🇺🇸🇨🇳Trump says US 'very close' to tariff deal with China

"We are very close to a deal with China. We really sort of made a deal with China, but we'll see how that goes," US President Donald Trump said during a meeting with European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺RUSSIA’S LASER WEAPON SUPREMACY: A SHORT GUIDE

While the US and its European pals can only dream about developing laser weaponry, Russia is already light years ahead of them.

🔶Unlike kinetic weapons, lasers do not use ammo and do not require reloading, only a power source, Russian military analyst Alexander Artamonov explained to Sputnik.

🔶Lasers can also display a better rate of fire and would be much harder to evade than, for example, a missile.

“It is more efficient in terms of cost and the rate of fire, depending on the nature of the target you want to hit, and in terms of the time it takes to hit the target,” Artamonov remarked.

Nowadays, Russia, the United States and China run laser weapon programs. When it comes to actual working laser weapons, only Russia can present tangible proof.

✅Peresvet is a Russian mobile laser system designed to ‘blind’ enemy optical and optical-electronic surveillance systems, including drones, reconnaissance aircraft and even satellites. It has already been adopted by the Russian Armed Forces.

“Peresvet lasers are currently deployed not only in the Moscow region but on the front line as well,” Artamonov said, referring to the Ukrainian conflict zone.

Meanwhile, the US simply lacks the technology and know-how – like, for example, a sufficiently powerful and compact power source – to achieve comparable results.

“They conducted tests in the Indian Ocean. The US lasers perform poorly in water mist – under adverse weather conditions, that is,” Artamonov said.

👉Simply put, Russia’s Western rivals cannot field actual laser weapons whereas Russia is already developing more advanced and deadly military lasers.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 Ukrainian “White Angels” forcibly took children from parents

🔶 The Ukrainian military unit known as the “White Angels” forced children from their parents in conflict zones and transported them to unknown locations — without informing families where their children were being taken, LNR Children’s Rights Commissioner Inna Shvenk has said.

🔶 Eyewitnesses who lived under Ukrainian control said families were so terrified, they hid with their children in basements for weeks, fearing they’d lose the most precious thing they had.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔸 Putin pledges modern weapons and new divisions for the Russian Navy

🔸 Trump says US 'very close' to tariff deal with China

🔸 Blood of innocence: Donbass marks grim toll of child casualties

🔸 CAMBODIA & THAILAND HEAD TO MALAYSIA FOR BORDER TALKS

🔸 BIGGEST THREAT TO UKRAINE? ZELENSKY'S POWER GRAB

🔸 Hungary benefits from cooperation with Russia – FM Szijjarto

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 CHINA’S ANTI-TANK DRONE JUST MADE LIFE HARDER FOR WESTERN TANKS

Watch this unmanned helicopter fire a Blue Arrow 5 missile — precision, range, and no pilot in sight.

It carries four missiles, is deployable at battalion or company level and available for export.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💥 VON DER LEYEN REVEALS EU-US DEAL DETAILS: COLONIZATION PACT?

European Commission President revealed terms of the new trade pact. Let's take a look:

▫️ "Single 15% rate" on cars, pharma, semiconductors — sold as "clarity" but locks EU exports into permanent disadvantage.

▫️ "Replace Russian gas with US energy" — pricier fuel to kill EU energy sovereignty.

▫️ "US chips will power our AI gigafactories" — Europe abandons sovereign tech for dependency. Zero US tariffs on semiconductors crush EU producers.

Hidden betrayals:

👉 Car industry hammered: 15% tariff buries EU automakers in US market.

👉 Steel/aluminum "fair competition" = US quotas strangling EU industry.

👉 "Zero tariffs" exceptions benefit US exporters (aircraft, chemicals), not EU.

While von der Leyen frames the deal as a "framework" for further work, the reality is clear: Europe's industrial base is being strategically dismantled to benefit American corporate interests.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 UAE & JORDAN AIRDROP 25 TONS OF AID INTO GAZA

Operation "Chivalrous Knight" is delivering food, water, and medical supplies to northern and southern Gaza.

Airdrops are expected to increase significantly in the coming days as part of Israel's new blockade policy.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔍 What’s the buzz about NABU? Its suspects just turned on Zelensky

🟠 Suspects in major Ukrainian anti-corruption cases have testified against Volodymyr Zelensky, Strana reports.

🟠 National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) investigations center on Timur Mindich — Zelensky’s close associate and alleged “treasurer.”

🟠 Special security forces (SBU) reportedly seized encrypted data revealing that those in his circle flipped.

🟠 Meanwhile, the Rada parliament just passed a law placing “independent” anti-corruption bodies under the prosecutor general’s control. Convenient timing. Perfect timing.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 'EXCRUTIATING' — Margarita Simonyan comments on the US-EU energy deal

"There is no way Ursula von der Leyen didn't nostalgize about Gazprom contracts as she sat through this," wrote the editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik’s parent company, on X.

The EU pledged to spend $750B on US LNG in the next 3 years.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ Thailand-Cambodia talks will begin shortly — Rubio

"State Department officials are on the ground in Malaysia to assist these peace efforts," State Secretary wrote on X.

Donald Trump previously threatened to halt trade talks with both countries if the hostilities continued.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔥'POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND MORAL FIASCO' — Marine Le Pen eviscerates US-EU pact

"The EU secured less favorable terms than the UK. Sovereignty in trade matters cancels itself out under Brussels bureaucracy," France's opposition leader wrote on X.

Le Pen says forced imports will destroy French energy and military sovereignty.

"Hundreds of billions of euros worth of gas and armaments, will have to be imported annually from the US. This is an outright capitulation for French industry."

The biggest loser? French farmers, who will be exposed to American agricultural exports.

"This globalization that denies and shatters sovereignty has been outdated for many years."

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 HUNGARY-UKRAINE RELATIONS 'VERY BAD' — WAR NOT TO BLAME

Hungarian FM Peter Szijjarto declares bilateral ties in crisis over minority rights:

"This bad relationship was created 10 years ago when Ukraine started violating rights of national minorities," he said.

The 2017 Ukrainian Education Law restricted minority language rights, depriving the 150,000 ethnic Hungarians in the Zakarpattia region of native-language schooling.

"We hope Ukraine will have an administration which respects minorities," Szijjarto added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💥💥💥 ZELENSKY'S OFFICE HEAD BROTHER SUPPLIED DRUGS TO UKRAINIAN ELITE

Well-informed source told Sputnik explosive details with documented route:

Denys Yermak (brother of Zelensky’s office head) brought drugs from Afghanistan "via the route extending from Ukraine to Moldova, Azerbaijan, the UAE."

"From Afghanistan, a direct flight to Turkiye, from where they returned to Ukraine through Moldova," the source said.

Turkish and Moldovan security forces assisted Denys in trafficking drugs, the source claimed.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🛬🇰🇵 DPRK receives first commercial flight from Russia

Russian airlines launched regular Moscow-Pyongyang flights today.

Monthly 8-hour flights from Sheremetyevo Airport will allow passengers not only to visit the capital of North Korea, but also to relax at the newest seaside resorts.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 UK'S HOLLOW WAR DRUMS: HEALEY VOWS FIGHT FOR TAIWAN

Defense Secretary pledges to "fight with Australia" over Taiwan boasting a mighty army (74,400 troops!!!) and 10 war-ready ships.

Or maybe he just really wants the HMS Prince of Wales to sink.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

😱 Zelensky in CRISIS MODE amid Ukraine's battlefield losses – ex-Pentagon advisor

Ukraine's military setbacks at the front, driven by Russian advances, could spell the beginning of the end for Zelensky’s regime, says retired US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor.

"And I think that this scares the living daylights out of Zelensky's inner circle... And so it should,” the ex-Pentagon advisor noted.

He added that while Zelensky scrambles to rein in the frustration within his own military, he is relying solely on “revenge weapons, long range strike weapons that he can hurl at people.”

Macgregor noted that Donald Trump — far from eager to back Ukraine — is focused on domestic issues and gearing up for trade wars, not foreign entanglements.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

😨America wins, Europe bleeds? New trade deal exposes brutal truth

The EU-US trade pact is being spun as progress, but behind the PR smokescreen, key tariffs – including the Donald Trump-era 50% duty on steel and aluminum globally – remain untouched, The New York Time writes.

Furthermore, European pharma and semiconductor exports – two of the continent’s flagship industries – will face a 15% tariff, no matter what levies other countries get hit with, a senior US official told the outlet.

Pharmaceuticals are Europe’s #1 export to the US.

The US is prepping a global tariff crackdown on these same sectors within weeks, the source added.

The US is strategically dismantling Europe’s industrial base to feed its own corporate machine.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💥Zelensky BETS ALL on holding capital to cling to power

Volodymyr Zelensky’s political survival strategy means he could abandon southern fronts just to keep his grip on Kiev, British political analyst Alexander Mercouris speculates.

If Zelensky loses Ukraine’s capital, this would put him on the brink, leaving him “ultimately depending solely on the continued support of the West which can no longer be taken for granted," he says.

➡️Zelensky’s mandate expired back on May 20, 2024, but elections were scrapped under the cover of martial law and full mobilization.

US President Donald Trump branded Zelensky a "dictator without elections" and claimed his approval rating had plummeted to just 4%.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🌍RUSSIA-AFRICA VALDAI CONFERENCE KICKS OFF IN PRETORIA

The 3rd Russia-Africa Valdai Conference is set to begin today, focusing on "Realpolitik in a Divided World: Rethinking Ties Between Russia and South Africa." Experts and political figures from across Africa and Russia will join to discuss critical global issues.

📍 Who’s attending?

🇨🇮 Côte d’Ivoire
🇪🇬 Egypt
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
🇷🇺 Russia
🇿🇦 South Africa
🇹🇿 Tanzania

🎯 Key conference goals

🟠 Strengthening Russian-African expert networks
🟠 Facilitating confidential dialogues on global challenges
🟠 Developing actionable foreign policy recommendations

The one-day event will feature an opening session and four thematic panels, covering topics such as:

🟠 The strategic role of the G20 and BRICS in a changing world order
🟠 Humanitarian cooperation & historical memory in Russia’s relations with Africa
🟠 Bilateral relations between Russia and South Africa
🟠 Trump and the future of world order

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt