USA: Several polls in America show large numbers of citizens consider the US status as a world power is declining

Nearly half of Americans (47%) say that the United States’ influence in the world has been getting weaker in recent years. Only about one-in-five say U.S. influence has been getting stronger, while 32% say U.S. influence has been staying about the same.

This is in stark contrast with views of China: Two-thirds of U.S. adults say that the country’s influence has been getting stronger in recent years. Roughly one-in-five Americans say China’s global influence is holding steady, and only one-in-ten say China’s influence has been weakening.

Read more at: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/06/23/prevailing-view-among-americans-is-that-u-s-influence-in-the-world-is-weakening-and-chinas-is-growing/

Ukraine war: Belarus loosing more and more support among few Western friends she stll has

Landlocked Belaru:s is losing more access to its western neighbors. Since the start of the month, Poland has sent more troops toward its border with the country and Lithuania has shut down two of its six crossing points with Belarus. Latvia is also considering border closures: One official told DW that "active consultations" are taking place, with a decision planned later this month.

The three European Union members bordering Belarus say they're responding to the reported presence of Wagner mercenaries on Belarusian territory, after the private Russian military group's fleeting and ill-fated June rebellion.

"This decision is one of the preventive measures aimed at managing emerging threats to national security and possible provocations at the border," Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said last week in a statement announcing the temporary closures. "It will enable border officers to redistribute their capacities at the border with Belarus and pay even larger attention to the protection of the state border."

Read more at: https://www.dw,com

Russian Economy; Putn's war with Ukraine a disaster for Russia's value of the ruble.

The Russian currency has broken another threshold in its decline in value. Over the weekend, 1 ruble was worth only 1 US cent. This means 100 rubles had to be paid for $1 US. The ruble also continued to lose value against the euro, with €1 at times costing nearly 110 rubles.

The ruble fell to its lowest point since March 2022 when the currency crashed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In the following few months, the currency regained the lost ground as Russia benefited from significantly higher energy prices. However, over the past year, the ruble has steadily declined.

Read more at: https://www.dw.com

Asteroids: killer Asteroid detected heading towards Earth by AI technology

While artificial intelligence (AI) has generally been hailed as a means of improving our daily lives, some experts have warned about the potential existential threat it poses to humanity. Or does it?

A new AI-powered algorithm has detected a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) heading in Earth’s direction that other more old-school surveys - including the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) - failed to find.

This new PHA named 2022 SF289, which is 600 feet in length and large enough to destroy a city, was detected while the asteroid-hunting algorithm was undergoing an efficiency test using data from the ATLAS survey in Hawaii. 

Read more at : 'https://www.euronews.com

US democracy on life support

We know from Thursday night that when his close aides pleaded with him to call off the attack, he refused, spending 187 minutes watching events unfold on TV in the White House dining room while swatting away increasingly desperate pleas for him to act until it was clear that his hopes of violently overthrowing the election had faded.

To those who track anti-democratic movements there is a chilling familiarity to this rich evocation of a president descending into an abyss of fantasy, fury and possible illegality. “The picture that the hearings depict is of a coup leader,” said the Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky. “This is a guy who was unwilling to accept defeat and was prepared to use virtually any means to try to stay illegally in power.”

Read more at: ahttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/23/january-6-hearings-us-democracy-roadmap-autocracy

Ukraine War: the war could suddely come to an end if Putin, who is rumored to have Parkenson, is removed from power

SICK Vladimir Putin's "days are numbered" as the tyrant faces being carted off to hospital in a "sudden end" to his rule, the former head of MI6 has warned. 

Rumours have swirled for months about the 70-year-old Russian leader's reportedly failing health - fuelled by his bloated face and trembling legs.

 Read more at: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/21212116/putin-days-numbered-parkinsons-spy-chief/

Ukraine conflict: Putin's decision to store nuclear weapons in Belarus brings world closer to nuclear war than ever before, says United Nations

Many UN Speakers Condemn Russian Federation’s Dangerous Rhetoric, as Veiled Threats

The Russian Federation’s recent announcement of plans to station non-strategic nuclear weapons in Belarus represents the first “nuclear sharing” agreement made since the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons entered into force in 1970, the senior United Nations disarmament official told the Security Council today, emphasizing that — against the backdrop of the Ukraine conflict — the risk such arms will be used is higher today than at any time since the end of the cold war.

Read more at: https://www.un.org/en/

Ukraine war: Ukraine drone hits Russian tanker in Black Sea near Crimea

Ukrainian drones hit a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea late Friday night, according to Russian officials and video circulating on social media.

The strike was the second sea attack involving drones in one day, after Ukraine struck a major Russian port earlier on Friday in an attack that underlined Kyiv's growing naval capabilities as the Black Sea becomes an increasingly important battleground in the war.

Read more at:https://www.cbc.com

Ukraine Russian invasion: Ukraine hits Russia back where It hurts

Russian warship was seriously damaged in an overnight Ukrainian naval drone attack on Russia's Black Sea navy base at Novorossiysk, the first time the Ukrainian navy has projected its power so far from the country's shores.

The port, which handles two per cent of the world's oil supply and also exports grain, temporarily halted civilian ship movement before resuming normal operations, according to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium which operates an oil terminal there.

Read more at" https//www.cbc.com

NATO: Wagner troops could cut off NATO Baltic countries from Nato

An expert has told Euronews that Russia's Wagner mercenary group could stage an attack to sever the Baltic states from NATO, though he questioned if such a "suicidal" step would be taken. 

Dr Stephen Hall, lecturer of Russian politics at the University of Bath, suggested the assault may involve a small incursion, akin to a provocative false flag operation, to disguise direct Russian involvement.  

But he was sceptical this was feasible, owing to the immense geopolitical risks and Wagner's military strength. 

Read more at:

https://www.euronews.com