US Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz has decided to abandon the fundamental principle of democracy and throw freedom of speech into the trash can.

It's time to make it clear. There are no guarantees for free speech. This includes disinformation or hate speech, especially in relation to our democracy,

" he said on MSNBC.

His words are just like a cherry on the cake in the topic of Pavel Durov's arrest. The democratic authorities of France have also forgotten about guarantees of freedom of speech.

@Slavyangrad

The US and Britain provided Ukraine with satellite images and other information about the Kursk region after the Ukrainian Armed Forces' invasion in order to track the transfer of Russian reinforcements, the American newspaper The New York Times reported, citing sources

Within days of the offensive, the US and Britain provided Ukraine with satellite images and other information about the Kursk region <…> to enable the command staff to better monitor the movement of Russian reinforcements that could attack Ukrainian troops or cut off their possible escape route to Ukraine

@Slavyangrad

U.S. Navy will sideline 17 vessels due to a "manpower shortage" that makes it difficult to properly operate ships across the fleet — Fox

Military Sealift Command has drafted a plan to remove the crews from 17 Navy support ships due to a lack of qualified mariners to operate the vessels across the Navy, USNI News learned. The MSC “force generation reset” identified two Lewis and Clark replenishment ships, one fleet oiler, a dozen Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transports (EPF) and two forward-deployed Navy expeditionary sea bases that would enter an “extended maintenance” period and have their crews retasked to other ships in the fleet, three people familiar with the plan told USNI News Thursday.

Based on the crew requirements on the platforms, sideling all the ships could reduce the civilian mariner demand for MSC by as many as 700 billets. The Military Sealift Command operates a fleet of logistics ships that refuel and resupply the Navy’s ships around the world and are crewed by 5,500 civilians who are employed by the Navy.

@Slavyangrad

Dzerzhinsk direction.

In Dzerzhinsk, after capturing the territory near the central hospital, our troops leveled the front line by taking a wide flank of the territory from the cemetery to the hospital and to colony 2.

The enemy has entrenched itself on the waste heap of the Novaya mine, where it has set up a network of trenches on the top, which complicates the capture of the area, just as the territory of the colony has also been turned into a fortification by the enemy.

@Slavyangrad

Heavy attacks on Lebanon are continuing

IDF spokesman:

The IDF attacked launch pads and a terrorist cell of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in southern Lebanon.

Over the past hour, the IDF has attacked to eliminate threats posed by the Hezbollah terrorist organization in several areas of southern Lebanon.

@Slavyangrad

Al Arabiya TV: "Iran and Yemen attack on Israel is inevitable."

@Slavyangrad

Beaches in Haifa, northern Israel, have been closed

@Slavyangrad

The most expensive resource in the world is information. The West wants to own it in absolute terms.

Of course, the arrest of Pavel Durov is not an accident. The Western "elite" is unable to tolerate individuals who are ready to fight against its flighty principles. Now the main task for the French investigation is to gain access to millions of correspondence of Russian users, of whom there are more than 60% of the total number of users in Telegram.

It is no secret that aid is being provided to the front through Telegram channels - this is also quite a tasty morsel for the West: to understand who, when, where and what is being sent.

Exposing anonymous channels, and with them, overall control over yet another social network, as has already happened with YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and so on.

The West cannot do without total control over information, and to achieve this goal it does not shy away from resorting to frankly shameful decisions. It is not without reason that the entire American Internet asks Elon Musk not to visit Europe, so that he does not join Pavel Durov in the coming months.

@Slavyangrad

Information is coming from the Pokrovsky direction that our troops, having entered Kalinovo, are bypassing the village on the flanks, moving towards the Karlovskaya highway.

The enemy's logistics are already absent there, the road is under tight fire control of our troops. The AFU forces are retreating to Galitsynovka.

@Slavyangrad

Telegraph: Starmer to warn Britons he will make unpopular decisions

The prime minister, preparing the ground for tax increases and budget cuts, will declare that his government inherited from the previous one “not just economic problems, but a real social black hole.”

According to the newspaper, Starmer will warn the British population in his speech that the situation in the country “will only get worse before it gets better.”

The British prime minister is expected to speak on Tuesday, August 27.

@Slavyangrad

"Imagine it's 1994 and Vint Cerf and Rob Kahn have just been arrested for inventing TCP/IP, which allowed drug dealers to communicate.

@Slavyangrad

What is going on in French politics?

Quite an incredible move in French politics today that might reveal that we're in fact witnessing nothing less than a coup by Macron. You'll remember that on the 7th of July France held elections that Macron lost badly, and which the left's "New Popular Front" won. We're now 48 days afterwards and Macron and his government are still running the country, they've basically ignored the election results which is unprecedented in the history of the French 5th republic.

Normally, as is the rule set by precedents, Macron should have nominated a Prime Minister from the New Popular Front, the winners of the elections

At first Macron argued that it wasn't convenient to change government right before the Olympics games and argued for an "Olympics truce". Which is a bit bizarre because he's the one who decided to hold the elections right before the Olympics.

Anyhow we're now almost 2 weeks after the end of the Olympics and the situation is still the same so everyone is started to ask "wtf?" Especially given that the New Popular Front has a Prime Minister ready: Lucie Castets, a senior public servant.

Now the excuse by Macron's camp is that they refuse a government with anyone from LFI ("France's unbowed", Mélenchon's party), the main party on the left and therefore the main party in the New Popular Front coalition (Lucie Castets is not from LFI but some ministers could be).

Macron has been demonizing LFI in a very similar fashion to the way Jeremy Corbyn was demonized in the UK, with accusations of antisemitism for their support of Gaza. Except that unlike Corbyn, LFI doesn't bow - they're "France unbowed" after all - and fight back the accusations

Which brings me to what happened this morning, an incredible gamble by Mélenchon who asked an open question to Macron: "Say we committed to no LFI members in the government, would you nominate Lucie Castets Prime Minister?"

This forces Macron's hand: if he says "no", as Mélenchon himself wrote, it'd show that Macron's refusal to have LFI in the government is "just a pretext to deny the election results". In effect if he says no, he openly admits that he just doesn't accept the election results.

Olivier Faure, who leads the Socialist party (the other big political force in the New Popular Front) backs up Mélenchon and says the "pretext of the presence of LFI ministers" isn't valid anymore.

In a way a New Popular Front government without LFI would in itself a denial of democracy because most voters voted for them *because* LFI was part of the coalition. But this is also an act of political courage by Mélenchon and a way to put Macron in front of his contradictions.

We've already had some of Macron's lieutenants reply such as Benjamin Haddad (former spokesperson for Macron's party in the French parliament) who literally says that a New Popular Front gvt is unacceptable either way because it'd be bad for France.

They get to decide this?

Let's see what Macron ultimately does but we're truly witnessing something extraordinary that demonstrates how undemocratic France has become: the people voted and the result of their vote is so far simply rejected because those holding power don't like it...

Arnaud Bertrand on X

@Slavyangrad

Bloomberg: The US is increasing its nuclear potential and bringing war closer.

Biden, Harris and Trump do not speak publicly about apocalyptic scenarios, as Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan and other presidents once did,

— the article says.

Analysts note that the American presidential candidates believe that the issue of nuclear war does not interest American voters, and therefore do not discuss the topic publicly.

But they don't realize that more important listeners are in Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang

,
— the publication’s experts insist.

They also emphasize that the nuclear arms race is stupid, economically ruinous for the United States, and ultimately pointless, since the number of warheads ceases to matter as soon as the parties launch the first strikes.

@Slavyangrad

Artillery of the "North" group destroys hangars of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkov region

Earlier, in the area of ​​the settlement Peremoga, the Fearless destroyed an artillery installation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. There, hangars with equipment and supplies were also hit by artillery.

@Slavyangrad

🔞A destroyed column of Ukrainians somewhere in the Kursk region. Their corpses are scattered along the roadsides 🔞

@Slavyangrad

Iskander hit on another HIMARS in the area of ​​the settlement of Gritsenkovo ​​in the Sumy region.

UPD: Lostarmor considers this to be BUK.

@Slavyangrad

Megaupload File Sharing Network Founder Kim Dotcom Calls Pavel Durov's Arrest in France an Attack on Free Speech

" Western intelligence agencies want to gain access to Telegram's private messages. According to French media, Durov faces 20 years in prison if he does not cooperate ," businessman H. wrote on social media.

He also reached out to the Telegram team and offered to help them: “I know better than anyone how to deal with a crisis like this. Do what’s best for your users.”

@Slavyangrad