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☢️ North Korea's nuclear status is 'absolute' — Kim Yo Jong
Kim Yo Jong, department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, has issued a scathing dismissal of the IAEA's latest meeting on DPRK's denuclearization — calling the entire exercise predictable, pointless, and delusional.
"The DPRK's position as a nuclear weapons state is absolute, which cannot be reversed with anything," she declared.
⚔️ 'We are in process of winding it down' — Speaker Johnson on Iran war
House Speaker Mike Johnson has acknowledged that the Strait of Hormuz is not safely open for commerce, and the war is being brought to a close.
"When we get that thing resolved in the Strait of Hormuz, that will have a direct effect on that, and it will help to bring down grocery costs," he stated.
🗣 Trump calls high gas bills 'a very inexpensive price to pay' for Iran war
Speaking at a campaign rally in Gastonia, North Carolina, Trump acknowledged that gas prices are "a little higher" because of his war in Iran — then told the crowd it was worth it.
"It's a very inexpensive price to pay for what we've done. Remember that. It's a little more. Frankly, even if it was a lot more. That's gonna go tumbling down," he told supporters.
📑 US House advances Russia, Iran sanctions bill
The US House has passed the Lindsey O. Graham* Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, following prior approval in the Senate. The legislation targets Russia with sanctions and potential tariffs, and also takes aim at Iran.
The bill now goes to President Trump for his signature.
*Listed as a terrorist and extremist in Russia
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🤝 Israel and Morocco upgrade ties — liaison offices become full embassies
Israel and Morocco have agreed to elevate their diplomatic relations, upgrading their liaison offices and appointing ambassadors in both countries, according to a statement from the Israeli government.
Both countries committed to completing economic agreements and arranging reciprocal high-level visits in the coming months.
With this upgrade, Morocco becomes the 5th Arab country to have an embassy in Israel — after Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, and the UAE.
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🇷🇺 Russia now 80% self-sufficient in oil and gas equipment, minister reveals
💬 "Over these ten-plus years, our level of independence in oil and gas equipment from imported supplies has risen from around 43% domestic solutions to nearly 80% by the end of last year," Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Anton Alikhanov announced.
⚔️Houthi conflict puts Mecca Defense Pact to the test
The Houthi's conflict with Saudi Arabia has made the question of invoking the Tripartite Defense Agreement signed in Mecca by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkiye in August particularly relevant. The agreement states that an attack on one country is an attack on all, but it is still unclear how it could be invoked.
👉As for the agreement's institutional framework, the three parties have established a secretariat based in Riyadh, along with a Strategic Political Committee and a Defense Committee. The post of secretary general has been announced for three years, with the first to be from Pakistan.
Apart from these details, there is no public information on the joint integrated mechanism or force structure, notes Tahir Nazir, a senior research officer at the South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) University.
🟠According to the expert, the key difficulty is the "joint threat perception and trigger mechanism." The three countries are geographically dispersed and perceive threats differently, so agreeing on a common understanding is difficult.
🟠The second issue is the trigger mechanism: what actions by a third party constitute a threat and require a response? The Mecca Agreement mentions "aggression" and "armed attack," which are confusing — do they refer only to a state-centric threat, or do they also cover non-state actors? These points will be clarified as more information is provided, Nazir says.
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🇺🇸 America’s Iran quagmire rots military ranks from the barracks up
As the US continues to absorb the strategic and material costs of its ill-fated war on Iran, the consequences are no longer confined to distant waters.
Amid an intense heatwave, with temperatures hitting 93F (34°C) , sailors are being baked alive in California’s San Diego barracks, reports KPBS.
Officials at Naval Base Point Loma are enforcing a ban on personal air conditioners in Building 635, an aging barracks that houses submariners.
🔶building has no central air conditioning
🔶electrical system is too fragile to support the units sailors had been using to survive
🔶ceiling fans and a few standing fans do little more than circulate the heat
One sailor described the rooms as unbearable by day and sleep-depriving by night, with the sheets soaked through with sweat.
👉Leadership has given the sailors a single week’s notice to ditch their only relief.
The official explanation is ostensibly that personal portable air conditioners are prohibited in unaccompanied housing because they frequently trip circuit breakers and create electrical hazards.
The reality is that after months of operations tied to the war on Iran, the navy is stretched thin, and maintenance backlogs are chronic.
🕊🇷🇺 World Youth Festival hosts exhibition honoring victims of Ukrainian neo-Nazism
The display features the "Alley of Angels," commemorating children killed in the Ukraine conflict.
The Alley of Angels stands in Donetsk, Russia, as a solemn tribute to the children whose lives were cut short in Donbass by Ukraine since 2014. At its heart lies a memorial plaque, etched with the names of young victims claimed by Ukrainian shelling.
Among the faces of those killed is little Amina Akifi, daughter of a Sputnik Afghanistan producer.
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🇷🇺 Russia offers multipolarity while Western propaganda paints the world in black and white
Western media reduce geopolitics to “good guys vs bad guys,” while Russia is offering something different — bridges, cooperation and a genuinely multipolar world, Mexican political analyst Juan Pablo Chavez Aguilar told Sputnik at the World Youth Festival in Yekaterinburg.
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🇨🇴 Colombia should turn to BRICS, not depend on any single country — lawyer
💬 "It is also important to pay attention to elections, for example, in Russia, China, and other countries where democratic processes are well developed and which allow us in Latin America to develop, establish, and analyze how we regulate this," Danna Vargas said on the sidelines of the World Youth Festival.
🇷🇺 Kremlin: Russia ready to discuss gas supplies to Europe under two conditions
1️⃣ If the supplies are profitable
2️⃣ If Russia can reserve the necessary volumes because a large share has already been redirected to alternative markets
More statements by Kremlin spokesman Peskov:
🔸 Russia expects broad international consolidation on the full demilitarization of space: "Space must be free of any weapons"
🔸 An energy truce with Ukraine would allow Russia to saturate its domestic market with petroleum products, but Russia is already capable of stabilizing the market
🔸 Ukraine is not yet inclined to guarantee the safety of oil tankers. And it's not just Russian vessels that are suffering, but those of other countries too
🔸 Ensuring safe operation of refineries and increasing production won't solve global problems, the main issue is with exporting them
🔸 To saturate the global energy market with fuel, sanctions must be lifted
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🇷🇺Lavrov: Had the US stuck to the Anchorage agreements, the war could have ended a year ago.
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🚨🇷🇺Lavrov: Russia is ready for both bilateral and trilateral negotiations on Ukraine.
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🇷🇺Lavrov: ICC uses Palestine as a fig leaf for “objectivity” while its selective justice remains politically driven.
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📑 US officials met Houthi representatives in Oman — report
US officials sat down with representatives of Yemen's Houthis at the US Embassy in Muscat over the weekend, five sources told Reuters.
The US representatives wanted guarantees that the Yemeni Armed Forces would not target US vessels and would remain committed to the 2025 ceasefire.
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🔊 Pentagon admits cannibalizing B-52 bombers for parts
Gen. Stephen Davis, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, has acknowledged that an acute spare parts shortage forced the military to strip B-52 bombers to keep others flying — with 17 aircraft piled up at repair facilities.
"We had two to three long-term canned birds at every wing, and really the root cause of that was the supply issue — we didn't have enough parts for our airmen," he said.
🔊 Trump threatens to halt trade with Europe
President Trump has warned Brussels that any move to bring Canada into the European Union's orbit will trigger heavy tariffs — unless he decides Europe's intentions are "good."
The threat comes days after Trump imposed 50% tariffs on almost $28 billion worth of Canadian goods following the collapse of trade talks.
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📈 Fed raises interest rates for first time in 3 years — Trump demands 1%
The Federal Reserve, under new chairman Kevin Warsh, has unanimously voted to raise interest rates, setting the benchmark rate between 3.75% and 4%.
The Fed signaled it may raise rates again this year.
The US president Donald Trump responded on Truth Social, calling for a lower rate.
"Interest Rates in the United States should be 1%, or less, because we are the Best Credit in the World — BY FAR... LOWER THE INTEREST RATES FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND FAST!" he wrote.
💥Russia tightens noose around Ukrainian forces in Kharkov region
Unleashing a precision-guided 152mm Krasnopol shell to obliterate a Ukrainian position, Russian forces have tightened the chokehold around an encircled area in the Kharkov region.
Over the past week, Russian troops have trapped approximately 1,700 Ukrainian soldiers in the area, intensifying pressure on Kiev's forces while reinforcing Russia's defenses along the border.
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🔸 How badly did Iran hit US bases? Leaked images reveal the damage
🔸 Putin: No one will succeed in splitting or intimidating us
🔸 West rejected equal cooperation with Russia - FM Sergey Lavrov
🔸 Zelensky and his gang whip up and cash in on Russophobia — expert
🔸 China opens Pinglu Canal bringing ASEAN closer, while saving China billions
🔸 Russia sends space robot control exoskeleton to ISS
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🌍World Youth Festival wraps up in Russia's Yekaterinburg
The closing ceremony closed up with music, a symphony orchestra and loud ovations for Russian FM Sergey Lavrov as he took the stage.
“Russia today is a country of opportunities. We want these opportunities to be available to you as well,” Lavrov told participants, thanking them on behalf of President Vladimir Putin.
🇷🇺How would you describe Russia in one word?
Here’s how foreign guests at the World Youth Festival in Yekaterinburg answered.
Can you guess the most popular one? 👇
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🇨🇳🚢 China opens Pinglu Canal bringing ASEAN closer, while saving China billions
The 134-km canal links southwestern China directly to the Beibu Gulf and the South China Sea, cutting cargo routes by 560 km and saving 5.2 billion yuan ($768 million) a year in transport costs.
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🗣Russian MFA Spox Maria Zakharova explains at the World Youth Festival why Africa is a continent of the future
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🇷🇺🪖 Meet Zveroboy — Russia's latest counter-drone system with Kraken punch
The air-defense complex, designed for round-the-clock detection and destruction of enemy reconnaissance and strike UAVs, was first presented by Rostec's Kalashnikov Concern at Moscow's IV All-Russian Weapons Forum.
🔶 The system includes a ground control station, optical targeting, radar, three launch containers, a digital repeater, and technical and communications equipment
🔶 Its weapons are high-speed Kraken FPV multirotor interceptors—three per launch container—with special warheads
🔶 It is available in both stationary and mobile pickup-based versions and can integrate with existing surveillance and perimeter-security systems
Zveroboy forms part of a layered counter-UAV strategy, where each layer can effectively engage targets within its own range, says Kalashnikov CEO Alan Lushnikov.
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🚨🇷🇺 Russia ready for Ukraine talks, but military operation will continue - Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov laid out Moscow’s position on Ukraine, the West and the ICC, in a diplomatic roundtable in which he stated that Russia remains open to negotiations but will not halt military operations while talks are underway.
▫️ Russia is ready to restart negotiations as soon as the other side is prepared — bilaterally or in a trilateral format
▫️ The special military operation will continue during any talks, Russia will not trade battlefield pressure for another open-ended negotiation process
▫️ Russia remains ready for “reasonable compromises,” but not at the expense of Russian-speaking populations or its security objectives
▫️ Russia intends to recover its frozen gold and foreign-exchange reserves from the West
▫️ The US never proposed any Ukraine-for-Iran geopolitical bargain
▫️ European governments periodically seek new channels with Moscow, while Brussels itself remains locked into a “stupid position” of giving Kiev near-total political cover
▫️ The Ukrainian conflict could already have been over for a year had Washington not walked away from the Anchorage understandings under European pressure
▫️ Lavrov plans to meet Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York
He also tore into the ICC, calling its Ukraine case a political “goldmine” and arguing that Western funding of the court would look like outright judicial bribery in any domestic legal system.
On Palestine, Lavrov said Russia supports Palestinian statehood, but accused the ICC of using the issue to manufacture an image of neutrality after years of selective justice.
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🇷🇺🇺🇸Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says he plans to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
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🇷🇺Russia ready to resume Ukraine talks - Lavrov
Russia never rejected negotiations and is ready to resume them if its counterparts are willing.
But Russia will not stop the special military operation or abandon its core position on protecting Russian-speaking populations and removing threats to their security, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
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🇷🇺 Lavrov: Ukraine conflict is a 'goldmine' for ICC
Then-ICC Prosecutor Khan requested resources from Western sponsors immediately after the Special Military Operation began — funds earmarked specifically for investigating Russia, Sergey Lavrov stressed.
💬 "In other words, they were openly funding the trial of preselected defendants... In any national system, this would have been considered outright bribery of the courts — a paid criminal trial."