🇨🇳 BlackRock gets hit in China's real estate crisis

The US investment giant is one of the major Western investors involved in China’s real estate crisis, veteran Asia-Pacific affairs expert Thomas Pauken II told Sputnik.

💬 "BlackRock is actually struggling big time in their real estate investments and they’re not even paying back their investors anymore because they're losing so much money on these property and real estate development projects. They’re really getting hit hard by China. I’m not saying it's the same as the 2008 financial crisis, but there are a lot of similarities because of real estate," he said.

👉 Follow the link for more details

🇦🇲 Armenia requests emergency meeting of UN Security Council over Nagorno-Karabakh

There is a shortage of essential goods, including food, medicine and fuel, due to the blockade of the Lachin corridor, according to the statement, Armenian Permanent Representative to the UN Mher Margaryan, in a letter to the UNSC President, said.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇪🇨 Shots fired at Ecuadorian parliamentary candidate days after Villavicencio killing

Estefany Puente Castro was attacked in the city of Quevedo, in the Ecuadorian province of Los Rios, while driving downtown in a car with her father and a company employee.

Puente was not injured and no evidence of a firearm having been fired was found inside her vehicle; however, photos from the scene showed damage to the vehicle, including shattered glass.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russian air defenses shot down two Ukrainian missiles over Kerch Strait, Crimean bridge not damaged, local authorities say

Special services put a smoke screen on the bridge, vehicular traffic will resume in the near future.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russian MoD on Ukrainian attack on Crimean bridge:

▪️On August 12 at about 13:00 Moscow time (+3 GMT), the Kiev regime attempted to launch a terrorist strike on the Crimean bridge with a S-200 surface-to-air guided missile converted into a strike version

▪️The Ukrainian missile was timely detected and intercepted in the air by Russian air defenses

▪️There were no damage or casualties

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russian forces group destroy Ukrainian control point of foreign mercenaries with Starlink satellite communication system terminal in Nikolaevka, the MoD says

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Another Ukrainian missile shot down over Kerch Strait, local authorities say

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️ In the Krasny Liman area, the Russian Army repelled three attacks by Ukrainian forces in around Sergeyevka in the LPR and Serebryanskiy forestry, Ukrainian losses amounted to 90 soldiers;

▪️ In the Zaporozhye area, Russian forces repelled three attacks by Ukrainian troops, losses amounted to 40 soldiers;

▪️ In the Kupyansk area, Russian troops repelled eight attacks by Ukrainian forces. The Russian Army improved its position along the front line;

▪️ In South Donetsk, the Russian Army repelled two attacks by Ukrainian troops, Ukrainian losses amounted to 130 soldiers;

▪️ In the Donetsk region, Russian troops repelled seven attacks by Ukrainian forces;

▪️ Russian air defense systems destroyed 29 Ukrainian drones in the special operation zone, including over the Black Sea.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣️ On the Prospects of the Ukrainian Counteroffensive:

“My own guess is that the Ukrainian offensive is going to sputter out fairly soon, some time over the next couple of weeks, in August or September, before the autumn rains come. And then we're going to have a pause. I think that there will not be much more military activity for a while, that will perhaps open some space for negotiations,” Alexander Mercouris, writer and international affairs analyst, host of The Duran on YouTube, told Sputnik.

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

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on YouTube or Rumble