‼️Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not run for Conservative leader and Prime Minister, Sky News reports.

"Boris Johnson is out of the Conservative leadership race," the channel said in a statement.

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🌬🚫According to U.S. government data, wildfires in Oregon and Washington are blanketing much of the Pacific Northwest with smoke, affecting residents in Seattle, Portland, and other parts of the two states with the worst air pollution.

Last week, the sky was brown, and the air was difficult to breathe in Seattle, home to some 4 million people. "It has been making me dizzy," said resident Joe Dinkins, as quoted by Reuters.

According to the federal airnow.gov website, the 10 U.S. locations with the worst air quality were all in Washington or Oregon, led by Oakridge, Oregon, where the air quality index was in the hazardous category at 487. The air in Seattle and Portland were considered very unhealthy, with an air quality index of 207 and 204, respectively.

Susan Woodward, the spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Ecology, stressed that to have poor air quality from wildfire smoke as late in the year as October is unprecedented in Washington.

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🪙Actress Anna May Wong will be the first Asian-American featured on U.S. currency when the U.S. Mint issues a coin next week engraved with her image.

In a statement, the U.S. Mint said that as part of the American Women Quarters Program, the quarter-dollar coin featuring a profile of Wong with her signature bangs and long fingernails would begin circulating next week.

Mint designer Emily Damstra, who helped create the coin, said, "Along with the hard work, determination, and skill Anna May Wong brought to the profession of acting, I think it was her face and expressive gestures that captivated movie audiences, so I included these elements," as quoted by Reuters.

Wong appeared in more than 60 films and became the first Asian American lead actor in a U.S. television show for her role in "The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong" in 1951.

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🏙To mitigate the pressure in New York City caused by the stream of migrants arriving on buses sent by officials in Texas and other southern U.S. states, New York City has opened an emergency tent shelter for 500 single male migrants.

The Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center's temporary shelter will be on Randall's Island, east of Manhattan.

In a video posted this week about the facility, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, "The history of this country has always been tied to welcoming those fleeing harm. New York City has always been a role model on how to effectively use our infrastructure to address a crisis and ensure we treat people humanely, and that is what we have done."

"We needed a different type of operation that gave us the time and space to welcome people, to provide them a warm meal, a shower, a place to sleep and to understand their medical needs," Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol said, as quoted by Reuters.

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The US has sent the 101st Airborne Division - the "Screaming Eagles" with 4,700 troops - to Europe for the first time in almost 80 years, to take part in exercises, CBS News has reported.

The commander of the "Eagles" said the division is ready to enter Ukraine's territory if there is an escalation in the conflict or an attack on NATO, though the White House has repeatedly pledged that the US military will not take part in the hostilities in Ukraine.

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⚖️Raising the stakes on its extraordinary subpoena to Donald Trump, the House committee investigating the Capitol riot indicated Sunday it would not consider letting the former president testify live on television about the direct role that congressional investigators say he played in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

The committee is demanding Trump's testimony under oath and records relevant to its investigation next month. To avoid a complicated and protracted legal battle, Trump reportedly had told associates he might consider complying with the subpoena if he could answer questions during live testimony.

But on Sunday, Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee's vice chair, rejected the possibility. She said the committee, which makes its major decisions with unanimous consent, would not allow Trump's testimony to turning into a "food fight" on TV. She warned that the committee would take action if he did not comply with the subpoena.

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▪️A Republican gubernatorial candidate in Alaska faces accusations that he sexually harassed a former assistant while he was a borough mayor. The lawsuit filed Friday accuses Charlie Pierce of “constant unwanted physical touching, sexual remarks, and sexual advances,” the Anchorage Daily News reported.

The case did not show up in an online court records system Saturday. The woman’s Anchorage-based attorney, Caitlin Shortell, said in an email to Media the Associated Press (AP) that it was filed in the Kenai Superior Court and expected a judge to be assigned Monday.

“When an elected official abuses their power and position to sexually harass public servants, they must be held accountable,” Shortell said. Pierce is one of four candidates running for governor in Alaska, and all appeared at a forum Saturday morning in Anchorage.

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🇰🇷South Korea's military said Monday it had fired warning shots at a North Korean ship that crossed the countries' de facto maritime border, prompting the North to fire a warning in return.

"The North's continuing provocations and reckless claims undermine peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and international community," Joint Chiefs Staff said in a statement, urging Pyongyang to "stop immediately." Pyongyang's Korean People's Army said a South Korean military vessel had "invaded" the de facto border by 2.5 to 5 kilometers (1.5 to 3 miles) a few minutes later and that the KPA fired ten warning rounds from the country's west coast.

Monday's exchange of warning fire comes on the same day that US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is expected to hold three-way talks with Japan and South Korea in Tokyo in a show of unity after the North's slew of launches.

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🇺🇸 Joe Biden tried to dispel doubts about his mental fitness for the US president’s office: so why vote for him, even though he could “drop dead tomorrow”?

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A number of soldiers from Ukraine's Armed Forces, who laid down their arms, have confessed to committing war crimes

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The Speaker of Russia's State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin on the possibility of Kiev using a “dirty bomb”:

▪️The threat of a terrorist attack in the US and Europe with the use of such a bomb existed until 2011, when Osama bin Laden was destroyed

▪️Osama bin Laden and Zelensky have the same methods of conducting nuclear terror

▪️The Kiev regime has instructed atomic scientists to create a “dirty bomb”

▪️Kiev continues to shell the critical infrastructure of nuclear power plants (in Zaporozhye and Kursk), causing a humanitarian catastrophe

▪️The US President and the heads of European states, became sponsors and accomplices of nuclear terrorism as soon as they provided financial and military assistance to the Zelensky regime

Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu expressed concerns about possible provocations by Ukraine with the use of a "dirty bomb" when talking to colleagues from France, the UK, the US and Turkey.

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"A World Without Superpowers" is the key topic of today's session at the Valdai Club discussion outside Moscow. I will be interviewing political scientists, military and economy experts from India, South Africa, Indonesia on the sidelines of the main event. Stay tuned! @BolotskySputnik

🇬🇧Rishi Sunak looks set to become Britain's first PM of Indian origin

Former UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has withdrawn from the leadership challenge, according to British media. Johnson took himself out of the race to become the Conservative Party's next leader, despite claiming to have the necessary support. Consequently Rishi Sunak is the frontrunner to become Britain’s first PM of Indian origin.

Johnson defended his decision to withdraw by saying that running as a candidate “would simply not be the right thing to do” as he couldn't “govern effectively unless [he had] a united party in Parliament”.