🇮🇶 What preceded the US invasion of Iraq and how did the White House 'feed' the international community justifications for its military presence in the country? Check it out...

🇬🇧 King Charles III to be crowned May 6 next year

Tuesday’s announcement from Buckingham Palace comes amid speculation that the coronation will be shorter and less extravagant than the three-hour ceremony that installed Elizabeth in 1953, in keeping with Charles’ plans for a slimmed down monarchy. While the palace provided few details, British media reported that the guest list would be pared to 2,000 from 8,000.

King Charles III will be crowned at Westminster Abbey in a ceremony that will embrace the past but look to the modern world. Charles will be crowned in a solemn religious ceremony conducted by Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, the palace said in a statement.

The palace is planning the coronation, known as Operation Golden Orb, as Charles and his heir, Prince William, seek to demonstrate that the monarchy is still relevant in modern, multi-cultural Britain.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇳🇿 New Zealand proposes taxing cow burps

New Zealand’s government on Tuesday proposed taxing the greenhouse gasses that farm animals make from burping and peeing as part of a plan to tackle climate change. The government said the farm levy would be a world first, and that farmers should be able to recoup the cost by charging more for climate-friendly products.

But farmers quickly condemned the plan. Federated Farmers, the industry’s main lobby group, said the plan would “rip the guts out of small-town New Zealand” and see farms replaced with trees. Opposition lawmakers from the conservative ACT Party said the plan would actually increase worldwide emissions by moving farming to other countries that were less efficient at making food.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇺🇸 Labor proposal could upend rules for gig workers

The Biden administration proposed new standards Tuesday that could make it more difficult to classify millions of workers as independent contractors and deny them minimum wage and benefits.

The US Department of Labor rule, which could take months to take effect, would replace a scrapped Trump-era standard that had lowered the bar for classifying employees as contractors. The Trump-era rule had narrowed that criteria to whether the work in part of an integrated unit of production, and gave more weight to other considerations such as the worker’s opportunity to make a profit or loss.

App-based companies have long argued that their workers want the flexibility to set their own hours as contract workers, the new law has the potential to change the circumstances of millions of custodians, truck drivers, waiters, construction workers and others.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇮🇱 Israel, US announce Lebanon sea deal

Israel welcomed the deal even ahead of Biden’s announcement. Lebanese leaders made no formal announcement, but indicated they would approved the agreement.

The agreement, coming after months of U.S.-mediated talks, would mark a major breakthrough in relations between Israel and Lebanon, which formally have been at war since Israel’s establishment in 1948. In Washington, Biden said that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to “formally end” their maritime dispute.

Lebanon and Israel both claim some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea. At stake are rights over exploiting undersea natural gas reserves. Lebanon hopes gas exploration will help lift its country out of its spiraling economic crisis. Israel also hopes to exploit gas reserves while also easing tensions with its northern neighbor.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇺🇸 Conservative PACs inject millions into local school races

As Republicans and Democrats fight for control of Congress this fall, a growing number of conservative political action groups are targeting their efforts closer to home: at local school boards. Their aim is to gain control of more school systems and push back against what they see as a liberal tide in public education classrooms, libraries, sports fields, even building plans.

School board elections started to heat up last year as parents aired frustrations with pandemic policies. As those issues fade, right-leaning groups are spending millions on candidates who promise to scale back teachings on race and sexuality, remove offending books from libraries and nix plans for gender-neutral bathrooms or transgender-inclusive sports teams.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

‼️ Biden says there will be consequences for Saudi Arabia after recent OPEC+ decision.

📹The Russian Ministry of Defense has published footage showing Russian SU-25 aircraft in combat.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️An air alert has been activated in Kiev, local authorities say.

⚡️Ukrainian media report the sounds of explosions in the Nikolaev region.

⚡️An explosive device has been detonated at the main entrance to the central market in Melitopol; there are no casualties, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

📹🚀Have a look at Falcon 9’s launch and landing from the view of the droneship

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️Main intelligence directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, its head is behind of the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge - FSB

⚡️A leak was detected on Tuesday evening on one of the two strings of the Druzhba Oil pipeline in Poland, the main route for oil supplies to Germany, according to Pern (Poland's leading company in crude and fuel logistics).

‼️The FSB’s full statement about the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge:

▪️The organizer was the Main intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, its head Kirill Budanov, employees and agents;

▪️The bomb was camouflaged in rolls with construction polyethylene film on 22 pallets with a total weight of 22.77 metric tons and in early August was shipped from the port of Odessa to Ruse, Bulgaria under contract No. 02/08/2022 between Translogistic UA LLC (Kiev) and Baltex Capital S.A. (Ruse);

▪️Citizens of Ukraine Mikhail Vladimirovich Tsyurkalo, Denis Olegovich Kovach and Roman Ivanovich Solomko , Georgian citizens Sandro Inosaridze and a broker named Levan, and Armenian citizen Artur Terchanyan were involved in organizing the shipment of cargo from Bulgaria to the port of Poti (Georgia), and then to Armenia;

▪️From September 29 to October 3 in Yerevan at the Transalliance terminal, the cargo was cleared according to the rules of the (EAEU), documents were substituted, after which its sender was already GU AR JI GROUP LLC (Armenia, Alaverdi city), and the recipient was Leader LLC (Moscow);

▪️On October 4, the cargo crossed the Russian-Georgian border via Verkhny Lars on a DAF truck registered in Georgia and was delivered and unloaded at the Armavir wholesale base in Krasnodar Territory on October 6;

▪️On October 7, with the assistance of Solomko, a citizen of Ukraine, Vladimir Vasilyevich Zloba (1987), and five established citizens of Russia, the documents for the cargo were changed again, the sender indicated LLC TEK-34 (Ulyanovsk), and the recipient was a non-existent company in Crimea;

▪️On the same day, the pallets were loaded into the truck of Russian citizen Mahir Yusubov, who left for Simferopol, and on October 8 at 06:03 a.m., while following the Crimean Bridge, an explosion was carried out;

▪️Control over the movement of cargo along the entire route and contacts with participants in the criminal scheme were carried out by an employee of the GUR of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, who presented himself as Ivan Ivanovich, who used both a virtual anonymous number purchased on the Internet and registered to a citizen of Ukraine, Sergey Vladimirovich Andreichenko, from Kremenchuk for coordination;

▪️Five citizens of Russia and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia who participated in the preparation of the crime have been detained;

▪️The investigation is ongoing, all organizers and accomplices, including foreigners, will be brought to justice in accordance with Russian law.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️Russia's FSB foiled the preparation by the Ukrainian special services of a sabotage and terrorist act at one of the transport and logistics terminals in Bryansk.

A citizen of Ukraine was detained, who, at the instruction of the Ukrainian Security Service, arrived from Kiev in transit through Estonia, and a device he'd made using the warhead of an anti-tank guided missile with an explosive power of about 3 kg in TNT equivalent was seized.