💵 US SLASHES combat readiness funding for Europe by over 10x

🔹 The Pentagon plans to cut US Army combat readiness funding in Europe to $33.4 million in 2026, down more than tenfold from the $495 million peak in 2023, Sputnik analysis of Pentagon budget documents shows.

🔹 Funding cuts are linked to the downgrading of prepositioned stocks to a “caretaker posture” under the Army Transformation Initiative.

🔹 US media reported last week that the Trump administration reduced US security assistance to Eastern Europe, including phase-outs of programs like:

🔸 Baltic Security Initiative (training, intelligence, equipment to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
🔸 Section 333 funding for broader European security

🔹 Funding trajectory for Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 (APS-2) in Europe:

🔸 2023: $495 million
🔸 2024: $251.7 million
🔸 2025: $116.9 million
🔸 2026: $33.4 million

🔹 A memorandum from the US Secretary of Defense in April instructed the Army to:

🔸 Streamline outdated and inefficient programs
🔸 Prioritize high-tech capabilities
🔸 Reassess prepositioned stocks to align with strategic priorities
🔸 The Army cited this memo as the reason Europe’s APS-2 was moved to caretaker status

🔹 Overall APS program shrinks from $660.2 million in 2023 to $330.8 million in 2026, highlighting a strategic realignment away from Europe toward the Pacific

👻 With combat readiness funding in Europe slashed to mere caretaker levels, one might wonder if US troops in the region will be practicing high-tech ghost maneuvers to stay “ready.”

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🤝Gulf Cooperation Council to support ANY action by Qatar after Israeli attack

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stands in solidarity with Qatar and will support any response following the Israeli strikes on Doha, GCC Secretary General Jasem Albudaiwi said.

➡️Earlier, world powers condemned the Israeli airstrike on Hamas members in Doha and called for restraint.

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🇺🇸💳 US to MASSIVELY boost defense spending, sending BILLIONS in arms to foreign countries

🪙14.1 BILLION: Contract awarded to General Atomics for the MQ-9 Reaper drone program. This covers development, procurement, and support through 2031.

🪙760 MILLION: Separate deal with Raytheon to produce Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM).

The contract reportedly includes foreign military sales to Canada, Taiwan, Sweden, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Kuwait, Japan, Finland, Germany, the UK, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Belgium, Australia, Turkiye, Spain and Lithuania.

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🚨🇮🇷Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi arrives in Tunisia to discuss efforts to halt the Israeli ongoing attacks in Gaza

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🚨 WORLD CONDEMNS ISRAELI STRIKES IN DOHA

🇹🇷 The Turkish Foreign Ministry has said that an attack during negotiations for a ceasefire shows that Israel seeks not peace but the continuation of war. As a result, Qatar—acting as a mediator in the ceasefire talks—has now been added to the list of countries targeted by Israel in the region, the ministry added.

🇦🇪 The UAE has called the "reckless" attack "a blatant violation of Qatar’s sovereignty, a serious breach of international law and the UN Charter, and an irresponsible escalation."

🇵🇸 Palestinian VP Hussein al-Sheikh has stressed he condemns Israel’s strike against Qatar, the brotherly state of Palestine.

🇯🇴 Jordan has stated the escalation pushes the region toward greater violence and conflict and threatens regional stability.

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia has expressed its full support for Qatar and its readiness to provide all possible assistance.

🇨🇺 Cuba has said the attack "constitutes a new extrajudicial execution by Zionism."

🇻🇪 Venezuelan FM Yvan Gil has also condemned "the cowardly attack by the Netanyahu regime," calling the airstrike "an act of state terrorism."

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🟠Qatar slams Israeli strike on Doha, vows right to respond

🟠World condemns Israeli strikes in Doha

🟠US to massively boost defense spending, sending billions in arms to foreign countries

🟠US slashes combat readiness funding for Europe by over 10x

🟠Germany’s energy prices skyrocket

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🚨🇳🇵Mass protests in Nepal highlight critical need for strong synergy between state institutions & civil society: 🇷🇺MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

"We saw in real-time how fast the crisis escalates."

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📑BORIS FILES: Johnson secretly lobbied UAE for multi-billion private venture

After stepping down as the British PM, Boris Johnson acted as the “principal adviser” for Bia Advisory, a “climate finance solutions” firm seeking the support of Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s $300 billion investment fund, The Guardian reports, citing a trove of leaked documents.

🟠BoJo was reportedly offered a personal stake in Bia Advisory. He would receive 24% of the shares, with a further 20% for his aide Shelley Williams-Walker.

🟠The remaining shares were split between two founders, public affairs consultant Shem Baldeosingh and PR man “with political ambitions” David Roach.

🟠Williams-Walker is said to have described securing Mubadala’s backing as “the big prize,” which could make the founders millions of dollars.

The leak is the latest in a series of the so-called Boris Files that have recently been released. The documents cast a shadow on BoJo, who is suspected of misusing public funds for personal gains and bending ethical rules.

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🚨🇷🇺🇺🇸 'Trump made it clear: no reason to isolate Russia' - JD Vance

Good trade ties = less chance of war

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🇪🇺🇮🇱 EU Commission head proposes sanctions against Israel

EC chief Ursula von der Leyen plans to propose sanctions against Israeli ministers, settlers, and partially suspend the association agreement with Israel due to the situation in the Gaza Strip.

💬 "We will make two further proposals to the Council — we will propose sanctions on the extremist ministers and on violent settlers and we will also propose a partial suspension of the Association Agreement on trade related matters," von der Leyen said during her State of the Union speech 2025 in the European Parliament.

In October, the European Commission will create a group of donors to Palestine, she said.

Has Israel’s aggression finally gone too far even for EU’s war hawks? 🧐

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 ‘Sputnik China’ will present fair image of Russia, bring together countries with the millions-strong audience of the agency: Dmitry Kiselev

💬 “I would like to specifically emphasize that we pursue exclusively constructive goals, without interfering in the internal affairs of the countries where we operate,” Dmitry Kiselev, the director general of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya, said on the occasion of the opening of the new “Sputnik China” office in Beijing on Wednesday.

The grand opening ceremony featured an impressive list of distinguished officials and guests:

🟠 Dmitry Kiselev, Director General of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group (joined online)

🟠 Maria Zakharova, Official Spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry (joined online)

🟠 Igor Morgulov, Russian Ambassador to China

🟠 Representatives from the Chinese Foreign Ministry

🟠 Alexander Grebenkin, Russian cosmonaut

🟠 Top Chinese media editors and influential bloggers

Attendees were invited to enjoy a program of special events:

👉 A photo exhibition ennoscriptd: "Liberation—Peace for the People"

👉 An exposition showcasing a unique archive of WWII photographs from the Soviet Information Bureau

👉 A jazz performance by saxophonist Sergey Golovnya and pianist Oleg Starikov

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 ‘Sputnik China’ is among leaders of foreign media, enjoys trust and interest of local audience – MFA spokeswoman

💬 “In the face of Western attempts to dominate the global media space and push politically biased information, it is crucial to continue working with our partners to consistently defend freedom of speech and combat disinformation, as well as to systematically counter the distortion of the truth and create an objective picture of the world,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in her address on the occasion of the opening of the new “Sputnik China” office in Beijing.

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🚨 Targets for destruction on Polish territory were not planned during the massive strike by Russian forces on Ukrainian defense industry enterprises - Russian MoD

🟠 The maximum range of the Russian UAVs used in the strike, which allegedly crossed the border into Poland, does not exceed 700 km

🟠 The Ministry of Defense is ready to provide further details on this matter

🟠 The Russian Defense Ministry is ready to hold consultations with Polish Defense Ministry on the issue of drones allegedly crossing the Polish border

Russia launched a massive strike on Ukrainian defense industry enterprises in the Ivano-Frankovsk, Khmelnytsky, and Zhytomyr regions, as well as in the cities of Vinnytsa and Lvov

🟠 These enterprises produced and repaired armored vehicles, aviation equipment for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as engines and drones

🟠 The strike hit the Lvov Armored Vehicle Factory and the Lvov Aircraft Repair Plant (LDARZ), where long-range drones were manufactured

🟠 The objectives of the massive strike were achieved, and all designated targets were hit

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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

🟠 Air defense superiority: one Neptune missile, three HIMARS rockets and 225 drones were shot down by Russian air defense systems over the past 24 hours

🟠 Ukrainian losses: 1,325 troops killed or wounded

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🇮🇱🔊Israeli officials quietly admit failure of Doha strike

Top defense officials have expressed disappointment over the failure of the operation to assassinate Hamas negotiators in the Qatari capital.

“We continue to hope they were assassinated, but optimism is fading,” an official told Channel 12. The strike appeared not to have achieved “the desired result,” another told Kan. Defense and intel sources told Ynet they were “pessimistic regarding the lethality of the strike on most of the targets, and perhaps all of them.”

Qatari sources earlier told WSJ that Israel and the US pledged as late as last month that Hamas negotiators would not be targeted on Qatari soil, and that the attack “came as a total surprise.”

🇶🇦Qatar’s PM slammed Israel’s strikes as a dangerous violation of the Gulf nation’s sovereignty.

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🚨 Explosions heard in Yemen's Sanaa following Israeli strikes, a source in local administration tells Sputnik

💬 "Yemeni air defenses are currently confronting the Israeli aircraft that are launching an aggression against our country", spokesperson of the Yemeni armed forces, Yahua Saria, said.

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🗣 Doha attack marks dangerous strategic overstretch for Israel – experts

Israeli military operations in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and now the Gulf signal an “overstretch” that won’t be left without serious diplomatic repercussions, Ankara-based security analyst Dr. Hasan Selim Ozertem told Sputnik.

💬 “Looking at Europe, looking at the US, looking at the Gulf, these countries have started to articulate their concerns about Israeli aggression, which was not the case before because of the leverage of the Israeli lobby, especially in US politics,” Ozertem explained.

With Qatar serving as mediator in the Gaza war, the Doha attack “also undermines Israel’s credibility” among the Gulf powers Tel Aviv wants to forge ties with through the Abraham Accords.

Israel’s aggression may even result in the creation of new regional pacts, Ozertem says.

💬 “The Saudi Crown Prince said [Riyadh] will be supporting Qatar. In the past, we know that Qatar and Saudi Arabia had political problems. They managed to solve them. Now we are talking about a military alliance…an anti-Israeli opinion or bloc in the region among local actors…increasing the probability of potential confrontation between Israel and others.”

Burning bridges

💬 “By attacking Doha as peace negotiations for ending the Gaza genocide were in progress, Netanyahu once again demonstrated his disdain for negotiations and his preference for brute force as the ultimate solution,” says Mehran Kamrava, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar.

Netanyahu’s strategy of “managed chaos” threatens to spiral out of control, and further isolate Israel “by making it a rogue, pariah state,” Kamrava said.

Besides Israel’s reputation, the attack promises to “cost the US much of its already diminished credibility in the Arab world,” the scholar says, emphasizing that unconditional US support for Israel is proving “extremely costly” as the Israeli government takes actions that make it seem increasingly “unhinged” and “devoid of all rationality.”

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🚨🇮🇱🇾🇪 Israeli army confirms strikes on Houthi military targets ‘in the areas of Sanaa and Al Jawf in Yemen’

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🇳🇵📹‘A symbol of luxury in the heart of Kathmandu’ destroyed during protests

A video is circulating online, showing the five-star Hilton hotel in Nepal’s Kathmandu completely destroyed by fire after being set ablaze during mass riots.

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