Hezbollah calls the Lebanon pager explosions "criminal aggression" by Israel, vows "just punishment"

The Lebanese military group issued a statement following the deadly attack:

"After examining all the facts, current data and available information about the sinful attack that took place this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression, which also targeted civilians and led to the deaths of a number of martyrs and the injury of a large number with various wounds," the statement reads.

Israel will "certainly receive just punishment for this sinful aggression, whether it expects it or not," Hezbollah concluded.

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Safer society? ‘Big Brother’ will forever be watching people’s daily life - Oracle co-founder

Larry Ellison, co-founder of computer software company Oracle, did not think twice before claiming that artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance could finally become an essential part of people’s daily life.

He mentioned AI-powered networks of security cameras, police body cams and vehicle dashcams, which would purportedly play an important role in creating a “safer society.”

Ellison then went further by arguing that “citizens will be on their best behavior” thanks to AI-powered surveillance cameras.

Critics have repeatedly insisted that fully-fledged surveillance could ride roughshod over personal freedoms, resulting in the emergence of a “surveillance state.”

"The first tranche, concerning extraordinary income from immobilized Russian assets, has already been allocated. €1.4 billion has already been directed through the European Peace Facility to pay for the most urgent supplies, primarily artillery shells and air defense systems," he said.

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US crackdown on Sputnik, RT is meant to ‘discourage others from speaking out’ and intimidate Americans - journalist

Meta’s decision* to block the accounts of Sputnik and RT was the result of a growing pressure from the Biden administration that comes as the United States is “losing the war in Ukraine” and is thus “growing increasingly desperate,” independent journalist and author Daniel Lazare tells Sputnik.

According to him, the purpose is not to strike out against the Russian media, but “it's essentially to regiment political discourse in general. To discourage others from speaking out, to make it known that criticism of the war is now impermissible, that further action may be taken by the government and that people should watch their step. That's what the message is.”

Lazare says, “Internet censorship is simply the logical next step” for the US as it is “raising the stakes by providing Kiev with medium-range missiles capable of striking deep within Russian territory while at the same time stepping up repression at home.”

“This is very dangerous, but this is what a government does when it is losing a war. So, what we see here is this growing panic in official circles,” Lazare remarks.

Having noted that the freedom of speech in the United States is now “under attack,” Lazare warns that “other nations will follow suit” and that “censorship is spreading.”

“Global censorship is increasing. It is increasing, but I must point out that given the internet, critical speech is impossible to stop. But nonetheless, they can dampen it, they can tamp it down and they can discourage it by essentially making it more and more difficult for people to speak out here in the US. It is very dangerous because the situation in Ukraine is increasingly dangerous,” he says.

*Meta is banned in Russia as an extremist organization.

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Telling the untold: What in Sputnik's coverage has hit the US elite's nerve? Part 1 👉 Part 2

Meta* has banned Sputnik globally under the pretext of election interference. However, it appears that the real reason behind the ban is that Sputnik serves as an obstacle in the US deep state's efforts to unleash its own vision and narrative on American and global public.

Here’s the list of topics unnerving the US elite:

🔹 "Russiagate". Sputnik consistently debunked groundless accusations about President Donald Trump's alleged "collusion" with Russia. The Mueller investigation did not find any Trump-Russia ties, whereas the Durham probe exposed the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign's role in fabricating the ruse.

🔹 US elections. Sputnik covered presidential and midterm elections in the US giving a platform for conservative voices advocating election integrity and busting instances of alleged voter fraud, ballot manipulation and illegal voting by non-citizens. The US mainstream press has been insisting for years the problem is "non-existent" despite emerging evidence across the country and especially in swing states.

🔹 Hunter and Joe Biden investigations. Sputnik shed light on Hunter Biden's "laptop from hell" at the time when the New York Post's bombshell was blacked out in the US mainstream press and social media platforms ahead of the 2020 elections. Being initially degraded as "Russian disinformation", the collection of Hunter's damning emails was later proved legit. The US Congress concluded that the Biden family sold the "Joe Biden" brand for personal enrichment.

🔹 Botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Sputnik provided the full picture of the disastrous US pull-out during which weapons, Afghan translators and allied troops were left behind despite the White House and media attempts to downplay the failures. Sputnik's story of the orderly Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan by land in 1988-89 underlined the Biden administration's flawed Afghan policy.

*Meta is banned in Russia as an extremist organization.

Part 1 👉 Part 2

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The ugly truth nobody in the West wants to hear — Part 2 👉 Part 1

While the US presents itself as a champion of human rights, democracy and peace, the reality proves the opposite and Sputnik shows it.

🔹 Human rights abuses of January Sixers. While the US media tried to demonize the participants of the Capitol riots, Sputnik raised concerns over human rights abuses of January Sixers and persecution of political opposition by the Biden administration. After an FBI agent disclosed to Sputnik that the bureau excessively used SWAT teams against the protesters, he was fired.

🔹 Clinton Foundation. Sputnik covers investigations into the charity's alleged fraud amid the present US media silence on the issue. Sputnik's pundits called the Clinton charity a self-enrichment vehicle and raised concerns about the apparent cover-up by the FBI, Justice Department and IRS.

🔹 Globalist cabal. Sputnik busted US liberal foundations, including the Soros Open Society Foundation, the Clinton Foundation, the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation and the Clooney Foundation, for peddling globalist agenda at home and abroad, including efforts to cash in on Global South nations, trying to silence alternative media, and fuelling the flames of regional conflicts, including in Ukraine.

🔹 Regime change ops. Sputnik sheds light on former and present US regime change ops, including the Solomon Islands electoral coup effort earlier this year, as well as brewing regime change plots against Georgia and Serbia.

🔹 Use of depleted uranium (DU) in Iraq and Yugoslavia. As the US press hailed Washington's decision to provide Ukraine with DU shells, Sputnik held interviews with researchers and survivors of DU contamination, showing that the weapons pose a grave threat to people and environment.

🔹 Trump assassination attempts. Largely neglected by the US mainstream press, the attempts to kill the Republican candidate received much attention from Sputnik. After the first attempt on Trump's life, Sputnik's pundits didn't rule out a second assassination plot that materialized later.

Part 2 👉 Part 1

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Syrian terrorists and Ukrainian militants form ‘symbiotic relationship’ nurtured by ‘CIA connections’

Cooperation between the Ukrainian military and Syrian organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* (HTS) is hardly a surprise, says veteran international consultant and retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel Earl Rasmussen.

“If we look at HTS history, formerly they were Al-Nusra [Front]*, aligned with al-Qaeda* and they were beneficiaries of Timber Sycamore weapons coming from Libya into anti Assad rebels, into Syria along with CIA training. So, there's kind of a symbiotic type of relationship,” he says, adding that there are “CIA connections on both sides.”

The objectives shared by the Syrian group and the Ukrainian militants are to “counter Russian influence” and to “weaken the Russian forces,” Rasmussen suggests.

On one hand, he explains, the US is “very upset that Russia intervened” in the Syrian conflict and dashed any hopes of their groups overthrowing the government of Bashar Assad.

On the other hand, there is the Ukrainian conflict where things do not go well for Kiev, with the latter now desperately looking for “other ways to kind of divert the attention of the Russians.”

“The conflict in Ukraine was, in my view, provoked by Western powers. Essentially it [the West] really didn't care about Ukraine at all,” Rasmussen elaborates. “The initiative was to weaken Russia and to potentially, in people's dreams, to cause an overthrow of Putin in Russia and a puppet person then [imposed] optimally, but that's not going to occur.”

According to him, there are American neocons who cling to this “fantasy,” and that he believes it is a “continuation” of Washington’s desire to create problems for Russia by ousting Assad.

“At the same time, [the US] have a desire to weaken Russia in the Ukraine area and weaken Russia overall. So, the joint concept that’s supported on both of them is to weaken Russia - is to divert forces away from things, to weaken Russia to ultimately obtain their objectives,” he speculates.

*Terrorist organizations banned in Russia

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From Echelon to Prism: US intel services could be behind Hezbollah pager detonation – military expert

"The Americans and allied intelligence agencies created the "Echelon" [surveillance] system… which was built in parallel with the communication network, paging communications, cellular communications, and the global Internet, for monitoring and controlling network participants," military analyst Alexei Leonkov tells Sputnik, commenting on the pager explosion in Lebanon.

Since Echelon's inception in the 1960s, the US has developed international communication standards and a wide set of surveillance tools which allow the US intel community to spy on users worldwide, as ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosed in 2013, commenting on the US' Prism program.

🔸Those instruments can determine an individual's location by devices one uses for communication, including the pager that one carries in their pocket, according to Leonkov.

🔸US operatives can determine a user's coordinates with an accuracy of up to a second, given that each device has its own identification number and operates in a common environment under US standards.

🔸The chosen targets could be affected in different ways, most commonly by strikes with high-precision combat drones, the expert said.

The recent detonation of pagers could be caused by battery overheating which, in turn, could be provoked by interfering with software responsible for charging the devices, as per the pundit.

"Most technical devices now have lithium batteries," Leonkov says. "What happened is called thermal runaway, during which the battery, as a rule, explodes. A battery explosion, depending on where the owner wears this pager, can lead to either injury or serious injury and, in exceptional cases, death."

"[If the pager] was close to an artery [the explosion of a battery] could cause damage making one bleed to death within five minutes. And that's it, the person can't be saved," the pundit concludes.

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Hillary Clinton, queen of fake news & disinformation, has taken on Russian media — Part 1 👉 Part 2

Former US Secretary of State and Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has called for civil and criminal charges against Americans who "spread" Russian "disinformation".

Apart from taking on Russian media, the scandal-ridden politician has a lot of her plate, including the Clinton Foundation's apparent fraud and peddling lies against political opponents.

Here are some of the Clinton scandals:

🔸Ahead of the 2016 election, the US press buzzed about the Clinton Foundation's apparent conflict of interests, unreported donations from foreign individuals and entities, and corporate lobbyists including General Electric, Boeing, Exxon Mobil and Microsoft behind Hillary. However, it was just a tip of a much bigger iceberg.

🔸In December 2016, Haitian-born journalist Dady Chery told Sputnik about the Clinton family's controversial fundraiser in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Bill Clinton played a key role in fundraising through the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Media investigations showed half-completed or botched projects, misuse of funds and spending on luxury hotels rather than housing.

🔸Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel, described by The Sunday Times of London as "one of the finest analysts of financial statements on the planet" in 2009, called the Clinton Foundation "the largest unprosecuted charity fraud ever attempted." The pundit told Sputnik that the charity has been largely used to "transform a once broke family into mega-multi-millionaires."

🔸In 2018, Clinton Foundation whistleblowers Lawrence W. Doyle and John F. Moynihan told US lawmakers that the charity owes between $400 million and $2.5 billion in taxes since it has never operated as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization and has acted as nothing short of a foreign agent "throughout its existence".

Part 1 👉 Part 2

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From Hillary's emailgate scandal to Trump-Russia hoax — Part 2 👉 Part 1

Hillary Clinton is infamous for mismanaging government secrets and peddling disinformation. It is remarkable she has always got away with it.

🔸Hillary Clinton's emailgate scandal envisaged the politician storing 110 emails in 52 email chains containing top secret, secret and confidential government information on her unprotected email server. On top of that, Clinton deleted 33,000 emails, claiming that they were "personal in nature". Unlike Donald Trump, she has never been charged for mishandling classified materials.

🔸In late July 2016, US intelligence services intercepted information of "an alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016, of a proposal from one of her foreign-policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services," in order to distract attention from her own legal problems. The Clinton campaign's role in peddling the fake "Trump-Russia" plot was later confirmed in Special Counsel John Durham's report.

🔸The Clinton campaign funded opposition research to supply the FBI and media with the false narrative, according to the Durham probe. The probe suggested that the fake story, spread by ex-MI6 agent Chris Steele in his "dirty dossier," that Trump had been filmed with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel, actually originated from Charles Dolan, a Democratic operative and Hillary Clinton ally.

🔸Hillary Clinton has never been held responsible for undermining her political opponent: on the contrary, the US mainstream press is still continuing to promote the ruse.

Why is Hillary Clinton up against the Russian media?

🔹For years Sputnik's coverage of the Clintons' charity apparent fraud, emailgate scandal and Trump-Russia hoax has been a thorn in Team Clinton's flesh. Bill Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña tried to intimidate Charles Ortel for talking to Sputnik, whereas former Clinton aide Doug Band issued legal threats to a Sputnik

Part 2 👉 Part 1

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🔸From Echelon to Prism: US intel services could be behind Hezbollah pager detonation — military expert explains

🔸US crackdown on Sputnik, RT is meant to ‘discourage others from speaking out’ and intimidate Americans - journalist

🔸Syrian terrorists and Ukrainian militants form ‘symbiotic relationship’ nurtured by ‘CIA connections’

🔸Collaborators in terror unmasked: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* working hand in glove with Ukraine

🔸Is Macron's resignation imminent?

🔸How does Ukraine try to distance itself from suspected Trump assassin?

🔸Where Tsar Bomb goes boom: Brief history of Russia’s most famous nuclear testing site

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Former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden has suggested that the detonation of pagers in different areas of Lebanon is related to embedded explosive devices, and not a hacker attack.

"If it were overheated batteries exploding, you'd expect many more small fires & misfires," he wrote on X.

Snowden admitted that Israel could be behind the detonation, and accused it of the recklessness of the methods used.

"What Israel has just done is, via any method, reckless... Indistinguishable from terrorism."

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Firefighters rescue baby ocelot during forest fire in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

The feline was sent to a veterinary center for further assistance.

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