The Israel Defense Forces announced the elimination of the commander of the Radwan special forces' battalion, as part of the combat wing of the Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon, and showed footage of the strike.

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"Say 'No' to WhatsApp" — Maduro calls on Venezuelans to delete the app

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro urged the country's youth to use Telegram and WeChat, instead of WhatsApp which "threatens" Venezuela:

"They are using this app to threaten... all of Venezuela. The first step is the voluntary, progressive and radical withdrawal of WhatsApp. There are other apps, messaging systems like Telegram and Wechat. Let's all do this!"

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For the first time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces used ATACMS cluster missiles, which are capable of striking at a distance of up to 300 kilometers, to bombard the civilian infrastructure of Lugansk.

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❗️❗️❗️From Haniyeh’s killing to Moscow talks: Key takeaways from Abbas’ interview with Sputnik

The purpose of the July 31 assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, is “to prolong the war [in Gaza] and expand its scope," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Sputnik. 

He also said that:

💬Haniyeh's killing – which Hamas claims is the work of Israel – “will have a negative impact on the ongoing negotiations to end the aggression and withdraw Israeli troops from Gaza.”

💬The Palestinian National Authority considers Haniyeh’s assassination “a cowardly act and a dangerous development in Israeli politics.”

💬"Gaza should be governed under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority and the legitimate Palestinian government." 

💬Coordinating positions on the latest world events, including those related to “the peace process on Palestine” is the goal of Abbas’ current visit to Russia. 

💬"We have repeatedly agreed to a meeting with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu in Moscow at the invitation of [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, who, like all Russian friends, has our trust.”

💬"We confirm that the path to achieving universal peace and security lies through a political solution based on international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.

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🔸 Key takeaways from Abbas’ interview with Sputnik

🔸 Ukrainian army uses ATACMS with cluster munitions against people of Lugansk for first time 

🔸 Israeli army claims to have killed Hezbollah’s high-profile officer 

Check out for more stories: 

🔸 Maduro dubs Whatsapp a threat to nation, endorses Telegram 

🔸 “Sensational” – Russian Foreign Ministry comments on details of Trump's assassination attempt

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📹The outgoing prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, is still in India, the Indian Foreign Ministry confirmed.

At the moment, there is actually a power vacuum in the country, as the interim government has not yet been formed. The leaders of the student protests suggest that the Nobel Prize winner in economics, Muhammad Yunus, will be the main adviser in it.

In the video: demonstrators demolish the monument to Mujibur Rahman, the first head of state, and father of the retired prime minister.

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❗️The Armed Forces of Ukraine tried to break into the territory of the Russian Kursk region, but the fighters of the FSB Border Guard Service and the Russian Armed Forces did not allow a breakthrough, the acting governor said.

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See no elephant in the room? Japanese PM fails to mention US role in atomic bombing of Hiroshima

Tuesday marks the 79th anniversary of the US' atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which claimed the lives of about 140,000 Japanese, mostly civilians.

Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has not thought twice before remaining tight¬lipped about the fact that it was the US who dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August 1945. 

“Seventy-nine years ago today, an atomic bomb deprived people, said to number well more than 100,000, of their precious lives. It reduced the city to ashes and mercilessly deprived people of their dreams and bright futures,” Kishida said in an address at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Tuesday. 

He went even further by referring to an alleged “nuclear threat” from Russia, which purportedly makes “the situation surrounding nuclear disarmament all the more challenging.”

About 140,000 people were killed as a result of the US' atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.  Three days later, the Americans dropped another atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing an additional 74,000 people. The US remains the world’s only country to have used a nuclear weapon against a population center.

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❗️A series of explosions sounded in Russia's city of Belgorod, Sputnik correspondent reports.

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18 people were killed, and more than 150 were hospitalized, as a result of the arson of a hotel in the city of Jessore by rioters in Bangladesh, local media reported.

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Ukraine conflict to end this year? Zelensky announced intention to create basis for peaceful settlement

"Our constant goal is to prepare a real basis for a just end to the conflict this year," Zelensky said, despite constant refusals to hold talks with Russia.

Moscow has repeatedly offered to resolve the conflict peacefully, but the Kiev regime has imposed a ban on them at the legislative level.

In mid-June, Russia's President Vladimir Putin presented a peace proposal to bring the conflict to an end. He stated that in order to start negotiations, Ukraine must withdraw troops from the territory of the new Russian regions and abandon its intention to join NATO. 

Zelensky's office rejected Putin's proposals.

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📹Chief of Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov, visited the troops of the Tsentr Battlegroup in the special military operation zone, the Russian Defense Ministry shared.

The general listened to the reports of the commanders, set tasks and presented awards to the servicemen.

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"You're the man who can stop the conflict" — Russian UFC fighter to Trump

In an interview, Donald Trump shared his favorite UFC fighter :  

"I think Khabib [Nurmagomedov]. I mean, how good is Khabib? He never lost. I don't think he ever lost a round," the US Presidential candidate said. 

Trump stressed that he had already met with Khabib Nurmagomedov, who expressed confidence that Trump’s the only one who could stop the conflict in Ukraine.

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❗️There has been no reaction from the Kiev regime to the conditions for a settlement of the Ukraine conflict announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergei Shoigu said.

"Almost two months have passed since then, and there is no reaction," Shoigu said.

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❗️In two months, the Russian troops liberated 420 square kilometers, and Ukraine lost over 115,000 servicemen, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergei Shoigu said.

This might not have happened if Kiev had met Vladimir Putin's initiatives halfway, he added.

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UK defense projects at risk due to possible closure of Apple supplier — reports

Coherent, one of the last remaining British microchip factories, stopped taking orders after Apple ceased business as a supplier. The company cooperated with an Italian engineering group, Leonardo, that makes radar systems and supplies chips for British Typhoon fighter jets, the Telegraph reports. 

As a result of the threatened closure, British secret military projects will "face disruption."

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❗️Russian battlegroup Tsentr liberated the settlement of Timofeyevka in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry announced

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Political and media elites ‘turned UK into tinderbox', US Deep State may be stoking fire

 “If the political class had listened to that warning and accepted the verdict of the people, the killings in Southport either would not have happened at all (because the killer and his family would have been sent back to the now entirely peaceful and safe Rwanda), or would have been seen as a terrible crime which the police and courts alone should deal with,” political analyst and former MEP Nick Griffin told Sputnik.

The riots have been overwhelming cities across the UK in the wake of the July 29 stabbing attack, which saw children being targeted by a teen whose family is of immigrant stock. 

As 17.4 million people – the largest democratic mandate in UK electoral history – voted for Brexit, it was a very clear instruction to the political elite to get a grip on the borders, Griffin emphasized.   

“But the political and media elites refused to accept the vote, failed to deliver the secured borders... It is this, together with an endless litany of two-tier policing and criminal justice, which make indigenous Brits… feel like second-class citizens in their own country. Frustration and anger over this had turned large parts of the country into a tinderbox, just waiting for a spark,” Griffin said. 

“Deep down,” Griffin believes, “the US Deep State helped create [the British and wider European migrant] crisis – and is now stoking it – as a way of destabilizing its supposed allies. It’s the same trick as the sabotage of Nord Steam: The ostensible target was Russia, but the real target was the German economy and the Euro - damage them and the looming end of the dollar hegemony may be put back a little longer.”

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❗️Units of the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup hit formations of six Ukrainian brigades. Ukrainian losses amounted to 355 militants.

🇷🇺🪖 More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry’s weekly briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️Up to 105 militants and one tank were lost by the Ukrainian forces as a result of actions by the Russian Vostok Battlegroup;

▪️The Russian Dnepr Battlegroup destroyed two Ukrainian field ammunition depots;

▪️The Russian Yug Battlegroup improved its tactical position, with the Ukrainian forces losing up to 520 militants;

▪️Units of the Russian Zapad Battlegroup struck formations of six Ukrainian brigades. Ukrainian losses amounted up to 370 soldiers;

▪️The Russian Sever Battlegroup struck the Ukrainian troops in the Sumy and Kharkov regions. Ukrainian losses amounted up to 120 militants;

▪️Russian air defense shot down six HIMARS rockets and 51 Ukrainian drones.

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