🇯🇵 🇬🇧 The United Kingdom plans to sign a new defense agreement with Japan next month, which will enable the two countries to boost cooperation with the United States in the Indo-Pacific region, British newspaper reports citing sources.

▪️ The Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) will also aim to enhance deterrence against China and will make joint exercises easier, people familiar with the talks told the newspaper on Saturday.

▪️ Japan is also in the "initial stages" of considering a similar agreement with the Philippines, the newspaper said.

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😯 US tech conglomerate Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc., banned in Russia) plans to initiate major job cuts beginning next week, a US newspaper reports citing people familiar with the matter.

▪️ The upcoming "large-scale layoffs" could become the largest round of tech job cuts and could affect "thousands" of people, the newspaper said on Sunday, without specifying exactly how many of over 87,000 Meta employees could get fired.

▪️ Sources told the newspaper that the announcement of the job cuts is expected on Wednesday and company officials have already told Meta employees to cancel nonessential travel starting next week.

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🧐 Russia plans to test exoskeletons that can help military crews to handle artillery shells, said Maksim Skokov, general director of Exo Solutions, a Russian company that develops this type of equipment.

💬 "...we were approached by representatives not even of the Ministry of Defense, but of other special structures… Artillery teams are interested in exoskeletons that can facilitate the loading of shells," Skokov told Sputnik.

▪️ According to him, the company intends to conduct an experiment in November or December at a proving ground, during which a "potential customer" will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the company's products.

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😯 📹 Biden says there will be 'no more drilling' as he almost falls off a stage during a NY rally for Governor Hochul - just a day after he was blasted by Sen. Manchin (D-NY), for 'ignoring severe economic pain' with vow to close a coal plant

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📹 "I saw absolutely nothing’": Donetsk resident struck by ‘petal’ mine recounts how the tragedy occurred

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🇷🇺 🇨🇳 Trade between Russia and China went up 33% in the first ten months of this year, as compared to the same period last year, reaching a record $153.938 billion, the Chinese General Administration of Customs informs.

▪️ China’s export to Russia in that period increased by 12.8% year on year and amounted to $59.596 billion, while Russia’s export to China in the first ten months of 2022 went up 49.9% and amounted to $94.342 billion.

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🤔 There's a very good chance Republicans will gain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in this year's midterm elections in light of the current state of the American economy under Democratic leadership, Republican congressional candidate Wesley Hallman told Sputnik.

🇺🇸 US voters head to the polls for midterm elections on November 8 to determine who controls Congress, with Republicans poised to seize the House from the Democrats while the Senate struggle is expected to come down to the wire.

🗣 "I think the midterm is looking better than it did over the summer, so I would say very, very good chance," Hallman said about the chances Republicans will take control of Congress in the midterms. "It looks like a very, very strong chance on the House side and a good chance on the Senate side."

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🇩🇪 Half of the Germans believe that the measures adopted by the federal government to combat the energy crisis will not protect their finances during winter, a survey conducted by the Institute for New Social Answers (INSA) for the German media found on Monday.

📊 The poll showed that 50% of respondents think that the government's anti-crisis measures "will not help them make through the winter in terms of finances." Only slightly more than one-third (36%) believe otherwise.

▪️ While 58% said they would be able to pay the bills this winter, 28% said they would not. Among those who earn less than 1,000 euros ($994) only 36% said they had enough money to pay the bills. German media said this showed that the energy crisis was an "existential crisis" for many.

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💰 💸 US spending ‘$2.5 million an hour’ to aid Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, Trump's former national security adviser, said in an interview to an American TV channel.

😯 According to Keith Kellogg, the US has already invested $18 billion in the Ukraine conflict, including economic, humanitarian and military aid. 

🗣 "Those are big numbers. But let's break them down by the hourly rate. That means we're spending $2.5 million an hour in Ukraine. That's American taxpayer money and without any accountability", former national security advise added.

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❗️Finland will not deploy nuclear weapons on its territory, the Finnish president says

❗️The Zaporozhye region will abandon the Ukrainian grivna (Ukrainian national currency) from January 1, 2023, Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the movement "We are together with Russia", told Sputnik.

▪️He stressed that the Russian ruble will remain the only official currency.

▪️Now there is a dual currency zone in the region.

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❗️Latest statements from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

▪️Russia remains open to negotiations with Ukraine;

▪️It will be known by the end of the week whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in the G20 summit;

▪️Speaking about the article concerning US negotiations with Kiev to encourage dialogue with Russia: We do not know whether this is true or not - there are also truthful reports, but more speculation.

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⚡️🇵🇰 Khan, 70, sustained a bullet injury when two gunmen opened several rounds of fire at him and his political aide mounting on a container-mounted truck in the Wazirabad area of Punjab province on November 3.

👉 DETAILS

❗️The Russian MoD’s briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️Russian Forces eliminated up to 100 Ukrainian troops, as well as destroyed two Ukrainian tanks, five armored combat vehicles and five pick-up trucks near Kupyansk;

▪️Russian Forces eliminated more than 120 Ukrainian troops, as well as destroyed three Ukrainian tanks, two armored combat vehicles and five other military vehicles near Kransy Liman;

▪️Russian forces eliminated more than 110 Ukrainian servicemen, as well as destroyed eleven Ukrainian armored combat vehicles and 13 other military vehicles in the Kherson region;

▪️Russian Air Forces hit seven Ukrainian command posts, as well as 72 Ukrainian artillery units at their firing positions;

▪️Russian Forces destroyed two Ukrainian artillery ammunition depots in the Zaporozhye region and destroyed a Ukrainian fuel storage in the Nikolayev region;

▪️Russian Forces destroyed two Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system radar stations in the DPR and in the Zaporozhye region;

▪️Russian Forces eliminated a self-propelled firing unit of the Ukrainian Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile system in the DPR;

▪️Russian air defense shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter in the Kherson region;

▪️Russian air defense destroyed six Ukrainian UAVs, as well as intercepted 14 HIMARS rockets and Olkha rockets.

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📹 Russia's MoD has published footage showing the Western Military District's Ka-52 helicopters delivering strikes against the Ukraine Armed Forces' strongholds and armour

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📹WATCH: A resident of the DPR describes how a Ukrainian shell fell in the downtown of Donetsk

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🇮🇷 Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Monday that the launch of the Ghaem-100 satellite carrier demonstrated the authority of Iranian scientists.

🗣 "The successful launch of the Ghaem-100 satellite carrier is considered a manifestation of the national authority and capabilities of Iranian young scientists in spite of the sanctions… This will outrage our well-known enemies," Kanaani said on Twitter.

📌 On November 5, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps successfully conducted a test launch of a three-stage suborbital solid fuel satellite carrier Ghaem-100, which is capable of placing satellites weighing up to 80 kilograms (176 pounds) into orbit 500 kilometers (310 miles) from the Earth's surface.

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🇿🇼 Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has slammed the West’s sanctions, which were aimed at “crippling our economy” and leading to the “installation of a puppet government,” pointing out that despite significant pressure, “nothing of that sort has happened"

🗣 “We continue to survive because of the resilience of our people. We are surviving with these challenges in the economy,” the President argued.

While contemplating the “illegal” sanctions imposed against Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa pointed out that they taught the people of the country to be “masters of our own destiny.”

He has also highlighted that now children should understand that it is they who are the builders of the nation, and not foreigners.

❗️“It is not true that any former colonial power has any interest or commitment to develop a former colony. No! But they have interest to continue to link themselves to former colony in order to find more ways of stealing the wealth of the former colony in a subtler manner.”

Zimbabwe has been under US and European sanctions for some 20 years, with Harare urging the West to lift the restrictions which prohibit the country from accessing international sources of financing needed for the nation’s development and targeted, according to Harare, first and foremost at the poor

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🔥 Highway to climate hell? UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres sets the tone for the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, which kicked off Monday

As this year's climate summit has started in the North African country of Egypt, the United Nations General Secretary has urged nations gathered for two weeks of climate change negotiations to overcome their differences, take responsibility and cooperate in a bid to cope with the climate crisis.

🗣 “Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish”, Guterres noted. “Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible." “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”

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“The clock is ticking, we are in the fight of our lives and we are loosing....We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”

📹WATCH: UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres speaks at the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh

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🤭 More than a quarter of Europeans say they are in a "precarious" financial state and half fear they soon will be, according to a new poll.

📊 The six-nation survey by Ipsos for French poverty NGO Secours Populaire (People's Aid) found that 27 percent were in financial dire straits, defined as "one unexpected expenditure could change everything," while 55 percent said they had to be careful with spending to avoid getting into the same position.

▪️ It also found that 54 percent of 6,000 people polled in France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland and the UK had seen the purchasing power of their income fall over the past three years.

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