🥴 "America was never great!"

Members of the Revolutionary Communist Party interrupted the July 4 Celebration of Freedom event in Philadelphia, where both the governor and mayor spoke, by burning an American flag.

The protesters set fire to and tore up the American flag shouting: "America has nothing to celebrate. We demand a different way to live, we demand a different system."

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ Series of explosions hit Berdyansk, Russia's Zaporozhye region as Ukraine army attempts another offensive attack: city authorities

🇺🇸 Federal Judge Terry A. Doughty issued an injunction in response to lawsuits by Missouri and Louisiana attorneys general alleging that tech companies were pressured by the White House to suppress free speech during the COVID pandemic. Social media platforms increased content moderation, censoring data deemed "false or misleading" and criticism of government anti-COVID measures.

According to one US media outlet familiar with the text of the injunction, Doughty argued that the US government "seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’ during the pandemic.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russia’s oil production cuts have been verified by seven independent sources, Saudi energy minister said

The reduction of oil exports by Russia by 500,000 barrels per day was not imposed on it, it was voluntary, the minister said, adding that Russia's compliance will be verified monthly.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇵🇸 #Palestinian mourners join funeral processions for those killed by the Israeli army operation in the West Bank city of Jenin.

Twelve Palestinians were killed by the 🇮🇱 #Israel Defense Forces (IDF) last night. This morning, all of their units had left the city.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsindia

🗣️ On Pentagon-contractor funded think tanks as authoritative sources on the Ukraine conflict:

“The Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Atlantic Council, these are very mainstream, hawkish think tanks that are famous for extreme views about how many more weapons that Ukraine needs and how the US should not seek to compromise with Russia... And you see that there isn't really an alternative voice that voiced in the media when it comes to these issues of war and peace,” Bryce Greene, a contributor to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Greene’s analysis in our podcast By Any Means Necessary

🇸🇪 Swedish police received three requests to hold demonstrations in Stockholm and Helsingborg with the burning of religious books

One of the requests asks for permission to burn the Quran in front of the Stockholm mosque, which the organizers want to hold "as soon as possible," the SVT television channel reports. Another request concerns the burning of the Torah and the Bible on July 15 in front of the Israeli embassy.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 On the ongoing civil unrest in France:

“This is how far the disaffection with Macron's policies have spread. Even the French colonies that have been, shall we say, loyalists to France for decades are starting to feel both economic and the social disaffection that the Macron government is generating and so much of his own populace... Obviously not to the extent yet of France, but that is talking about broader European disaffection by these ethnic/racial groups largely from Africa and the Middle East, who do not feel themselves to be in any way represented by the French political or economic elite,” Mark Sleboda, international affairs and security analyst, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Sleboda’s analysis in our podcast Political Misfits

👉 Watch full episode of our show on Rumble

Saudi Arabia has urged Iran to engage in talks on demarcation of border maritime zone in the Persian Gulf

In March 2022, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia agreed to jointly develop and exploit the al-Durra gas field located in the neutral zone in the Persian Gulf. The Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned the agreement, calling the deal illegal, while saying that Tehran also had a share in the field.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣️ On the Biden administration's economic agenda:

“While the US is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world, every nation in history that has gotten into that kind of situation is wound up having problems. We have printed a lot of money, we have borrowed and spent a lot of money, which is wonderful for the short term, but eventually we have to pay the price. Inflation is going to get worse. The debt problems are going to get worse and the US is going to suffer. Dimitri, this is not a good time to be a young American,” Jim Rogers, renowned US investor, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Rogers’ analysis in our podcast New Rules

👉 Watch full episode of our show on Rumble

🇫🇷 The family of the teenager shot dead by a police officer in the Paris suburb of Nanterre has filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office against the man behind a fundraising initiative to help the officer's family, French radio reported.

The attorney for the deceased teen's family said that far-right publicist Jean Messiha, the campaign's author, illegally used information about the teen's past offenses to make him look like a criminal and a repeat offender, as well as to organize a movement in support of the police officer who killed him.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇺🇸 Eighteen people have been killed and more than 100 injured in mass shootings in the United States during the Independence Day extended weekend, the Gun Violence Archive portal said on Wednesday.

"Fourth of July extended weekend mass shootings: 17 mass shootings...18 killed - 102 injured," it said.

The shooting incidents occurred in 13 US states and in the District of Columbia

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Joe Biden has been briefed by his staff regarding the cocaine found at the West Wing of the White House; the administration is relying on the Secret Service to investigate this case, WH Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed on Wednesday.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 The crew of Russia’s Ka-52 reconnaissance and attack helicopter destroyed an armored personnel carrier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a landing force using a guided missile

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣️ On how the US will pay its debts:

“They'll print a lot of money or the IMF will come in and lend them some more money, too. But the value of the money will deteriorate and decline as they print and borrow more and more money,” Jim Rogers, renowned US investor, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Rogers’ analysis in our podcast New Rules

👉 Watch full episode of our show on Rumble

🔺SCO adds Iran, pushing the trend toward multipolarity
🔺The situation around the Zaporozhye station exacerbates: NATO might use "nuclear incident" to enter Ukrainian conflict, Russian Energy Official warns
🔺Russia claims Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow "not possible" without US support

The Critical Hour will cover these and more stories! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6pm EST|3pm PST|12am CET via the website or app

📻 Also in the United States at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM, 1140AM

📹 Russian artillery in the zone of the special military op stops the attack of an armored group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which included a Leopard tank, with heavy fire

🇺🇸 CIA personnel have visited Ukraine with multiple secret missions to provide assistance to Kiev with the operations of new weapons and systems, an American weekly magazine reported, citing senior defense intelligence officials.

Information about some of those trips was kept private. At the same time, all the missions were conducted to avoid direct confrontation with Russian troops, the report added.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt