Russia slams reports of disrupted Ukraine talks as "false"

Commenting on an article in the WP claiming that the attack by Ukrainian forces on the Kursk region disrupted negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry says no one disrupted anything, as there was nothing to disrupt

No direct or indirect negotiations either were or are being conducted between Russia and Ukraine on the security of civilian infrastructure facilities, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The threat to the security of the Zaporozhye and Kursk Nuclear Power Plants is created exclusively by the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the complicity of the United States and other Western countries, she said.

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US-Mexico row gathers steam as Latin American country pivots away from Washington’s grip

A diplomatic row is gaining steam between Mexico and the United States.

Outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has accused the US of sponsoring opposition NGOs such as the group Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) through USAID programs. Obrador said his Foreign Ministry had sent a diplomatic notice, while he would personally write to US President Joe Biden about it.

The US government has sent nearly $5 million to MCCI since 2018, with private donors including the Rockefeller and Ford foundations, Mexico’s Financial Crimes Unit (UIF) said.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has long courted controversy as a tool for using foreign aid to extend influence and support so-called “color revolutions,” such as in Ukraine in 2004 and 2014.

Reported US attempts to influence the outcome of the elections in Mexico through its NGOs appear to have failed. President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum – to be sworn in on October 1 – has vowed to continue the policies of her predecessor.

The current row comes as part of a general pivot away from the US driven by Obrador, also known by his initials AMLO. The leader of the left-wing MORENA political party has repeatedly doubled down on assurances that he will not tolerate Mexico being subservient to the US.

◻️ Last year, Obrador rebuked “irresponsible” calls from some US lawmakers advocating military action against drug cartels. “We are not going to permit any foreign government to intervene in our territory,” he said.

◻️ Mexico’s president refused to grant the Pentagon permission to track a stray Chinese balloon through Mexican airspace using American military aircraft and surveillance drones last year. The US shot down the balloon, claiming it was on a spying mission for Beijing, despite the latter insisting it was a civilian craft conducting scientific research.

◻️ Obrador accused the US Department of Defense of spying, and vowed to restrict military information after Mexico-related intelligence documents were leaked along with dozens of military files last year.

◻️ Obrador conditioned helping Biden with his southern border migrant crisis on lifting sanctions from Cuba and Venezuela – both of which are Mexican trading partners.

◻️ Mexico has sought to slash imports of genetically-modified US corn in favor of boosting local production, sparking a trade dispute.

◻️ Mexico joined other major Latin American countries in pushing back on efforts by the US and EU to diplomatically isolate President Nicolas Maduro after the Venezuelan president was reelected to a third term in office.

◻️ Mexico has refused to be drawn into supporting NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine, and declined to impose economic sanctions on Russia.

◻️ Trade volume between Russia and Mexico increased by 9.8% in the first four months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, amounting to $759.99 million.

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💥 Merciless ‘Lancet’: Russian troops destroyed a Ukrainian armored personnel carrier in the border area of the Kursk region

A reconnaissance unit of the Sever battlegroup identified an armored personnel carrier of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The target was hit by a ‘Lancet’ loitering munition.

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🇷🇺🇦🇿 Putin arrived in Azerbaijani capital, Baku, on a two-day state visit

The Russian president will hold talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev. The two leaders will discuss the development of Russian-Azerbaijani relations and current international and regional issues.

This is Putin’s eighth visit to Azerbaijan. His last trip was in September 2018.

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🇷🇺🇦🇿 Putin's visit to Azerbaijan began with an informal dinner with President Aliyev's family.

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◻️ Advance of Ukraine’s army near Russia’s Kursk region stopped: check out the latest updates from the area

◻️ ‘There was nothing to disrupt’: Moscow reacts to media speculation about Ukraine talks

◻️ Netizens in fury over Italian TV interviewing Ukrainian militant wearing a cap with Nazi insignia

◻️ US-Mexico diplomatic row is gaining steam: check out the details

◻️ Illegal border crossing in US suddenly drops – why?

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Israeli hacking attack made Hezbollah’s slain commander 'easy target' – report

Israel breached Hezbollah’s internal communications network and tricked assassinated Fuad Shukr into becoming an easy target, the Wall Street Journal claims.

The senior commander of the Lebanon-based group was in his office on the second floor of a Beirut residential building on the day of the strike that killed him. Shukr, a senior military adviser to Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, lived and worked in the same building in the Dahiyeh neighborhood. He got a phone call at 7pm, telling him to head to his apartment on the seventh floor, a Hezbollah official was quoted as saying.

Lebanon is reportedly probing the intelligence failure in conjunction with Iran.

The attack that killed Shukr came just hours before the fatal attack on the Tehran residence of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in July. Hamas and Iran have blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s assassination and have vowed retaliation.

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💶 Cash still king: many Germans uneasy over prospect of looming digital euro

Cash-loving Germans are leading the charge in opposition to the digital euro, with just under half saying they “probably” or “definitely” won’t use the new payment system if or when it arrives.

◻️ A survey by the Forsa Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis on behalf of Deutsche Bundesbank found that while 15% of respondents said they “definitely” would use the digital euro, and 35% are ready to give it a whirl, 25% “definitely won’t use” it, and 24% “probably won’t use” it. The representative survey queried 2,012 people.

◻️ Germans are among the leaders in Europe when it comes to the ‘cash-is-king’ mentality, holding onto 500 euro notes long after other EU members’ central banks had dropped them. In 2019, a Bundesbank poll found that 88% of Germans would continue to prefer paying cash even after the 500 euro bill was no longer issued, with the note popular for major purchases.

◻️ In the EU, the share of cash in P2P payments remained above 80% in Germany, Cyprus, Slovenia, Greece, Italy and Austria in 2022. Estonia, Finland and the Netherlands have led the charge in cashless payments. In these countries, cash accounted for less than half of P2P transactions, according to ECB data.

◻️ CBDCs have garnered their share of criticism, particularly amid fears of finance-related censorship, increasing centralization and politicized control over spending and savings. Proponents say the tech can promote innovation in payments, encourage “social responsibility,” including by programming money to be spent only on a list of approved goods or services, ease the doling out of state assistance, and even simplify financial transactions between countries as a workaround to sanctions.

◻️ The ECB is expected to make a decision on whether or not to implement the digital euro scheme by late 2025, although some of the region’s top bankers suggest its implementation may be put off until closer to the end of the decade.

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Hezbollah has $150 bln in Israeli infrastructure in sights, reportedly flies drone over Bibi’s house

Hezbollah reportedly has enough missile and drone firepower to paralyze up to $150 billion of key economic, industrial and food-growing facilities and infrastructure in northern Israel if raging tensions escalate into a full-blown war.

Estimates by Iranian media suggest the Lebanese militia’s capabilities threaten the “economic heart of Israel,” an area in the country’s north accounting for some 80% of its grain production, 70% of its dairy supplies and 40% of its meat supply. A Hezbollah response to Israeli aggression targeting local agribusiness giants Tnuva or Adom may “paralyze” Israel’s food market, the report suggests.

On top of that, over 60% of Israel’s oil refining and fuel production capacity is said to be concentrated around Acre Port, which is about 35 km south of the Lebanese border. That puts those sensitive targets in range of nearly all of Hezbollah’s missiles and drones.

On Sunday, Israeli media reported that the Navy had spotted a possible Hezbollah drone near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Caesarea beach house compound on Friday. A “suspicious aircraft” hovering nearby caused the Israeli Air Force to scramble fighter jets, but they failed to get visual confirmation, prompting the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to suggest that a flock of birds may have been mistaken for a Hezbollah drone by radar.

The IDF did not rule out the possibility that the incident was caused by a small Hezbollah UAV. The PM’s office insisted that the report was a “false alarm,” and that Netanyahu was not at the residence at the time of the suspected incident.

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