🔴🔵 The Democrats have failed to impress their prospective voters, with Republicans gaining a boost in support just ahead of the midterm elections, a new poll has found.

As pessimism about the economy and the direction of the country jump to their highest levels of the year, now 46% of likely voters will vote for a Republican, while 44% would vote for a Democrat.

The shift in preferences is attributed to growing concerns about the economy and the direction of the country, with only 19% saying the economy is headed in the right direction, while 71% say the economy is on the wrong track.

The poll also showed a lack of confidence in Biden’s economic leadership, with only 27% saying his policies had a positive impact on the economy. The leadership of the current US president is in low regard, with 55% of voters disapproving of his overall job performance, compared to 43% who approve.

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🌍🐘 The Africa’s oldest elephant female Tusker Dida died at the age of 65

▪️The elephant lived in the vast Tsavo National Park in southeastern Kenya, known for its flora and fauna.

▪️Dida's death comes almost a month after the death of another famous elephant from the Samburu Game Reserve, an arid stretch in northern Kenya that is facing one of the worst droughts in 40 years

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❗️Latest statements from the Kremlin press service:

▪️Putin and Erdogan have held a detailed exchange of views on the current situation with the implementation of the grain deal;

▪️Putin informed Erdogan of the reasons for Russia's decision to suspend the deal;

▪️A detailed investigation of the Ukrainian attack on ships in Sevastopol is necessary;

▪️Putin stressed that Kiev used the grain corridor to strike ships that ensured the route’s safety;

▪️Putin stated that Ukraine must provide guarantees not to use the humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea for military purposes.

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⚡️ Suspension of movement through Black Sea on November 2 is temporary and extraordinary measure - UN

⚡️ Russian FM Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Cavusoglu have discussed the situation around the grain deal over the phone — Turkish MFA

🇰🇵 North Korea has issued a warning to the US and South Korea amid largest-ever joint drills.

"If the US continuously persists in the grave military provocations, the DPRK will take into account more powerful follow-up measures," North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

On Monday, Washington and Seoul started five-day-long joint aerial drills, named Vigilant Storm, involving over 240 warplanes conducting 1,600 sorties, according to US military officials.

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⚡️ Russian FM Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Cavusoglu reaffirm the need to obtain guarantees not to use humanitarian maritime corridors for military purposes - Russian MFA

💬 "Ever since the Obama administration, the US has had a policy what's called the pivot to Asia. You know, instead of hunting terrorists and blowing up weddings in the Middle East, we're going to focus on building up our defenses against a rising China. It's pretty ridiculous, because they're acting like China is a threat to us. Meanwhile, if you look at a map of all the US military bases, they surround China and they surround Russia. And so Taiwan, which is dominated by interests that are similar to US capitalist interests that's been used as a lever, so to speak, to try and poke at China, to try and give it to extend itself in a way that the US could react to and then frame itself as the protectors the same way they did with Ukraine and Russia," says Bryce Greene, a contributor to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

🎧 Listen to more of Bryce's analysis in our podcast Lula's Win in Brazil Continues a Tremendous Regional Shift to The Left

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❗️Elon Musk has confirmed that the new price of Twitter Blue will be $8 per month in the US.

He also announced changes to the premium service, saying that “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullsh*t.”

Among the new features for Twitter Blue are:

🔹Priority in replies, mentions, and searches, which is “essential to defeat spam/scam”;
🔹Ability to post long videos and audio;
🔹Half as many ads;
🔹And a “paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us.”

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🇺🇸 Americans are set to go to the polls next Tuesday for the midterm elections - a national vote which will see the election of the entire House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, dozens of governors, and thousands of judges, state legislatures and other officials. The 2022 midterms are shaping up to be the most consequential in decades.

👉 Here's why.

🇧🇷 Brazil's Bolsonaro Refrains From Either Recognizing Lula's Election Victory or Rejecting Results

In his first public statement since the Brazilian presidential elections on Sunday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro refused to either explicitly accept or reject the victory of his rival, former president Lula de Silva.

https://sputniknews.com/20221101/brazils-bolsonaro-refrains-from-either-recognizing-lulas-election-victory-or-rejecting-results-1102931404.html

🔺 A friend in need is a friend indeed: Amid the grain deal suspension, Moscow vows to help African countries “as much as possible”
🔺 John Kiriakou will join us from Israel with the latest news on yet another national election (the fifth in four years)
🔺 Web not so free? US government continues its efforts to censor social media
Want more? Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6pm EST|3pm PST|11pm CET via the website or app

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🎃🍬 Netizens cringe at video of US Army using HIMARS to launch Halloween candy at kids.

Oklahoma US Army base Fort Sill, housing the Field Artillery School where soldiers train to use weapons like HIMARS, found a controversial way to celebrate Halloween this year.

Footage of the event has triggered outrage on social media, with many deploring it as "grim and utterly tone deaf."

💬 “A weapon system designed to rain utter carnage is used to shoot candies at children?” wrote one user, with others joining the Twitter crowd, which was left unimpressed by the stunt. “Everything that’s wrong with America in a single tweet,” said another user in disdain.

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🇨🇳🇻🇳 China Pledges Cooperation With ‘Comrade and Brother’ Vietnam as Communist Party Chiefs Meet

Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, was the first world leader to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping after the Chinese Communist Party’s historic 20th Congress last month. The meeting saw the two leaders pledge greater cooperation between the socialist states.

https://sputniknews.com/20221101/china-pledges-cooperation-with-comrade-and-brother-vietnam-as-communist-party-chiefs-meet-1102930083.html

🇺🇸 US Chief Justice temporarily blocks from accessing Trump tax returns, according to a court order.

💬 "It is ordered that the mandate of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, case No. 21-5289, is hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court," the order read.

Trump, who has refused to make his tax returns public per the norm for US presidents, had appealed to the Supreme Court to dodge the committee’s request.

Previously, the committee had argued that it needs his tax returns as part of its investigation into the IRS’ auditing process for presidents.

🇲🇪 Montenegrin Former Heavyweight Boxer Gogic Charged by US DOJ with Trafficking 22 Tons of Cocaine

On Monday the US Department of Justice charged the former athlete with three counts of violating the federal Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act as well as one count of conspiracy for allegedly trafficking 22 tons of cocaine worth over $1 billion through US ports in June of 2019, which prosecutors are saying is one of the largest drug seizures in history.

https://sputniknews.com/20221101/montenegrin-former-heavyweight-boxer-gogic-charged-by-us-doj-with-trafficking-22-tons-of-cocaine-1102932111.html