❗️China’s President Xi to Attend BRICS Leaders’ Meeting in South Africa – 🇨🇳 Foreign Ministry

The Chinese leader will attend the meeting in person as part of his visit to 🇿🇦 on Aug 21-24, the ministry said in a statement Friday.

Expansion is expected to be high on the agenda of the leaders’ meeting as some 40 nations have expressed interest - either formally or informally – in joining the bloc.

Beijing has previously said it "welcomes more like-minded partners to join the 'BRICS family' at an early date."

@RiseGS

Former 🇬🇧 Govt Medical Chief Lands Senior Role at Vaccine Maker Moderna 👀

Professor Sir Jonathan Van Tam – who became one of the faces of Westminster’s Covid pandemic response during lockdown – has taken a job as senior medical consultant at vax giant Moderna.

Is Van Tam getting his reward for “services” to Moderna? Or just yet more normalizing of the relations between Big Pharma and its “regulators”?

@RiseGS

🔥 Wildfire Ravages Spanish Island of Tenerife - Burning Through More Than 2,600 Hectares of Land

The blaze is the "most complex" to hit the Canary Islands in decades, authorities said.

@RiseGS

🤑 Brazil Snaps Up Record Amounts of Russian Fuel

Imports of 🇷🇺 petroleum products is set to rise 25% from July to about 235k bpd, data from energy analytics firm Kpler show – far outstripping the US, which used to be Brazil’s top foreign fuel supplier.

🇧🇷 started ramping up the purchases sharply in February, the month the EU banned imports and joined other Group of Seven nations in imposing a cap on Russian fuel prices.

Since the cap came into effect, 🇧🇷 became the second-largest buyer of 🇷🇺 diesel globally, lagging only 🇹🇷, according to Kpler.

Has the G7 cap backfired as Moscow builds new markets in Asia and Latin America?

@RiseGS

🔴 Africa on the Brink? ECOWAS Defence Chiefs Declare Readiness to Invade 🇳🇪

The West African bloc is ready to intervene militarily in Niger should diplomatic efforts to reverse a coup there fail, a senior official told army chiefs who were meeting in Ghana Thursday.

The Accra meeting of top army commanders, which continues Friday, comes after fresh violence in 🇳🇪, with jihadists killing at least 17 soldiers in an ambush.

Twenty more soldiers were wounded, six seriously, in the heaviest losses since the July 26 coup, when the presidential guard ousted President Mohamed Bazoum and detained him and his family.

@RiseGS

❗️Chinese Property Giant Evergrande Files for US Bankruptcy Protection

It will allow the heavily-indebted company - in excess of $300bn - to protect its assets in the US as it works on a multi-billion dollar deal with creditors.

Evergrande defaulted on its huge debts in 2021, which sent shockwaves through global financial markets.

China Evergrande Group made the Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection filing in a New York court on Thursday.

Here comes the crash?

@RiseGS

☄️ BREAKING: Austria‘s former chancellor Sebastian Kurz charged on suspicion of making false statements during inquiry - 🇦🇹's Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office

Kurz had stepped down in 2021 after pressure triggered by a corruption scandal - he denied claims he used govt money to ensure positive coverage in a tabloid newspaper.

@RiseGS

🇨🇳 China’s military release video showing its soldiers preparing for a conflict in what appears to be the Taiwan Strait... 👀

@RiseGS

⚠️ Kiev Military Recruitment Campaign Tells Citizens to ‘Overcome their Fear’

Ukraine has urged military-age citizens to update their data at army enlistment offices and "overcome their fear" in a campaign launched Thursday.

Deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar was careful to say that not all those who updated their personal data would automatically be mobilised into the army and that not all those who are mobilised would end up in a combat zone… 🤔

The slick promo flick comes amid mass corruption claims in recruitment offices and after Zelensky fired all regional military recruitment chiefs due to the allegations of widespread graft.

@RiseGS

The future of in-store shopping? 😐

Whole Foods in Washington DC requires you to:

📍Scan in before entering
📍Scan to enter checkout
📍Scan to leave the checkout
📍Scan to leave the store

The West is sleepwalking towards tech totalitarianism…👁

@RiseGS

❗️BREAKING: Baby Killer Lucy Letby Found GUILTY Of Murdering 7 Children

Letby is now the UK's most prolific child killer of modern times.

She was found guilty by a series of partial verdicts, delivered several days apart, with the judge issuing reporting restrictions until the end of the trial.

Letby cried during some of the verdicts, while families of her victims sobbed and comforted each other.

Developing.

@ResistorNewswireUK