🇷🇺 🌍 What's in Second Russia–Africa Summit Program & Why Does It Matter?

The Second Russia-Africa Summit, scheduled for July 27-28 in St. Petersburg, Russia, is a major diplomatic event that will bring together the heads of state and government of Russia and more than 50 African countries, as well as representatives of regional and international organizations, the business community, civil society, and the media.

🤝 The two-day event aims to build a strategic partnership between Moscow and African nations, promote political dialogue, strengthen mutually beneficial economic cooperation, and foster cultural and humanitarian exchanges, among other things.

👉 Click here to learn more about the summit's agenda!

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🇺🇸 The American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto embassy of the United States, is planning to expand its office compound in Taipei, which is meant to reinforce the United States' commitment to Taiwan, US news agency reported

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‼️ US Dow Jones fell over 350 points at Thursday's closing bell after a jobs report prompted a surge in fear over looming interest rate hikes

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🇫🇷 The French authorities have required digital platforms limit the operation of some applications during the riots throughout the country, French government spokesperson Olivier Veran said on Thursday.

"During these nightly riots, we asked, demanded from [digital] platforms that they cut off some features for a certain period," Veran was quoted as saying by French broadcaster.

Veran gave an example of Snapchat's SnapMap feature, which was allegedly allowing rioters to "gather at a certain place and time" in an organized manner.

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🔺CIA personnel visited Ukraine to provide assistance to Kiev with new weapons and systems
🔺Biden calls Cuba ‘terrorist’ while the people demand an end to US terrorism against Cuba
🔺Western-supplied weapons to Ukraine are being used by protesters in France, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said

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📊 A majority of likely voters in the United States believe that US President Joe Biden was involved in his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which are under investigation by US House lawmakers, a Rasmussen Reports poll revealed on Thursday.

More than half of respondents, 58%, said that it was likely that Biden was involved in his son’s foreign business deals, with 44% believing it "very likely," the poll said.

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🗣️ On Cuba’s placement on the US' state sponsors of terrorism list:

“The state sponsors of terror list is an arbitrary list that was designated by the State Department to essentially punish countries with whom they disagree… It's a way in which they are able to continue to punish countries with whom they have policies that they disagree… So it's a way to identify Cuba as the boogeyman, the terrorists,” Gail Walker, executive director of Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, told Sputnik.

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

🇸🇪🇺🇸 Sweden is doing its utmost to avoid becoming a member of NATO, but Washington is exerting pressure on Stockholm, which wants to use the country as a foothold for access to resources in the Arctic region, a Turkish newspaper wrote on Thursday.

"Sweden is doing everything it can to avoid becoming a member of NATO. It is trying to use Turkiye as an excuse. If it really wanted to become a NATO member, none of this would have happened. It would have reached a real compromise with Turkiye. It wouldn't have led to provocative actions like the burning of the Quran. On the contrary, in the last few days Sweden is doing everything to avoid reconciliation. Why? Because it doesn't want to join NATO. There are both strategic and social reasons for this," the publication wrote.

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🇺🇸🇷🇺 US imports of goods from Russia more than doubled in May to $504 million, according to data released by the US Census Bureau on Thursday.

By comparison, in April, the United States imported $215.6 million worth of goods from Russia.

In February, the US imported $642.8 million worth of goods from Russia, an all-time high for 2023.

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🇨🇳 Tech mogul extraordinaire Elon Musk lavished praise upon the people of China during his address to the attendees of the annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai.

Speaking via a video link, Musk said he admires the “wisdom and determination” of the Chinese people who, according to him, can “do well” in the AI sphere if they so decide.

“I think, really, China is going to be great at anything it puts its mind into. That includes many different sectors – sectors of the economy, but also artificial intelligence,” he said as quoted by the media.

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🗣️ On the threat of a false flag attack on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant by the Ukrainian regime:

“Russia got control of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant very early on in the conflict… the Kiev regime has been shelling the plant for about eight months now with artillery and with kamikaze drones. They tried to claim for a long time that Russia was responsible for shelling the plant that Russia controlled, but those are much like the accusations of that, that the Russians bombed their own Crimean bridge and bombed their own Nord Stream pipeline,” Mark Sleboda, international relations and security analyst, told Sputnik.

🎧Listen to more of Sleboda’s analysis in our podcast Fault Lines

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble

🇺🇸 US Navy losing its bureaucratic battle with Boeing to get 20 new F/A-18 Super-Hornet aircraft

Boeing will only build 16 more Super Hornets instead of the 20 the Navy ordered before shutting down its production line, US media reported.

The shortfall in production was caused by a dispute over property rights.

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Ukrainian troops shelled Donetsk, firing 13 NATO-standard 155 mm shells in 15 minutes, local authorities have reported

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🇺🇸 US president with 81 million votes: Biden opens speech by kicking his podium setup

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🇫🇷 French lawmakers push EU-wide ban on TikTok amid violent protests in country

An investigation by a parliamentary commission has set a deadline of January 1, 2024 to receive an explanation on how TikTok is tied to its parent company, Chinese Internet technology company ByteDance, and what kind of data is being sent to China.

Here are the key takeaways from their recommendations:

▪️Social media platforms must filter content published during mass riots and calls to participate in them;

▪️Employees of organizations necessary for the survival of the population should be banned from using TikTok;

▪️Measures should be strengthened to filter disinformation and content created by AI;

▪️Social media platforms should limit the time of use of applications for minors and conduct studies to identify the effects on the health of users.

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🇧🇬 Zelensky receives cold reception in Bulgaria

An Orthodox priest in Sofia “cursed” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's motorcade on his Bulgaria trip, saying “anathema to Zelensky, fascist Ukraine and the Western Satanists,” while the country’s president, Rumen Radev, refused to supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, citing security concerns.

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🇷🇴 Romania to open F-16 pilot training center, strengthen ties with NATO

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis discussed the topics for the upcoming NATO Summit in Lithuania's capital Vilnius, scheduled for July 11-12, including the security in the Black Sea region — the topic of "strategic interest for Romania, as well as the entire Euro-Atlantic security."

Romania was also ready to contribute to strengthening the alliance "both in cooperation with allies as the host nation of NATO's multinational structures and by increasing defense spending to 2.5% of GDP starting this year."

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