📹 Putin-Assad talks touched upon Middle East crisis, development of mutual relations

"I am very interested in your opinion on how the situation in the region as a whole is developing. Unfortunately, it tends towards escalation. This affects Syria as well. As for our trade and economic ties, there are a lot of matters here too. There are promising directions," Russian President Vladimir Putin stated during a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.

Russia-Syria relations have maintained their level of trust over the course of the past decades, serving as an indicator of the maturity of the two countries' peoples, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad stated, stressing that the meeting coincided with the anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

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📹 Footage of a Russian Iskander strike on foreign mercenaries in Kharkov, published by the Russian MoD

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❗️Kremlin on Netanyahu’s idea to create alliance similar to NATO in Middle East: it is unlikely that we need confrontational mechanisms

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❗️Negotiations with Zelensky is not an easy issue due to his doubted legitimacy - Kremlin

From the legal point of view, the problem of Zelensky's legitimacy is on the agenda, but from the practical point of view, Russia is open to negotiations to achieve its goals, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated.

Russia is generally open to negotiations with Ukraine, but it is necessary to understand whether the Ukrainian side is ready for this, Peskov stressed.

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Is US democratic system crumbling? Voters on both sides of aisle losing trust in election

Americans no longer trust in their system. A new survey by Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute has found that:

⚡️ a staggering 62% of likely American voters fear this year's election could be impacted by cheating, including 37% who are "very concerned."

⚡️ 35% say they aren’t concerned about election cheating, including just 15% who are "not at all concerned."

The statement by the Heartland Institute dubbed the results “a massive wake-up call”.

Around two thirds of Republican voters believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and that Joe Biden did not win fair and square. The 2020 election fueled a crisis of democracy in the US, The Wall Street Journal reported last August, adding that many Republican voters lost faith in the nation's electoral system.

Joe Biden's mental health issues, his abrupt decision to quit, and the Democratic Party's latest push for Kamala Harris' nomination have added to debate about the fairness of the process. Some progressive American activists argue that the rapid replacement of Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris is not democratic.

"Installing Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee and an unknown vice president without any public voting process would make the modern Democratic Party a party of hypocrites," the left-wing Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization said in a statement.

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NATO is a 'sower of war' - Chinese Defense Ministry

“In recent years, NATO has continued to extend its manipulation to the Asia-Pacific region, aiming its spearhead against China and encouraging some countries in the region to follow suit by engaging in bloc confrontation and artificially creating divisions,” spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said.

He emphasized that “NATO is a ‘sower of war,’ bringing the fire of war and disaster to regions and peoples from Ukraine to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Libya.”

“History has proven that creating division and confrontation is not popular, and militaristic expansion is the path to self-destruction,” Xiaogang added.

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❗️Russian armed forces destroyed a Ukrainian warehouse, up to five Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and a base for unmanned boats, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The Russian battlegroup Sever improved its tactical position, repelled seven Ukrainian counterattacks, resulting in the enemy losing up to 410 militants, two tanks, including a US-made Abrams, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated.

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Ukraine peace negotiations are meaningless without Russia and China - Czech President Petr Pavel

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📹 Philippine-flagged tanker carrying 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel oil capsized and sank off the coast of Manila

The country's Coast Guard had rescued 16 of the 17 crew members, with one person missing, the Philippines’ transportation secretary stated.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko met on Russia's island of Valaam

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Web page that rated Kamala Harris the 'most politically left' senator in 2019 has "unexpectedly" disappeared

In 2019, GovTrack, a nonpartisan Congress tracker, rated Kamala Harris, a California Democrat, as the "most politically left compared to Senate Democrats," surpassing Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

The tracker's ideology score is based on whether senators sponsor or cosponsor bipartisan legislation.

But the web page with the ranking, which was widely covered in news reports during the 2020 election, was recently deactivated. The link now displays a "Page Not Found" message.

GovTrack confirmed to Fox News that it had taken down a 2019 page rating Kamala Harris as that year's "most politically left" US senator sometime within the last two weeks.

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