The US lacks the resources to develop its own space force to the extent needed, the second vice chief of space operations revealed

“We are definitely sacrificing some because there’s not enough resources to go around,” he said. “We know we can’t buy everything we need, so we are ruthlessly prioritizing all the kit that we’re buying to make sure that it’s the biggest bang for the buck, if you will, during times of crisis or conflict,” Gen. Michael Guetlein said Wednesday at the annual Defense News Conference in Arlington, Virginia.

The US risks devastating consequences for everything Americans hold dear in the absence of increased investment in space force development, the military commander added.

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UN refuses to comment on sanctions against Russian media, citing bilateral relations

The United Nations has no comment on the latest sanctions against Rossiya Segodnya media group, including RIA Novosti, RT, Sputnik and Ruptly, considering it a matter of bilateral relations, UN Spokesman Farhan Haq told Sputnik.

“We don’t comment on bilateral relations as a rule. These are not UN sanctions,” Haq said.

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🌠 An asteroid, discovered on Wednesday, entered Earth's atmosphere and was observed over the Philippines

"The small asteroid 2024 RW1... entered the atmosphere at a speed of 20.8 kilometers per second over the islands," reported the International Meteor Organization.

Videos of the asteroid have gone viral on social media.

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Fourteen out of 18 paragraphs in Gaza ceasefire deal finalized – senior US official

The Gaza ceasefire deal which is being negotiated at the moment has a total of 18 paragraphs and the parties have already finalized 14 of them, a senior Biden administration official said.

“The [ceasefire] deal has 18 total paragraphs, 14 of those paragraphs are finished,” the official said during a press briefing. “Basically, 90% of this deal has been agreed, and it's been agreed on terms that even Hamas had in their own proposal.”

According to the official, the issues of Israel’s presence in the Philadelphi corridor on the border between Gaza and Egypt as well as the exchange of prisoners remain in dispute.

At the same time, the official claimed that Hamas threatened to execute more Israeli hostages it holds in the Gaza Strip.

"Hamas is threatening to execute more hostages," the official said.

On Monday, Netanyahu said that Israel needed to maintain a military presence in the Philadelphi Corridor on the Egypt–Gaza border. In his opinion, reaching military aims as well as the release of hostages are possible only under this condition.

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Palestinian movement Hamas said that it does not need new proposals for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but it does need pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to implement provisions of the agreement that were agreed upon.

"We do not need new proposals. What we need now is to put pressure on Netanyahu and his government and force them to implement what was agreed upon," Hamas said in a statement.

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United States’ targeting of Russian media highlights hypocrisy of the global hegemon – former CIA analyst Larry Johnson

Former CIA analyst and State Department counterterrorism expert Larry Johnson spoke with Sputnik to criticize the United States’ persecution of journalists and political analysts associated with Russian media.

“The latest stunt pulled by the Biden Department of Justice to declare all of these sanctions on Russia for alleged interference in the US political system is a level of hypocrisy that is staggering in its magnitude and in its foulness,” said the analyst. “Let's be clear about one thing: the one country in the world that has been involved with more interference in the internal political affairs of every other country is the United States.”

The US frequently funds pro-Western media and activism in foreign countries it targets for regime change to pave the way for a pro-US government to come to power.

“This year [the US has] allocated almost $4 billion to interfere or meddle in the political affairs of other countries,” he continued. “$315 million of that goes to the National Endowment for Democracy. $300 million is specifically what they call counter-Russian influence. And another $2.9 billion is for ‘democracy’ programs. And these have been used basically to run propaganda, to pay people, to organize ‘democracy’ programs in places like Georgia.”

The US has interfered in countries such as Georgia, Brazil, Indonesia and Ukraine, paving the way for the latter country’s extremist anti-Russia government through its support for the Euromaidan coup d'etat in 2014.

“It's the United States that's meddling,” Johnson emphasized.

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“They're going to try to attack any kind of alternative voice in the media” – former CIA analyst Larry Johnson

“How is a news network that's not allowed to broadcast and that’s shut [out] of social media in the United States supposed to influence [the election]?” former State Department counterterrorism expert Larry Johnson told Sputnik.

The recent persecution of figures connected to RT and Sputnik is merely another attempt to run the “Russiagate” playbook, attempting to discredit alternative media outlets that critique US foreign policy, Johnson highlighted. “Electoral interference” continues to take place, Johnson claimed, but it is not the Russians but the US government that is engaged in an attempt to influence and control the popular narrative for its own benefit.

“With respect to the entire bogus claim that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, we now know without a doubt that that was a Democrat operation led by Hillary Clinton and her team,” the analyst stressed.

“Everything we were told about Donald Trump and the Russians was a lie. I was one of the few writing about it at the time to call it out… The notion that RT is manipulating and influencing the presidential election is beyond laughable,” he continued, noting that the Russian television channel’s app is banned from many app stores in the West while its content has been removed from YouTube and other websites.

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⚛️ Eying a new Three Mile Island? US plans to restart closed nuclear reactors fraught with risks

Surging electricity demand fueled by power-hungry computers, electric vehicles and factories have prompted proponents of nuclear power to lobby the reopening of 13 mothballed reactors, but as few as three are actually eligible for reactivation, Bloomberg has reported.

Besides a trio of reactors at eligible NPPs, ten others eyed for reopening may not be safe, or even possible, to restore, the outlet says, pointing to damage done to closed plants at San Onofre, California, and Crystal River, Florida, and partially dismantled facilities, like Vermont Yankee and Indian Point in the US northeast.

“Even if a facility is intact, not all owners have done the costly maintenance needed to keep it in good enough shape to justify bringing it back,” Bloomberg noted. That’s not to mention the costs involved, with the Palisades NPP in Michigan alone requiring some $1.8 bln in federal and state funding to come back online by 2025.

Two other eligible sites include the Three Mile Island NPP in Pennsylvania, made famous in March 1979 after suffering a partial meltdown which permanently closed one of its two reactors and released radioactive gases and iodine into the environment. The other is Duane Arnold NPP in Iowa, which was damaged in a windstorm in 2020. The plants’ owners have yet to commit to bring them back online, and seem unlikely to do so without state support.

There are presently 54 commercial NPPs operating across 28 US states running 94 reactors total. While growing numbers of Americans (56%, according to a recent Pew poll) support more nuclear power, the energy source faces a number of hurdles, not least of which is US reliance on imported enriched uranium.

In May, President Biden signed a law banning Russian uranium imports, effective January 1, 2028. For now, the US remains dependent on Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan for nearly 50% of its uranium. US nuclear power companies have lobbied the White House to keep Russian uranium off sanctions lists since 2022. Nuclear energy accounted for close to 20% of all electricity generated in the US in 2023.

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Middle Eastern, African countries interested in Russia’s Checkmate fighter jet – official

A number of Middle Eastern and African countries have shown interest in the Russian Checkmate light tactical fighter, and project proposals have been forwarded to interested partners, the head of Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev, told Sputnik.

"A number of countries in the region have shown interest in the Checkmate light tactical aircraft. Project proposals have now been sent to interested partners," Mikheev said on the sidelines of the Egypt International Airshow, which is taking place at El Alamein International Airport.

He also noted that the aircraft will receive unmanned and two-seater modifications.

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Rosoboronexport discussing with partners joint development of Su-57-based aircraft

Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport is discussing with Russia's strategic partners the joint development of an aircraft based on the Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jet, Rosoboronexport Director General Alexander Mikheev told Sputnik.

"We are discussing with Russia's strategic partners the joint creation of an aircraft based on the Su-57 fifth-generation fighter," Mikheev said on the sidelines of the Egypt International Airshow, taking place at El Alamein International Airport.

The Middle East and Africa account for over 50% of Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport's order portfolio, the company's head said.

"The combined share of the Middle East and Africa in Rosoboronexport's order portfolio is over 50%, or over $25 billion," Mikheev highlighted.

The Egypt International Airshow is taking place September 3-5 at El Alamein Airport in northern Egypt. According to the organizers, the exhibition presents the latest products and services in the aerospace industry. More than 200 companies from over 80 countries are attending the event. The exhibition has been organized with the support of the Egyptian defense and civil aviation ministries.

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US sanctions on Russian media reflect "totalitarian" shift in democracy – Russian Foreign Ministry

Attacks on Russian media are the result of carefully planned operations by Western intelligence agencies to "sanitize" global information spaces from dissent, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, commenting on recent US sanctions against Russian media outlets.

“These pre-planned actions are creating the necessary media backdrop for corresponding pre-election decisions,” Zakharova stated, adding that the US seeks to portray Russia as a hidden external enemy to instill fear in its population ahead of elections.

“This is the decline of 'liberal democracies,' where authorities resort to such primitive methods of influencing their electorate,” she added.

Zakharova criticized the US for attacks on the Russian media group Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent company, calling it a sign of the “irreversible degradation” of American democracy into a “totalitarian neoliberal dictatorship.” Zakharova warned that the actions of US authorities will not go unanswered and will serve as grounds for symmetrical and/or asymmetrical measures against US media.

“The actions of US authorities, which directly contradict their obligations to ensure free access to information and media pluralism, will not go unanswered,” the spokeswoman stressed.

While blasting the US for interfering in the internal affairs of other nations and suppressing media freedom, Zakharova emphasized that accurate and high-quality information provided by Russian outlets remains in demand worldwide.

“At the same time, the United States itself does not cease interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, trampling on the freedom of access to information, aggressively imposing its position, and actively engaging in electoral engineering in various parts of the world, thereby provoking crises and conflicts with catastrophic humanitarian consequences,” the spokeswoman emphasized.

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Jackson Hinkle blasts US crackdown on Russian media: "millions of Americans want to hear that truth"

“What I find so interesting about all this is that when it comes to any other country, if it's the United Kingdom, if it's Israel, if it's Canada or wherever, foreign influence is completely fine,” US journalist and political commentator Jackson Hinkle told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, commenting on the US intensifying its repressive crackdown on figures connected to Russian media. “In fact, for the United States, foreign influence is fine when we're doing it abroad to countries all over the world. We can fund foreign media in Latin America and Africa and Asia or Europe.”

The United States operates a number of propaganda outlets aimed at shaping public opinion in foreign countries, including Radio Martí, Voice of America and Radio Free Asia. The US has continuously worked to spread anti-Russian sentiment throughout the world since the Cold War, with hostilities between the two countries now at their highest point in decades.

“We can topple governments. We can kill sovereign presidents of sovereign countries. But for a media company to be reporting on the facts of the matter about what's actually going on in the world, and then for the United States to sanction them, it's absolutely insane,” said Hinkle.

“I think millions of Americans want to hear that truth, and that's why they're going after companies like Sputnik so hard right now,” he concluded, adding that Americans would continue to support “people that are trying to expose the lies of the US government.”

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Sanctions on Russian media driven by US fear of "uncomfortable questions" — ex-Pentagon analyst

Retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense, responded to the US crackdown on Russian media, noting “the danger for journalists and the people who talk to them” just two months after publisher Julian Assange was released from his 13 years of effective imprisonment at the behest of the United States.

“These broad sanctions against a media group, which receives its funding from its government similar to the way the US’s PBS and VOA media companies do, are both idiotic and hypocritical,” Kwiatkowski told Sputnik. “It isn’t election interference exactly that worries the [US government]. It is the reporting from these Russian outlets that counters, often very truthfully and compellingly, the US narrative, particularly relating to Europe and the Middle East."

The global perception of the United States has plummeted in recent years according to recent surveys as the US funds wars against Russia and Palestinians in Gaza. The West has, in turn, worked to silence dissenting voices, banning TikTok and urging greater censorship of social media while several European countries have outlawed Russian outlets entirely.

“Too much attention and information about how those wars are progressing, being funded, and the kinds of things our allies in Kiev and West Jerusalem are doing in the conduct of those wars does not make the incumbent party of the White House popular, and they wish to stop Americans from asking uncomfortable questions,” she concluded.

“Sanctioning information outlets is popular in authoritarian countries, but sanctions in general only attract attention to poor political decision-making and political fear and are easily worked around.”

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Western efforts to enforce hegemony are failing in a new multipolar era — analyst

Lorenzo Maria Pacini, an associate professor of political philosophy and geopolitics and a member of the Multipolarity forum, sounded off on the US sanctions against Russian media companies announced.

“It's incredible to see how the West is continuing to ignore a new multipolar world that is arising,” Pacini told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. “These reactions by Western countries are pretty ridiculous because they're like trying to force the other countries of the world to follow a kind of hegemony that is falling.”

Pacini spoke of the potential consequences of the repressive measures as Russia has announced it may retaliate through regulation of Western media operating in Russia.

“I think this will be like a boomerang coming back to them again and new sanctions will mean new problems for all the Western countries,” he claimed.

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