering, which does not meet its expectations.

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❗️ The Russian Armed Forces have taken control of the settlement of Umanskoye in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said

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🇷🇺🪖 More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry’s daily briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

◾️ Russia’s Battlegroup Yug improved its position along the front line and destroyed three Ukrainian ammunition depots, and the enemy lost up to 290 servicemen;

◾️ Russian air defenses shot down two Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft, 50 UAVs, 23 HIMARS shells, two Tochka-U and one Neptun missile, and three Hammer bombs;

◾️ Russian Armed Forces hit a Ukrainian P-18 air target detection and tracking radar station;

◾️ Russia’s Battlegroup Vostok took more favorable positions, and the enemy lost up to 125 servicemen;

◾️ Russia ‘s Battlegroup Sever struck five enemy brigades and repulsed seven counterattacks, and Ukrainian losses amounted to up to 190 soldiers;

◾️ Ukrainian losses in battles against Russia’s Battlegroup Zapad amounted to up to 465 military personnel, a tank, and three armored vehicles.

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Bosnia supplies Ukraine with weapons through third countries - Republika Srpska President

The authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina produce and supply weapons to Kiev, reselling them through several countries, Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik told Sputnik on Sunday.

"We can see what is being supplied, where and keep track of it. The biggest customers lately have been NATO countries... That's how we found out that Spain was reselling. But they never do it first-hand – from Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example, to Switzerland, and from there to Ukraine. No, they arrange three or four resales," Dodik said.

In March, Stasa Kosarac, Bosnia and Herzegovina's minister of foreign trade and economic relations and Republika Srpska politician, asked the country's authorities to inspect the defense companies Pretis and BNT Novi Travnik. At the time, photos of Ukrainian soldiers with Bosnian-made ammunition for 82 and 120 mm mortars circulated online. The request for inspection was ignored.

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Lost in (mis)translation: from “homosexual” Russian tank to 'I desire the Poles carnally'

Occasionally, mistranslations can spiral into perplexing scenarios or even trigger diplomatic uproar. The ones we've gathered might surprise you and tickle your funny bone!

◻️ Forbes recently called a Russian tank "homosexual", confusing it with "Gromozeka," after a character from a Soviet-era cartoon.

That echoes other glaring errors by western translators.

◻️ In 2016, Justin Trudeau was announcing a plan to reduce methane and greenhouse gases in the Arctic while speaking at the White House. A computer translated parts of the speech as "Nazi innings." The gaffe got funnier in 2023 when Trudeau and the Canadian parliament applauding a neo-Nazi Yaroslav Hunka.

◻️ "I desire the Poles carnally," Poland's people heard then-US President Jimmy Carter's interpreter say in 1977. Carter was trying to say he wanted to hear the nation's "opinions and understand their desires for the future."

◻️ And, of course, the diplomatic misstep famously associated with Hillary Clinton's 'reset button.'

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🪖 Scholz, Pistorius bicker over how to make Germany 'fit for war'

Tension over how Germany should reboot its armed forces is brewing between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his increasingly pugnacious defense chief Boris Pistorius ahead of next year’s elections.

While public messaging sees Scholz using the word “peace” more often, like in his campaign posters for June’s European elections with the word “Frieden” (“Peace”), Pistorius says the Bundeswehr needs to get "ready for war” in an interview last year for Welt am Sonntag.

Pistorius argued the alleged “Russia threat” to urge for a dramatic hike in military spending, saying the 100-billion-euro defense fund announced by Scholz in 2022 is not enough. But this proposal was dismissed by one of the most unpopular chancellors in German history.

Then Scholz brushed aside Pistorius’s moot idea to reintroduce connoscription proposed amid German army struggling to attract recruits.

Pent-up frustration purportedly led Pistorius to threaten to quit his post during a closed-door meeting in the ministry last month. However, he thought better of it, telling reporters that, “I’m still burning for this job, and you won’t get rid of me that quickly.”

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US increasing military presence in Asia to force other countries into ‘American war chariot’ - Chinese general

“The true motive is to converge various small circles into a big circle that is an Asia-Pacific version of NATO, to maintain American hegemony,” Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

“The US strengthens its military presence to force other countries to choose sides and advances the eastward expansion of NATO," Jing said, adding that these moves create chaos and “bind regional countries with the American war chariot."

His remarks echo those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said during his visit to China that he saw no point in closed military-political alliances.

Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng's speech came in response to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who said that war with China was neither imminent nor inevitable.

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Make China Great Again? Trump joins TikTok

Donald Trump, who previously tried to ban TikTok in the US, has now created an account.

In his first video, Trump used Kid Rock's song American Bad Ass and footage from the UFC.

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❗️ Saudi Arabia will not take part in the conference on Ukraine in Switzerland, the DPA agency reports, citing diplomatic sources

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Five empty coffins wrapped in French flags with the innoscription “French soldiers killed in Ukraine” were found near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the newspaper Le Parisien reported. Police detained three people who allegedly intended to flee in a minivan to Berlin.

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✍️📄 Who is on Zelensky's naughty list for 'undermining' Ukraine peace summit?

Zelensky accused China of 'undermining' the conference in Switzerland in his address to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Sunday.

On May 31, China confirmed it would not take part in the summit — which apparently hurt the Ukrainian leader’s feelings.

Earlier, Zelensky also slammed Brazilian President Lula da Silva for his refusal to join the gathering, just a few days after Joe Biden decided to pass over the conference in favor of a glitzy Hollywood fundraiser with George Clooney.

Who is next?

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