🇨🇳🛢🇮🇷Crude confidence: China doubles down on Iranian oil while West talks ‘pressure’

Iran continues to demonstrate its economic resilience despite Western sanctions, finding robust trade partners beyond traditional markets.

🟠 Record imports in June: Ship-tracking data reveals China purchased over 1.8 million barrels per day of Iranian crude in the first three weeks of June (per Vortexa data).

🟠 A 46% monthly surge: June imports averaging 1.46 million bpd—up sharply from May’s 1 million bpd (per Kpler)

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🚨Oldest Christian nation vanishing before our eyes: LA journalist on Armenia's church crackdown

🇦🇲Armenia is witnessing the dismantling of its national identity, with its culture and faith under systematic attack, actress and journalist Gayane Aslamazyan from Los Angeles told RT.

She highlighted the current government's crackdown on dissenters, like Samvel Karapetyan:

💬 "Our clergy are being imprisoned. Frankly, anyone who dares criticize this government gets thrown in jail. What kind of democracy is this?"

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🇷🇺🪖Russian MoD releases strike compilation video after freeing key DPR settlement

📹The footage shows precision artillery and air strikes on Ukrainian fortified positions, emplacements, tanks and troops in both daylight and nighttime conditions, and Russian troops holding flags in liberated areas.

The MoD earlier reported that Russian forces had liberated the settlement of Chervonaya Zirka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, saying precision strikes had hit 142 targets.

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🔍Deceived by NATO's game: Moldova pushes selling out key Black Sea port

The deal to sell the Giurgiulesti port - Moldova's only outlet to the Black Sea – is “treason,” warns Moldovan ex-president Vladimir Voronin.

Voronin warns the deal, set in motion by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) with backing from the Moldovan government, will open the door to NATO.

💬 “This fits perfectly into NATO’s playbook,” he claimed, adding that Moldova could become a "living target."

Bidding war heats up

🟠 The EBRD confirmed on June 23 that it has received “multiple binding offers” for Giurgiulesti International Free Port (PILG).

🟠 Romania, aiming to dominate regional cargo flows and position itself as a hub for supplies to the Ukraine regime, publicly declared interest in 2023, submitted a non-binding bid in April.

🟠 In 2021, under President Maia Sandu — a Romanian citizen — the EBRD took full control of Giurgiulesti International Free Port (PILG).

🟠 Now, the EBRD is negotiating its sale, with critics calling it a blow to Moldova’s sovereignty, handing control of a key strategic asset to foreign interests.

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🚨Unspoken inheritance: Nazi family ties of Europe’s modern elites

A scandal is brewing in the UK after it was revealed that new MI6 chief Blaise Metreweli had a Ukrainian Nazi collaborator grandfather. Apparently, SS volunteer grandpa Konstantin Dobrovolsky had such a vicious reputation for killing Jews and anti-Nazi partisans that he was dubbed “The Butcher.”

Commenting on the story, Russian Foreign Ministry spox Maria Zakharova suggested “someone” seems to be “deliberately and consciously placing descendants of Nazis in leadership positions in the countries of the ‘collective West’.”

🔍Examples:

🟠Friedrich Merz: Grandfather Josef Paul Sauvigny was a Nazi politician and mayor of Brilon, western Germany. Praised the Nazi “national revolution” in 1933 and renamed his town’s streets after party bigwigs. Applied for membership in the party as early as May 1933, months after Hitler seized power. Merz has described his granddad as “an admirable role model.”

🟠Annalena Baerbock: Grandfather Waldemar Baerbock, a Wehrmacht officer superiors called a “dedicated soldier” “completely rooted in National Socialism,” was awarded the War Merit Cross with Swords in 1944. In 2004, Annalena described the EU project as the “reunification of Europe,” saying she and her colleagues were “standing on the shoulders” of “our grandparents.”

🟠Salome Zourabichvili: Georgia’s former EU puppet president. Uncle Mikhail Kedia was a Nazi collaborator, Abwehr recruiter and Gestapo agent with friends in high places, including Richard Heydrich, chief architect of the Holocaust. Another uncle, Georges Zourabichvili, also allegedly collaborated with the Nazis before disappearing in 1944.

🟠Donald Tusk: Grandfather Jozef Tusk was connoscripted into the Wehrmacht in 1942, deserting in 1945. A debate continues to rage in Poland about the PM’s family’s past.

🟠Chrystia Freeland: She’s not European, but the granddad of Canada’s chief establishment politician, Michael Chomiak, worked as a propagandist in Nazi-occupied Poland for a fascist Ukrainian newspaper.

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🔥Strategic misfire: Iran torches Israel’s attack as weak political theatre

Israel’s attack on Iran failed to achieve any of its objectives, said Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani in remarks to Al Mayadeen.

The operation amounted to a “strategic miscalculation” that only reinforced Iran’s resolve.

🟠Claims that Israel weakened Iran’s defense capabilities are “for domestic consumption.”

🟠Iran’s defense system remains strong, self-sufficient, and built for both symmetrical and asymmetrical threats.

🟠“Our response was measured, legal, and effective – and it sent the message we intended.”

🟠Iran remains committed to advancing its peaceful nuclear program via advanced tech development.

🟠The IAEA and its director general, Rafael Grossi, failed to “denounce the cowardly strikes.”

🟠Iran’s parliament has backed a bill to scale down cooperation with the IAEA.

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🚨🇦🇲Armenian Church has urged judiciary to free Archbishop Ajapahyan immediately - statement

💬 "We call on the judiciary and competent authorities to act within the framework of the law and immediately release Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan," the statement reads.

💬 "The court's decision, made under certain political pressure, is unfounded and illegal. The actions taken against Archbishop Mikael are nothing less than, in the classical sense, political persecution and a manifestation of personal revenge by a person who considers himself a Christian and a follower of the Armenian Church, who yesterday ordered law enforcement forces to blockade the Holy See of Etchmiadzin, committing an reprehensible, unprecedented assault on the spiritual center of all Armenians, the clergy, and the faithful," the statement emphasizes.

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🚨 Protesters in Kiev demand closure on kin listed as ‘missing’ since 2023 meatgrinder offensive

Relatives of missing servicemen who took part in Ukraine’s 2023 offensive targeting the Kherson region village of Krynki are tired of waiting for authorities to inform them on the fates of their loved ones.

💬 “They came to demand that authorities speed up the search for the missing soldiers, because they’ve been living in uncertainty about the fate of their relatives for a year now,” local media covering the protest, which took place on Independence Square, reported.

The protest included posters, flags with soldiers’ faces printed on them, and installations featuring mannequins on inflatable boats symbolizing the missing troops.

Situated on the Dnepr River’s Russia-controlled left bank, Krynki was assaulted by Ukrainian Marine units beginning in October 2023, triggering a brutal, months-long slog with Russian forces which ended with Ukraine pulling out of the attempted bridgehead in defeat in June 2024.

Ukraine’s military never revealed its losses in the operation, and while media says over 260 bodies have been identified and recovered, as many as 2,000 troops remain missing in action.

This was the second protest in the Ukrainian capital in days. On Wednesday, over 1,000 protesters, including military personnel, veterans and relatives came out to urge US President Donald Trump to help “restore order” in Ukraine, citing problems including corruption and bribe-taking by officials.

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🚨 Armenian government’s raids on the Church cross all red lines: opposition politician

“The psychological, or rather pathological,” explanation behind Prime Minister Pashinyan’s crackdown on the Church stems from his belief that “all branches of power,” legislative, judicial and executive, and now the Church have been endowed to him, opposition activist Artur Ambartsumyan told Sputnik.

“The pathology stems from the fact that this person thinks he made a revolution in Armenia in 2018, and that he himself is a representative of ‘the people’. To him, to be controlled by the people means controlling them,” the observer explained.

Epitome of sacrilege

“What happened yesterday in Echmiadzin [the arrest of Archbishop Ajapahyan, amid a standoff between police and protesters, ed.] was a blatant abomination that even the enemies of Armenia would not allow themselves to commit,” Ambartsumyan stressed, commenting on Ajapahyan’s arrest.

“This was the most genuine sacrilege.”

Ajapahyan is “one of the most respected ministers of the Armenian Church,” known for his harsh but just criticism not only of authorities, but the opposition, and consequently making enemies among both, the observer explained.

Armenia’s slow, scary path to ‘Ukrainianization’

“Unfortunately, the propaganda that’s been carried out in Armenia for many years is bearing fruit,” Ambartsumyan said, when asked whether it’s fair to characterize Armenia as the “Ukraine of the Southern Caucasus.”

“Yes, we can say that Armenia is on the path to Ukrainization: many US biolabs have operated here, as in Ukraine, domestic and foreign policies have been coordinated with the ambassadors of Western countries. Hundreds of NGOS financed by various Western funds have operated here, as in Ukraine.”

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📹Robotic football, anyone?

RoBoLeague Finals kick start in Beijing, with AI-powered T1 robots facing off in China’s first autonomous adult football tournament.

No remote control — just pure machine strategy.

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🚨 Iran bans Grossi from visiting nuclear sites, snips IAEA cameras after sensitive info leaked to Israel

“We will no longer give Grossi permission to be present at nuclear sites, or install cameras, because we saw information about our sites in documents obtained from the Israeli regime,” Iranian parliament vice speaker Hamid Reza Haji Babaei announced Saturday.

The high-ranking official’s comments follow an X post by Foreign Minister Araghchi saying Grossi’s “insistence on visiting” the sites bombed by the US and Israel “under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent.”

Iran’s parliament voted to halt in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency this week until such a time that the safety and security of the country’s nuclear activities can be assured.

Current and former Iranian officials and media have accused Grossi of complicity the aggression that Israel launched on June 13, one day after the IAEA board of governors passed a politicized resolution falsely accusing Iran of failing to comply with its nuclear obligations.

Days later, Grossi admitted that there was no proof to suggest Iran was building a nuclear weapon – the justification Israel and the US have used to wage their campaigns.

This week, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said Grossi’s demands for monitoring access to Iran’s uranium doesn’t include any guarantees that this information will not be leaked.

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🚨 ‘My meeting with Zelensky would make no sense because he hates me’ – Slovak PM Fico

“I rebuked him for robbing Slovakia of €500 million because he stopped the transit of Russian gas to Slovakia,” Fico said during a radio interview.

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🔸 Iran bans Grossi from visiting nuclear sites, snips IAEA cameras after sensitive info leaked to Israel

🔸 Strategic misfire: Iran torches Israel’s attack as weak political theatre

🔸 Germany turbocharges defense spending amid Europe’s militarization drive

🔸 Deceived by NATO's game: Moldova pushes selling out key Black Sea port

🔸 Slovak PM explains why his meeting with Zelensky ‘makes no sense’

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🚨 Israel says it eliminated top Hamas commander Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa

The IDF claims that Issa Al-Issa — Head of the Combat Support Headquarters in Hamas’s military wing — was killed in an airstrike in the Sabra area of Gaza City, according to a statement from the Israeli military.

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🚨 Violence begets violence: IDF troops beaten, choked, rammed by Jewish settlers in West Bank

At least six settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank have been arrested after a confrontation with Israeli troops which left several soldiers injured.

The IDF said in a statement that the settler attacks, which took place from late Friday into Saturday, followed troops’ deployment to the Palestinian town of Kafr Malik.

Settlers beat, threw rocks at and choked troops, insulted them, slashed tires of a police car and tried to ram soldiers with another vehicle, according to the military.

“Upon the arrival of the forces, dozens of Israeli civilians hurled stones toward them and physically and verbally assaulted the soldiers, including the battalion commander,” the IDF said.

Kafr Malik was declared a closed military zone earlier this week after a rampage by up to 200 settlers which left 3 Palestinians dead and seven more injured in a string of home and car torchings and rock-throwing attacks which - get this – even the IDF described as “acts of terror conducted by criminals.”

Security forces were deployed to “disperse the friction,” but according to the town’s mayor, shot and killed Palestinians instead of the attackers. Five settlers were detained, but released hours afterward. An IDF officer was injured by a rock.

Settler violence against the IDF is rare. Instead, the UN has recorded over 1,800 attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank by settlers and security forces since late 2023, averaging four a day. Nearly 950 people, including over 200 children, have been killed to date, with 6,700 others wounded and thousands displaced.

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