📹 Vladimir Putin arrived in Mongolia on an official visit

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❗️What does Ukraine's national anthem have to do with the US voter database?

A programmer had hard-coded the Ukrainian national anthem into the voter database in the US state of New Hampshire, media reported, citing a cybersecurity firm which found troubling security bugs written into the database.

During the project of replacing the state's outdated voter registration database before the 2024 election, some tasks of the project have been outsourced, which meant unknown programmers outside the US could have access to the software.

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Putin is a 'strong man' while Zuck better watch out: What's in Trump's new book?

Donald Trump's new book, noscriptd "Save America" – a collection of his photos with foreign leaders and celebrities accompanied by the former president's remarks – is set to be released on September 3.

Vladimir Putin
▪️The Russian president is reportedly depicted on several pages of Trump's book. One picture shows Putin during the 2018 Russo-American summit in Finland with a caption: "Vladimir is a strong man, but we had an understanding and got along well."
▪️Under another Helsinki summit photo, Trump wrote: "I had a great meeting with President Putin of Russia, which was acknowledged by everyone. Then the Fake News started spreading False Stories," referring to the Trump-Russia "collusion" hoax.

Xi Jinping
▪️"I had a great relationship with China," reads a caption under Trump's picture with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife.

Kim Jong-un
▪️ A caption to a photo of Trump sitting next to Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Chairman Kim Jong-un reads: "My meeting with Chairman Kim was honest, direct, and productive. We got to know each other very well in a very confined period of time."

Mark Zuckerberg
▪️"He would come to the Oval Office to see me. He would bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting to install shameful Lock Boxes in a true 'Plot Against The President'," Trump wrote. Zuckerberg is known for disbursing over $400 million in aid to election officials in 2020, censoring the Hunter Biden "laptop from hell" story, and subsequently banning Trump from Facebook.
▪️"We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time, he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election," Trump warned.

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Rename it Starliar

The Boeing Starliner ship stuck on the ISS has started making strange noises, and US astronauts have sent information about it to Earth. They think it could be a malfunction in the link between the ship and the station.

Other problems with the spacecraft had previously been reported.

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The US has reportedly seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s airplane in the Dominican Republic

🔻The aircraft, valued at approximately $13 million, had been in the Dominican Republic for the past few months.

🔻US authorities claim the plane was purchased in violation of US sanctions.

🔻The plane was flown to Florida, CNN reported, citing unnamed officials.

🔻According to preliminary information, Nicolas Maduro was not onboard.

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❗️Latest details on the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov

🔸Durov will be able to access the case against him and provide the elements he considers necessary - the Paris Prosecutors Office told Sputnik.

🔸Durov to pay a bail of €5 million in instalments.

🔸According to the supervision rules, Durov is obliged to live at an address in France, which he will inform the investigating judge of.

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Change your ways or else: regional election results a harsh wakeup call for Germany’s ruling coalition

The triumph of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party at the elections in Thuringia and Saxony states was not just a “vote of no confidence in the ruling traffic light coalition [referring to the three-party bloc],” says German political analyst and independent journalist Dr. Gregor Spitzen.

According to him, the elections essentially confirmed that Germany is still “politically divided” some 34 years after its reunification, with the “political dividing line” running right along what used to be a border between West Germany and East Germany.

He does note, however, that AfD’s victory was largely “pyrrhic” as it lacks votes to form a majority government while the left-wing BSW would rather join forces with the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

“But the success of the AfD and the BSW sends an important message to the traffic light coalition government ahead of the 2025 general election: under its leadership, the country is moving in the wrong direction. And it has just over a year to listen to the voters and work on your mistakes,” Dr. Spitzen states.

Meanwhile, Berliner Telegraph magazine’s Chief Editor Aleksandr Boyko observes that the ruling coalition’s failure to tackle the immigration problem and to deal with rising crime, when people no longer feel themselves safe, further contribute to voters’ dissatisfaction with the powers that be in Germany.

He also states that the election results definitely highlight the voters’ crisis of confidence in the mainstream CDU and SPD (Social Democratic Party).

The German government, Boyko speculates, will likely lower various taxes, beef up border security and crack down on mechanisms that simplify the procurement of German citizenship by foreigners.

“Germans always felt that the German economy is number one. Each German always told him or herself that we live better that anyone else. But now we gradually realize that it is not exactly so anymore, that maybe the French and the Spanish live as good as us,” Boyko adds. “To sum things up, we are slowly moving towards the economic, financial and status decline.”

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The US Department of Justice said Maduro’s aircraft was seized based on violations of export controls and sanctions laws

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Israelis realize they can be killed by their own government’s “security considerations”

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Israel to call upon the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to negotiate the release of the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas. The protests were sparked by the deaths of the six of the hostages whose bodies were recovered by military last week.

But while many Israelis are not fond of Netanyahu and his government, the majority of the Israelis also “don't have an alternative for his war and perhaps don't want one,” says Dr. Ori Goldberg, expert on Israeli politics.

“The anger in the streets today is because for some time Netanyahu has claimed that the destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages are related. The death of the six hostages on Saturday revealed that the two goals are contradictory. Most Israelis are only realizing this now and they are angry,” he explains.

Goldberg does point out that Israeli “streets” now regarding the government as a “hostile factor” is a new development, and that while Israelis do “support (in varying degrees) the notion of a war against Hamas,” the deaths of those six hostages last week “changed the mood and the vibe.”

“Israelis are beginning to realize that they cannot simply accept every government decision justified by recourse to "security considerations", because these security considerations can end up killing Israelis,” he remarks.

The protests in Israel, while unlikely to cause Netanyahu to resign, also highlight the “an increasing polarization within the Israeli society,” adds Luciano Zaccara, adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University in Qatar.

“[There are] Those who opposed him based on the mismanagement of the ceasefire negotiations, and those who vehemently demand him not to negotiate but to end the task of eliminating Hamas,” he says referring to how various groups in Israel regard Netanyahu’s policies.

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▪️What’s known about the US' seizure of Venezuelan President Maduro’s plane?

▪️President Putin arrives in Mongolia: what is the strategic importance of Russian-Mongolian cooperation?

▪️Guess which foreign language do younger members of Putin’s family speak?

▪️The latest updates from the Kursk region where the Russian Army has been repelling Ukraine’s attempts of incursion

▪️AfD’s victory in regional elections a ‘wakeup call’ for Germany’s ruling coalition

▪️Trump’s new book ‘Save America’ – check out the excerpts ahead of its release

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Enough is enough: is German government really willing and able to deal with migrant crisis?

Berlin announced that 28 Afghan refugees were deported back to their home country last week due to committing crimes on German soil.

Following the Taliban* taking power in Afghanistan after the de facto defeat of the US-led coalition in 2021, Berlin took in Afghan refugees who were fleeing from the new authorities.

This influx further compounded the issue the current German government inherited from the administration of Angela Merkel who welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East fleeing from the Syrian conflict and the civil war in Libya.

The housing and welfare benefits provided to the refugees by the German government quickly cemented the image of Germany as a “promised land” of sorts in the eyes of potential asylum seekers.

Meanwhile, the refusal of many of the refugees to conform to the customs of their new home stoked tensions amid ordinary Germans, many of whom were not particularly happy by newcomers who do not respect German traditions.

The violent crimes committed by some of the migrants – such as, for example, a deadly knife attack perpetrated in August at a street festival in Solingen by a Syrian man, or a wave of sexual attacks allegedly perpetrated by men of African and Arab descent against women across Germany during the 2015-2016 New Year celebrations – also did little to endear refugees to Germans.

The migrant issue has apparently played a significant role in the less than stellar results the ruling coalition displayed during the recent elections, and it may seem that Berlin finally decided to address this matter.

*Under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.

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