🇮🇹 Italy will take "extraordinary measures" to deal with an influx of migrants that has become unbearable for the country this year, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said.

🗣 "The Italian government intends to take immediate extraordinary measures to deal with the number of migrants landing on our coast," Meloni said in a video posted on X on Friday.

Among the measures to be adopted on Monday is an increase in the time migrants can be held in detention centers from 12 to 18 months, the maximum allowed under European law. Another step will be the strengthening of repatriation centers, which will be entrusted to the Italian Defense Ministry. Migrants will stay in these facilities for the entire duration of their refugee status processing before a decision is made.

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🗣️ On the global shift to multipolarity that leaves Europe behind:

“As Russia therefore turns to the broader BRICS world and the rest of the world, it's those countries that benefit from these linkages. And it's Europe that is absolutely left behind. One of those beneficiaries is China. Because China is a crowded, densely populated economy with natural resources, but on a per capita basis, relatively low. So it's very complementary with Russia. Add in the common shared high tech element, and that's an added benefit of this increasingly strong relationship between China and Russia on the economic side, because there is a lot of technology transfer that can go in both directions…That is of great strength,” Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia University economist, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Sachs’ analysis in our podcast New Rules

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble

🇨🇳 China outpaces US in high tech, a report says

According to a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), China leads in 19 out of 23 technology research areas thanks to government investment. It is also ahead of the US, Europe and Japan in research in areas such as the development of underwater drones and hypersonics.

In autonomous underwater vehicles, China accounts for 56.9% of important research. Second-ranked US accounts for just 9.5%. In high-impact research output for hypersonic detection, tracking and characterization, China accounts for 73.3%, far ahead of the US, UK and Germany.

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A Frecce Tricolore aerobatic plane has crashed near Turin, Italy, during a training flight before Sunday's air show, local media write.

During the fall, the plane hit a car with a family inside. A five-year-old girl died from burns, but the pilot himself managed to eject.

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😴 🇺🇸 If you believe your week has been challenging, rest assured that this week's number one failure award🏆 undoubtedly goes to President Joe Biden of America.

Watch our video to find out why!

#SputnikMeme

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Lavrov will take part in the UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine, where it is expected that Zelensky may also participate. The upcoming meeting will end up to be another "show", with the Ukrainian president as leading actor, Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told Sputnik

There will be no outcome from the high-level meeting, the official added.

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🇬🇧 Man detained in London for trespassing at royal stables near Buckingham Palace

🗣 "At 01:25hrs on Saturday [00:25 GMT], 16 September, officers at Buckingham Palace responded to a person climbing the wall and entering the Royal Mews. Following a search, a 25-year-old man was detained by officers outside the stables in the Royal Mews. At no point did the man enter Buckingham Palace or the Palace Gardens," the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The man was detained under the UK's Serious Organised Crime and Police Act for trespassing on a protected site, the statement added.

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❗Ukrainian President's advisor insults India's analytical potential. Mykhailo Podolyak's offensive comments at the Editorial Board Summit criticized India's strategic assessment abilities.

💬 He later apologized for his remarks but previously referred to India's lunar mission as a lack of understanding the modern world.

🌐 Podolyak's words caused a strong reaction on the internet, especially from Indian users. One of them wrote "that's why we are on the Moon and they are in minefield."

👉 Read the full version of the article on the Sputnik India website

🇷🇺🇰🇵 The issue of organizing a performance of ballet dancers from Russia’s Primorsky Territory in North Korea is under discussion, Governor Oleg Kozhemyako said on Saturday, adding that it is important to examine suitable conditions for the performance.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Primorsky Territory this morning. Local authorities will discuss many issues with Kim, including the prospects of exchanging school groups for health vacations, Kozhemyako said earlier in the day. The North Korean leader also attended the "Sleeping Beauty" ballet performed on the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre.

"We are discussing the issue of whether we can perform in [North] Korea. Therefore, in order to do that, we need to see how well the halls match in terms of ... bars, depth, backstage. Especially the ballet stage. I think after our experts' research, we will conduct cultural exchanges since we are close to each other," the governor told reporters.

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The ongoing conflict in Ukraine may be about to move to a new phase amid the severe losses sustained by the Kiev regime forces, warns former senior Pentagon adviser Col. Douglas Macgregor.

With thousands of Ukrainian losses during the ongoing “counteroffensive”, Kiev appears to be “desperate for manpower” and is trying to rectify this problem by “forcing people into uniform inside the country that are not really capable of fighting” and attempting to repatriate Ukrainians of military age from overseas, Macgregor said during an interview with Norwegian political scientist Glenn Diesen.

“So I think the Ukrainian ground war, for all intents and purposes, is either at a standstill or perhaps even over,” he remarked.

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🇧🇪 Belgium will soon hand over to Ukraine ten decommissioned US-made M113 tracked armored personnel carriers, which have been repaired and are ready for shipment, Belgian Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder said.

🗣 “Today I can announce that the first batch of ten M113 vehicles has been prepared and will be sent to Ukraine as soon as possible,” the minister said in a written statement.

Overall, Belgium plans to transfer to Ukraine 40 M113 APCs, which were decommissioned by the Belgian army more than 10 years ago.

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📹 Russia's Ka-52 helicopters in action

Ka-52 pilots launched missiles at detected targets. As a result of the mission, the Ukrainian control center and some armored vehicles were annihilated.

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European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde has seized the cell phones of 26 members of the Governing Council in an unprecedented move to prevent information leaks, a British news agency reported on Saturday, citing sources.

The move came ahead of the vote to pick the ECB's top banking supervisor and were returned after the appointment of Deutsche Bundesbank Vice-President Claudia Buch to the position, the sources said.

The decision to seize the phones was made a day after the news agency reported that the bank would raise its key inflation forecast. The report had an impact on the forecasts of many economists, who were expecting no interest rate hike from the ECB, the report said.

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NATO will hold its largest exercises since the Cold War dubbed Steadfast Defender in Germany, Poland and three Baltic states in 2024, Chair of the Military Committee Adm. Rob Bauer said.

"In 2024, the Alliance will be holding its largest collective defense exercise since the Cold War: STEADFAST DEFENDER. Over 40,000 troops from across the Alliance will exercise in Germany, Poland and the three Baltic States," Bauer was quoted as saying by NATO at a joint press conference with the head of the Norwegian armed forces, Eirik Kristoffersen.

Steadfast Defender is an annual NATO-led exercise designed to ensure that the alliance's forces are trained, able to operate together, and are ready to respond to any threat from any direction.

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British army vet turned mercenary reported dead in Ukrainian conflict

The remains of Daniel Burke, a 36-year old veteran of the of the British Paratrooper Regiment, have allegedly been discovered by authorities in Ukraine, UK media outlet have reported, citing the Greater Manchester Police (GMP).

According to the report, Burke’s body was found in Zaporozhye, some 44 kilometers away from the frontline, and the GMP currently seeks to “support the identification” of the deceased and to return his body home with the help of the Ukrainian authorities and the dead mercenary’s family.

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🪖 Russian air defense shots down Ukrainian drone over Moscow region

There are also no damages or casualties after the fall of the debris, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

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🇳🇪🇲🇱🇧🇫 Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger sign charter to create defense alliance

An attack on the sovereignty or territorial integrity of one or more parties to the charter will be regarded as aggression against the other parties, the document read, which binds the signatories to assist one another, including militarily, in the event of an attack on any one of them.

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🪖 NATO boasts it can deploy 3.5mln soldiers in case of attack on bloc

💬 “We are talking, in NATO as a whole if Finland and Sweden have joined, of about 3.5 million soldiers in the alliance,” Rob Bauer told reporters at a press conference with Norwegian Chief of Defense Gen. Eirik Kristoffersen, adding that NATO can deploy 300,000 soldiers in the first month of a potential attack on the bloc.

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🇷🇺🇰🇵 Kim Jong Un delegation visits oceanarium in Russia’s Vladivostok.

The North Korean leader was amused by the behavior of a walrus named Misha.

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🇷🇺🇺🇸 US imports of Russian fertilizer hit record $944mln

Russia was the US' second-largest supplier of fertilizer this year, the largest supplier being Canada, which exported $2.8Bln of fertilizers in seven months. Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Qatar make up the other top five countries from which the US imports fertilizer.

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