📹 Mario Nawfal: Mainstream media’s cowardly coverage of hit job on Telegram

🗣 “You can only speculate here, but if you look again, we’ve talked about different patterns: mainstream media have increasingly been censoring narratives that don't fit their agenda, that of their advertisers or that of the government. The arrest of Pavel fits that denoscription," number one X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on the crackdown on Telegram CEO Pavel Durov and his platform.

“They don't want to bring awareness to censorship when they're complicit in that. So the skeptical, speculative guess that I have is that that was intentional, and they don't want to shed light on the crackdown on free speech around the world. The alternative is that the audience didn't care, but that seems to be less and less likely as you really look into the speed and the way it was covered. Not only how long it took them to cover it and how little awareness or attention they brought to the topic, a very, very serious topic, but also the way they've described it. It wasn't objective journalism,” Nawfal stressed.

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Politicians, big business corrupting journalism in the US, turning it into a ‘cabal’ - Mario Nawfal

🗣 “If you're talking about the amicable relationship or the kind of the biased relationship that journalists have with certain politicians, I think the only way to describe it is that it's more of a cabal,” popular X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on the state of democracy, free speech, and freedom of the press in the United States today.

“When I talk about the cabal, it's become systemic. You've got those unelected officials that behind the scenes have just got so much influence on various aspects of society,” Nawfal said, pointing to the example of the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election, which was censored and dismissed as “Russian propaganda.”

“And it's become more of a cycle, where politicians, through various means, influence the media, usually through financial means. They influence the media from the top down. And then the executives start influencing the journalists. And the journalists unknowingly become biased in many cases. Some of them are not doing it intentionally, but they're all within the same circle. It becomes more of an echo chamber,” Nawfal said.

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🗣 "Financial system is digitalized. Every aspect becomes centralized. My speech being controlled, my wealth can be frozen," X Spaces host Mario Nawfal revealed to Sputnik.

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Mario Nawfal to Sputnik: Macron torpedoed France’s reputation for business with boneheaded targeting of Durov

🗣 “You've got these executives that will be very concerned, [asking] ‘why was Pavel being targeted on a criminal level? Why can't the company be sued first on a civil level?’,” X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on a series of dubious charges in France, ranging from refusal to share information with authorities, to claims that Telegram is somehow responsible for any criminal activity taking place on the platform.

“When you start having executives targeted on a criminal level, if I'm in their shoes, I'd be terrified right now,” Nawfal stressed.

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The EU defense ministers have left the decision on restrictions on Ukrainian strikes up to member countries, and there will not be a pan-European solution, according to Borrel.

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❗️The Russian Battlegroup Tsentr liberated the settlements of Orlovka, Kamyshevka, Nikolayevka, and Novozhelannoye in the DPR during the past week, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) reported. At the same time, the Russian Battlegroup Yug liberated Konstantinovka in the DPR, and the Zapad group liberated Stel'makhovka in the LPR and Sinkovka in the Kharkov region, according to the MoD.

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

▪️The Russian Armed Forces launched one massive and 14 group strikes with high-precision weapons and UAVs, hitting critical energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

▪️58 Ukrainian militants surrendered;

▪️Russian air defence systems shot down a MiG-29, three ATACMS missiles, and four Tochka-U missiles;

▪️Ukraine lost up to 3,580 militants in the Russian Sever Battlegroup's combat zone, which operates near Kursk, Lyptsy, and Volchansk;

▪️The Russian Battlegroup Zapad eliminated more than 3,450 Ukrainian militants; 

▪️Russian air defence systems shot down 311 drones, 127 of which were outside the special operation zone;

▪️The Russian Battlegroup Sever destroyed four multiple launch rocket systems, including one HIMARS; 

▪️Ukraine lost more than 4,840 militants in the Russian Battlegroup Yug's combat zone; 

▪️Ukraine's losses in the Russian Dnepr Battlegroup's combat zone amounted to up to 460 militants;

▪️The Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed six Ukrainian unmanned boats;

▪️Ukraine lost up to 860 militants in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's combat zone;

▪️Ukraine lost Abrams and Leopard tanks in the Russian Battlegroup's Yug combat zone;

▪️Ukraine lost up to 3,720 militants and seven tanks in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup's combat zone.

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🗣 "Russians and Ukrainians agree a lot more than you think... If they just sat down together, they could come to a solution and move on and the war would end. But there's so many external parties involved in that war," Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

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‘Obsession’ with power means EU can say goodbye to ever ‘out-innovating China and US’ - Mario Nawfal

🗣 “[EU social media regulator boss] Thierry [Breton], sent out a letter to Elon [Musk] before the Trump interview, urging him not to conduct the interview,” X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on Brussels’ increasingly aggressive efforts to regulate online content.

“That’s an interview by an American businessman and an American former president, and they've got the EU sending out a letter warning them on what content they talk about on the platform. They'll tell you how far Europe has gone down, not only [through] overregulation, but just complete obsession with holding power," he stressed.

"So I think the days of [the EU] out-innovating the US and out-innovating China are past, they are behind us now. Unless we see drastic change in the region. And it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon,” Nawfal said.

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🇭🇺🇷🇺"Hungary's energy security is not guaranteed without Russian gas. It's not about ideology, it's about physics and mathematics," Hungarian FM Péter Szijjártó wrote on social media.

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Mario Nawfal: Deep state gunning for Elon Musk because they can’t control him

🗣 “I’ve had Elon a few times on the show, and I think the second or third time I had him on…I’m going to paraphrase something he said: he said something along the lines of ‘I’ll never commit suicide. If I ever die, I’ll never commit suicide’… I’ve had others say that on my state by other people that are being targeted,” number one X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on the lengths the deep state in so-called liberal democracies is seemingly prepared to go to maintain political and narrative control.

🗣 “He's the most powerful person, the richest person in the world, a very powerful person with a massive following. And he lives in the United States... But then if you look at where we are today, you had the former president just avoid an assassination attempt. You've got the leader of one of the biggest social media platforms just get arrested in France. You've just got Brazil launching an investigation into Elon because he didn't ban a few accounts that were against the government,” Nawfal recalled, stressing that “to not be concerned for Elon after the events we’ve seen unfold over the last year would be illogical.”

“Because they cannot control him, because they cannot control his platforms, they target him, they target his companies and they label him as an enemy of the state,” Nawfal said.

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EU ministers agreed that training of Ukrainian military will take place as close to Ukraine as possible, but not on its territory, the head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrell said.

Borrell promised that EU defense ministers will resolve issue of Hungary blocking the allocation of €6 billion to pay for military supplies to Ukraine. He added that EU defense ministers - following NATO decision - agreed to open a liaison office in Kiev for military assistance to Ukraine.

The diplomat said that EU countries provide Ukraine with military assistance worth €43.5 billion, adding that EU defense ministers decided to increase number of Ukrainian military trained as part of training mission of union from 60,000 to 75,000.

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev previously stated that the true purpose of the Western powers' support of Ukraine is their desire to gain access to the resource base, and the economic basis of Ukrainian statehood has been undermined.

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Mario Nawfal: I’m used to being targeted for character assassination covering hot button topics

🗣 “I've covered multiple issues, whether it's the war in Ukraine, whether it's the war in Gaza, US politics…I try to be as objective as possible, but what happens when you’re objective is that the world has become so polarized, it's like you cannot have a stance unless you're labeled pro-Ukrainian or pro-Russian,” number one X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on the extreme levels of polarization online today.

“I've been called a Ukrainian spy, I've been called a Russian spy. I've been called a Hamas sympathizer, I've been called a Zionist. I've been called far-right and far-left. It's because I can have a certain stance about a certain topic, but still not agree... I can criticize NATO or Ukraine on the war that we have in Ukraine without being pro-NATO or pro-Ukraine. I can criticize Israel, I can criticize Palestine, I can criticize Trump and Biden. But every time I take any sort of stance, I'm immediately labeled with something... if it's a very strong stance and they dislike it, it comes with like a campaign of character assassination. And people have become very emotional,” Nawfal said.

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Mark Zuckerberg’s late apology for censorship may be attempt to prepare for Trump 2.0 - Mario Nawfal

“Going back to Zuckerberg's apology, it's a very interesting development. A lot of people are trying to link it to Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest,” popular X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik.

He commented on the timing of the Meta* CEO’s awkward apology letter to US lawmakers Monday in which Zuckerberg admitted that the social media giant shouldn’t have downranked the Hunter Biden laptop story using its algorithms, and expressed “regret” for not being “more outspoken” about the Biden administration’s Covid-related censorship demands.

But in reality, “these statements take a lot longer to prepare,” Nawfal said, recalling the release of Donald Trump’s new coffee table book threatening to jail Zuckerberg for “the rest of his life” over what amounted to Meta’s meddling in the 2020 vote.

“So Trump and his new book kind of threatened Mark Zuckerberg with jail if he interferes in this year's election. This could be Mark preparing himself for a potential Trump administration. Or it could be just Mark really feeling guilty for either being tricked or complying with the Biden administration's attempts, successful attempts to censor,” Nawfal said.

* Banned in Russia for extremism.

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Mario Nawfal to Sputnik: hopefully Meta will ‘take a page out of Elon Musk’s book’ on censorship

🗣"I hope they've been watching what Elon [Musk has] been doing. I had [Meta* board member] Marc Andreessen…on the show. He told me something I'll never forget. He said ‘Mario, Meta and other companies are watching Elon and Twitter very carefully, almost like an experiment.’ They’ve copied a few things that Elon did with Twitter," X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s apology this week for censoring Americans at the behest of the deep state.

"So I genuinely think Meta will start taking a page out of Elon's book, and while you’ll never see absolute free speech, I hope they start resisting any censorship attempts," he added.

* Banned in Russia for extremism.

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Mario Nawfal: it’s ‘not easy standing up to’ the FBI and the CIA while running a social media company

🗣 “If the FBI comes in with a request, it's not easy to say no to the FBI. That's one. Number two is they're being tricked as well,” Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on X CEO Elon Musk’s attempts to run a pro-free speech social media platform while being pressured from the US intelligence apparatus.

“If you look at the Twitter Files on how the Biden laptop was censored, the FBI went to Facebook's* team and they warned them in advance saying ‘hey, there's going be a Russian disinformation campaign (during the 2020 elections) linked to Burisma, something to do with Hunter Biden.’ So they kind of hinted, and Mark Zuckerberg talked about it, I think on the Joe Rogan show, they kind of prepared them, they kind of planted the seed” for censorship, Nawfal said.

“And there are instances in the Twitter Files, when you go through this communication that Elon released, there are many instances with Twitter employees, and I think the same will apply to Meta/Facebook and Google, where they tried to resist certain requests for censorship. But it's very difficult to say no to the CIA, to the FBI and to those three letter agencies.”

* Banned in Russia for extremism.

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Mario Nawfal: Trump an ‘outsider’ that will have hard time fixing rot at the heart of US political system

🗣“[Donald Trump has] been very critical of mainstream media, he's been critical of the stranglehold that we've seen on social media. He's been censored. He's seen as an outsider,” number one rated X Spaces host Mario Nawfal told Sputnik, commenting on the prospects of a second Trump term making good on the former president’s oft-stated promises to ‘clean up the swamp’ in the Washington establishment.

“But I don't know if he has what it takes to be able to change such a deep-rooted issue in the complex system that we call a 'democracy.' I think there are so many layers to it that it's almost impossible to kind of break it all down, and I just don't see how any president will be able to change that, unless that we see significant action. You know, Trump has had four years to do that. We haven't seen much of it,” Nawfal said.

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