💬 "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

📻 Also in the United States at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 13.90AM

🎃🍬 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

🇸🇪 The supreme commander of the Swedish Armed Forces recommended on Tuesday that the government should not set any red lines when entering NATO, including on hosting nuclear weapons.

Micael Byden told the press that Sweden setting preconditions ahead of its admission would only create friction and hinder the entry process, according to Swedish media. The military commander argued that a decision on whether nuclear weapons or NATO bases should be allowed on Swedish soil is up to politicians.

The European Union and NATO have ramped up rhetoric about alleged Russian plans to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Russia has slammed the allegations and said that it would only use nuclear weapons under the conditions outlined in its constitution.

In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the West had crossed all boundaries in its anti-Russia policy and constant threats against Moscow, including nuclear blackmail.

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UNSC to Vote Wednesday on Russian Proposal to Probe Ukraine Bio Lab Activities - Source

UNITED NATIONS, November 2 (Sputnik) - The UN Security Council will vote on Wednesday on a proposal by Russia to launch an investigation into the activities of biological laboratories in Ukraine, a diplomatic source told Sputnik.
"There is a vote on the Russian Federation’s text on bioweapons," the source said on Tuesday.
The UN Security Council will vote on a draft resolution calling for an inquiry commission on Wednesday afternoon, the source said.
Last week, Russia sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN Security Council President for October, Michel Xavier Biang, requesting that a commission investigates compliance by the United States and Ukraine with their biological research obligations.
The commission would seek to clarify US biological research activities in Ukraine that Russia alleges may have been involved in potentially hazardous military research.

https://sputniknews.com/20221101/unsc-to-vote-wednesday-on-russian-proposal-to-probe-ukraine-bio-lab-activities---source-1102933051.html

🇬🇧 "Permacrisis" is the UK's Word of the Year 2022, according to the Collins English Dictionary.

💬 "2022’s Word of the Year is permacrisis, a term that perfectly embodies the dizzying sense of lurching from one unprecedented event to another, as we wonder bleakly what new horrors might be around the corner," it said.

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❗️Twitter has started to mark some Ukrainian media outlets as affiliated with the Ukrainian authorities.

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📹 The Russian Defense Ministry has published footage showing Su-35S and Su-30SM aircraft in combat as part of the special military operation in Ukraine.

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📹 The head of the Donetsk animal shelter spoke about rescuing cats in Mariupol during the hostilities

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⚡️South Korea has launched air-to-ground missiles in the direction of international waters north of the demarcation line with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea).

The launch came in response to North Korea's firing at least 10 missiles towards the Sea of Japan to the east and the Yellow Sea on the west

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Follow our LIVE UPDATES on the Ukrainian crisis

😄 US President Joe Biden promised "to give the Republicans hell", while delivering a closing address in the gym of Florida Memorial University, bigging up the Democrats a week before the mid-term elections. In his speech, Biden criticized many Republicans, including former President Donald Trump - though he didn't mention his name - for failing to pass the infrastructure law as he did, and for the economic situation he inherited when he became president.

😏 Election forecasters, meanwhile, predict that the Republican Party will win the House of Representatives next week

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