🌨 🌊Powerful storm Fiona, which was downgraded from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone, lashed into eastern Canada on Saturday, cutting power supply to thousands and washing houses into the sea as it pummeled the area with fierce winds and rains “like nothing we’ve ever seen”, police say.

As of midday, some 500,000 homes were left without power across the region as the storm pummeled a wide area, felling countless trees and ripping roofs from buildings.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted: “I want you to know that we’re here for you … Our government stands ready to support the provinces with additional resources.” Canada had issued severe weather warnings for swaths of its eastern coast, advising people to lay in supplies for at least 72 hours.

Subscribe to @sputniklnt

✝️Pope Francis on Saturday called for the world to abandon fossil fuels while speaking in the town of Assisi in central Italy. The hill town, located in the region of Umbria, is the birthplace of Saint Francis of Assisi, from whom the pontiff-born Jorge Mario Bergoglio took his papal name.

"Now is the time for new courage in abandoning fossil fuels to accelerate the development of zero- or positive-impact sources of energy," Francis said. "There are many people, businesses and institutions that are making an ecological conversion. We need to go forward on this road and do more," he added.

Pope Francis spoke to a gathering of around 1,000 young people organized by the Economy of Francesco initiative. Among the people attending the gathering were young economists and people involved in startups geared toward helping the environment.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️🌎An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 struck in the Pacific off southern Chile on Friday, but there were no early reports of damage. The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter was 10 kilometers (62 miles) below the surface, about 142 kilometers (6.2 miles) below the surface, and about 142 kilometers (88 miles) west of Ancud, a town 1,120 km (966 miles) south of the Chilean capital Santiago.

The National Emergency Office said in a tweet that authorities were checking for any “possible damage to people, alteration of basic services or infrastructure.’’

The Chilean navy’s Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service ruled out the possibility of a tsunami. Chile sits along the so-called “Ring of the Fire” of the Pacific, and it has frequent earthquakes.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Summing up Sergey Lavrov's bilaterals in New York, it's safe to say that those who wanted to hold negotiations with him, have done so. There were also those who cancelled meetings. Here is Russia's top diplomat commenting on some presumably Western nations' failure to show up at the talks: "As I have told you, they have prohibited the President of Cyprus from coming to talks. One representative was from one of “the five” [nuclear] states, the other one was also from a well-respected country – they have also contacted us. They have been asking timidly or even conspirationally for a confidential meeting. I said – sure, but they didn’t come. Same story with another prime minister. So, let’s not be calling us quitters.”

❌ Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has cancelled scheduled concerts in Poland because of his views regarding Russia's special operation in Ukraine, Polish media reported.

🗣 “Roger Waters’ manager decided to withdraw ... without giving any reason,” Lukasz Pytko from Tauron Arena Krakow said in comments carried by Polish media outlets.

Previously, Roger Waters has criticized the West for supplying weapons to Ukraine, blaming Washington, in particular

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Russian engineer troops clear out and inspect explosive objects at social infrastructure facilities in the settlements of the LPR

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Follow our LIVE UPDATES on third day of referendums in Donbass, Zaporozhye & Kherson

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️Ukrainian troops fire HIMARS missiles at Kherson, two people killed - Emergency Services

⚡️A missile strike on a hotel in the center of Kherson is a terrorist attack, and the Ukraine leadership is responsible for it – the region's administration has said

⚡️The hotel in Kherson, which was attacked by Ukrainian troops, was not used for military purposes, there were journalists and staff – administration

Beto O'Rourke, the Democrat who is running to become Governor of Texas in the November elections, said that Latino voters have become more right-wing in recent years partly because of his party's disregard for demographics.

🗣"Candidate Biden didn't spend a dime or day in the Rio Grande Valley - or really anywhere in Texas, for that matter - once we got down in the homestretch of the general election," O'Rourke told a crowd at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📊 Of those who voted on the first day, 93 % back the idea of the Zaporozhye region joining the Russian Federation, according to the poll from the Crimean Republican Institute of Political and Sociological Research

⚡️The HIMARS strike on a hotel in Kherson was carried out using information from NATO intelligence services, a law enforcement official told Sputnik

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

😳 Roger Waters, has written that neither he nor his managers have cancelled his forthcoming shows in Krakow, as previously reported by Polish media. According Waters, it was all an attempt to introduce censorship: a member of Krakow City Council, Łukasz Vantukh, urged residents not to buy tickets for the performance. The official also wants the musician to be registered as a persona non grata.

🗣 “Notwithstanding that this chap Łukasz Vantukh seems to know nothing of my history of working, all my life, at some personal cost, in the service of human rights, he, in an article in a local newspaper urged the good people of Krakow not to buy tickets to my show. Not very democratic sir?” Waters added

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️An improvised explosive device went off near the administration building in Berdyansk, there were no casualties - authorities

❗️According to Jaishankar, it was the collective responsibility of the world's powers to bring an early resolution to the conflict in Ukraine.

👉🏼 READ FULL STORY

🧐 Italy’s snap election: Who is running & when can results be expected?

📌 As Italy votes in a snap election on Sunday, the last survey published before a pre-election ban on September 10 showed one in every four Italians planned to cast a ballot for Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, putting the frontrunner on track to become the country’s first ever female Prime Minister at the head of a right-wing coalition.

Subscribe to @SutnikInt

📹 Russia’s MoD has published footage showing Airborne troopers who distinguished themselves during the special military operation being awarded state decorations.

Subscribe to @SutnikInt

🇪🇸 🦠 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.

🗣 "This morning I tested positive for COVID-19... I will continue to work, taking all necessary precautions," Sanchez said on Twitter.

▪️ Due to the infection, Sanchez canceled his participation in an event scheduled for Sunday in the municipality of Gava in the autonomous community of Catalonia in the eastern part of Spain.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt