Biden will not attend the Olympics in Paris; he will send his wife to the opening ceremony and the husband of his Vice President, Kamala Harris, to the closing ceremony, the White House announced.

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🎥 What are the prospects for transforming the inter-parliamentary BRICS forum into a full-fledged parliamentary assembly?

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council, Konstantin Kosachev, gave Sputnik his insights on the matter on the sidelines of the BRICS parliamentary forum in St. Petersburg.

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❗️Russian military forces carried out 39 strikes with long-range precision weapons on military targets in Ukraine over the past week, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated.

The strikes hit air bases, defense industry enterprises, energy facilities, military equipment assembly workshops, and unmanned boat storage sites.

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❗️Russian air defense systems intercepted four ATACMS missiles, three Storm Shadow missiles, and 17 Hammer bombs over the past week.

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

◻️ Russian forces destroyed seven HIMARS launchers, prepared for strikes on Crimea, along with their foreign operators.

◻️ The Russian Battlegroup Zapad improved its tactical position and repelled three UAF counterattacks, inflicting losses of up to 3,440 militants.

◻️ The Russian Battlegroup Sever enhanced its front line position and repelled 26 counterattacks, with UAF losing up to 1,800 militants and two tanks.

◻️ Russian air defense systems destroyed 308 Ukrainian drones.

◻️ Twenty-two Ukrainian militants surrendered over the past week.

◻️ The Russian Battlegroup Dnepr inflicted heavy losses on seven Ukrainian brigades, with the UAF losing up to 685 militants.

◻️ UAF losses in the area of responsibility of the Russian Battlegroup Yug amounted to up to 4,380 militants, three tanks, 59 field artillery guns, and 29 ammunition depots.

◻️ In the area of responsibility of the Russian Battlegroup Vostok, UAF lost up to 980 militants.

◻️ Russian forces destroyed nine launcher systems with radars, including S-300PS, Hawk, and Patriot.

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The Israeli Air Force conducted an airstrike on the city of Tair Harfa in southern Lebanon, reports a Sputnik correspondent.

Video: Sputnik

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Biden's interaction with journalists following the NATO summit in Washington was announced as a "Big Boy Press Conference." Here's what it consisted of.

I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be Vice President until I think she was not qualified to be President. So let's start there.

And so what did I do? I was told not to go over to Europe, I mean to Asia, including Europe, but Asia.

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🚫 YouTube solely to blame for current tech problems in Russia

Technical problems of Google-owned equipment may affect the download speed and playback quality of YouTube videos for users in Russia starting with July 12, Rostelecom, Russia’s telecommunications giant, has announced. Russia had no plans to restrict access to the platform, the Kremlin assured.

Problems had been expected as the equipment that has not been updated for over two years. “There can be no other explanations here," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. He told reporters that the company “chose this path itself,” and leaving the Russian market was bound to have “its own technological consequences."

As for the YouTube, it sprang to action, declaring open season on Russian state media and public figures.

◻️ Roskomnadzor [Russia’s media watchdog] reported on July 10 that YouTube had already groundlessly blocked 83 channels of Russian accounts since the beginning of 2024. In total, since 2020, the platform has limited access to 207 channels.

◻️ The hosting giant deleted the YouTube channel of Scott Ritter in August 2023. The geopolitical observer and Sputnik contributor has been providing commentaries that criticize NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, challenging the Western mainstream narrative.

◻️ The famous Russian duo of Vovan (Vladimir Kuznetsov) and Lexus (Alexey Stolyarov) known for their prank journalism exposing truth about politicians and public figures, recently faced a ban for allegedly violating community guidelines.

◻️ The watchdog castigated the restrictive measures as an "act of censorship," stating that they fundamentally infringed upon the key principles of free access and dissemination of information.

◻️ Meanwhile, YouTube has failed to remove more than 61,300 prohibited items, including fake news about the Russian special military op, extremist materials and LGBT propaganda, according to Roskomnadzor.

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Israel and Hamas have agreed on the framework for a ceasefire in Gaza and are working on the details, Biden stated.

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Japan’s drive toward remilitarization: From baby steps to giant leaps

Japan’s Defense Ministry has released a white paper with updates to the Japan Self-Defense Forces’ organization, defense industrial base and arms spending, and plans to further expand cooperation with the US in light of the “serious challenge to the existing international order” posed by “states that do not share universal values.”

The report calls for the “fundamental reinforcement” of Japan’s military capabilities, “including the possession of counterstrike capabilities,” standoff, missile defense, drone, command & control, intelligence, and mobile deployment capacity, in what is characterized as the “most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War Two.”

◾️ Japan’s military was defanged after WWII, in accordance with the Article 9 ‘no war’ clause of its 1947 Constitution. Tokyo began its drive toward remilitarization in 1997 in a defense white paper formulating a strategy expanding the JSDF’s focus beyond the defense of Japan to ‘maintaining peace and stability’ in the region.

◾️ Japan started flirting with the deployment of troops abroad for peacekeeping, disaster relief and counterterror missions during the 1991 Gulf War.

◾️ In 2011, Japan set up its first and only military base abroad in Djibouti for anti-piracy ops.

◾️ In 2015, the government of late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe passed legislation formally allowing Japan’s military to participate in conflicts abroad.

◾️ The 2022 National Security Strategy, passed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, kicked off a process aimed at “fundamentally reinforcing defense capabilities,” including by doubling of the 1% of GDP spending threshold held by governments going back to 1958, by FY2027. Kishida used Russia's military operation in Ukraine as one of the justifications for the multi-year, $320 bln rearmament plan, claiming it set a "precedent" for hostile actors.

◾️ FY2024 defense spending has reached $56 bln US, or about 1.6% of GDP.

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Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin held a phone conversation with Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov on Friday, marking their second call in a month, according to the American Department.

They also noted that Austin emphasized the importance of keeping communication channels between Russia and the U.S. open during the conversation.

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The US does not currently allow Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles for "deep" strikes on Russia, but this could change, the Pentagon stated.

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❗️The crash of the SSJ-100 in the Moscow region may have been caused by the simultaneous failure of both engines, emergency services told Sputnik.

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US ‘had a hand’ in provocative decision by France, Germany, Italy and Poland to develop long-range cruise missiles – expert

The US definitely played a major role in the “very dangerous, provocative” decision by France, Germany, Italy and Poland to develop ground-launched cruise missiles with a range beyond 500 km, Earl Rasmussen told Sputnik.

“I'm almost sure that the US had a hand in this,” said the retired Lieutenant Colonel with over 20 years in the US Army. The European project “augments” that just announced by the US to deploy its cruise missiles in Germany, he noted, adding that the US and NATO “want to escalate.”

With their project, the Europeans will address “some of their lost capability and the gaps because of what they've been providing to Ukraine,” noted the pundit. It will also give them more control over their own missile systems, likely armed with nuclear warheads, he said.

But the decision will face challenges over contracts, whose design takes precedence, origin of resources, supply chain and maintenance issues. “To develop a new system usually takes a minimum of five to seven years. So, we're looking down the road, and it's going to be complex,” he said.

As far as Russia is concerned, it makes sense to react “from a security perspective,” the military expert said.

“We're looking at long range missiles that can strike deep into the Russia from Europeans. It basically creates Europe as a battleground. So rather than just Ukraine, we are actually extending that into Europe as well,” Rasmussen said. “you would think the Europeans have learned a lesson over the last several centuries, but I guess they haven't. It's very dangerous.”

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