🇺🇸🛢A large fire has started at the refinery of the American company Marathon Petroleum in Louisiana, engulfing the storage of petroleum products.

The authorities announced the evacuation of local residents living within a two-mile radius of the enterprise.

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🎙 With the #BRICSSummit2023 having concluded just yesterday, join #AfroVerdict to hear what South African ministers and other officials have to say about BRICS expansion and its benefit for the African continent.

🇬🇧🏛 Director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer, has announced his resignation after artifacts were taken from the London museum

The curators of the British Museum were reportedly caught stealing exhibits and selling them on the black market for art objects. In recent years, more than 2,000 exhibits worth millions of pounds have been stolen.

The exhibits began to be simply posted on eBay, even without particularly hiding the fact of theft. For example, one Roman artifact with a nominal value of 25–40 thousand pounds wanted to sell for only 40 pounds. It has been in the British Museum since 1926.

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🇳🇴🦌 Norway has banned domestic deer that entered Russia and ate yagel in the Pasvik Nature Reserve from crossing the border. 40 animals that were returned to the country were slaughtered, the Norwegian Directorate of Agriculture reported.

The Norwegian authorities clarified that both people and deer must have documents to cross the border with Russia.

The damage caused by the actions of "border violators" in the Russian nature reserve amounted to almost 420 million rubles.

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🌐“On the 9th, they will be coming down to the Bharat Mandapam for the inaugural session of the Summit. Then, they would leave for the hotels and be back in the evening for a gala dinner organized by the Indian G-20 Presidency,” Delhi Police’s Joint Commissioner Aalap Patel said.

🇮🇳 India has been coordinating with various foreign agencies for the security arrangements in New Delhi during the G-20 Summit, a senior police official has told Sputnik India.

👉 Read full story on Sputnik India!

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🇺🇸📈 The Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates as long as it is needed to bring inflation back to its long-term target of 2% per year given that the US economy is not cooling as was initially thought, Chairman Jerome Powell said at the opening the US central bank’s annual symposium in Wyoming.

Powell stated that the Fed is "prepared to raise rates further if appropriate and intend to hold policy at a restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward our objective."

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💸 Which country owes the most debt?

As the global debt clock skyrockets without any foreseeable pause, this phenomenon has elicited attention among several stakeholders. However, governments continue to borrow to fulfill pressing needs domestically and externally, further driving their national debt burdens to alarming heights.

👉Sputnik lays out the significance of global debt and the debt profiles of specific countries, identifies the highest debt accumulators, and discusses their implications, providing various insights

Exclusive | With BRICS Development, Times When West Dictated Terms Worldwide Gone, South African Prince Says

The times when the Western nations dictated terms globally have gone, an overall attitude towards the BRICS members is starting to change positively, Prince Siphiwe Dhlomo, Prince of the AbaThembu tribe, South African entrepreneur, founder of Hala Group, told Sputnik Africa.

The prince expressed hope that the West would perceive BRICS not as a rival, but would see the bloc as an example of how people and nations should be treated

👉 Read the full story

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🇲🇩🇷🇺 Moldova should beware of overplaying its support for Ukraine to the point of becoming an accomplice to the crimes committed by the Ukrainian military, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated.

The West continues its efforts to drag Moldova, whose permanent neutrality is enshrined in its constitution, into the Ukrainian conflict, the diplomat added.

As regards recent tensions in diplomatic ties between Moscow and Kishinev, Russia will make every effort to provide consular services in Moldova, both to its own and Moldovan citizens, Zakharova emphasized.

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❗Ukraine's attempt to carry out a terrorist attack by an aircraft-type drone on facilities in Moscow and the Moscow Region has been thwarted, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"On August 26, at about 03:00 Moscow time, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack by an aircraft-type UAV on facilities in Moscow and the Moscow Region was thwarted. The UAV was destroyed by air defense systems on duty above the Istra District of the Moscow Region," the ministry said.

🪖 Ukraine uses terror tactics against its own troops as the army runs out of motivated fighters

A Ukrainian military source has revealed that troops from Ukraine’s 123rd Territorial Defense Brigade executed 23 of their fellow servicemen after an attempt to desert their positions.

Military journalist Aleksey Borzenko expects the use of this gruesome tactic to continue as Kiev runs out of troops motivated to fight Russia.

👉Follow the link for more details

🇮🇷 Iran launches large-scale electronic warfare drills, Iranian media reports

As part of the exercise, manned and unmanned aerial vehicles of the Iranian air force, including fighters, are carrying means of airborne electronic warfare, while electronic defense systems are conducting passive defense and anti-drone operations, the report said.

Micro aerial vehicles are also engaged in the drills, providing radar protection, jamming, and "deception" of potential enemy radars. In addition, the news agency mentioned that combat helicopters and Ababil-3, 4, and Kaman-12 drones had been deployed to participate in the war game as well.

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🇳🇪🇫🇷 Niger military leaders give French ambassador 48 hours to leave country

The order came against French Ambassador Sylvain Itte, who reportedly declined to respond to an invitation to speak with the country’s new foreign minister, according to the Niger government. Officials also cited “other actions of the French government contrary to the interests of Niger,” in deciding to expel Itte.

In response, the French foreign ministry said that “putschists have no authority,” to demand its ambassador to leave.

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🇨🇳 China testing world's most powerful coil gun

The gun is capable of accelerating a projectile weighing over 100 kilograms (220 pounds) to a speed of 700 kilometers per hour (435 miles per hour) in less than 0.05 seconds, Chinese media reported.

The coil gun, also known as a Gauss gun, or a magnetic accelerator, is reportedly equipped with a number of coils arranged along its barrel and energized one after another to create a magnetic field capable of propelling projectiles. The 124-kilogram projectile is said to be the heaviest ever used in such an experiment.

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🇺🇸 Man threatening to ‘hurt’ Marjorie Taylor Greene gets slap on the wrist prison sentence

Joseph Morelli, the 51 year-old Endicott, New York resident who left a series of threatening voice mails on Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s phone in March of 2022, has been sentenced to three months in prison, one for each count of transmitting interstate threatening communications.

Morelli pled guilty in February, identifying himself as the individual who left seven messages with Greene’s office in which he threatened to “hurt” her, and to pay “someone 500 bucks to take a baseball bat and crack [the congresswoman’s] skull.”

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Russian forces repel seven Ukrainian attacks in Krasny Liman direction

Ukrainian losses amounted up to 60 servicemen of the 42nd, 63rd and 67th mechanized brigades, Center grouping spokesman Alexander Savchuk told Sputnik

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🍷 France and EU to spend 200 million euros to destroy wine surpluses

France's main wine regions, especially Bordeaux, are suffering from falling demand for their products at home and worldwide due to the rising cost of living and the effects of the pandemic.

The drop in demand for wine has led to overproduction, plummeting prices and severe financial hardship for one in three winemakers in Bordeaux.

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🇺🇸 Oklahoma high school football game erupts in shooting, leaving four injured

Multiple gunshots were heard throughout the stadium during a game between host Choctaw and Del City, triggering players and officials to run off the field, while others cowered on the field and in the stands.

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❗️Niger's defense chief puts country's armed forces on maximum alert

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❗️Ukrainian forces fired cluster munitions from Grad MLRS at a village in Russia’ Belgorod region, four people are wounded, governor says

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Flagging Ukraine counteroffensive triggers allies' fears about support nosediving

Dwindling hopes of any "definitive breakthrough" by Ukraine’s military in the face of Russia’s defense lines, fortifications and minefields which have destroyed large numbers of armored vehicles and tanks, are increasingly harrowing for those fueling the proxy war against Russia, US media report.

Ukraine recently deployed its 82nd Brigade from its reserves, said to be one of the last major fighting units available to Kiev, but also to no avail. European officials are reportedly concerned that lack of battlefield progress in Ukraine, coupled with the rising pressures of the revving up 2024 presidential election campaign could prompt Joe Biden to "nudge" Ukraine in the direction of negotiations.

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