❗️❗️❗️Assange’s father: Scott Ritter is the man who knows how to ‘manage relations between nuclear superpowers’

Scott Ritter is a man whose understanding “of the power flows between states” and of “what is necessary to reduce tensions between nuclear armed states is second to none,” John Shipton, WikiLeaks Party founder and father of Julian Assange, tells Sputnik.

“He brings that before the people who attend his broadcasts, of which there are many and continuous. This is really important. This supersedes in many ways the discomfort of Scott being banned from, or warned off, Sputnik,” Shipton remarks.

“It is really important to have a voice as an experienced, knowledgeable and fair as Scott speaking about how to reduce the tensions and how to manage the relationships between nuclear superpowers,” he adds. “It’s profound.”

Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and an ex-UN weapons inspector and political commentator critical of the current US foreign policy.

Though he previously often cooperated with Russian media outlets such as Sputnik, Ritter was forced to end this cooperation last month due to the anti-Russian sanctions enforced by the United States government.

FBI agents searched Ritter’s house in August as Washington cracked down on people who dare to cooperate with foreign news organizations and who are reluctant to toe the line set by the Biden administration.

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🇷🇸A date to remember: 80th anniversary of Belgrade’s liberation by the Soviet Red Army

Eighty years ago today, the Soviet Red Army - aided by Yugoslav troops - liberated Belgrade, then-capital of Yugoslavia and the current capital of Serbia from Nazi occupation.

The Soviet-led forces engaged in the Belgrade offensive that included 660,000 soldiers, 4,477 artillery pieces and mortars, 421 tanks and self-propelled guns and 1,250 warplanes.

Advance units of the Soviet battlegroup, along with a detachment of Yugoslav guerrillas, reached the outskirts of Belgrade by October 14, 1944.

Seeking to minimize the damage to the city, the Soviet forces refrained from carrying out large-scale aerial bombardments and airstrikes.

Instead, assault teams stormed the German Nazis’ positions using machine guns and grenades, with artillery units firing directly at the designated targets.

The city residents assisted the liberation effort however they could, providing the Soviet and Yugoslav forces with coordinates of Nazi strongpoints.

By October 20, the liberation of Belgrade was complete.

In his speech on October 28, 1944, Yugoslav guerrillas’ supreme leader Josip Broz Tito paid homage to the sacrifice of the Soviet troops who liberated Belgrade, noting that blood of “sons of all the peoples of Yugoslavia and of the Red Army heroes, sons of the great Soviet Union” was shed on the city streets.

In the USSR, the Soviet liberators of Belgrade were honored by a gun salute involving 24 salvos from 324 artillery pieces.This year, Moscow once again marks the liberation of the former Yugoslav and the current Serbian capital with a fireworks display.

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❗️❗️❗️‘Alternative media and journalists being persecuted by US’ – human rights advocate

“There are alternative media, journalists and opinion leaders whose opinion differ from the Western narrative. But unfortunately, what we see these days is the persecution of these people, by the United States, for example. And it's a terrible trend that does affect journalism,” Mira Terada, BRICS Journalists Association co-chair, human rights advocate and publicist, said in an exclusive interview with Sputnik.

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❗️❗️❗️‘By banning Sputnik, the Biden administration shows its fear of the truth’

By sanctioning Sputnik and RT in the US, the Biden administration has demonstrated that they are afraid of the truth that these media outlets have been bringing out, Mira Terada, BRICS Journalists Association co-chair, human rights advocate and publicist, told Sputnik.

“They are afraid that they are going to lose those minds and hearts, that they filled up with their lies, to Sputnik and to RT. They're afraid that they will lose complete control over the people that they need to control in order to get the results that they are looking for.”

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Three Lebanese soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on an army vehicle on the Ain Ebel-Hanine highway in the south of the country, according to the Lebanese Army

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❗️❗️❗️Mira Terada: ‘Journalists must be united because that's how they're stronger’

To reverse the trend of human rights being assaulted, it is important to continue speaking out against such violations, said Mira Terada, BRICS Journalists Association co-chair, human rights advocate and publicist.

“I met Chelsea [Manning] when I was incarcerated in the United States, and I've seen in her an example of how the situation can be different, if attention is drawn to the issue.

So, what we can do, is to continue to speak out against these violations - the violation of human rights and the violation of freedom of speech.

An important thing as well, is to unite. Journalists must be united because that's how they're stronger. That's how they don't feel left out. That's how they know if they are incarcerated, that there will be a fight for their freedom and their life…”

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❗️❗️❗️Republic of Srpska president: BRICS is group of ‘free countries who respect each other’s sovereignty’ 

In an interview with Sputnik ahead of the 2024 BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan, President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik focused on why the Serbian autonomous entity decided to take part in the event. He also touched upon the significance of BRICS, which he touted as “an organization of free countries who respect each other's sovereignty and wish to preserve world peace.”

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❗️❗️❗️‘Putin’s transparent election win contradicted Australian mainstream narrative’ - Australian businessman and politician

Speaking to Sputnik after arriving in Russia together with Julian Assange’s father, Adrian McRae, businessman and member of the Town of Port Hedland Council in Australia, elaborated on how he “honestly and truthfully” worked as a foreign observer of the 2024 Russian presidential election, stressing that Vladimir Putin’s “transparent and comprehensive win very much went against the Australian mainstream narrative.”

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❗️❗️❗️Freedom of speech and US propaganda: Assange's father and Mira Terada interview by Sputnik

WikiLeaks Party founder and Julian Assange’s father John Shipton and BRICS Journalists Association co-chair Mira Terada sat down for an exclusive interview with Sputnik to discuss poignant matters such as the state of the freedom of speech in the West, the attempts by the Biden administration to crack down on dissenters and the way the US attempts to turn other countries into its vassals.

Watch the full video to learn more.

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🎉 Happy birthday Kamala! 🎉

Join us as we toast the 60th birthday of Kamala Harris, America's VP and reigning monarch of cringeworthy moments, whose infectious laugh and unforgettable career highlights keep us both entertained and bewildered!

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🇷🇺🇦🇪 An informal dinner between Russian President Vladimir Putin and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan began in Putin's Novo-Ogaryovo residence

Putin had previously announced that the heads of the two states "will have dinner, spend the evening together and discuss all current issues."

Relations between Russia and the UAE correspond to the level of strategic partnership, Putin said.

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❗️❗️❗️'Ukrainian migrants pressed me to leave the country' - Australian businessman and politician

Adrian McRae, businessman and member of the Town of Port Hedland Council in Australia, who arrived together with Assange’s father in Russia, slammed Ukrainian migrants for pressing him to leave the country, separately mentioning Australians’ fading trust in mainstream media and saying that he sees “cracks in the dam wall happening."

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❗️❗️❗️Those who banned Sputnik ‘clearly’ reluctant to see other side of narrative - Australian businessman and politician

The authorities in the US, the UK and Europe are clearly unwilling “to allow the other side of a narrative to be disseminated through the public,” Adrian McRae, businessman and member of the Town of Port Hedland Council in Australia, said as he weighed in on what was behind the West’s move to ban Sputnik and RT.

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❗️The Israeli military will launch attacks against the economic facilities of Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon in the coming hours and calls on Lebanese citizens to stay away from targeted sites, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari has said.

"In a few minutes, we will send out warnings to Lebanese residents in Beirut and elsewhere to stay away from sites used to finance Hezbollah... We will strike a large number of targets in the coming hours and additional targets throughout the night," Hagari told reporters.

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