Syria's air defense system intercepts targets in the vicinity of Damascus, SANA has reported. Explosions are heard in the skies above the capital.

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Aerial Defense Array intercepted a UAV over the Mediterranean Sea, dozens of kilometers off the coast of central Israel, the IDF reported.

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🌪 The devastating aftermath of Hurricane Helene

Roads in the US state of North Carolina have been flooded, leaving people trapped in their homes. There is no electricity and communication are almost completely cut off.

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An explosion was heard in Saida city. Israeli raid targeted a house in Ain al-Hilweh camp, Lebanese media reported.

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🎥 Footage shows the moment of attack on a civilian car in Damascus.

Three citizens were killed and nine were injured as a result of attack, SANA reported.

Video from social media


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US agrees on 'necessity of dismantling attack Infrastructure’ on Israel-Lebanon Border

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant agreed during their call on "the necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure" along the Israeli border to ensure that Lebanon's Hezbollah movement cannot launch an attack on northern Israel, the Pentagon said.

According to the statement, the US Secretary of Defense also discussed the importance of ultimately moving from military action to diplomacy.

Austin also made clear that Washington was ready to defend US service members, partners and allies in the face of "threats from Iran" and the movements it supports.

Earlier, Israeli army said it had launched “limited, localized and targeted raids against Hezbollah” in the South Lebanon border area.

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🎸 $4,000 Taylor Swift guitar smashed in shocking auction stunt

A viral video captures a man buying a guitar signed by Taylor Swift for $4,000 at a live auction, only to smash it with a hammer moments later, leaving the audience in disbelief.

Speculation is that the act was either a publicity stunt or a political statement in response to Swift's controversial endorsement of Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

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📹The US military got scared of the Russian Su-35 maneuver and griped about it on social networks.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command released a video claiming that it happened in the Alaska area.

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The General Organization of Radio and TV (ORTAS) reported its anchor, Safaa Ahmad, has died as a result of the Israeli strike on the Syrian capital, Damascus.

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The head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Shigeru Ishiba, was elected the new prime minister by the lower house of the Japanese parliament.

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Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that he had submitted a petition to the Cabinet of Ministers for the dismissal of his deputies and the secretary of state of the department.

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🇷🇺🤝🇨🇳Putin congratulates China’s Xi on 75th anniversary of PRC’s founding

Russia's President Vladimir Putin sent congratulations to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, highlighting that Russia values friendly relations with China.

The volume of mutual trade is growing, despite the difficult international situation, Putin added.

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❗️The special services of NATO and Ukraine are preparing a provocation with the use of chemical weapons in Syria, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) reported.

The goal is to launch a campaign to discredit Syria and Russia at the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Their plan is to involve the White Helmets organization, whose activists will engage in video recordings of the "consequences of the incident."

The operation plan provides for the militants to dump a booby-trapped container with chlorine from a drone during strikes on terrorist positions in the Idlib de-escalation zone, the SVR said.

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‘Targeted raids’: What’s known about Israel’s ground operations in Lebanon so far?

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have launched what they called “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. In the latest developments under the Operation Northern Arrows:

🔸This comes after hours of Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire across the Israeli-Lebanese border, which took place as Israeli authorities restricted civilian movements in some border communities;

🔸The strikes killed 95 people and injured 172 more, the Lebanese Health Ministry said;

🔸The IDF reportedly has about five brigades currently on standby, but not all of them are expected to move across the border. The Israeli operation forced Lebanese troops to retreat three miles (about five kilometers) from their positions along the country's southern border with Israel, sources claimed;

🔸Hezbollah in turn stated it “targeted” Israeli soldiers carrying out “movements” in orchards near the border;

🔸In neighboring Syria, three people were killed and nine more injured as a result of Israel's “air aggression with warplanes and drones” against Damascus, Syrian state media reported, citing a military source;

🔸US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant agreed during their phone call on “the necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure” along the Israeli border to ensure that Hezbollah cannot launch an attack on northern Israel, according to the Pentagon;

🔸UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged British nationals to leave Lebanon immediately, warning that the conflict could “escalate in a major way”;

🔸Hezbollah's deputy leader, Naim Qassem, stressed that his group was ready for an Israeli ground offensive and that the battle “may be long.”

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🔸What’s known about Israel’s ground operations in Lebanon so far?

🔸Watch: Israel carries out several strikes targeting southern Lebanon

🔸Pentagon agrees on 'necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure' on Israel-Lebanon border

🔸Video: Russia’s Su-35 air maneuvers scared off US military

🔸Shigeru Ishiba becomes Japan’s new prime minister

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Julian Assange has arrived at the Council of Europe building in Strasbourg, where, for the first time since his release, he will talk about his years in prison.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has refused to accredit Sputnik's correspondent for Julian Assange's speech, despite the timely submission of an application.

The Wikileaks founder will testify before the committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on October 1. This is his first public appearance since his release.

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Zakharova brands Blinken as 'scoundrel' over his remarks on Babi Yar tragedy

Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of false plans to denazify Ukraine, recalling the Babi Yar massacre of 1941 when the Nazis killed 34,000 Jews.

"Only a scoundrel could say that, because Russia denazifies those who became the successors of the crimes of the murderers of the victims of Babyn Yar — Russia denazifies Bandera followers, who glorified the collaborators, Bandera and Shukhevych," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman responded.

Zakharova also drew attention to the fact that it is in the United States that there are monuments for fascist collaborators.

She recalled that those who shot innocent Soviet citizens in Babi Yar were, among others, units of the Ukrainian auxiliary police from the western occupied Ukrainian regions. These units were subordinated directly to the SS, "the symbolism of which modern Ukrainian followers of Bandera and Shukhevych are so fond of using."

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📹 The Israeli army released footage of its troops preparing to take part in a ground operation in southern Lebanon

“The forces of the 98th Division, including the forces of the Commando Brigade, paratroopers and armored vehicles of the 7th Brigade, have been preparing over the past weeks for a ground operation in southern Lebanon, which began last night," the Israeli army said.

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CIA 'campaign of retribution' against Assange 

WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, said that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) organized a "campaign of retribution" against him, demonstrating to the world the capabilities of intelligence organizations for extraterritorial repression.

"The CIA drew up plans to kidnap and to assassinate me within the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and authorized going after my European colleagues, subjecting us to theft, hacking attacks, and the planting of false information. My wife and my infant son were also targeted," Assange said. 

"The CIA's targeting of myself, my family, and my associates through aggressive extrajudicial and extraterritorial means, provides a rare insight into how powerful intelligence organizations engage in transnational repression," he concluded.

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