Obama was likely promised 'benefits' for Harris endorsement regardless of election outcome – Wall Street analyst

Barack Obama endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president on July 26, even though a source close to the Biden family claimed Barack doubts her ability to beat Donald Trump, as per the New York Post.

"The Obamas likely received substantial assurances from Harris that, in the event of victory, Barack would play important roles guiding and selecting key players in the federal government," Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel told Sputnik.

The analyst believes that the Obamas were promised "benefits" in case Harris loses, too. "In exchange, the Obamas will bring money and voters, though I fail to see them closing Kamala's yawning enthusiasm gap. In fact, whenever and should Kamala appear with either Obama, she will come off weaker and inauthentic by comparison," he said.

Prior to Obama's belated endorsement of Harris, some US political commentators and lawmakers suggested that the real game behind Barack's hesitation could be aimed at pushing Michelle Obama's candidacy for the Democratic presidential nominee at the party’s August 19 convention.

Despite the Obamas' backing and the corporate press' claims that Harris has almost erased the gap with Trump in national polls, her victory is not a done deal, according to the analyst.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Democracy in full glory: how US media corporations and Harris split Biden's campaign spoils

It appears that ailing Biden's campaign was used by some as a source of financial bonanza, according to Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel.

"National campaigns burn through enormous sums especially on advertising," Ortel told Sputnik. "Media corporations are key beneficiaries of this spending so it seems that editors and 'journalists' are not driven to identify and explain such obvious conflicts of interest. Another factor is that very few candidates spend much of their own money on campaigns. So, the temptation to live large on the campaign trail (flying private and the like) is overwhelming."

Biden's campaign had spent $243 million through the end of June, according to FEC records, and continued to spend even after some liberal donors refused to continue funding following Joe's deplorable performance during his debate against Trump. The setback did not stop Biden’s team from buying a whopping $35 million in ad time in July, according to Bloomberg.

This raises questions whether his team was fully aware of his imminent health decline while burning through the money, according to Ortel.

"Who decided to shade the truth about Biden and then to treat him as a figurehead and who, actually, makes key decisions in the Biden administration?" the analyst asked.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Dems 'unleashed' Harris on US voters, 2024 election cheating threat is real – Wall Street analyst

The Democratic Party's "king"- and "queen"-making procedures correspond to the establishment's needs and agenda, and do not meet the aspirations of ordinary Americans, let alone US national interests, Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel told Sputnik, commenting on the hastily endorsed, but still unpopular Kamala Harris.

"The ways in which Biden was installed in 2020, following dreadful early performances in debates and state contests and now the way he has been shucked to the side (un-democratically, ironically) bear hallmarks of the way Barack Obama leapt from the Illinois state senate (with pathetically thin accomplishments) into the White House by January 2009. Perhaps the same folks who played kingmaker then are doing so now, in concert with Barack Obama?" Ortel said.

A new survey by Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute has found that 62 percent of likely American voters fear this year's election could be impacted by cheating, especially in key battleground states.

"It is truly sad that elections seem far less safe in 2024 than they were in 1994, before we all became so reliant upon computers and the Internet. Without doubt, cheating will continue. The real issue is whether cheating will overcome a large and growing enthusiasm gap that current favors a rising Trump against an already waning Harris," Ortel concluded.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

European observer ‘would love to work for Sputnik’, move to Russia after freak show Olympics opening ceremony in France

“I would love to work for Sputnik in Russia and would not hesitate a second to swap my Italian passport [for] a Russian passport,” Angelo Giuliano, a Hong Kong-based Italian journalist and financial analyst told Sputnik.

Guiliano spoke to Sputnik after a social media post in which he asked Russia to grant him “asylum” after watching the “sh*t-show” of an Olympic opening ceremony in Paris went viral. The ceremony featured a controversial and offensive drag queen ‘parody’ of the Last Supper.

The Paris Olympics are “a disgrace for France,” Giuliano said. “[The] Olympic ceremony should be a family event showing the beauty of sport, of humanity, of France’s history and instead we were faced by profanation of Christianity, faced with nudity, decadence and Satanist messages.”

Giuliano believes there is a “powerful minority” in the collective West that’s “imposing upon the silent majority their globalist agenda in politics” and “social engineering project” designed to radically transform societies and force a “new form of fascism disguised as liberalism” down people’s throats. This new system is disguised as a “tolerant society” but is in fact a “repressive” apparatus that “control[s] the media, the narrative and shut[s] down alternative voices,” he said.

“I personally don’t want my son to be educated in Europe and would prefer to live in China or Russia to give a healthier environment to my son,” Giuliano said.

“Russia is a beautiful country with beautiful people, it has preserved its culture, history, traditions, religion, family values. This is all what most people love and what the elites of the collective West want to destroy,” he noted.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺 A Russian attack drone operator from the Vostok battlegroup wiped out a Ukrainian machine-gun crew - despite desperate attempts by the enemy to take cover in a dugout.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Italian journalist and financial analyst Angelo Giuliano has enthusiastically accepted an invitation to join the Sputnik team.

The offer came after his social media post asking Russia for asylum, following his sharp critique of the Paris Olympic opening ceremony, went viral.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Major active military alliances: Who runs them, who’s in them and what do they do?

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu proposed the creation of a new NATO-style military bloc in the Middle East dubbed the ‘Abraham Alliance’, saying the coalition, arrayed explicitly against Iran, would include Israel, the US, and any Israel-friendly Arab country wishing to join.

What other large-scale alliances, pacts and blocs are already out there? Sputnik explores:

◻️ North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): The largest and most controversial alliance in this list formed in 1949. It has gone through multiple expansion waves and now consists of 32 members. The treaty’s 5th article states that an attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all. Combined strength: approximately 3.42 mln personnel, over 870,000 ground combat vehicles, nearly 22,300 aircrafts and 2,050 ships.

◻️ Five Eyes: The oldest modern multilateral alliance in the world, which constitutes an intelligence-sharing bloc of five English-speaking countries – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US since 1943.

Former NSA contractor-turned whistleblower Edward Snowden characterized the Five Eyes as an “organization that does not answer to the known laws of its own countries.”

◻️ AUKUS: A security pact between Australia, the UK and the US of 2021 and touted as a military technology partnership to provide Australia with the means to build its defenses. The alliance was criticized extensively by France, which was robbed of a $66 billion submarine contract with Australia.

◻️ Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance: A collective security pact between the US and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, signed in 1947. The treaty itself acts the same way as the NATO charter’s 5th article. Multiple countries have quit the treaty, leaving the so-called “hemispheric defense” pact full of gaps and combined strength of over 3.31 mln military personnel.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

◻️ Prominent European observer Angelo Giuliano ‘would love to work for Sputnik’, move to Russia

◻️ Russia commemorates the child victims of the Donbass war

◻️ Donald Trump: Democrats committed a coup against President Joe Biden

◻️ How did US media corporations and Harris split Biden's campaign spoils

◻️ Joe Biden reportedly to announce Supreme Court reform plans

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

"We will not be returning from here." Ukrainian migrants are protesting in front of Ukraine's Embassy in Prague over rules preventing them from obtaining documents at consular offices abroad designed to get them to return home to update the paperwork.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

New York's Democrat AG Letitia James claims Kamala Harris is "more qualified than the last four presidents"

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Even the rats of Paris are shocked by what's going on at the Olympic Games!

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Israeli aircraft struck a number of Hezbollah targets overnight "deep inside" and in the south of Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces reported

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Israel's goal of completely destroying Hamas is unrealistic - Russian FM Lavrov

Russia does not yet see any prospects for ending the bloodshed in the Middle East, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, commenting on the recent deadly attack on the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

"There are no prospects for ending this bloodshed yet. Israel, through Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, has repeatedly responded to calls for an immediate ceasefire by saying that it will not stop until it completely destroys Hamas. In my opinion, and many of my colleagues share this point of view, it is an unrealistic task to completely destroy an organization that exists and that has sufficient capabilities and sufficient support, including in the Muslim world," Lavrov told reporters.

Russia condemns all terrorist actions undertaken by any organization, Lavrov stressed.

"Thus, we condemned the Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians on October 7 last year. But Israel's response is unacceptable," he added.

According to the Israeli military, 12 young people and children were killed on Saturday in the attack on the Golan Heights. Hezbollah denies involvement in the attack. Despite this, Israeli officials began to announce the imminence of war against Hezbollah and Lebanon.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russia seen as balancing factor in Southeast Asia in light of US' 'brash' actions - Lavrov

Southeast Asian countries recognize Russia's opportunity to act as a stabilizing factor in light of the "brash" actions of external players, including the United States, in the region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following a meeting with his Malaysian counterpart Mohamad Hasan in the country’s capital Kuala Lumpur.

"They [Southeast Asian countries] see us as, if you will, a balancing and stabilizing factor in terms of countering the overly brash actions of extra-regional powers led by the US, which are really pushing their military infrastructure, including strategic weapons, here," Lavrov said at a press conference.

The possible deployment of US nuclear weapons in Southeast Asia would increase security risks in the region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"If this sad and rather risky experience [the deployment of US nuclear weapons in other countries] is brought to Southeast Asia, I think no one will benefit from it, and the risks will increase," the minister stressed.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt