🚨 Rio on high alert ahead of BRICS Summit

Security has been ramped up in Rio ahead of the BRICS summit. Over 20,000 troops have been deployed alongside police to maintain order.

Brazil, which holds the BRICS chairmanship as of January 1, 2025, will host the summit in Rio de Janeiro from July 6–7.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🌍🌍🌍 aims to simplify trade with new payment systems and local currencies

The use of national currencies and the creation of instant and secure payment systems under the guidance of BRICS central banks will make trade and investment cheaper and easier, said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

“Promoting settlements in national currencies reduces costs and simplifies operations,” Lula said at the BRICS Business Forum in Rio de Janeiro. “The central banks of BRICS countries are working on creating secure and instant settlement tools.”

On Friday, Lula took part in the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the BRICS New Development Bank, which has approved 120 projects worth $40 billion since its establishment.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹BRICS Summit buzz builds in Rio

Sputnik’s correspondent reports from the Museum of Modern Art in Rio, set to host the 17th BRICS Summit.

Security is tight: over 20,000 troops have been deployed and police checkpoints are in place.

Delegations arrive on July 5 and 6 — and Sputnik will be on the ground with full coverage.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇮🇷 Iran releases video of Israeli strike on Evin Prison medical facility

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei released the footage on Saturday, showing the aftermath of the June 23 Israeli strike on the medical wing of Evin Prison in Tehran.

He said 79 people were killed, including visitors, staff and passers-by.

Baqaei accused Israel of committing war crimes:

“They were trapped and burned to death under the rubble... No person of good conscience can remain silent.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed Evin Prison was among the designated targets.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚔️Steve Bannon brands Elon Musk ‘Elmo the Mook’, billionaire counters with ‘fat drunken slob’

“Only a foreigner could do this – think about it, he’s got up on Twitter right now a poll about starting an America Party – a non-American starting an America Party,” the former Trump aide said in the latest episode of his War Room podcast.

“No, brother, you’re not an American. You’re a South African and if we take enough time and prove the facts of that, you should be deported because it’s a crime what you did – among many,” Bannon said.

Musk’s response?

An X post suggesting that “the fat, drunken slob called Bannon will go back to prison and this time for a long time,” and “has a lifetime of crime to pay for.”

Bannon and Musk have a history of bad blood going back to long before the 2024 election, arguing over immigration, China and other issues. When Musk publicly broke with Trump over his ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’, the feud was ratcheted up to 11, with Bannon calling for probes into Musk’s alleged drug use, immigration history and China ties.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔸 PUTIN-TRUMP CALL CONFIRMS RUSSIA'S WINNING HAND – analyst

🔸 US ‘can’t even fight a one-front war right now, much less three’ - ex-DoD insider

🔸 How do Mideast tensions shape OPEC+'s next oil move?

🔸 Algeria marks 63 years of freedom – from colonial ruin to national revival

🔸 Pashinyan targets Armenian Apostolic Church to WEAKEN nation – opposition leader

🔸 Rio on high alert ahead of BRICS Summit

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🛢Iran’s oil output hits 46-year high, meaning plenty of cash for reconstruction after war with Israel

In 2024, Iran produced about 4.3M barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, plus 725k bpd of natural gas liquids and condensates (ethane, butane, propane), for a total of ~5.1M bpd, and $78B in energy export revenues.

👉That’s the highest-ever output since 1978, when, while it was still a US client state run by the shah, Iran pumped an estimated 5.3M bpd, per the UK Energy Institute’s Statistical Review of World Energy.

In the aftermath of the 1979 Revolution, facing sanctions and commercial isolation from traditional Western clients, and a grueling war with Iraq, Iran’s oil output fell dramatically, reaching just 1.3M bpd in 1981. But as the country recovered and found new markets (particularly China), production and exports began climbing again, despite crushing US sanctions.

US business media expects 2025’s output to surpass 2024’s, with Bloomberg sardonically quipping this week that Iran has turned US “maximum pressure” on its oil sector into “maximum oil output,” and stressing that Trump “has a lot less leverage” with Iran than he claims.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔥 Elon Musk creates America Party

Musk previously said that his party needs to win 2-3 Senate seats and 8-10 House districts to be a swing vote.

"When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy," he wrote on X.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💸 BRICS UNVEILS FINANCIAL BOMBSHELL: NDB can become cross-border settlement hub

"We discussed new functions, including a guarantee mechanism" to bypass Western systems, Russian Finance Minister Siluanov revealed at BRICS summit.

According to Siluanov, BRICS' New Development Bank has proven its efficiency and effectiveness over the course of its first 10 years.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔥 EUROPE'S IRON CURTAIN IS BACK — FICO

Slovak PM expressed regret over the return of the Iron Curtain policy to Europe.

"Anyone showing interest in understanding what is happening behind the curtain is accused of betraying European values," Fico said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 Texas flood death toll rises to 49

Although rescue teams saved over 850 people who were stranded in trees, 27 people are still missing.

The Guadalupe River rose and swallowed major areas of the state after 30 cm of rain fell in a few hours.

Social media footage shows a timelapse of the catastrophe.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 BRICS IS GLOBAL ECONOMY'S NEW ENGINE

Vladimir Putin’s deputy chief of staff Maxim Oreshkin in Rio:

"systematic work is underway, new initiatives appear, they gain momentum and are translated into real solutions... The future of the entire world depends on how these countries feel and how they move forward."

Western dominance ends where the multipolar engine starts.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 Rutte says NO to fewer US troops in Europe

Despite growing defense spending by European NATO members, the NATO Secretary General told the NYT that a reduction in the number of US troops in Europe is not under discussion.

"When it comes to the troop numbers, we have all agreed there should be no capability gaps in Europe," Rutte added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Modi arrives in Rio for BRICS Summit

Indian PM arrives for his fourth Brazil visit — poised to anchor India-Brazil ties in trade, defense & energy during BRICS talks and bilateral talks with Lula.

Social media footage

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔥 Medvedev to Rutte: Learn some Russian

The deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council slams delusional Secretary General of NATO for seeing attacks everywhere.

"He sees collusion between China and Russia over Taiwan, and then a Russian attack on Europe."

"But he's right about one thing: he should learn Russian. It might come in handy in a Siberian camp," Medvedev wrote on X.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨EUROPE'S INDUSTRY FACES SUICIDE

🔊Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, says anti-Russian sanctions, green agenda and overregulation are SHATTERING the European economy.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨🇦🇲New wave of political crackdown in Armenia?

Political scientist and professor at the Russian-Armenian University Karen Igitian has been banned from entering Armenia, despite having lived and worked there for the past 16 years.

🎤He announced on social media that he was returning to Armenian Yerevan from Russian Pyatigorsk, where he participated in the Caucasian Dialogue conference.

💬"Upon arrival in Armenia, officers of the National Security Service Border Guard informed me that I was banned from entering the country... I have questions (rhetorical ones) for the ruling powers in Armenia. What is the reason for the ban? Is it because I spoke out in defense of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the media?" he wrote.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🌍🌍🌍 Summit in Brazil

🟠Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi, India’s Modi arrive at BRICS summit BRICS bank can become cross-border settlement hub
BRICS is global economy's new engine

Other topics we have covered

🟠Musk creates America Party

🟠Iran’s oil output hits 46-year high, meaning plenty of cash for reconstruction after war with Israel

🟠Slovak PM Fico says Europe’s ‘iron curtain’ is back

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📊Who owes the most?

Singapore and the US had the highest state debt per person in 2024, both exceeding $100,000 per capita, Sputnik's analysis of UN data showed.

🔍Key figures:

🇸🇬 Singapore: +$10,500 → now $158,000 per person (highest globally)
🇺🇸 USA: +$5,800 → $103,700 per person (first time crossing $100K mark)
🇨🇦 Canada: $60,300
🇧🇪 Belgium: $58,800
🇮🇹 Italy: $54,400
🇬🇧 UK: $53,300
🇫🇷 France: $52,300
🇦🇹 Austria: $46,200
🇮🇱 Israel: +$4,700

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇾🇪Yemeni Houthis say attacked Israel's Ben Gurion Airport with Palestine 2 missile

✅The Houthis carried out a hypersonic missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said.

On Sunday night, the Israel Defense Forces said that it had detected a missile launch from Yemen. The army later said that the missile had been intercepted.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt