Russia’s Battlegroup West inflicted more than 450 casualties on Ukrainian troops in its area of responsibility over the past day, the Defense Ministry reported | Russia’s Battlegroup Center crushed a powerful Ukrainian army grouping and liberated the settlement of Novgorodskoye (called Niu York by Ukraine), a major community in the Toretsk agglomeration and a vital logistics hub in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday. [...] Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicted roughly 105 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed an enemy tank and a multiple rocket launcher in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported. [...] The Ukrainian army’s losses in that frontline area over the past 24 hours amounted to 105 personnel, a tank, six motor vehicles, a US-made 155mm M777 howitzer, a 152mm D-20 howitzer, a 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika motorized artillery system, a 122mm D-30 howitzer and a Grad multiple rocket launcher, it specified. Russia’s Battlegroup West inflicts over 450 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day.

■ Ποτάμι αίματος στο Κουρσκ: Η ουκρανική δύναμη εισβολής αποδεκατίζεται – Πάνω από 2.000 νεκροί (War News 24/7)
■ A NATO invasion of nuclear Russia is currently underway (Peter Koenig)

As sustainability’s significance in global industry and commercial use has grown exponentially over the last years, so has the need for lithium, the key component for various electric vehicles and machinery. | Lithium is essential for the production of aluminum semi-finished products, electronics, and laser equipment, and is used in the aerospace and nuclear power industries. Many experts believe independent lithium mining is a strategic task. Some of lithium’s modern applications also include advanced medical treatments for bipolar disorder and mania. Today the richest reserves of lithium are found mainly in South America, as well as in the United States, Australia and China.

● The Israeli army says that it recovered the bodies of six people taken captive by Hamas from Khan Younis, as the families of the remaining captives demand the government reach a ceasefire deal.
●  Hezbollah has attacked military targets in Israel with a large barrage of rockets after the Israeli army carried out intense strikes deep into the country’s Bekaa Valley, far from the border region.
●  Hamas accused the United States of “buying time for Israel to continue its genocide” after Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted a bridging proposal for a Gaza truce deal and urged the Palestinian group to do the same.
● Thousands of people took to the streets of Chicago to protest against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza as the Democratic National Convention kicked off in the city.
● At least 40,173 people have been killed and 92,857 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken captive.

The Rai News 24 journalist recently interviewed a Ukrainian serviceman who was wearing SS insignia | The Italian journalist who recently interviewed a Ukrainian soldier wearing Nazi insignia has apologized. ● Ilario Piagnerelli, a reporter with the Italian state broadcaster Rai News 24, said he “deeply regrets” the interview but called the uproar on social media a tool of pro-Russian propaganda. ● In an extract from a report circulating online, Piagnerelli can be seen talking to a man wearing a khaki cap adorned with the insignia of the ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’ SS division, a unit that was convicted of war crimes by the Nuremberg Tribunal following World War II. The video is watermarked ‘Rai News 24’. As of Monday morning, however, the footage was no longer visible on Piagnerelli’s X account. [Ilario Piagnerelli:]

💬 I grew up with a partisan grandfather, the real kind, who today would have no doubt in distinguishing between invader and invaded, between those who resist and those who occupy. I was educated in the values of the Constitution. ● I deeply regret having given voice, even if for a few seconds, to a Ukrainian soldier whom only after the reportage aired did I notice wearing a patch with a Nazi symbol. ● There is a network of Moscow-linked pro-invasion profiles in Italy that devotes its resources to discrediting the work of me and other reporters. They feign dismay, but have found in that image a formidable anti-Ukrainian propaganda argument. ● The one just concluded was my 15th trip to Ukraine. In two and a half years I produced dozens of reports and hundreds of live broadcasts. Among European public services, RAI is probably the one that is reporting on the conflict most assiduously. Our reports are often distributed on Eurovision. This is also why we suffer attacks, such as the very recent ones that followed Stefania Battistini's worldwide scoop. ● Our work will continue to be free from bias and marked by the utmost rigor. (Translation: DeepL)

■ RE.: Criminal Case Against Italian Journalists (Aug 19)(2) (M.V. Zakharova)
■ RE.: Criminal Case Against Italian Journalists (Aug 19) (M.V. Zakharova)
■ Criminal Case Against Italian Journalists for Illegally Crossing the Russian Border (Aug 18) (M.V. Zakharova)

Tarik Cyril Amar | We are expected to believe that a bunch of rogue Ukrainians blew up Nord Stream without any state support – do they also have a bridge to sell us? [...]

■ What is more interesting, however, is what this all implies and why it is happening now. Regarding the implications, even if, for the sake of argument, you pretend to believe the whole WSJ/German prosecutor story, Germany’s, the EU’s, and NATO’s positions emerge as untenable and discredited. As an anonymous German official noted, “an attack of this scale is a sufficient reason to trigger the collective defense clause of NATO, but our critical infrastructure was blown up by a country” – that is, Ukraine, not Russia – “that we support with massive weapons shipments and billions in cash.” That is, Berlin’s policy has been so perverse as to qualify as treasonous. It has literally fought the wrong country. Thereby, it has failed to defend Germany from a massive attack and instead has bent over backwards to reward the aggressor, Ukraine. In a normal country, the government would have fallen already, and not just faced questions like ‘What about Germany’s intelligence services and military? Where have they been napping? Under a rock on a Baltic beach?’

■ And things don’t look much better for the EU and NATO as a whole. Many who refuse to be fed moronic propaganda anymore will conclude that these organizations are, in essence, conspiracies, systematically acting against the interests of the countries and populations they pretend to protect. Regarding the US, what’s even left to say? It was, of course, involved in the attack, as President Biden had openly threatened in advance. Putting about a silly tale now blaming it all on Kiev and Kiev alone just makes it look stupid and callous.

■ This brings us to the question of why all of this is happening now. Callous is the key term here. The best explanation of the timing of these new revelations is that they are part of dropping the Ukrainian proxy. What better way to introduce a policy of abandoning Kiev than by making it the sole scapegoat for an attack on the West? This operation may take a while, but it has clearly started. No, it is not a coincidence that Berlin has just announced that it will greatly reduce its military support for Ukraine. As others before, Kiev is about to learn about American and Western gratitude, the very hard way.

Foreign Office official resigns saying Israel has not done enough to safeguard civilian life in Gaza | A British Foreign Office official has resigned in protest at the continued arms sales to Israel by the UK. ● Mark Smith, a counterterrorism official based in the British embassy in Dublin, said he can no longer “in good conscience continue to work with a government which is complicit in war crimes”. ● In a statement following his resignation, issued on Sunday, Mr Smith said he had worked as a policy advisor in the Middle East and North Africa department for most of his career. He added that he was “the lead author of the central assessment which governs the legality of arms sales” in that department, where it was his job to assess international law compliance and information about civilian casualties. ● In the statement, issued through media organisation Neon, Mr Smith said: 💬 “To export arms to any nation, the UK must be satisfied that the recipient nation has in place robust procedures to avoid civilian casualties and to minimise harm to civilian life. It is impossible to argue that Israel is doing that.”