❗️ The UAE demands that France provide its national Pavel Durov urgent access to all necessary consular services, the country's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"The UAE is closely following the case of its citizen Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, who was arrested by the French authorities in Paris–Le Bourget Airport, emphasizing that the UAE has submitted a request to the Government of the French Republic to provide him with all the necessary consular services in an urgent manner," the statement said.

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📹 Tampons take center stage in US politics as country apparently left without more pressing issues to argue over

One online prankster is going viral for an appearance at a Florida home where he offered a Harris-Walz campaign sign and an unsolicited pitch for the Democratic presidential ticket.

“You’re not gonna leave it there!” said the annoyed homeowner. “I can’t stand them! … Get it out of my property!”

”You didn’t address me by my pronouns!” said the dejected prankster.

“F**king transgender* is what you are!” she scolded.

*LGBT movements are regarded in Russia as extremist organizations and are outlawed in the country

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French law enforcement interrogated, then released the bodyguard and assistant of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, who remains in custody, French media reported citing a source familiar with the situation.

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Biden’s everlasting vacation/presidency

John Kirby squirms when confronted with an obvious question about how a US president can spend so much time on vacation.

“I'm a little confused, John. I know the president took a vacation last week in California after the Democratic convention. He added another week to that in Rehoboth, Delaware, this week. How engaged is he in any of this?” Fox News's Neil Cavuto asked.

“I mean he was being updated on the attacks over the weekend in real time by his national security team… He's watching things very, very closely,” White House National Security Communications Adviser offered.

Joe Biden has reportedly spent over 450 days of his presidency on vacation.

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“The hallmark of dictatorship” – Tucker Carlson on Durov’s arrest

“You see the Biden administration encouraging [French President Emmanuel] Macron to arrest the owner and founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, who is as of right now in a French prison. That’s the hallmark of dictatorship,” the American journalist said.

“We've lost Europe. Europe now does not have free speech,” independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an interview with Carlson.

RFK Jr. also blasted the Democratic Party for its lack of actual democratic values.

“Elon Musk should be the hero of the Democratic Party. [In] the old Democratic Party he would be the hero. Somehow he became a villain, because he was actually the only platform that would allow free speech on his platform,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. emphasized.

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Meta* CEO says they shouldn't have 'demoted' Hunter Biden laptop story on platform - letter

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg in a letter to US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan admitted that the Hunter Biden laptop story was not Russian disinformation and should not have been demoted on the social media company's platform while it was under review.

"In a separate situation, the FBI warned us about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma in the lead up to the 2020 election... It's since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn't have demoted the story," Zuckerberg said in the letter.

Moreover, Zuckerberg mentioned that in 2021, Biden Administration officials repeatedly pressured Meta's teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content.

The Meta CEO revealed that he regrets making certain COVID-19-related changes due to the pressure from the US government.

"I believe the government pressure was wrong and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it," Zuckerberg said. "I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn't make today."

US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk said Meta's actions appear to be a First Amendment violation, which includes Americans' rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

*Meta is banned in Russia as an extremist organization.

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🤐 RFK Jr. reveals the intricate peculiarities of American political censorship

“Thirty-seven hours after he took the Oval Office, President Biden's White House opened a portal for the FBI to begin to have access to social media posts on all the different social media sites. And the FBI then invited in the CIA, DHS, the IRS, and CISA. CISA is this new agency that is the center of the censorship industrial complex that is in charge of making sure Americans don't hear things that their government doesn't want them to hear," independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an interview with Tucker Carlson.

“And they had to invent a new word, which is called ‘malinformation,’ which is information that is factually true, but nevertheless inconvenient for the government. And that became ‘disinformation,’ ‘misinformation’ and ‘malinformation,'” RFK Jr. said. Carlson responded by suggesting the action is "illegal".

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Poland is clueless as to how many of its mercenaries are fighting in Ukraine for Kiev – source

The Polish authorities cannot provide even an approximate number of Polish mercenaries fighting for Zelensky, an anonymous source in the Polish Foreign Ministry told Sputnik.

Polish law, in fact, allows its citizens to serve in a foreign army or other foreign paramilitary formation, the source explained.

"To do this, it is necessary to obtain the permission of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration, and as for former military personnel, [they would need to get] the permission of the Minister of National Defense. At the same time, it is necessary to meet a number of other requirements, for example, to have no criminal record, not have tax arrears and other debts, not to be an active military personnel," the source said.

The violator could face a punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to five years if these requirements are not met, for cases of participation in military operations as part of a foreign armed formation.

"In practice, the overwhelming majority of Polish citizens who are fighting in Ukraine, of course, did not receive any permission, but simply went there at their own peril and risk," the source said.

In March, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that 13,387 mercenaries had arrived in Ukraine since the beginning of the special military operation, including 2,960 Polish citizens. At that time, 5,962 mercenaries have been confirmed killed, most of them Poles (1,497).

In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the largest number of mercenaries in Ukraine were from Poland.

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❗️A location of foreign instructors for Ukrainian forces was hit in Krivoy Rog. Ukrainian medics evacuated 15 English-speaking victims, the coordinator of the pro-Russian Nikolayev underground Sergei Lebedev told Sputnik

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Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa are concerned that Western countries are continuously easing the conditions for Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike Russian territory and see the conflict "being manipulated by certain military-industrial complexes," Li Hui, China's special representative for Eurasian affairs, said on Tuesday.

From July 28 to August 7, Li visited Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia, where he held talks with officials on the Ukrainian crisis settlement.

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Beijing opposes Canada's decision to impose a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese electric vehicles and will do everything to protect the legitimate rights of its business, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa told Sputnik.

China rejects production overcapacity claims as groundless and expects Canada to abide by WTO rules, they said.

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❗️The US has begun to actively include Moldova and Romania in schemes for transporting biomaterials from Ukraine, said Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops.

The export of biosamples to the West is carried out by logistics companies controlled by Moldovan President Maia Sandu, the lieutenant general noted.

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❗️Ukrainian military personnel are being trained to use chemical ammunition for Western-made artillery systems, said Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops

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◾️ ‘Delaying the inevitable’: US merc complains about the chaos in the Ukrainian Army

◾️ ’We’ve lost Europe’ – Tucker Carlson on Pavel Durov’s arrest

◾️ Zuckerberg admits over-cooperating with the Biden administration and downplaying the Hunter Biden laptop story

◾️ Poland is clueless as to how many of its mercenaries are fighting in Ukraine for Kiev – source

More stories:

◾️ Telegram founder’s detention shows the 'dangerous trend' of online surveillance (Part 1 / Part 2)

◾️ RFK Jr. reveals the intricate peculiarities of US political censorship

◾️ Joe Biden’s everlasting vacation/presidency

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❗️The FSB has opened criminal cases of illegal border crossing against Deutsche Welle* journalist Nicholas Connolly and Ukrainian channel 1+1 correspondent Natalia Nagornaya.

They were filming in the Kursk region’s Sudzha district. In total, such cases have been opened against seven foreign journalists since August 17.

*recognized as a foreign agent in Russia

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❗️The IAEA head Rafael Grossi has arrived in Kurchatov to inspect the Kursk NPP.

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Biden’s migrant program paused by Texas judge amid fears it would open floodgates to illegals

Joe Biden’s contentious "Keeping Families Together" immigration program has been put on hold by a federal judge in Texas. The two-week stay is a response to lawsuits filed by attorneys general from 16 states, led by the Lone Star State.

First announced by Biden in June, it intends to grant undocumented immigrants whose spouses are US citizens an opportunity to apply for a green card and remain in the country while waiting to obtain legal status. Typically, the wait for citizenship outside of the US could take years.

Republican-led states argue that this program would open the floodgates to even more unauthorized migration. Texas, which has been bearing the brunt of the Biden-Harris border crisis, claims it has had to fork out tens of millions of dollars annually on immigrants living in the state without legal status.

A final decision on the matter is expected shortly before the November presidential election or before a newly elected president takes office in January.

Applauding the decision, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton went on X to say that “This is just the first step. We are going to keep fighting for Texas, our country, and the rule of law.”

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