Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has denied taking drugs after videos of a night out, in which a number of revelers could reportedly be heard discussing cocaine, were leaked online. The controversy has prompted some politicians to call for the young leader to take a drug test.

"I am upset that these videos have become public. It was about me having a night out with friends. Partying - even in a boisterous way - dancing and singing," Marin told the media on Thursday morning.

She denied any wrongdoing, but lamented the violation of her privacy. The party took place at a private residence several weeks ago, she said, and expected her off-duty time to remain confidential. Marin confirmed that the party that night later continued at two bars in Helsinki.

Chinese troops will travel to Russia to take part in war games along with India, Belarus, Mongolia, Tajikistan and other largely anti-Western countries, China's defense ministry said on Wednesday, adding redundantly that China's participation in the joint exercises is "unrelated to the current international and regional situation."

Last month, Moscow announced plans to hold "Vostok" (East) exercises from Aug. 30 to Sept. 5, even as it wages war in Ukraine. It said at the time that some foreign forces would participate, without naming them. It turns out that the "foreign forces" account for just under half of the world's population.

China's defence ministry said its participation in the exercises was part of an ongoing bilateral annual cooperation agreement with Russia, Reuters reported. The statement said:

"The aim is to deepen practical and friendly cooperation with the armies of participating countries, enhance the level of strategic collaboration among the participating parties, and strengthen the ability to respond to various security threats."

What is perhaps most interesting about the news is that the war games will see India and China participate together, although as the Hindu Times notes, it remains unclear if Indian and Chinese troops - hardly the closest of friends - will be present together or if they will participate in different drills, which will be spread across 13 different training grounds.

Israel and Turkey announced on Wednesday the full normalization of relations and the return of their ambassadors to Ankara and Tel Aviv.

Why it matters: The announcement ends a four-year diplomatic crisis that led to downgraded relations between the two non-Arab regional powers.

Driving the news: The Israeli prime minister's office said in a statement the agreement was reached on Tuesday in a phone call between the director generals of the Israeli and Turkish foreign ministries.

• Both countries decided to upgrade the relations to full diplomatic representation and return the Israeli ambassador and consul general to Ankara and Istanbul and the Turkish ambassador and consul general to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

What they're saying: "The normalization of ties with Turkey is an asset for regional stability and an economic benefit for the citizens of Israel," Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said.

New update from Russian Chief of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats, Lieutenant General, Igor Kirillov! Every time you see the guy above, you know some earth-shattering news just dropped.

Normally, these updates focus on biological activity in Ukraine, but today's briefing is about a growing NUCLEAR situation at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power plant (NPP) in Europe, located in south-eastern Ukraine, now under control of Russian Armed Forces.
Russian MIL report that Ukrainian forces have been shelling the location since July 18th, in 12 different attacks, with a total of 50 artillery shells dropped on the largest NPP in Europe.

"the Ukrainian side, together with their US handlers, are trying to play the card by causing what they believe to be a minor accident at the nuclear power plant and thus disrupting the normal and safe operation of the plant, blaming it on Russia."

Ultimately Russian MIL are accusing Ukraine and "their US handlers" of trying to create a Chernobyl-like nuclear event, and blame it on Russia. The Deep State are attempting to initiate a nuclear false flag.

In the past few months, Lebanese security services have arrested more than 100 people implicated in alleged Israeli spy networks.

Among these were young women tasked with photographing locations in the predominantly Shia southern suburbs of Beirut, the main stronghold of Hezbollah, and the primarily Sunni neighborhood of Tariq Al-Jadida in the western part of the city.

Working for the Israelis

According to investigations carried out by Lebanese security services, most of the detainees had applied online for employment opportunities, before being contacted from phone numbers belonging to Israeli citizens. Some of the accused were asked to buy local SIM cards and send them to addresses abroad.

A Slovak smelter will halt production by the start of October due to soaring electricity prices

The Slovalco aluminum smelter in Slovakia announced on Wednesday it will shut down primary production by the end of September.

"The decision to terminate primary aluminum production at Slovalco comes in response to adverse framework conditions and high electricity prices, which show no signs of improvement in the short term," the plant's majority owner, Norsk Hydro, said in a statement.

It explained that the Slovalco casthouse in central Slovakia is continuing its recycling operation, serving customers in the region with 75,000 tons of recycled aluminum annually.

The plant's CEO told media that the Slovalco plant was a key supplier for Slovak and other European companies. After stopping production, Europe will be forced to import aluminum from countries including Russia and China, he added.

Slovalco's shutdown follows a similar decision this week to cease production at a zinc smelter in the Netherlands.

Robert Habeck dismisses Germany's economic model as reliant on cheap energy imports from Russia.

German Economy and Climate Action Minister Robert Habeck lamented the entirety of the country's business model on Monday, dismissing it as reliant on cheap energy imports from Russia that will never return.

His comments come in tandem with his announcement of a new special tax on natural gas, which he believes will redistribute the repercussions of energy shortages on companies as well as the population in general.

"Germany developed a business model that was largely based on dependence on cheap Russian gas," Habeck told reporters in Berlin, slamming the business model as meaning dependence on an "enemy" of international law, "liberal democracy and its values."

"This model has failed and it is not coming back," he said.

Because Russia has "arbitrarily" halted gas deliveries to the European Union, as Habeck claimed, Berlin needs to "rescue companies that have got into difficulties and have to bear that as a national economy," calling it "bitter medicine."

For "clear violations of the fundamental tenets of research."

A senior White House climate advisor has been sanctioned by the National Academy of Sciences for violating its ethics policies.

Axios reports that Jane Lubchenco, the deputy director for climate and environment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has been pulled up by the NAS for editing a paper later found to contain technical errors, as well as having worked with the scientists involved in it, one of which turned out to be her brother-in law.

A deputy culture minister says the 1943 Volhyn massacres fit the definition of genocide and Kiev will have to recognize that.

The mass murder of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists during the Second World War meets the definition of genocide and the government in Kiev will have to recognize this sooner or later, Poland's Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage Jaroslaw Sellin said on Tuesday.

"They have to acknowledge it because it's a fact. It's simply a fact. A political decision was made and implemented for ethnic cleansing, the extermination of the entire national minority that has lived there for centuries," Sellin told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) during a TV interview.

In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, immortal Hague fugitive Henry Kissinger says the US is acting in a crazy and irrational way that has brought it to the edge of war with Russia and China:

Mr. Kissinger sees today's world as verging on a dangerous disequilibrium. "We are at the edge of war with Russia and China on issues which we partly created, without any concept of how this is going to end or what it's supposed to lead to," he says. Could the U.S. manage the two adversaries by triangulating between them, as during the Nixon years? He offers no simple prescription. "You can't just now say we're going to split them off and turn them against each other. All you can do is not to accelerate the tensions and to create options, and for that you have to have some purpose."

On the question of Taiwan, Mr. Kissinger worries that the U.S. and China are maneuvering toward a crisis, and he counsels steadiness on Washington's part. "The policy that was carried out by both parties has produced and allowed the progress of Taiwan into an autonomous democratic entity and has preserved peace between China and the U.S. for 50 years," he says. "One should be very careful, therefore, in measures that seem to change the basic structure."

Mr. Kissinger courted controversy earlier this year by suggesting that incautious policies on the part of the U.S. and NATO may have touched off the crisis in Ukraine. He sees no choice but to take Vladimir Putin's stated security concerns seriously and believes that it was a mistake for NATO to signal to Ukraine that it might eventually join the alliance: "I thought that Poland — all the traditional Western countries that have been part of Western history — were logical members of NATO," he says. But Ukraine, in his view, is a collection of territories once appended to Russia, which Russians see as their own, even though "some Ukrainians" do not. Stability would be better served by its acting as a buffer between Russia and the West: "I was in favor of the full independence of Ukraine, but I thought its best role was something like Finland."