❗️ Belarusian and Russian air defense and air forces have been put on alert due to heightened activity of Ukrainian troops, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said.

Polonez and Iskander missile systems have been brought to firing positions.

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⚔️ How strong is the Axis of Resistance?

“Iran, and all members of the "Axis of Resistance", will support the Lebanese Shia movement, Hezbollah, in the event of a conflict with Israel.”

This assertion was made by Kamal Kharrazi, Adviser to the Supreme Leader of Iran, to Financial Times on July 2.

So, what’s behind the group’s military strength?

🇱🇧 Lebanon: Hezbollah

▪️ 100,000-strong military force, according to its leadership.
▪️ 150,000-200,000 projectiles, including ballistic, anti-air, anti-tank, and anti-ship missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Among them, 40,000 short-range missiles, 80,000 medium-range missiles, and 30,000 long-range missiles, according to estimates.
▪️ Tanks, armored personnel carriers (APC), and infantry fighting vehicles (IFV).

🇾🇪 Yemen: Ansar Allah, or Houthis

▪️ Recruited over 200,000 fighters since the beginning of the Gaza war, per its spokesperson in Feb.
▪️ Surface-to-surface cruise and ballistic missiles, artillery rockets, and UAVs.
▪️ Claims of domestically developed "Hatem-2" hypersonic missiles.

🇵🇸 Gaza Strip: Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ)

▪️ Prior to the Gaza war, Hamas had an estimated 40,000-strong force.
▪️ PIJ reportedly has 1,000 members.
▪️ 30,000-50,000 missiles, mortar shells, and UAVs at the beginning of conflict with Israel.

🇮🇶 Iraq: Kataib Hezbollah, the Badr Organisation, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq

▪️ Core of Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) or Al-Hashd al-Shaabi, an Iraqi paramilitary network comprising 230,000 fighters.
▪️ Iraqi Shia militias reportedly armed with artillery, unguided rockets, light and heavy mortars, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, Iranian-made Zelzal (150-250 km), Fateh-110 (200-300 km), and Zolfaghar (700 km) missiles.
▪️ Mastery of drone warfare during war against ISIS*.

*ISIS (also known as ISIS/IL/ISIS-K/Islamic State) is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries

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📹 The Kalashnikov rifle doesn't care how much you take it apart: it will still shoot

Russian military correspondents did an experiment and found out which parts the Kalashnikov rifle does not need to fire. It turned out that the weapon works even when almost completely “undressed”.

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🇷🇺📈 Russia defied sanctions to join high-income rank

The World Bank’s recognition of Russia as a high-income country is "not surprising, but a reality”, Dr. Georgy Ostapkovich, Director of the Center for Market Research at the Higher School of Economics, told Sputnik.

Russia is seeing income growth of around 4-5%, with earnings growing in double digits, Ostapkovich said, stressing that the driving force is economic growth.

"Incomes only grow when the economy grows. If the economy grows, then profits grow. If profits grow, then the entrepreneur is keen on hiring people and raising wages," he added.

Russia’s economy grew by 3.6% in 2023, with real incomes and nominal wages up by 4.5% and 13% respectively. Industrial performance, particularly in manufacturing, is propelling this growth not seen in 20 to 30 years. Notably, mechanical engineering in the military industry is expanding at 25-30%, according to Ostapkovich.

Andrey Kolganov, Doctor of Economics and Head of the Laboratory of Socio-Economic Systems at Moscow State University, acknowledged that despite the challenges posed by the growth stimuli, Western sanctions failed to inflict significant harm on the Russian economy.

"The Russian economy has shown great potential in adapting to these difficulties. Moreover, these difficulties stimulated the development of domestic production, which in turn led to high rates of economic growth," he added.

Kolganov noted that economic growth rates were higher in 2023, compared to 2022 - and even higher in 2024. These increases promoted Russia from the classification of middle-income countries, to the rank of high-income countries. Although Russia has not caught up with the richest countries, the achievement is nonetheless remarkable, especially in the face of unprecedented sanctions.

Gross national income per capita in Russia is now $14,250, according to a document released by the World Bank that classifies countries that cross the $13,485 threshold as “high income.”

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What's behind Ukraine's upgrade to an upper-middle-income economy?

Ukraine “received powerful external support in the form of financial resources. And it is precisely this external support that largely helped the Ukrainian economy stay afloat when it faced military problems," Andrey Kolganov, head of the Laboratory of Socio-Economic Systems at the Faculty of Economics of the Moscow State University, told Sputnik.

The World Bank has upgraded Ukraine's economic status despite the country teetering on the brink of a default, as The Economist warned on June 30.

The paradox can be explained by the fact that while Ukraine's economy grew by 5.3 percent in 2023 after a steep decline by 28.8 percent in 2022, the country's population has dropped by around 15 percent since the conflict began, economic observers say.

As a result, gross national income per capita in Ukraine has recently increased to $5,070 from $4,270 which automatically brought it in the category of upper-middle-income countries, in accordance with the World Bank's classification.

"Ukraine's economy has never belonged to the league of efficient economies," Kolganov said. "Its economic indicators before the outbreak of hostilities were not brilliant."

Ukraine survives because it has a lifeline from the West and because its economy is partly buoyed up by its military needs, according to Sputnik's pundit.

"If this external support ends, I am afraid that Ukraine's economic gains will disappear in thin air," Kolganov said.

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📹 Biden: “We’ve invested billions to enhance our power grid, expand energy shortages.”

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➖ Russia defied sanctions to join high-income rank

➖ France hurtling towards ‘uncontrollable situation’ regardless of elections outcome

➖ Hungarian PM Victor Orban's statements after meeting with Zelensky in Kiev

➖ How strong is the Axis of Resistance?

➖ What's behind Ukraine's upgrade to an upper-middle-income economy?

➖ Who is Ukrainian MP Bezuglaya, nemesis of Ukrainian generals?

➖ Russia unveils disposable drone fitted with warhead to intercept enemy UAV

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Something awkwardly tender happened between Biden and an emergency management agency employee.

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💸 ‘US running very large deficit’ along ‘unsustainable path’ warns Fed Chair Jerome Powell

"We'll have to do something sooner or later, and sooner will be better than later," he stated.

The US national debt is projected to rise from 99% of GDP in 2024 to 122% by 2034, according to the US Congressional Budget Office.

Meanwhile, the IMF estimates that by 2032, the ratio of US national debt to GDP will exceed 140%. The fund has warned that such growth poses a threat to both the national and global economy.

During Joe Biden's presidency, the US national debt has increased from $28 trillion in 2021 to an unprecedented level of over $34.5 trillion this year.

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Biden vs. teleprompter again

In this battle, Biden didn't stand a chance:

More people die from extreme heat than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined... "say that again"... combined. More people die from heat than those three other major issues.

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US presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asserts that Biden is unfit to seek re-election and expresses his willingness to accept the Democratic Party's nomination.

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Ukrainian military in panic runs over own troops with trucks during evacuation — prisoner of war

Ukraine's military ran over a Ukrainian soldier with trucks of an armored personnel carrier vehicle during a battle in the city of Chasov Yar, Valentin Gridnev, commander of the Ukrainian armed forces' assault unit who surrendered after the incident, told Sputnik.

The Ukrainian prisoner of war said the incident occurred as Russian troops occupied the second level of a building where his unit was located, and fighters of the Kraken* Nazi battalion, who were supposed to cover his unit, withdrew from the battle. Gridnev, as the unit's commander, requested reinforcements, but Russian troops hit them on their approach with drones, and an evacuation vehicle was called in after it happened.

"Everything happened so fast, after that ... [an MT-LB, multi-purpose tracked armored fighting vehicle] peeled out, first backward, began to turn around. I did not see it, but a guy was said to have wanted to run around it. And he was run over with ... [the MT-LB]. Another guy, who was to be evacuated, he was also carried with open fractures, he gripped hold of some rail [of the evacuation vehicle], and no one pulled him in, and ... [the MT-LB] quickly peeled out, I do not know what happened to him next," the prisoner of war said.

Gridnev added that the MT-LB was radioed to have been carrying severely wounded soldiers and a lot of killed troops. He then realized that nobody was going to evacuate them, and the unit decided to surrender.

*Kraken battalion a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia.

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