Hunter Biden’s guilty plea: penance or political move to clear Kamala Harris of Biden family's bad name?

President Joe Biden’s son Hunter has pleaded guilty to all nine counts against him in a sprawling, $1.4 million tax evasion case highlighting his history of indulgence in drugs, hookers, fancy cars and lavish hotels.

The surprise resolution of the case came just days before opening statements in his trial were set to begin. If it had proceeded, the trial would have likely run through the remainder of Joe Biden’s presidency, and proven politically damaging for the Biden’s successor – Vice President Kamala Harris, just two months out from the November 5 election.

Hunter Biden faces up to 17 years in jail and fines of up to $1.2 million in the tax case, although observers expect leniency for the 54-year-old businessman – whose business allegedly included an elaborate influence-peddling scheme involving the selling of access to his powerful father for cash.

The guilty plea adds to Biden’s conviction on three felony counts related to a 2018 handgun purchase, for which he could get up to 25 years in jail.

Hunter Biden has followed his father like a corruption ball and chain since 2020 when, just weeks from the November election, the NYP began the publication of stories based on information from his recovered lost laptop about his alleged pay-to-play dealings.

The stories were censored as ‘Russian disinformation’ by social media companies – claims which tech execs including Mark Zuckerberg later confirmed were bogus.

The Harris campaign has already made a push to carefully distance itself from Biden on some issues, from capital gains taxes to the Border wall, and may now hope that Biden’s tax charges guilty plea will conclude the Hunter Biden saga, or at least leave him out of the spotlight until safely after the election.

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Chinese netizens slam Ukrainian ambassador's visit to 'militaristic' Yasukuni Shrine in Japan

During his visit to Tokyo, Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan Sergiy Korsunsky visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which is in Asia often associated with Japanese militarism. Chinese Internet users flooded social media, calling the diplomat's visit disrespectful to China, the South China Morning Post reported Friday.

Sergiy Korsunsky’s visit coincided with the anniversary of China’s commemoration of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945) and World War II. The Yasukuni Shrine honors, among others, 14 war WWII criminals.

Ukrainian Embassy in Japan deleted a post about the visit, but people online share screenshots and photos proving that Korsunsky visited the temple and even left an entry in the memorial book.

Niutanqin, an account reportedly related to Xinhua news agency, said on Thursday that Korsunsky’s visit was “disrespectful” to China.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry previously called Yasukuni Shrine a "symbol of the military aggression of Japanese militarism against other countries."

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The US is providing Ukraine with a new package of military aid worth approximately $250 million, the Pentagon said in a statement released on Friday.

According to the statement, the new package will include ammunition for HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, 155-millimetre and 105-millimetre artillery shells, Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank missiles, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, M113 armoured personnel carriers and mine-protected vehicles.

The US government also intends to include patrol boats, small arms ammunition, spare parts, support equipment, training costs for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and other various services in the new aid package for Kiev.

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What are newly-appointed French PM Michel Barnier's known political issues?

French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed Michel Barnier as prime minister after almost two months of deadlock.

A member of the conservative Republicans party (LR), the veteran politician served as minister of foreign affairs under President Jacques Chirac, and led European Union (EU) talks wit the UK on Brexit. He served as a European commissioner twice, and made a failed attempt to win his party's nomination for the presidential election in 2022.

What are Michel Barnier's positions on key foreign policy issues?

◻️ On the EU:

Barnier ironically favors France “regaining legal sovereignty so that we are no longer subject to the rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union or the European Court of Human Rights”. He would like to see a closer UK-EU relationship post-Brexit, calling Britain’s exit a “lose-lose game” for the UK and the EU.

◻️ On the Ukraine Conflict:

Asked about NATO’s proxy war against Russia in a May 2024 podcast, Barnier insisted that “what is at stake in Ukraine is nothing less than our own values.”

“Ukraine is a European country... whose democratic values are ours,” he said in another interview last year. He stressed that there can be no ambiguity in the “support it deserves,” and France’s “solidarity” is shown by the “supply of weapons.”

Barnier backed Ukraine's bid for membership in the EU, saying that “we are following a path, several stages of which have already been completed,” but cautioning that “there is no shortcut to becoming a member of the EU.”

◻️ On Palestine-Israeli Conflict:

Barnier said that security and sovereignty of the state of Israel are “non-negotiable,” but sustainable peace in the Middle East “will only be achieved with the establishment of a Palestinian state” in a speech last year.

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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are preparing for an offensive on the Lebanese front, its chief of staff said.

💬 “A combination of very significant strikes against Hezbollah to reduce threats to residents in the north, including the Golan Heights, is very important, along with preparations for an offensive, which we are actively doing,” Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi told reporters during a tour of the occupied Golan Heights.

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🇷🇺 Jewel of Russia’s economic crown: why the Far East can become 21st century’s main driver of growth – Part 1 👉 Part 2

“The Far East has become a crucial factor for strengthening Russia’s standing in the world, and our flag-bearer in the new global economic reality. The further development of the Far East will largely determine the future of our country as a whole,” President Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum on Thursday.

Here’s why that’s the case:

Natural resources

◻️ Representing nearly 41% of Russia’s total land mass (some 6.95 million square km, or nearly the size of Australia), the Russian Far East is home to an array of untapped resource riches.

◻️ The territory accounts for 100% of Russia’s antimony production, 98% of its diamonds, 90% of borax production, 50% of gold, over 40% of tin, 14% of tungsten, about a third of Russia’s coal and hydroengineering reserves and resources.

◻️ The region is rich in an array of ores, metals and rare earths materials, lime and building stones, and other resources, and represents some 30% of Russia’s total forested area – part of the world’s two forest ‘lungs’ (one in Siberia and the other in Brazil’s rainforest).

Logistics

◻️ The Far East is also a crucial strategic transport hub, home to the easternmost part of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and much of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, which is now undergoing modernization and expansion.

◻️ It’s also home to important port hub, including the port of Vladivostok. Its infrastructure potentially represents part of China’s global Belt and Road Initiative, which seeks to link Europe and Asia via a modern-day Silk Road.

Industry

◻️ The Far East is home to an array of industrial enterprises, including mechanical engineering and shipbuilding and repair, automotive factories, chemical, food and medical product factories,

◻️ The region also hosts defense enterprises, for example the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant.

👉 Part 2

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🇷🇺 Jewel of Russia’s economic crown: why the Far East can become 21st century’s main driver of growth – Part 2 👉 Part 1

Russia-China cooperation

◻️ Speaking at the EEF on Thursday, Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng said trade between China and the Russian Far East reached the equivalent of $33.8 billion in 2023, up 54% in a single year.

◻️ This represents about 14% of total Russia-China trade turnover of $240 billion that year, and is only logical, given that the two nations share a sprawling, 4,209 km border, all of it in the Far East.

Gateway to the Asia Pacific

◻️ The Far East has been characterized as Russia’s gateway to the explosive economic power of the Asia-Pacific region.

◻️ In his speech Thursday, President Putin stressed that the region’s development will remain a national priority for the duration of the 21st century, and that Moscow’s decision to focus on the Far East has proven correct, given the “objective trends…that are gaining strength in the global economy, where the main business connections, trade routes, and in general the entire vector of development is being reoriented more and more toward the East and the Global South.”

👉 Part 1

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❗️As a result of the Russian missile attack on a training center in Poltava on September 3, about 500 military specialists were killed and wounded, including mercenaries from Europe, a high-ranking military source reported.

"As a result of the attack, about 500 specialists were killed and wounded,” the report said.

“Among the dead and wounded were servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard – communications specialists, operators of electronic warfare systems, electronic intelligence, unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as foreign mercenaries from Poland, France, Germany and Sweden, who trained Ukrainian military personnel," it added.

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The past week will be remembered by the Kiev regime and its Western ‘friends’ not only for losses on the Donetsk front but also for high-precision strikes on its bases, a high-ranking military source said.

▪️On August 28, an Iskander-M missile strike on a dry cargo ship from which weapons and ammunition for the Ukrainian Armed Forces were being unloaded near the fishing village of Burlacha Balka killed 20 foreign mercenaries and destroyed 12 unmanned boats and part of the ammunition. Another 38 unmanned boats were damaged.

▪️On September 2, an Iskander-M strike was carried out on a temporary deployment point for foreign mercenaries located in a hotel in the city of Zaporozhye, killing up to 50 Ukrainian Armed Forces troops, including 19 mercenaries from Britain, and wounding 20 militants.

▪️On September 3, a mutiple Iskander-M missile strike was launched against the joint training centre of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' signal troops in Poltava, killing and wounding about 500 Ukrainian servicemen and Western instructors.

▪️On September 4, an Iskander-M strike destroyed the finished products workshop of an ammunition plant in the town of Novomoskovsk.
On the same day, as a result of a combined missile strike on a temporary deployment point for foreign mercenaries in Krivoy Rog, the enemy lost more than 250 militants. Among them were about 70 French and Romanian air defence and UAV production specialists. As a result of an Iskander-M missile strike on a temporary deployment point for foreign mercenaries in Konstantinovka, about 50 French militants were killed.

▪️On September 4, an Iskander-M strike on a storage and preparation site of unmanned boats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Odessa destroyed 20 unmanned boats.

▪️In total, from August 28 to September 5, 48 Ukrainian unmanned boats were destroyed, including at sea.

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2024 Eastern Economic Forum in Russia: Top achievements and key moments — Part 1 👉 Part 2

This year forum was attended by some 7,000 guests from 75 countries, from high-level officials and business people, to journalists and commentators, including numerous Sputnik contributors.

◻️ 258 agreements worth a whopping 5.4 trillion rubles (over $59.7 billion) were signed at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok this week.

◻️ New agreements included plans to build a large new chemical complex in Komi Republic, a new timber processing complex in Sakhalin, and measures to attract scientific and engineering talent in the framework of Russky Innovation Science and Technology Center under the auspices of the Far Eastern Federal University.

◻️ Russian deputy prime minister and presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev pointed to an array of instructions made by President Putin at the forum aimed at speeding up regional development, from preferential mortgage loans to the expansion of the VEB.RF public-private partnership initiative, new resources for Far Eastern and Arctic cities, energy projects and measures to attract additional investment.

◻️ The EEF showed off the beauty and diversity of the Russian Far East and its inhabitants, featuring an open-air exhibition celebrating the achievements, culture, customs, and cuisine of local peoples, and highlighting Russia’s plans to take advantage of its unique position to turn the Far East into a driver for economic growth from eastern Russia through the entire Asia-Pacific region. The latter effort included the Russia-ASEAN Business Dialogue.

👉 Part 2

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2024 Eastern Economic Forum in Russia: Top achievements and key moments — Part 2 👉 Part 1

President Putin’s headlining speech naturally garnered the most attention, with the Russian leader highlighting the Far East’s position as a driver for growth and a key component of Moscow’s economic and geopolitical pivot to Asia and the Global South.

“Our Far Eastern regions provide a direct gateway to these promising and developing markets and allow us to overcome the barriers that some Western elites are trying to impose on the world,” Putin said.

◻️ The president commented on an array of other issues, from the Northern Sea Route to Ukraine, the future of AI in medicine, energy politics and even the US presidential campaign.

◻️ Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was also in attendance, highlighting Malaysia’s ambitions to join BRICS+ and touting the bloc as a key means for Global South nations to “contain the onslaught of other richer industrialized countries.”

◻️ Chinese Vice President Han Zheng also spoke at the event, pointing to China’s status as a leading trade partner and investor in the Russian Far East.

“We are ready, together with the Russian side and guided by key agreements reached at the highest level, to accelerate interconnectedness, both in cross-border infrastructure and the harmonization of rules and standards, to increase the scale and quality of cooperation, to strengthen the foundation for the long-term sustainable development of Sino-Russian relations in the new era, to contribute to ensuring prosperity and stability in the region and around the world,” Han said.

◻️ The development of the Russian Far East will be “one of the great economic adventures of the 21st century,” and one which will profit “not only Russia, but a great part of Asia as well,” veteran international affairs observer Pepe Escobar told Sputnik from the EEF’s sidelines, highlighting its participants’ role in the creation of a new, multipolar world order.

👉 Part 1

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EEF-2024: Russia shows readiness to help build international system reflecting interests of global majority

“President Putin emphasized global cooperation, [that] Russia is ready to cooperate to establish a multipolar world order which reflects justice for a majority of countries,” Dr. Connie Rahakundini Bakrie, Professor with the Faculty of International Relations, St. Petersburg State University, Indonesian military and security expert, told Sputnik, summarizing her impressions of President Putin’s speech at this year’s Eastern Economic Forum, and the forum in general.

The panel discussion, which included a conversation on security, the threat of terrorism, efforts by some countries to destabilize others, the Ukrainian crisis, the nuclear threat, energy security and other issues demonstrated that the forum was about economics, but also “very related to security,” Bakrie said.

In general, the forum highlighted Russia’s commitment to taking relations with Asia-Pacific region to a new level, the observer said.

“The most important thing for the Asia-Pacific is technology and science, because we are a little bit weak on that position. In President Putin’s speech yesterday, he really underlined that Russia will play a very big part in building science and technology together [with Asian countries, ed.], especially in the nuclear aspect of energy security,” Bakrie said.

When it comes to technological security and sovereignty, Russia-Asia Pacific partnerships could do for the issue what US-led initiatives have aimed to do via AUKUS and QUAD – providing “military industry, high technology, surveillance systems, things like that to balance the Indo-Pacific,” according to the observer.

Bakrie was also impressed by the Russian Far East, saying it was her first time visiting the region, and that she was “surprised that the Far East’s development is so advanced. I see that the development of the Far East is very serious, especially when President Putin mentioned that in the last ten years, 25,000 manufacturing, infrastructure, technology and education projects were built in that area.”

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External forces are not trying to interfere in the US presidential election, a US intelligence official told a special briefing.

But he claimed that Russia, China and Iran see the November general elections as a “weak point” and are trying to influence the outcome by promoting one or other candidate.

"Russia is the most active threat," and Moscow's goal is allegedly an attempt to "weaken the United States and Washington's support for Ukraine," the official said.

On September 4, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, as well as her deputies Anton Anisimov and Elizaveta Brodskaya.

Also targeted were the head of RT information broadcasting Andrei Kiyashko, the head of the digital media projects department Konstantin Kalashnikov and a number of other employees of the TV channel.

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◻️ Why the Russian Far East can become 21st century’s main driver of growth

◻️ Pavel Durov's charges are hinting at French spying on private communications

◻️ What might be the reason for Hunter Biden’s guilty plea?

◻️ Read about newly-appointed French PM Michel Barnier's known political issues?

◻️ How Russia shows readiness to help build new international system

◻️ What stands behind Ukraine’s Cabinet reshuffle?

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Macron’s PM pick makes sense for a president ‘no longer in control’

The appointment of Michel Barnier after two months of deadlock is a sign of a president “deeply weakened, nationally and internationality,” a president “no longer and control,” and in need of “an experienced 73-year-old with a long political career under his belt,” Dr. Edouard Husson, a French historian and publisher of Le Courrier des Strateges geopolitical affairs journal, told Sputnik, commenting on President Macron's prime ministerial appointment.

Barnier “was elected Member of Parliament at the age of 27, in 1978. Not only did he campaign for General de Gaulle's re-election in 1965, but he also had an insider's view of the Gaullist party and was a minister under Jacques Chirac and then Nicolas Sarkozy. He also knows European institutions far better than Emmanuel Macron," notes expert.

"All these factors mean that Michel Barnier is more independent-minded than Emmanuel Macron and his supporters. He is capable of questioning a system that he knows intimately,” Professor Husson explained, pointing, for example, to Barnier’s 2022 proposal to suspend EU immigration rules for France.

While France and the world shouldn’t expect any dramatic changes from Barnier, he is a “pragmatist,” according to the observer.

“On Ukraine, or Gaza, he is more likely than others to listen to the nuanced views of Pope Francis than the rest of the French political class…In reality, I think his priority will be the budget - we need to start getting France out of debt. And to do that, it's better to have a peaceful policy,” Husson said.

On domestic policy, Barnier is the opposite of Macron – a “unifier” rather than a divider, according to the observer.

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‘Zombie’ Volkswagen result of years of wrong-headed German government policy

“German and European industry will lose this battle with China for sure, and for me, it’s a completely silly idea to politically decide to commit suicide in the automotive industry and ‘repair’ it by banning Chinese vehicles from the European market,” Bundestag member Dirk Spaniel told Sputnik, commenting on German car-making giant Volkswagen’s plans to close plants amid stiff competition from China and spiking energy costs, as Brussels mulls tough new tariffs against Beijing.

“[If the] Chinese are not allowed to sell the cars in Germany or Europe, probably other products will be taxed in China. This will lead, especially for an exporter nation like Germany, to large drops of volumes of goods exported to China, which will affect the German market or German companies. For sure, this is a very bad way to wage a trade war with China,” Spaniel, a member of the Alternative for Germany parliamentary faction and the party’s spokesman for transport policy, said.

“Building cars has been a long tradition in Germany,” Spaniel said, noting that the country’s traditional advantage has revolved around its ability to achieve full cycle production.

“Right now things are changing because of the European Union, which decided to ban internal combustion engines,” Spaniel explained, pointing out that European carmakers’ efforts to quickly retool to build EVs has cost a great deal of money, increasing the price of vehicles which consumers aren’t particularly interested in.

On top of that is the lingering fallout of the economic downturn caused by the response to Covid, high energy prices, and the fiscal crunch currently facing the state, which has meant a halt to subsidies for EVs and higher prices. As Berlin eyes a bailout for Volkswagen, the company is looking more and more “like a zombie,” Spaniel emphasized.

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Benny Johnson declares no one influenced his content policies amid allegations against Russia

US conservative blogger Benny Johnson wrote on his X account that no one influenced his editorial policy amid accusations by US authorities that his employing company was allegedly secretly funded from Russia.

“I have been notified by the FBI that I have been the victim of a crime. [US Attorney General] Merrick Garland said the same thing at his press conference. I am the only person who has ever had editorial control over my program. Period,” said Johnson, whose Youtube channel has nearly 2.4 million subscribers.

Although the US Justice Department did not mention the name of the company in its charges, US media believe the company in question is Tenet Media, which represented Johnson and a number of other conservative influencers. According to the US Justice Department, the company was allegedly secretly funded from Russia by RT employees. The bloggers themselves were not charged because the company allegedly did not tell them the source of the funds.

The US imposed sanctions against the Rossiya Segodnya media group, RIA Novosti, RT, Sputnik and Ruptly. The new sanctions affected Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya, and a number of top managers of the RT broadcaster. Simonyan later claimed that the Western media "have plunged into a fit of paranoia,” adding that bloggers allegedly hired by RT, according to US authorities, “deny everything, but what else can they do?”

Earlier, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the US presidential election will be won by the candidate chosen by the American people, and it is up to Russia not to interfere and to observe the process. Russian authorities have repeatedly emphasized that Russia does not interfere in American electoral processes.

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🇨🇳 Chinese technology never ceases to amaze. Self-parking cars have become commonplace there.

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US knew about reshuffle of Ukrainian government, likely pushed it – journo

The White House knew beforehand about the mass resignations in the Ukrainian government that were probably conducted under US pressure, American journalist, Jackson Hinkle, told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.

Such a massive dismissal, he added, could not have happened without a serious dialogue with the US, even if it took place behind the curtains and didn’t involve top officials of the State Department.

On September 4th, Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise reshuffle of senior officials in Kiev. Among them, Rostyslav Shurma, the deputy head of Zelensky’s office, was dismissed, as was Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Earlier, experts had told Sputnik that the Cabinet reshuffle is likely a ‘sham’ political reboot aimed at showing off ‘democratic’ process in the country.

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UK ‘thinking head of Western hydra that helps Zelensky regime’ – expert 

It’s safe to say that Britain is directly involved in hostilities against Moscow, military journalist, Alexey Borzenko, told Sputnik.

He was commenting on Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s recent statement that the preliminary adjustment of the flight controllers of the Ukrainian drones that attacked an oil storage facility in Russia’s Rostov region were carried out in Salisbury and Newport, UK.

“For Moscow, Britain is the most hostile NATO country because the UK is involved in all major projects to damage Russian infrastructure, and the civilian population and troops to the maximum,” Borzenko, who is also deputy chief editor of the Literary Russia newspaper, said.  

He stressed that it is in the UK where Ukrainian specialists in electronic warfare, missile technology, and strike systems using long-range artillery are trained. 

The UK can be called “the thinking head of the entire Western hydra”, which helps the Kiev regime by providing it with military hardware, the journalist pointed out, recalling that Britain was the first to supply grenade launchers to Ukraine, followed by tanks, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and even poison in ampoules. 

Borzenko expressed hope that “on a certain stage", Britain will bear responsibility for its actions. 

When it comes to Moscow’s retaliatory steps, the journalist subscribed to Zakharova’s stand that “in response to the Zelensky regime’s strikes on Russian territory using UK-made weapons, Russia reserves its right to strike any British military facilities and vehicles in Ukraine and beyond."

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