Moscow on Scholz's peace plan on Ukraine: 'No appeals from Germany either directly or through intermediates'.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova elaborated, “What we have encountered so far are mere leaks and rumors. There has been no official confirmation, so there is essentially nothing to comment on. We have not received any appeals, materials, or information from the German leadership.”

She emphasized that Russia is not refusing to negotiate, but pointed out that it is the German authorities, under Scholz's leadership, who continue to supply weapons to Ukraine. “The only way to demonstrate this [genuine willingness to pursue a peaceful settlement] is to halt the supply of arms to the Kiev regime. This undoubtedly entails condemning the terrorist actions carried out by this regime,” added Zakharova during the briefing.

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Trump ‘less inclined’ towards 2nd debate, criticizes moderators for corrections

Donald Trump believes Tuesday’s debate against vice-president and Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris went great for him, so there is no point in another one, Fox News reported.

The Republican candidate was critical of the ABC News network mediators in the head-to-head.

“We had a terrible network. I think they were terrible,” he stated. “They should be embarrassed. I mean they kept correcting me.”

The two candidates faced off on Tuesday night to spar on the economy, immigration and the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. Trump boasted that he gave his best performance ever, while the Harris camp also claimed victory and called for a second debate.

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Putin: Russia may restrict export of strategic materials like uranium, titanium, nickel

Russia is a world leader in the output of an array of strategic minerals, from natural gas, gold and diamonds to uranium, titanium and nickel, and should “think about” whether it’s possible to reduce the export of the latter three resources amid unfriendly countries’ actions against Russia, President Vladimir Putin has said.

Speaking at a meeting with government ministers on Wednesday, Putin asked Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to look into the idea and report back, stressing that any proposed restrictions should not be “to one’s own detriment.”

Despite slapping Moscow with an unprecedented sanctions regime in 2022, European countries and the United States continue to rely on vast quantities of Russian energy and strategic materials, including gas and uranium, importing them to prevent spiking energy prices and shortages from wrecking their economies.

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Imminent attack: Putin warned Bush Jr. about 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance

Russian President Vladimir Putin called then-US president George W. Bush two days ahead of the 9/11 terrorist attack, warning him about the imminent atrocity, according to a 2019 book by former senior CIA analyst George Beebee.

“Putin had telephoned President Bush two days before the attacks to warn that Russian intelligence has detected signs of an incipient terrorist campaign, ‘something long in preparation,’ coming out of Afghanistan.”

Although it has long been known that Russia informed the US about the looming Islamist attack, Beebee's account of events suggests Putin warned his counterpart in Washington personally.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he discussed granting permission to use long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory with Ukrainian leaders and will report the results of the talks to President Joe Biden.

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📹 VIDEO OF THE DAY 🔝

"Tomorrow, I'm doing 9/11" – Biden

Biden seems to have outdone himself

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What is the anti-migrant border ‘buffer zone’ fueling Belarusian-Polish tensions?

Poland’s Internal Affairs Ministry announced Wednesday that Warsaw would be extending its ‘buffer zone’ on the border with Belarus for another 90 days, effective immediately.

◻️ The ‘buffer zone’ was set up in 2021 as migrants from the Middle East and North Africa began attempting to enter the European Union illegally via Belarus and Poland, taking advantage of a crisis in Polish-Belarusian ties stemming from Warsaw’s role in the West’s attempt to overthrow Belarus’s leadership after elections in 2020. Belarus, which until that point had been indirectly involved in ensuring the security of the EU’s eastern frontier against illegal immigration, declared that thanks to sanctions, it no longer had “either the money nor the strength” to do so.

◻️ Along with border guards, Poland’s buffer zone is manned by thousands of troops, predominantly Polish, but also engineering units from the UK and Estonia, and about 100 Frontex officers.

◻️ The buffer zone restricts civilians from approaching within 200 meters (and up to 2 km in the Bialowieza Forest area) of the border, features a 186 km long, 5 m high, $400 mln border fence, and a violent and hardhearted attitude by guards toward migrants – who can be beaten, forcibly sent back in the direction they came from, and according to a Polish border guard who defected to Belarus in late 2021, even killed. Over 250 would-be migrants have been killed or declared missing to date. 19 Polish border guards have also been injured, and one killed, in violent confrontations with migrants.

◻️ Amnesty International has slammed Warsaw over the treatment of detained migrants, citing their placement in overcrowded holding centers, limitations on access to sanitary facilities, and restrictions on the ability to communicate with the outside world. The UNHCR has called on Poland to provide adequate medical care, legal assistance, psychological and social support for detained migrants, in accordance with the Polish Constitution and international law.

◻️ The European Union and NATO have hypocritically accused Belarus of “hybrid warfare” against Poland using the illegal migrant issue, ignoring Brussels’ own directives demanding that Warsaw and other Eastern European EU members accept tens of thousands of illegal migrants, on pain of financial and other penalties.

◻️ Polish authorities have touted a 64% drop in illegal crossings after the introduction of the buffer zone regime, with authorities reporting about 6,000 attempts to cross the border this June (down from over 17,000 before the buffer zone was put in place). However, the main reason for the decline can be attributed to decisions taken by Iraqi, Syrian and Turkish authorities to restrict flights of would-be migrants to Belarus.

◻️ Russia has rejected efforts by Warsaw and its Western allies at the UN to blame the crisis on Belarus, opposing a November 2021 Security Council resolution seeking to ‘condemn’ Minsk. The same month, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged the EU to better regulate the migrant issue and take responsibility for it. Russia has slammed Warsaw for its violations of international humanitarian

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Armed FBI agents beat an RT employee during a search of her home in the US and seized her equipment, the channel said in a statement on Telegram.

The woman said the federal agents searched her body and had a "separate warrant" for this. She was interrogated for about five hours about Margarita Simonyan and other top managers of the channel.

RT reported that the FBI was especially interested in former RT columnist and former US intelligence officer Scott Ritter, who was also a contributor to Sputnik until he was forced to stop due to new sanctions. The agents also asked the employee for details of the channel's financing.

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Fact-checking claims made during Trump-Harris debate

A number of unverified claims and discrepancies were asserted during the US presidential debate. Here is a brief overview.

Trump:

🟢 “We wouldn't have left many Americans behind [in Afghanistan in 2022]. And we wouldn't have $85 billion worth of brand new beautiful military equipment behind”

🔴 The Department of Defense Inspector General estimates that the Taliban* seized $7.12 billion worth of military equipment after the botched US withdrawal.


🟢 “Look, we're in for $250 billion or more [Ukraine aid] because they don't ask Europe, which is a much bigger beneficiary to getting this thing done than we are. They're in for $150 billion less.”

🔴 Europe has provided military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine totaling approximately $207 billion, compared to approximately $109 billion from the US, according to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker.


🟢 Stated: “When she [Harris] ran, she was the first one to leave [the Democratic primary] because she failed”

🔴 Checked: Before Harris dropped out – ahead of the first 2020 Democratic primary she was preceded by several candidates including then-mayor of New York City Bill De Blasio.

Harris:

🟢 Trump left office “with worst unemployment since the Great Depression”

🔴 When Trump was in office at the start of the COVID pandemic, the unemployment rate peaked at 14.8%, according to the Congressional Research Service. The national unemployment rate was around 25% at the height of the Great Depression in 1933, according to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library.


🟢 “Donald Trump said he was going to create manufacturing jobs. He lost manufacturing jobs”

🔴 Before the COVID pandemic, about 500,000 factory jobs were created under Trump’s administration. But the gains were wiped out during the ensuing lockdowns.


🟢 “There is not one member of the military who is on active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world for the first time this century”

🔴 Thousands of US troops remain stationed in Iraq and illegally occupying parts of Syria, where they are often under attack from local militias.

*Under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

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