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Proceeds from oil and gas sales for Russia's federal budget rose by around 41% year on year in the first half of the year 5.698 trillion rubles ($65.12 billion), finance ministry data showed on Wednesday, due to rising oil prices and the weaker ruble. Oil and gas revenues have been the most important single source of cash for the Kremlin, accounting for around a third to a half of total federal budget proceedings for the last decade.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is challenging former President Trump to release a plan for ending the ongoing war with Russia. “If Trump knows how to finish this war, he should tell us today,” Zelensky said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Wednesday. “If there are risks to Ukrainian independence, if we lose statehood — we want to be ready for this, we want to know.” Zelensky said in the interview that he was “potentially ready” to meet with Trump to hear his proposal, according to Bloomberg. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine in just...

Vladimir Putin is ready to share sovereignty of Crimea with Ukraine, according to an astonishing 'new peace plan'. The dictator sent his trusted interior minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev to the US with new proposals to end the war that the dictator started, say sources in both Moscow and Kyiv. Despite being sanctioned, Kolokoltsev was allowed into the US ostensibly to attend a UN meeting of police chiefs. But this was a ruse allowing him to travel to Washington on a VIP plane from Putin's presidential fleet to transmit to the US government the dictator's real demands for a peace deal, it...

Under pressure in various sectors of the frontline, with its power plants and energy grid under relentless attacks, and trying to find a peace proposal that would keep it from losing 20 per cent of its former territory for good, Ukraine is also under financial threat, as concerning news arise over its debt restructuring efforts. Kiev could default on its enormous debts as early as next month unless it manages to negotiate a restructuring deal with its creditors, The Economist reported (behind paywall). With the onset of the war in February 2022, bondholders granted Ukraine a two-year debt freeze. That...

However, the recent reports alleging that Olena Zelensky purchased a Bugatti Tourbillon have been debunked. The claims, which included a fake purchase bill and an AI-generated video, were found to be false.Several reports on social media claimed Olena Zelensky, the wife of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, purchased a Bugatti Tourbillon worth 4.5 million euros in Paris. However, the recent reports alleging that Olena Zelensky purchased a Bugatti Tourbillon have been debunked. The claims, which included a fake purchase bill and an AI-generated video, were found to be false. It was found that the "Bugatti dealer" video is an AI deepfake....

Republican US Representative Victoria Spartz of Indiana charged for carrying an empty handgun in her suitcase... 30 people hurt with an airliner hit by 'strong turbulence' over the Atlantic Ocean making an emergency landing in Brazil... The state grand jury documents in the cease of Jeffrey Epstein that led to a deal with federal prosecutors... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) suing Iran, Syria and North Korea over the brutal Hamas attack on Israel... At least nine killed when a car ploughed into a crowd in Seoul, South Korea... Former advisor to President Trump Steve Bannon reporting to a federal prison... Russian...

South Korea said Thursday that it would consider sending arms to Ukraine, a major policy change that was suggested after Russia and North Korea rattled the region and beyond by signing a pact to come to each other's defense in the event of war. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the pact at a summit Wednesday in Pyongyang. Both described it as a major upgrade of bilateral relations, covering security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties. South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped military backed by the United States, has provided humanitarian...

The Ukraine war will end in a surrender, not in a negotiated deal. That is my sense of where the war is headed and why the parties cannot negotiate a settlement. The latest wrinkle in the missing negotiating saga is a declaration in the form of an interview given by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Philadelphia Inquirer. In the interview, Zelensky said there can’t be direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia but there could be indirect negotiations through a third party. In Zelensky’s proposed scenario, the third party will serve as an intermediary and any deal will only be...

Russia dropped dozens of its glide bombs on its own territory between April 2023 to April 2024, an intercepted internal document found. At least 38 of the munitions fell on the Belgorod region close to Ukraine, according to The Washington Post, which cited bomb cleanup and evacuation documents obtained by Ukrainian intelligence. The majority of bombs, largely undetonated, were found by civilians in areas surrounding the city. Four bombs have hit the city of Belgorod itself. The first recorded accidental bomb drop fell on a central street in Belgorod in April 2023, creating a 65ft crater, shattering windows and blowing...

Vladimir Putin plans to send Russian children to a summer camp in North Korea where activities include polishing the statues of leaders. Grigory Gurov, the head of Putin’s Movement of the First youth organisation, announced the plan despite opposition from worried Russian parents. “We will now form our delegation,” he said. “Conditions there are good.” The children will be the first Russian group for five years to visit the Songdowon camp, built on North Korea’s eastern shore by dictator Kim Jong-un’s grandfather in 1960. Accounts from Russian adult leaders on previous trips described Songdowon camp as a cross between a...

Last Tuesday Vladamir Putin sent a nuclear submarine to the Gulf of Mexico. It arrived in Cuba for a rare port visit. A Russian naval task force joined it for an even more rare port visit. The next day, an American nuclear attack submarine docked in Guantanamo Bay for perhaps the first time. It had been trailing the Russian sub-ready to kill it at any given moment. Patriot Surface to Air Missile Batteries were setup on Florida beaches to stop any missiles launched from the Russians. USAF units were placed on alert as well. In response, the United States Navy...

Senior European officials have called on the US Democratic Party to axe Joe Biden following his disastrous Thursday night performance over fears a win for Trump could spell disaster for Ukraine. 'We're very concerned because we, more or less, understand what it means for Ukraine, a Biden presidency, and we really don't know a Trump presidency,' Oleksiy Goncharenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, told CNN. ....Trump has meanwhile boasted that he could stop the war in Ukraine in just 'one day'. Speaking on GB News last year he said: 'If I were president, I [would] end that war in...

Ukraine DESTROYS 3 Major Russian Oil Facilities; Putin LASHES Out | Breaking News With The Enforcer The Enforcer Jun 20, 2024 4:00 p.m. EDT 11:21 Minutes Today, we learn that Ukraine hit three oil depot/refineries in Russia overnight. Ukrainian attack drones successfully struck a Russian Lukoil oil depot in Krasnodar Krai this morning, setting the facility ablaze. We also learn that South Korea has begun considering sending arms and military aid to Ukraine in an unprecedented move. As a result of North Korea's new defensive pact, the South Koreans are becoming concerned of the possibility of war breaking out on...

Moscow must find other ways to pay for exports or its sanctions-hit economy faces "ruination" one of President Vladimir Putin's top bankers has said, following moves by Chinese lenders to suspend transactions with Russian banks. ICBC, China CITIC Bank and most other Chinese banks have made similar moves, worried about falling foul of Western sanctions, which have been stepped up to choke off the funding for Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this month, the U.S. and other countries unveiled a new wave of sanctions that targeted Russian financial institutions and entities and individuals who do business with them. "If...

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it lost access to many world markets, including much of Europe. Countries like Germany, which for years had relied on Russian gas and oil, now turned sharply away and sought to rid themselves of any vestiges of Russian dependence. (Source) Into the breach stepped China. Always thirsty for new supplies of gas and oil, China quickly notified Russia that it was interested in receiving Russian gas and in developing a pipeline from Siberia for that gas. (Source). Recently, however, that lifeline looks more like a noose, at least for Russia. Beijing is taking...

North Korean soldiers sent to aid Russia in Ukraine would be "cannon fodder," the Pentagon said. The two nations signed a new security pact, and some Korean units look set to go to Ukraine. Russia is known for treating its soldiers as highly disposable and has suffered high death tolls. North Korean troops that are sent to Ukraine to aid in Russia's war would become "cannon fodder," the Pentagon said.

BRUSSELS, June 27. /TASS/. Ukraine does not want to prolong the conflict due to the high count of killed and injured at the battlefield, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said upon arrival to the EU Summit. "We must put this [settlement] plan on the table within few months. We do not have much time, because we have a lot of killed and injured on the battlefield. […] Therefore we do not want this war to last for years. Therefore we want to prepare this peace plan for the second summit," Zelensky said. Previously, Ukraine announced that it will prepare a settlement...

When Bergoglio visited Bolivia in 1979, "it was the time of greatest abuse," says the former Jesuit Lima The former Jesuit Pedro Lima, who has become one of the most visible faces that denounces paedophilic priests, points out that in a meeting in 1979, in which the current Pope Francis participated, they knew about "the issue of John XXIII College."

LIMA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Peru barred Bolivia's socialist former president, Evo Morales, from entering its territory on Monday, Peru's government announced in a statement, a decision Morales later derided as an attack meant to distract from rights violations. The move to ban Morales, along with eight other unidentified Bolivians, follows weeks of deadly protests in Peru targeting President Dina Boluarte... ...The statement from Peru's interior ministry said Bolivian citizens have entered the country in recent months to carry out political activities, violating immigration laws while undermining national security.... ...Shortly after the ban was announced, Peru Prime Minister Alberto Otarola...