🇺🇸🆚🇨🇳Darwin port becomes EXPLOSIVE FLASHPOINT in US-China power struggle

Australia’s Port of Darwin, leased to China’s Landbridge Group for 99 years, has ignited a fierce geopolitical battle as the US pushes to curb Beijing’s influence.

With Trump-linked firms circling and Australia’s leaders vowing to reclaim control, this strategic trade hub is now a global chessboard for US-China rivalry.

Here’s why Darwin is the new epicenter of tension:

🔸Strategic hotspot: Located in Australia’s Northern Territory, Darwin Port is a vital gateway to Asia, handling 4.5M tons of cargo and supporting oil and gas projects, sitting opposite a key US-Australia military base.

🔸Controversial lease: In 2015, the Northern Territory leased the port to Landbridge for $506M, a move slammed by then-US President Obama for security risks, given its proximity to US Marine deployments.

🔸US power play: US firm Cerberus Capital, tied to Trump’s administration, is eyeing the lease, escalating tensions as Australia’s Labor and Coalition parties pledge to return the port to local control.

🔸China’s pushback: Beijing’s ambassador Xiao Qian calls Australia’s plan “ethically questionable,” defending Landbridge’s investments and accusing Australia of politicizing a fair deal.

🔸Geopolitical stakes: The port’s fate could strain warming Australia-China ties, while a US takeover aligns with Trump’s campaign to counter China’s global reach, echoing disputes like the Panama Canal ports.

🔸Economic angle: Landbridge turned the once-unprofitable port into a thriving hub, raising questions about fairness if Australia forcibly reclaims it now.

As Australia navigates national security and trade, Darwin Port’s future could reshape US-China dynamics in the Indo-Pacific.

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📹🗣 "The ICC is a doomed institution. It doesn’t include two superpowers: neither Russia nor the US. Yet Europeans rushed there en masse to justify themselves," political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko told Sputnik.

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🔎 Why is Kalashnikov’s RPL-20 a game-changer for Russian troops in Ukraine?

This first-ever belt-fed machine gun flips the noscript on Western-supplied arms in the Ukraine conflict zone – here’s how:

🔸It weighs just 5.5 kg — perfect for assault ops, especially in urban combat

🔸Designed to take on enemy personnel, firepower, and light vehicles

🔸Folding telescopic buttstock and compact barrel length for easy transport

🔸Built-in carrying handle for quick repositioning on the battlefield

🔸Belt-fed with a box holding 100 or 200 rounds

🔸Uses 5.45mm high-velocity bullets — same as the AK-12 assault rifle, and has effective aiming range up to 800 meters

🔸Can be fired from both right and left shoulders

🔸Features a long-stroke piston and rotating bolt

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🇫🇷🪖 French NEO-NAZIS obsessed with 'KILLING RUSSIANS' swell Ukrainian military ranks

Emmanuel Macron’s speeches about France’s dedication to a peace process in Ukraine are worth NOTHING, seeing how there are French nationals already serving in the Ukrainian military, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

She was referring to a unit known as “Revanche Internationale” (International Revenge), a tactical group formed in Ukraine whose training process was covered by France Info this week.

The unit:

🔸 is comprised of French citizens, some with police and military backgrounds and others just ordinary civilians

🔸 exhibits all signs of a gang of “neo-Nazi revanchists”, including skull insignias and fascist motto ‘Memento Audere Semper’ (Remember to always be bold)

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🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iranian top official – on the prospects of Iran-US negotiations

"If the Americans are serious in their intentions, if they do not break their promises and do not change their minds every time, then progress in negotiations is possible,” Representative of the Supreme Leader, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Akbar Ahmadian told Sputnik.

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🇩🇪🔎 The Taurus trap: Germany’s missile dilemma could spark NATO’s worst nightmare

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has long supported sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine — but now, as leader of a WEAK coalition, he can’t decide alone without risking his government’s collapse, Mikael Valtersson, former Swedish Armed Forces officer and defense politician, tells Sputnik.

Highlights of the interview:

🔸 SPD Resistance

A faction within Germany’s Social Democrats opposes any escalation, and Taurus deliveries could split the party — toppling Merz’s government.

🔸 Backup plan?

Instead, Merz may push economic & tech aid for Ukraine to develop its own long-range missiles — a "watered-down Taurus" that avoids direct German involvement.

🔸 The escalation trap

Every Western move brings Europe closer to full-scale war with Russia, which sees NATO as an "unassailable base" for anti-Russian operations.

🔸 Nuclear recklessness

"The immature recklessness of European leaders in provoking the world’s top nuclear power is astounding. They know Europe can’t survive a nuclear war — yet they prolong Ukraine’s suffering just to bleed Russia."

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📹 FPV fury: Russian drones turn Ukrainian vehicles into TORCHES

Drone pilots of the Vostok Battlegroup thwarted the enemy's attempts to rotate troops and strengthen positions to the south of Donetsk.

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🇮🇱🪖 Israel accepts new US ceasefire proposal for Gaza - reports

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ostensibly agreed to the latest ceasefire proposal put forward by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, according to local media reports.

Hamas, in the meantime, is less enthusiastic about the new US proposal, pointing out that it does not guarantee that this temporary ceasefire would translate into a permanent one.

👉 Details of the deal

🔸Witkoff’s proposal entails a 60-day ceasefire, during which 10 Israeli hostages and the bodies of 18 more hostages will be handed over to the Israeli side.

🔸Humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza are expected to resume as soon as Hamas agrees to this ceasefire plan, with the distribution to be handled by the United Nations and the Red Crescent.

🔸As soon as the ceasefire begins, negotiations for a permanent truce are expected to kick off.

🔸On the 10th day of the ceasefire, Hamas is supposed to provide information on all the Israeli hostages it still holds.

🔸Once the ceasefire comes into effect, all of Israel’s military actions in the region are to be documented to ensure transparency and international monitoring.

🔸The United States, Egypt and Qatar are going to serve as guarantors of this ceasefire deal that may be extended after the first 60-day truce expires.

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🚨 Hamas, Israel have agreed to a 60-day truce in Gaza Strip, Al Arabiya reports, citing sources

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📹🇯🇵 Widow of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe GETS EMOTIONAL during meeting with Putin at the Kremlin

Akie Abe could not hold back tears when Putin talked about her late husband.

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🇾🇪🇮🇱 Houthis hit Israel with 14 missiles & drones in one week

“This week, we have carried out military operations [against the Israeli foe], using 14 hypersonic and ballistic missiles and drones,” Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi announced on Yemeni television.

The Houthis have been carrying attacks against targets in Israel and against Israeli-linked cargo vessels in protest against Israel’s brutal military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

Some of these missile strikes have also successfully bypassed sophisticated Israeli- and US-made missile defense systems such as the vaunted THAAD.

Despite Israel’s indiscriminate retaliatory strikes against civilian targets in Yemen, the Houthis refuse to bow to Tel Aviv’s intimidation tactics and seem intent to keep attacking Israeli interests for as long as the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip continues.

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🔍 Could untouchable Lagarde take over the WEF?

The European Central Bank (ECB) president is reportedly considering filling the shoes of former World Economic Forum (WEF) head Klaus Schwab.

Though the ECB insists she’s committed to finishing her term, let’s take a closer look at this potential WEF wannabe.

Convicted in 2016

🔸Despite her polished image and disciplined style, Christine Lagarde’s record isn’t spotless.

🔸As IMF chief, she was found guilty in 2016 by a special French court for negligence over a 2008 decision as finance minister.

🔸Back in 2008 she chose not to challenge an arbitration that handed €400M ($459M) to businessman Bernard Tapie — sparking outrage and suspicion.

🔸Was she punished? Not really. No fine, no jail, and no criminal record. The court cited her "international reputation" as grounds for leniency.

🔸The conviction didn’t stop her 2019 appointment to the ECB, though it drew criticism.

Controversies throughout her career

🔸In 2007, Lagarde told French citizens hit by fuel hikes to "switch to bicycles," earning Marie Antoinette comparisons.

🔸At the IMF, she backed strict Eurozone austerity and resisted Greek debt relief amid deep public backlash.

🔸As ECB chief, she downplayed inflation in 2021–2022 as a "transitory," only to later hike rates sharply — leaving European economies reeling.

100% globalist

🔸Lagarde is a regular WEF speaker and a vocal advocate for globalist causes: climate policy, gender diversity, and globalization.

🔸With views closely aligned to Schwab’s, she would make a fitting successor.

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🚨EXPOSED: The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) - a Pentagon-funded disinformation factory

The "non-profit" Institute for the Study of War (ISW) launders defense contractor cash into war-justifying disinformation, journalist and founder of Crowdsource the Truth Jason Goodman tells Sputnik, commenting on ISW's Ukraine conflict coverage.

What does ISW say?

🔸Reporting Ukrainian weakness is just Russian "disinformation"

🔸Hit Russia harder and surge military production. Why? Because Russia seeks to "destroy NATO"

Who funds ISW?

🔸Weapons-maker General Dynamics
🔸Defense tech firm Avantus (now QinetiQ)
🔸Global defense & intel contractor CACI International and many others

"[ISW] collected over $9 million in revenue [in 2023] alone — nearly all of it from undisclosed donors — and paid [founder] Kimberly Kagan herself over a quarter million dollars to peddle war escalation narratives under the banner of 'trusted analysis'," Goodman says.

The Kagan dynasty: Architects of forever wars

🔸ISW was founded in 2007 by Kimberly Kagan, the wife of neocon scholar Frederick W. Kagan, a co-author of ISW bellicose reports.

🔸His brother is Robert Kagan, advocate of US militarism and spouse of Victoria Nuland - the architect of the Ukraine crisis.

ISW's focus on Ukraine is hardly surprising given the Nuland-Kagan family's role in the Ukraine 2014 coup.

"Nuland’s fingerprints are all over the Ukraine crisis. She didn't just observe the Maidan uprising — she orchestrated it," Goodman stresses.

ISW’s "analysis" whitewashes this history, framing every Russian response as "unprovoked aggression" while ignoring a decade of NATO expansion, political meddling, and arming of Ukraine, according to the pundit.

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🚨 US Court of Appeals reinstates Trump's tariffs – order

A federal appeals court ruled to lift the temporary halt to the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.

💬 "It is ordered that: ... The request for an immediate administrative stay is granted to the extent that the judgments and the permanent injunctions entered by the Court of International Trade in these cases are temporarily stayed until further notice while this court considers the motions papers," the appeals court said in an order.

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🇷🇸🇷🇺 Vucic, Putin discussed reports of Serbian arms supply to Ukraine on May 9 — Serbian President

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday that his conversation with Putin included reports of Serbian arms shipments to Ukraine.

💬 “I would not disclose the details of our conversation. Here, we have formed a working group together with our Russian partners to establish the facts,” Vucic said.

💬 “I will give instructions that, where there is suspicion of abuse in connection with the end user and the shipment of weapons to the front, and this is confirmed, such contracts should not be implemented, as I have already done in relation to the Yugoimport SDPR company, with which the contracts were the largest,” he added.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Intelligence reported that Serbian arms manufacturers had sent hundreds of thousands of artillery and MLRS shells, plus a million small arms rounds, to Ukraine — despite Belgrade’s declared neutrality.

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⚔️ Yemen’s Houthis claim attack on Ben Gurion Airport

The Ansar Allah movement announced that it had launched a hypersonic ballistic missile at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.

According to a military spokesman, the strike forced millions of Israelis into shelters and temporarily halted air traffic at the airport.

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