❗️ Trump makes his first appearance at the Republican National Convention with a bandaged ear. This is his first speech after the assassination attempt, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

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❗️ Trump acknowledges supporters at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee as the former president is greeted with thunderous applause. Country music star Lee Greenwood leads a performance of God Bless the USA in tribute.

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Who is JD Vance?

Ohio Senator JD Vance was elected to Congress during the Republican Party’s “red wave” of 2022.

After graduating from Ohio State University and Yale Law School, Vance worked at Chicago’s Sidley Austin LLP law firm before moving to San Francisco to pursue a career as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. In 2016 he became a principal in conservative entrepreneur Peter Thiel’s firm Mithril Capital.

Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis briefly made him a liberal darling as he reflected on the socioeconomic concerns of rural Appalachia, writing about his family’s background in Kentucky and Middletown, Ohio. The Washington Post declared him the “voice of the Rust Belt” while The New York Times wrote that his account was “one of the six best books to help understand Trump's win” in 2016.

JD Vance was initially highly critical of Donald Trump, calling the former US president “reprehensible” and claiming he was a “never-Trump guy.” Vance changed his views by 2018, claiming Trump “recognizes the frustration that exists” in post-industrial parts of Ohio and other Midwestern US states. He strongly supported Trump’s reelection campaign in 2020 and claimed the real estate magnate lost due to far-reaching voter fraud.

Trump’s selection of Vance as his VP pick provides him with a running mate from a perennial US swing state as the former president seeks to appeal to voters who proved crucial to his 2016 victory in Midwest states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Wisconsin.

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'Don't miss Trump next time' - Jack Black's bandmate

While Jack Black's Tenacious D was performing in Australia’s ICC Sydney Theatre, Kyle Gass, the second band member, made the controversial statement as a birthday wish.

In footage by fans, Blake can be seen on stage giving Gass a birthday cake and asking him to "make a wish”, with Gase replying: "Don’t miss Trump next time."

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📹 Watch Russia's Novorossiysk paratroopers burn out Ukrainian strongholds in the Zaporozhye region with the help of flamethrower systems

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⚡️ Trump makes first public appearance after attempt on his life, greeted with mass applause  

⚡️ Trump's VP pick JD Vance believes Ukrainian crisis should end with negotiations. What else did the Republican nominee say on foreign policy issues? 

⚡️ 'Don't miss Trump next time' - Jack Black's bandmate

⚡️ Ukrainian militants openly celebrate Trump's assassination attempt and allege Kiev regime’s secret service (Main Intelligence Directorate) pulled shooter's strings. 

⚡️ Russia’s foreign policy chief Sergey Lavrov in New York to participate in UN Security Council. Top diplomat to chair several ministerial-level events.

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Elon Musk to commit monthly $45m to new pro-Trump super PAC

US billionaire and entrepreneur Elon Musk has said he is going to assign about $45 million a month to a new super political-action committee (PAC) supporting Donald Trump’s presidential run, people familiar with the matter told WSJ.

Other members of the group, dubbed America PAC, include US company Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale, American investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, former US ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft and her husband, Joe Craft.

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⚡️Putin to drive today on the new, last section of Russia's M-11 highway - Kremlin

Russian President Vladimir Putin will open a number of road facilities on Tuesday and drive along a section of the northern bypass of the Russian city of Tver, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

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❗️Putin arrived at a section of the northern bypass of the M-11 Neva highway in Tver

Construction of this section started in the spring of 2022; the facility is being commissioned a year ahead of schedule.

By opening new road sections, Russia is taking another step in strengthening logistics and new transportation corridors, the Russian president noted on the spot.

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Putin drove a Russian-made Lada Aura to the opening of a section of the M-11 highway

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Imminent Doom: No remedy against Russia's unstoppable Iskander missiles

There is no effective protection against the Iskander-M mobile ballistic missile system, Russian defense conglomerate, Rostec, stated on July 16, commenting on the Military Watch Magazine’s report that the system's high maneuverable missiles are extremely difficult to detect or track.

The mobile weapon complexes have proven effective in the zone of the special military operation. The Iskander-M carries highly powerful warheads, enough to destroy a building, warship or fortification.

According to the manufacturer, the system has gained prominence not only for its destructive power, but also the capability of hitting the bull's eye.

"During the special operation, the Iskander has demonstrated sniper precision. Missiles can deviate literally by a few meters," Rostec commented.

Last Sunday, Military Watch Magazine described what it called Russia's new "double strike" tactics, reportedly employed by Iskander-M crews in the special military operation zone. While the first strike usually inflicts serious damage on the enemy, the subsequent one maximizes the impact, per the online publication.

"The missiles launch fire on semi-ballistic depressed trajectories with apogees of around 50 km, and can conduct extensive in-flight maneuvers throughout their entire flight paths," the magazine noted. "This not only makes their missiles extremely difficult to detect or track, but also allows them to use their fins to maneuver much better than would be possible on standard ballistic trajectories."

The Iskander-M brigade's equipment comprises 51 units, including self-propelled launchers, transport-loading vehicles, an integrated automated control system, technical condition monitoring equipment, and a data preparation station.

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Vladimir Putin launched simultaneous openings of routes across the Volga River 

The Russian president launched the openings of routes in Russia's Tver and Samara regions.

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📹 Vladimir Putin at the opening ceremony of the Russian Tver's northern bypass route

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📸 New footage of Vladimir Putin driving a Lada Aura

The Russian president liked the car, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

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❗️Russian air defenses shot down a Ukrainian Yak-52 aircraft with a machine gun mount and six ATACMS missiles, according to Russian Defense Ministry.

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

▪️ Russia's Vostok Battlegroup took up more advantageous positions, with Ukrainian losses amounting to up to 145 militants;

▪️ Russia's Sever Battlegroup inflicted damage on three Ukrainian brigades, repelling five attacks in the Kharkov region, with enemy losses amounting to up to 230 militants;

▪️ Units of Russia's Yug Battlegroup took more advantageous positions, with Ukrainian losses in its area of responsibility amounting to up to 560 militants and one tank;

▪️ Units of Russia's Zapad Battlegroup improved their frontline positions and struck formations of nine Ukrainian brigades;

▪️ Ukrainian losses in the area of responsibility of Russia's Zapad Battlegroup amounted to up to 545 militants.

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Ukrainian lawmaker Maryana Bezuglaya, who has repeatedly criticized the country's military leadership, has been included in the Mirotvorets website database.

She was reportedly included for “discreditation of the senior command staff” and demoralization of the Ukrainina forces' personnel.

Mirotvorets (“Peacekeeper”) is a notorious online database that doxxes people considered "enemies of Ukraine" and urges their murder – that’s why the website is often considered a “kill list” of the Kiev regime.

Whenever someone from the list is killed, their photograph on the website becomes marked with a cynical innoscription that reads "liquidated". Apart from Russian citizens, prominent Western politicians and journalists who simply question the prudency of supporting the Kiev regime regularly find themselves on the infamous website.

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'Fascists are fascists': Ukrainian nationalists and neo-Nazis kill and torture Russian PoWs while Western media stays mum

Ukraine's neo-Nazi Azov Battalion* has posted a graphic video of a cold-blooded murder of an unarmed Russian soldier who appeared to raise his arms in a surrendering gesture.

"Fascists are fascists," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov commented on the video.

What's known about the killing and torture of Russian prisoners of war (PoWs) by Ukrainians and allied forces in violation of the Geneva Convention?

▪️The New York Times on July 6 quoted Caspar Grosse, a German medic in the US-led Chosen Company allied with the Kiev, as saying that the unit on several occasions killed surrendering Russian soldiers and PoWs. Moscow slammed the Western media's "ridiculous" months-long silence on Ukrainian military and mercs' war crimes.

▪️Russian PoWs were used as human demining shields, being forced to walk in front of Ukrainian infantry on densely mined fields in the Zaporozhye region, last July, a Russian soldier codename Topaz who managed to escape told the press.

▪️In November 2022, a video, apparently shot in the settlement of Makeyevka in the Lugansk People's Republic, showed 10 Russian PoWs being brutally killed by Ukrainian soldiers.

▪️In May 2022, Russian security forces discovered a Ukrainian torture chamber with a body of a man in a Russian military uniform with his legs cut off in the village of Zelenovka near the city of Kherson.

▪️On April 4, 2022, a video allegedly taken on March 30 near the village of Dmitrovka, the Kiev region, showed Russian troops lying on the ground unarmed and bleeding with fighters from the Kiev-allied Georgian National Legion mocking them and killing one of them.

▪️Western media regularly downplays Ukrainian atrocities. Guess what they said this time? Nothing.

*a terrorist organization banned in Russia

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