📹 'These people are crazy,' Trump told Carlson, as he weighed in on the 'green wars' the Democrats hope to wage

“If you listen to this government, they want to make army tanks electric, because they want to invade countries with their army tanks in a very friendly way from the pollution standpoint,” Trump said.

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📹Trump: I killed Nord Stream

Trump told Carlson that he stopped the Nord Stream pipeline project when he was in the White House.

“I stopped it. Dead. The thing was half-built…Then Biden comes in and he approves it.”

When Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down for an interview with Tucker Carlson earlier in the year, he hinted that Moscow knows who orchestrated the terrorist attack on the export gas pipelines to Europe in September 2022. When he jokingly accused the journalist of blowing up Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2, Carlson quipped that he was “busy that day.”

“You personally may have an alibi, but the CIA has no such alibi,” Putin responded. He added that in such cases one should “look for someone who is interested.”

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💡White House changed record of Biden's speech where he called Trump supporters 'garbage'

The White House press service made changes to the trannoscript of a speech by Joe Biden in which he called supporters of Donald Trump "garbage," AP reported.

The move sparked criticism from federal employees who document such remarks for posterity, the outlet said, citing two US government officials and an internal email obtained by AP.

🗣Biden, according to the trannoscript prepared by official White House stenographers, originally said "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.” The trannoscript released by the White House press office, however, rendered the quote with an apostrophe, reading “supporter’s” rather than “supporters,” which gives the impression that Biden was criticizing Tony Hinchcliffe, not all Americans who support Trump for president.

Joe Biden faced backlash after he appeared to compare Trump supporters with "garbage" while responding to a joke made by the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at a Trump rally that referred to Puerto Rico as an "island of garbage.”

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🎥🎥 Lavrov holds talks with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui 🇷🇺🤝🇰🇵

👉 Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website

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🇷🇺🇰🇵Sergey Lavrov is holding talks with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui.

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🇷🇺🤝🇰🇵CLOSE CONTACTS ESTABLISHED BETWEEN MILITARY AND SPECIAL SERVICES OF RUSSIA, NORTH KOREA, THIS HELPS SOLVE PROBLEMS IN FIELD OF SECURITY – LAVROV

"Very close cooperation has been established between military and security services of the two countries. This also allows us to effectively address important issues related to the safety of our and your citizens," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son-hui.

Statements by DPRK Foreign Minister:

🔸 Pyongyang will continue to improve its readiness for nuclear retaliatory strike.

🔸 Situation on Korean peninsula in very dangerous, unstable state due to us, allies actions.

🔸 Pyongyang is confident in Russia's victory in conflict in Ukraine, will always stand next to its Russian comrades.

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🗣 Lavrov on Russia – North Korea relations: Relations between the countries are at a high strategic level.

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🗣 Foreign Minister of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Choe Son-hui, on strategic nuclear escalation on the Korean Peninsula:

"The US and South Korea created a nuclear advisory group and they have conspiracies to carry out nuclear strikes against our republic. Three times already this year, there were air carrier strike groups of the United States deployed along our shores and there was a nuclear submarine that sailed into South Korea from the United States."

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🇮🇱⚔️🇺🇳 IDF destroyed UNRWA's West Bank office, agency chief claims

Israeli troops have turned to rubble an office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA) in the West Bank's Nur Shams camp, the agency's chief said.

💬 Philippe Lazzarini took to social media to post an image of the building that IDF bulldozers have rendered “unusable.” He noted that the office served as a “hub to deliver basic services to more than 14,000 Palestine Refugees in the camp, including learning for children, health, sanitation and social protection.” Lazzarini added that during the IDF military operation, “roads, water, electricity networks were also destroyed in the camp.”

“Once again, United Nations facilities are being routinely disregarded while they must be protected at all times, including in times of conflict,” Lazzarini wrote.

The Israeli military has denied responsibility for damaging the building. An IDF statement claimed that “terrorists planted explosives in the proximity of the UNRWA offices that were then detonated in an attempt to harm IDF soldiers.”

Earlier in the week, Israeli lawmakers passed a law banning UNRWA from operating in the country. Lazzarini called the Israeli parliament's decision "collective punishment" that violates the UN Charter.

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❗️Russian forces have liberated the settlements of Leonidovka, Novoukrainka and Shakhtyorkoye in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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🗣 The latest statements by Putin's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov:

🔸 Russia maintains contacts with all parties to the Middle East conflict.

🔸 On possible mediation in Israel-Hezbollah talks: "Russia is ready to make efforts where they can be effective."

🔸 US election campaign is coming to an end, there is a lot of unnecessary, emotional rhetoric being exchanged.

🔸 Trump's new statements, including on Nord Stream, made in the heat of the campaign.

🔸 On Trump's remarks about a "split" between Russia and China: "It's unclear why there should be interference in our cooperation."

🔸 On autonomous non-profit organization Dialog's decision to sue FBI over fake news: "No high hopes for fair trial in US court."

🔸 Russia is not interfering in Moldova's election campaign.

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🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's weekly briefing on the special military operation's progress:

▪️ Ukrainians lost up to 3620 troops in Russia's Battlegroup Zapad area of responsibility.

▪️ Russia's Battlegroup Yug repelled 10 counterattacks, enemy lost up to 5390 militants and two Leopard tanks.

▪️ Ukrainians lost up to 840 troops in Russia's Battlegroup Vostok area of responsibility.

▪️ Ukrainians lost up to 500 troops in Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr area of responsibility.

▪️ Russian air defenses hit 26 HIMARS missiles and shot down 815 enemy drones.

▪️54 Ukrainian servicemen surrendered during the week.

▪️ Russia's Battlegroup Sever has attacked the formations of 17 Ukrainian brigades on the border of the Kursk region.

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🇷🇺 🪖 Key statements from the Russian Ministry of Defense's daily briefing on the situation in the Kursk region:

◻️ Russia’s Battlegroup Sever hammered ten Ukrainian formations and repelled six counterattacks in its combat zone. The enemy lost as many as 50 soldiers and two armored vehicles.

◻️ Russian aviation and artillery strikes hit concentrations of personnel and equipment of seven Ukrainian brigades in the Sumy region.

◻️ In total, Ukrainian losses over the day amounted to more than 250 militants, with three armored vehicles destroyed and nine cars.

◻️ Since the beginning of combat operations in the Kursk region, Ukraine has lost more than 28,850 troops.

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❗️ Democrats playing ‘long game’ to turn migrants into their voters

The Democrats are playing the “long game” with their immigration policies, staking on dividends from changing the makeup of the US population, Dr. Nicholas Waddy, associate professor of history at SUNY Alfred and Trump supporter, told Sputnik.

“Immigration in general, whether it's legal or illegal, changes the fabric of America. For example, the percentage of the electorate that is white, non-Hispanic white, has declined from about 90% down to less than 70% in the last election. That's a huge advantage for Democrats,” Waddy said.

States like Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada, which used to be “red” states, have become “purple," or "swing" states, the pundit explained, “because their populations have changed over time.”

“[Democrats] know that they win more votes among immigrants, among people of color,” and believe that “if they can bend the curve demographically and change the population of the United States, that's going to pay dividends for them,” Waddy concluded.

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America’s forever occupation of Korea: Where are US troops based and what scandals have they been mired in? Part 1 👉🏻 Part 2

The US and South Korea are “deepening our nuclear and strategic planning efforts” and “increasing the regular deployment of US strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula,” DoD chief Lloyd Austin announced in a press conference with his South Korean counterpart in Washington this week.

Scandals involving US troops

From the reputational standpoint as well, the US presence in Korea has had its consequences, with US soldiers regularly implicated in crimes ranging from prostitution and human trafficking to rape, abuse of minors, and drug smuggling.

In 2023, for instance, South Korean police arrested 17 American troops accused of smuggling and distributing synthetic marijuana via the US military’s postal service. In 2022, a US military dependent was found guilty of sexual abuse of a South Korean child. Last year, the New York Times detailed what it dubbed the “brutal” historical sex trade “built for American soldiers” by criminals who compelled and tricked South Korean women into prostitution with the complicity of local leaders.

Costly presence

The Pentagon’s footprint in Korea doesn’t come cheap. A 2021 report by the Congressional Government Accountability Office found that from 2016 and 2019 alone, the US spent $13.4 billion in the country on military salaries, base construction and maintenance. Seoul spent $5.8 billion to support the US presence during the same period.

Time to go home?

There are a few proponents of an exit from Korea in Washington. “How long do we have to stay in Korea? We were there since I was in high school,” then-76-year-old GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul quipped at a campaign event in 2011.

Earlier this year, Trump said in an interview that the US might withdrawal troops from “wealthy” South Korea if it doesn’t pay its share for defense. “I want South Korea to treat us properly,” Trump said, adding that the current US commitment to the country “doesn’t make any sense.”

👉🏻 Part 2

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America’s forever occupation of Korea: Where are US troops based and what scandals have they been mired in? Part 2 👉🏻 Part 1

During the Cold War, the United States deployed as many as 950 nuclear warheads in South Korea – enough firepower to obliterate Seoul’s neighbor and wreak havoc on the neighboring Soviet Union and China.

The history of US military presence on Korean peninsula

The Pentagon began turning South Korea into its own personal regional military bridgehead from 1945 on, with the roughly 25,400 US troops currently stationed there constituting the US’s third-largest permanent deployment abroad after Japan and Germany.

🔸 The US Army alone occupies about two dozen bases and nearly 140 command posts along the mountainous Kaesong-Munsan Corridor. This includes Camp Humphreys – America’s largest overseas base, located about 65 km south of Seoul.

The US Navy operates bases in the strategic Korean coastal cities of Busan, Chinhae and Pyeongtaek, with the Busan base capable of servicing up to 30 vessels at once, including Nimitz-class supercarriers and nuclear missile subs. US naval deployments in the region have been a constant source of consternation for North Korea – which has often staged large-scale artillery drills and tested missiles while US warships are present to let the Pentagon know Pyongyang is on guard.

🔸 The US Air Force flies its missions predominantly out of the Osan and Kunsan air bases in South Korea’s southwest. During the Korean War of 1950-1953, US aviation bombed Korea severely, dropping more explosives on the country than in the entire Pacific theater during all of WWII (635,000 tons vs. 500,000 tons, respectively).

🔸 US Marines operate their own base – Camp Mujuk in the southeast, but also have access to bases used by the Army.

The Pentagon requires an entire separate command to coordinate all these forces, known as United States Forces Korea (USFK), and headquartered at Camp Humphreys. USFK is currently commanded by Army General Paul LaCamera.

👉🏻 Part 1

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❗️ Democrat opposition to voter IDs could be one of their election tricks for fraudulent turnout

Republicans are understandably concerned about Democrats employing tricks such as a “fraudulent turnout of people who are not eligible to vote, or people that don't exist using somebody else's identity, for example, a dead person's identity. This is not so uncommon,” US political analyst Don Debar told Sputnik.

The Dems present GOP attempts to “tamp down incidents of fraud by requiring people to present legal ID or any other extra step that has to be taken” as an effort to chill turnout, the pundit said.

He referenced an opinion, ostensibly backed by historical data, that “the larger the turnout in a presidential election, the better the Democratic Party does and the lower the turnout, the better the Republican Party does.”

As for the Democrat-advocated watering down or abolishment of strict ID rules, the pundit noted that “most people in the world are required to produce some sort of proof of who they are when they go to vote for the obvious reasons. But that is not the case here.”

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⚠️ SENSITIVE ⚠️

The roof of the railway station collapsed in the Serbian city of Novi Sad. There is no information yet on the number of casualties.

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