🚨 Trump departs Egypt after signing historic document on Gaza ceasefire deal

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣🇵🇸 No MidEast dawn while Palestinian aspirations are ignored – expert

US President Donald Trump has hailed a “dawn of a new Middle East” after the Gaza ceasefire, promising a “beautiful, brighter future” in his Knesset address in Israel.

But does that vision reflect reality — or the interests — of the wider Middle East?

💬 "As long as... Palestinian aspirations are ignored and relegated to marginal status, I don't think there will be lasting peace, both with the Palestinians themselves and also by political aspirants who are non-Palestinian but use the plight of the Palestinians for their own political purposes," Professor Mehran Kamrava from Georgetown University Qatar tells Sputnik.

Decisions about Palestine have been made without Palestinians since 1948, the professor notes — and this time is no different: “Once again, they’re getting the wrong end of the deal.”

During Trump’s Knesset address, Israeli MPs Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif from the Arab list disrupted the speech, holding a sign reading “Recognize Palestine.” They were swiftly removed from the chamber.

💬 "I don't anticipate an end to prolonged episodes of instability in the coming years, so long as the Palestinian predicament is ignored the way it is," Kamrava says.

The pundit argues that the US and Israel, widely viewed in the Middle East as close allies, are misreading the region - particularly through their disregard of Palestinian suffering and their actions against Qatar and Iran.

Those strategic miscalculations may backfire, according to the academic.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇺🇸🇨🇳 US to face ‘DEVASTATING’ fallout if China clamps down on rare earths

🗣The proposed 100% US tariffs on China could trigger a potential nightmare for America’s defense and aerospace companies like Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics, and SpaceX, Jeff J. Brown, author of The China Trilogy, tells Sputnik.

These metals power weapons, aerospace, electronics, renewables, cars, and medicine, so the afore-mentioned giants are probably “squirming” right now, he notes, adding: “China has found America’s Achilles heel in this respect and has got Uncle Sam in a very serious bind.”

According to Brown, who is also founder of Seek Truth From Facts Foundation, it will take years for the US to develop its own rare earth sector, from mining to processing.

America’s R&D on rare earth alternatives and recycling is years off, so hiking US tariffs to 100% only gives China more reason to tighten its rare earth chokehold, stresses the pundit.

📉 Tariff threats will blow up in US’ face

China-US trade is no longer the powerhouse it once was, underscores Brown, pointing out that:

🟠 As the US increasingly weaponized the dollar, China pivoted to trading with Russia, Asia, Africa, and Latin America

🟠 China has slashed its US dollar holdings — from 79% of reserves in 2005 to 58% in 2019 and falling — while keeping total reserves steady around $3 trillion

🟠 China has been stacking gold and boosting its own currency, the renminbi, prepping a move away from the dollar

🟠 Estimates suggest China’s gold stash is closer to 25,000 metric tons, not the official 2,200 metric tons

Through BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, ASEAN, and bilateral deals, China is ditching the US dollar in cross-border trade.

Furthermore, Russia and China are developing an interbank payment system geared towards dumping the West’s SWIFT payment system, “which has been turned into a political sledgehammer," says Brown.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔊🇵🇸 Summit on Gaza in Sharm El-Sheikh is an important moment for the Palestinian issue — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to a Sputnik correspondent

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🔥 Russia’s Akula-class subs: Silent giants the US still can’t match

America’s Navy has nothing sailing right now that can match Russia’s retired Soviet Project 941 Akula-class (lit. Shark) nuclear-powered submarines, writes the National Security Journal.

The Akulas (NATO name: Typhoon class) were designed as a response to the US Ohio-class submarines, and first launched from the Russian port of Severodvinsk in 1980.

They were:

🟠 Purpose-built for nuclear war in harsh Arctic conditions

🟠 Featured dual parallel pressure hulls for survivability

🟠 Boasted fearsome firepower—20 R-39 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) with multiple warheads

🟠 The missiles were capable of carrying up to ten multiple independently-targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs) — separate nuclear warheads capable of striking different targets

🟠 Nearly 173 meters long and 23.3m wide, they were the largest in the world in terms of tonnage (23,200 tons surfaced and 48,000 tons submerged)

🟠 Could patrol underwater for four months straight — and push even further if required

These submarines were a “swift and silent beast” - quieter than the Americans expected, notes the outlet, adding:
“The Typhoon-class could have snuck up on the United States undiscovered and let loose a mighty launch.”

In 2023, the Russian Navy retired its last Project 941 submarine, the test vessel TK-208 Dmitry Donskoy, which had been upgraded to carry R-30 Bulava-30 ICBMs.

👉 Dmitry Donskoy served as an inspiration for newer advanced nuclear-powered submarines: the Borei class, each capable of carrying 16 Bulava ballistic missiles, and Yasen-class nuclear submarines with Onyx, Kalibr, and Zircon missiles.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔥 🇨🇳 🪖 Dragon fire: Chinese army drills artillery units

People’s Liberation Army soldiers improve coordination in howitzer firing during military exercises in Xinjiang.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇹🇷 Turkiye will take responsibility for rebuilding Gaza

"Our country will continue to assume responsibility for rebuilding Gaza, healing its wounds, ensuring that our Palestinian brothers can look to the future with hope and confidence," said Burhanettin Duran, the president's head of communications.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 Joe Biden commends Trump's Gaza deal

The former president said he was relieved about the prisoner exchange and thanked Trump for helping to achieve the ceasefire in Gaza.

"My Administration worked relentlessly to bring hostages home, get relief to Palestinian civilians, and end the war. I commend President Trump and his team for their work to get a renewed ceasefire deal over the finish line," Biden wrote on X.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔥 Better than wooden stakes! US Vampire anti-air system erased by Lancet strike in Ukraine

A weapon specifically designed to combat drones, this Vampire was obliterated by the very thing it was supposed to destroy.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔊 UK is ready to participate in Hamas disarmament — Starmer

Prime Minister said the UK stands ready to play a leadership role in the process of decommissioning Hamas and participating in the ceasefire monitoring mission.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇲🇬 Madagascar President addresses nation after fleeing the country

In a live address, Rajoelina confirmed relocating to an undisclosed safe location after soldiers moved to seize control of the national broadcaster ahead of his scheduled speech.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔍 Venezuela shifts diplomatic focus: closes Western embassies, opens in Africa

Venezuela has begun a strategic foreign service reorganization, closing its embassies in Norway and Australia while announcing new embassies in Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso.

The government states this move will optimize resources and strengthen alliances within the Global South, focusing on cooperation in agriculture, energy, and mining.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

👀 Amazon sacks employee who called out its secretive dealings with Israel

Ahmed Shahrour, a Palestinian engineer, was fired for publicly criticizing Amazon’s role in the notorious Project Nimbus, Bloomberg reported.

Project Nimbus is a collaboration between Google and Amazon aimed at providing cloud computing and AI services to the Israeli government and military.

Throughout the Gaza war, Shahrour had staged protests, handed out flyers, and posted messages in a corporate chat.

💬 “Amazon is not a neutral observer… We are active participants,” Shahrour told colleagues.

👉 Meanwhile, the employee of Whole Foods Market was dismissed for allegedly “threatening or intimidating” senior staff, according to an internal email.

He had also joined a group that occupied the office of Microsoft President Brad Smith in August, protesting the company’s own contracts with Israel.

The tech giant subsequently restricted some of its software for Israel’s military after it was discovered that its cloud servers were used to store surveillance data on civilians.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💀 Ukrainian militants turn corpses into death traps

Ukrainian servicemen are booby-trapping the bodies of their own dead soldiers in the Zaporozhye region, a Russian assault rifleman of the Vostok Battlegroup told Sputnik.

💬 "We approached a body of one serviceman killed in action to verify who he was and what patches he had. We looked carefully from the side, and there was a grenade under him. If you turn him over, everyone blows up. They set a lot of tripwires," he said.

According to the Russian serviceman, Ukrainian troops are also using strike drones to finish off their own soldiers looking to surrender.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt