🇺🇸 US President Joe Biden lacks the mental ability to draw parallels between Russia and Hamas, Scott Ritter, a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, said.

The Washington Post ran an op-ed under Biden's byline at the weekend, likening the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas' breakout from the besieged Gaza Strip on October 7 to Russia's military operation in Ukraine in defence of the Russian-speaking Donbass region — following eight years of Ukrainian shelling of civilians.

"This is the story, not the content of the op-ed," Ritter stressed. "The story is that Joe Biden, the president of the United States is lacking in such mental capacity that the presidency is being managed by people who weren't elected to do that job. That's what people should be worried about."

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🇮🇱🇺🇸 Ex-CIA analyst: US responsible for Gaza genocide by empowering Netanyahu

Raymond McGovern told Sputnik that the US has been enabling the genocide of Palestinians by allocating more and more assistance for Israel: it could not launch genocide had it not been for the US assistance.

At the same time the Israeli government has not even tried to cover their genocidal intentions up. On the contrary, the Israeli flat out announced the full blockade of the Gaza Strip, cutting off water, food, and power supplies which indicates the true and completely unmasked goals of the Israeli ground operation, but the US still endorses them, McGovern emphasized.

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💸 It keeps growing and growing: Ukraine's national debt in decade since Maidan coup

Tuesday marked the 10th anniversary of the start of the Euromaidan protests in central Kiev, which culminated in the February 2014 coup d'etat that brought radical pro-EU and pro-NATO politicians to power and plunged the country into a decade-long debacle of crisis, conflict, and growing debt.

Ukraine's national debt has climbed steadily over the past decade, from $73.10 billion in 2013 to $128.81 as of June 30, 2023. Starting out at 37.5 percent of GDP in 2013, the Eastern European nation's national debt is expected to reach 85 percent of GDP by the end of the current year and surpass 110 percent of GDP in 2024 as fiscal authorities scramble to find the resources to fund ongoing conflict with Russia amid dwindling Western support.

📊 Check out Sputnik's infographic to learn more about Ukraine's debt dynamics

🇺🇸 Most US voters believe Joe Biden participated in his son Hunter's business

A whopping 60% of registered American voters believe President Joe Biden was somehow involved in his son Hunter's business dealings, as per a Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.

The views on Joe's conduct divide along party lines: thus, 81% of Republicans say they are sure that the incumbent president had a hand in his son's business, while just 39% Democrats agree with this stance. Remarkably, a staggering 59% of independents also share this view.

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Could BRICS break US monopoly on Israeli-Palestinian peace process?

BRICS may become the platform to facilitate the implementation of a ceasefire in Gaza due to its substantial economic and political influence on the global stage, according to Middle East experts.
While BRICS was established as an alternative economic structure, it may soon prove effective in solving political issues, Turkish security analyst Dr. Hasan Selim Ozertem told Sputnik.

For his part, Saudi political scientist Dr. Hesham Alghannam noted that Washington's image is affected badly because the Arab countries and the US "diverge" on regional priorities starting with the Gaza ceasefire and ending with Washington's appeasing of Israel's continuous occupation of Palestine.

Both agreed that Russian President Vladimir Putin's stance, voiced during the meeting, aligned with the Muslim-Arab vision.

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🇨🇳⚔️🇺🇸 China’s new subs and sonars challenge the supremacy of the US silent hunter fleets

The PLAN’s military and technological prowess against the US Navy in the field of submarine construction and anti-submarine warfare is progressing apace, and the “era of total US submarine dominance” over the People’s Republic of China is reaching its end.

That’s the conclusion reached by one of America’s top cited business newspapers in a piece focused on the Asian nation’s scientific and industrial advances for naval warfare. China, the paper pointed out, is gradually “narrowing” the gap between itself and the United States in the highly complex fields of submarine technology and undersea detection.

These developments not only threaten the Pentagon’s regional strategy of hemming China into its home ports, but could challenge US naval supremacy globally over the long term.

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🇱🇧⚔️🇮🇱 Will Lebanon get embroiled in hostilities with Israel?

Israel and Hezbollah have been actively fighting on the Lebanese-Israeli border for several weeks now. There are casualties even among Lebanese civilians.

However, Lebanese politicians and experts believe that Lebanon is not ready to carry on prolonged hostilities with Israel.

Can Lebanese politicians stop the escalation or Beirut is going to be involved in a full-scale war with Israel?

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🇵🇸🇮🇱 HAMAS statement on truce and releasing the hostages

▪️HAMAS announces it reached agreement with Israel on four-day humanitarian truce in Gaza

▪️Israel to suspend all flights over southern Gaza for duration of truce, in northern Gaza flights prohibited from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

▪️HAMAS agreed with Israel that it will release 50 hostages, women and children under 19, in exchange for 150 Palestinians being held

▪️HAMAS reached agreement with Israel to allow humanitarian aid into all areas of Gaza Strip

▪️Israel vowed not to arrest Palestinians in Gaza during truce, let them move between southern, northern parts of enclave

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🇦🇷 Will the BRICS be "poorer" if Argentina declines the invitation to join?

Anil Sooklal, South Africa BRICS Sherpa responds to possible rejection of bloc membership by Buenos Aires, given the stance of the country's president-elect, Javier Milei

👉🏽 Read the full story!

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🇵🇸🇮🇱 The Qatari Foreign Ministry says the starting time of the humanitarian pause in the Gaza Strip, reached by Palestinian movement Hamas and Israel, will be announced within the next 24 hours and last for four days with possible extension.

The ministry also says that "the number of those released will be increased in later stages of implementing the agreement."

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🇷🇺🪖 The Yars intercontinental ballistic missile has been loaded into a silo at the Kozelsky missile unit in Russia’s Kaluga Region, the MoD said.

This unit became the first in the Strategic Missile Forces to be rearmed with the stationary (silo-based) Yars.

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🇵🇸🇮🇱 Russia welcomes the agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement for a four-day humanitarian pause, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik

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🇵🇸🇮🇱 The Israeli Justice Ministry has published a list of people who will be released under an agreement with Hamas, which also includes those who will be released if the deal is expanded.

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🇵🇸🇮🇱 Latest updates on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

▪️Start of Israel-Hamas humanitarian pause to be announced within next 24 hours, Qatar said

▪️Erdogan called possession of nuclear weapons by Israel 'threat to Turkey'

▪️Biden welcomes Israel-Hamas hostage deal, says 'will not stop' until they all released

▪️Russia welcomes four-day humanitarian pause between Israel, Hamas

▪️Young Americans stand for Palestine, critics of Israel reveal generational divide, Jeffrey Sachs told Sputnik

▪️Nearly 290 of 300 Palestinians to be released are young people aged 18 or younger, The Times of Israel reported

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