Commented

French ski resort closes permanently because of snowfall shortage (www.cnn.com)

A Mexican ufologist claims to show 2 alien corpses to Mexico's Congress (www.npr.org)

Who wants to believe with me?

Beijing claims US citizen jailed for life in China was decorated spy who worked undetected for decades (edition.cnn.com)

New Delhi got a makeover for the G20 summit. The city's poor say they were simply erased (apnews.com)

Malaysia, India and Taiwan reject China's new territorial map (asia.nikkei.com)

BRICS MATERIALS: the flourishing intra-BRICS oil trade (bne.eu)

Addition of KSA, UAE, Iran means share has doubled to 42% of crude oil output in 2022. "Saudi pricing oil exports to China and India in non-dollar currencies does not spell the end of the dollar as the international currency of choice,” says ING. Trade within bloc makes trade hard to sanction by West.

Canada: 14 whales have died at aquarium since 2019, exposé reveals (www.theguardian.com)

Russian general who ran Ukraine war fired (www.bbc.co.uk)

Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft suffers technical glitch, space agency says (www.reuters.com)

Ukraine desperate for help clearing mines, says defence minister (www.theguardian.com)

Inner Mongolia reports two cases of bubonic plague (www.reuters.com)

Chinese embassy slams Moscow over Russian border incident (www.politico.eu)

Such criticism is unusual, as Beijing is one of Russia’s top allies and has not condemned the all-out invasion of Ukraine.

China’s rising clout in Latin America setting off alarm bells: US general (www.scmp.com)

The US risks getting “out-competed” by China in Latin America, particularly in telecommunications and other critical infrastructure, setting off alarm bells for the US, a senior American military official said on Friday....

Videos Show Russia Is Lying About Secret Attack on its Ship (www.thedailybeast.com)

Dietflation? How inflation is forcing the developed world to eat less (sh.itjust.works)

The food inflation crisis in the developing world has been front-page news. But spiraling food prices are much of a developed world problem, too....

Protests erupt in Italy over cuts to poverty relief scheme (www.reuters.com)

ROME, July 31 (Reuters) - Discontent mounted on Monday in Italy over cuts to a poverty relief scheme by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s rightist government that will affect hundreds of thousands of people....

Putin says Russia does not reject talks with Ukraine (www.reuters.com)

July 29 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that an African initiative could be a basis for peace in Ukraine but that Ukrainian attacks made it hard to realise....

12-year-old boy apprehended for ‘raping’ baby girl in UP’s Aligarh (indianexpress.com)

Deep sea mining - a better alternative? (article in body) (www.economist.com)

I’m immediately sceptical to the idea of ruining even more areas of nature than we already are, but at the same time I recognise that if we want to build feasible green energy and storage, we need rare-earth metals and heavy metals. This might be a good alternative to massive deforestation....

North Korea flies more balloons across border with South (www.dw.com)

South Korea is boosting its propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at the border after North Korea floated more trash balloons southwards....

‘Dismantled ... For Spare Parts.’ Russians Attack With Their Best Tanks And Worst War Bikes—And Run Into Heavily-Armed Ukrainian Paratroopers. (www.forbes.com)

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