▪️A suicide bombing has hit a mosque at a government ministry in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, killing four people and wounding 25, a ministry spokesman said. The explosion on Wednesday afternoon occurred as workers and visitors were praying inside Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry mosque, which is responsible for security and law enforcement.

The ministry is on Kabul’s main road next to Kabul International Airport and is in its fortified compound. A Taliban-appointed spokesman for the ministry, Abdul Nafi Takor, said in a tweet: “Unfortunately this afternoon, about 1:30 pm [09:00 GMT], there was an explosion in a sub mosque at the Ministry of Interior. As a result, four worshippers were martyred, and 25 others were wounded.

The incident is under investigation; we will share the details with the media when it is done.” On Wednesday afternoon, the Emergency hospital was closely guarded by Taliban forces, who were also heavily deployed around the attack scene.

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💸🇺🇸The national debt has hit a new record, and with interest rates rising and high inflation sticking around, there are fears that the federal government’s debt obligations will become overwhelming. In August, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that Biden's policies would add $4.8 trillion to budget deficits between 2021 and 2031.

There are also worries that too much debt not only threatens the country’s economic stability but will hurt Americans’ wallets down the road.

“Future generations are going to face lower wages than they otherwise would have. They're going to receive less in federal government benefits. They're going to pay more in taxes, and a larger share of our budget is going to go just to financing interest on the debt,” Goldwein said, senior vice president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

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📲 Supporters of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got excited on social media Wednesday when the Republican gave remarks introducing President Biden while standing at a podium with the presidential seal on it.

“Mr. President, welcome to Florida,” the governor said at one point. “We appreciate working together across various levels of government.”

Biden was slightly ahead of DeSantis by 36% to 35% in a YouGov survey from August -within the margin of error- but led Trump 39% to 36%. 

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🚀The first stage booster of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket made a successful landing on the Just Read the Instructions (JRTI) drone ship after launching four astronauts to the International Space Station.

SpaceX shared a video of the booster deploying its landing legs before settling onto the JRTI’s landing platform, eliciting cheers from the command center.

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🚰🇫🇷France will turn off the hot water in the restrooms of public buildings and order municipalities to reduce water temperatures at public swimming pools by 1 degree Celsius as part of broader plans to reduce energy consumption, the energy ministry said.

President Emmanuel Macron's government is due to announce sector-by-sector energy saving measures on Thursday designed to avoid power outages or shortfalls in gas supplies during the winter.

Le Parisien newspaper reported that hot water production in administration buildings alone accounts for 10% of the energy bill of the French state, which employs over five million people.

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😵A violent armed group was captured in video footage stealing a car in Philadelphia. Last Saturday, unknown males robbed the victim, a 29-year-old-male. The victim parked his vehicle at the gas station while a white transit van parked in front of him. When the victim exited the store and walked back to his car, four masked males with guns jumped out of the white van and robbed the victim of his car.

The Philadelphia police department has launched investigations to find those responsible.

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🚀 Many countries are interested in flying their astronauts on Russia’s Soyuz, however, it is too premature to talk about any advancement in ongoing talks, Roscosmos Human Space Flight Programs Executive Director Sergei Krikalev told Sputnik.

💬"There is interest in participating in flights," Krikalev said. "In fact, the negotiations are ongoing with many countries. There have been talks with India, there were conversations with Mongolia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and others. Well, in short, all this is still a conversation at a preliminary level. That is, it is still too early to talk about some kind of advancement."

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⚡️ Moscow 'considering all options' to establish reasons for terrorist attacks on Nord Stream pipelines - Russian Foreign Ministry to Sputnik

🇮🇷 The West, having imposed sanctions against Tehran and Moscow, suffered from these sanctions itself and faced an energy crisis, Iranian deputy energy minister Ahmad Asadzadeh told Sputnik on Thursday.

💬 "Now the world needs gas and oil. It would be good to treat this topic carefully, to take a transparent position. Sanctions against Iran and Russia are not good for the West, it will suffer from them. Today there is a gas crisis in Europe, there are problems. The same is true for oil," the minister said.

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⛪ 🇸🇪 Faced with ballooning energy costs and unable to pay for heating bills, the Church of Sweden is closing down its houses of worship this winter.

▪️ So far, there is no aggregate figure on how many churches will be completely closed across the country. The pastorates and the congregations are self-determining and there have been no orders from the dioceses. However, it is absolutely clear that many will resort to the most drastic solution.

▪️ Among others, Skara pastorate has decided to completely close 11 of its 16 churches over the winter due to exorbitant electricity prices.

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❗️ Russia decides to allocate $1.5 billion loan to Belarus for import substitution, agreement signed or to be signed soon - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk to Sputnik

📹 Russia's MoD has published footage depicting mobilized personnel attending combat training in Leningrad region.

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🌐The BRICS will strengthen amid new political conditions, remaining one of the principal instruments of the global economy, Russian Ambassador to Brazil Aleksei Labetskiy said.

👉The Ambassador added that BRICS is a settled format of international cooperation. The organization is admired by both separate countries and other international bodies and has a constantly expanding agenda.

🤝The BRICS unites Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa. Argentina and Iran, among many other countries, are willing to join the organization.

🇶🇦 🇨🇿 Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, has interrupted his visit to the Czech Republic and left the country ahead of schedule, not having been there for a whole day out of the planned three.

▪️ He managed to negotiate with President Zeman and met with the Prime Minister of the Republic, Petr Fiala.

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❗️Ex-policeman reportedly kills at least 32 in shooting attack on children's center in Thailand

📹 Footage allegedly from the scene where an ex-cop reportedly shot at least 32 people.

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