❗️ The Russian Defense Ministry reported a mass terrorist attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Crimea, the Russian Armed Forces' air defense forces destroyed 19 drones over the peninsula.

Air defenses downed one drone each over Russia's Kursk, Belgorod and Oryol regions, the Ministry added.

👀 Olaf Scholz spoke at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York in front of an almost empty hall and addressed the whole world in his speech, German media reported.

After speaking, Scholz himself left the room without staying for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's speech.

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❗️ Two UAVs that attempted to attack fuel and energy facilities were neutralized on the territory of the Oryol region, Governor Andrei Klychkov said. Preliminarily, there were no damages or casualties.

🇦🇺 Australia, with a population of 26 million, faces a severe shortage of rental properties due to rising construction costs and opposition to new housing developments by activist groups.

Only 0.9 percent of rental properties are available, exacerbating the housing crisis. The number of new developments is declining, driven by high building costs, low planning permissions, bankruptcies among building firms, and a labor shortage.

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🇸🇱🇷🇺 Freetown's good relations with Moscow will remain unchanged regardless of Western sanctions, Sierra Leone's Foreign Minister Timothy Kabba told Sputnik on the margins of the UN General Assembly.

"We have our bilateral relations, and we're going to keep those intact," Kabba said regarding whether Western sanctions impact relations between Sierra Leone and Russia.

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🇺🇸 An attorney representing 300 individuals suing the US Navy asserts that the Navy, being a sophisticated entity, was well aware of its legal obligations to preserve evidence related to the 2021 fuel storage facility accident in Hawaii that contaminated local water supplies. They criticize the Navy for not preserving call logs and text messages on officers' cellphones, which has raised concerns during an ongoing lawsuit in the US District Court for Hawaii.

In spring 2022, data on the phone of Captain James "Gordie" Meyer, the former commander of Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command in Hawaii, was wiped during a "tech support incident." Similarly, Captain Erik Spitzer had his phone wiped upon his retirement in June of that year.

The plaintiffs' attorneys, including Kristina Baehr, Lyle Hosoda, and Frederick Baker, argue for an "adverse inference" from judges, contending that the deletion of messages itself serves as evidence against the government defendants.

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📊 A new poll on Tuesday showed US President Joe Biden’s modest lead over his predecessor Donald Trump had evaporated in the 2024 race for the White House.

The poll, released by YouGov and Yahoo News, showed the candidates tied with each of them winning the support of 44% of registered voters. The results mark a shift from a poll by the same firm the previous month that showed Biden with 47% support and Donald Trump with 41%.

A full 7% of registered voters said they were undecided while 4% said they would refuse to vote in a rerun of the 2020 election.

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❗️ Iraqi Prime Minister expects to visit Moscow by the end of the year, the country's Foreign Minister told Sputnik

The European Institute for Underwater Archaeology has announced the unveiling of new "treasures and secrets" from a sunken temple off Egypt's Mediterranean coast. Among the findings are precious objects from the temple treasury, including silver ritual instruments, gold jewelry, and delicate alabaster containers, providing insights into the wealth and piety of the city's former inhabitants.

The archaeological excavations, conducted in collaboration with the Department of Underwater Archaeology of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt, revealed well-preserved underground structures supported by wooden posts and beams dating back to the 5th century BC.

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❗️ Russian peacekeepers evacuated 5,000 civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh, Defense Ministry said

🇺🇸 US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said during a news conference that House Republicans are nearing a plan to temporarily fund the US government and avoid a potential shutdown.

"We’re very close there. I feel I just got a little more movement to go there," McCarthy said on Wednesday, when asked how close House Republicans are to a plan.

Congress must pass a government funding measure before the end of the month to avoid a shutdown. House Republicans have proposed legislation to extend government funding through the end of next month, in addition to border security measures.

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🇱🇧🇺🇸 A shooting has taken place at the gates of the US embassy in a suburb of Lebanon's capital, Beirut, with bullets hitting the embassy's gates.

Bullets hit the main gate of the US embassy in Aukar, a suburb east of Beirut, and several vehicles outside the building, a Lebanese broadcaster reported Wednesday.

Jake Nelson, a spokesperson for the embassy, later told US media that the shooting was reported at about 10:37 p.m. local time, but that there were no injuries as a result.

"Our facility is safe," Nelson told the outlet. "We are in close contact with host country law enforcement authorities."

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Russian peacekeepers have evacuated as many as 5,000 civilians from three districts in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Russian MoD says

All evacuees are being provided with resting places and hot meals, and Russian military medics are providing them with medical treatment.

The ministry said Russian peacekeepers continue to fulfill their tasks in the region and maintain "continuous interaction with Baku, Yerevan and [the Karabakh city of] Stepanakert aimed at preventing bloodshed, ensuring security and compliance with the norms of humanitarian law with regard to civilians, as well as ensuring the safety of the Russian peacekeeping contingent."

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Ukrainian soldiers' choice: Die in trenches or surrender as POWs

📹 Russian artillery deploys leaflet-loaded shells on Ukrainian positions, calls for surrender

The D-30 guns are equipped with unique shells which do not carry explosives, but instead hold bundles of persuasive leaflets. Every leaflet implores the Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their arms and surrender themselves as prisoners of war, saving their lives and preventing further senseless bloodshed.

To effectively infiltrate enemy-controlled territory, the ammunition fuse timers are programmed to ignite at varying intervals, tailored to the distance of each target. After the shells burst leaflets are scattered over a wide area.

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🙂 Russian FM Lavrov in playful mood at UN General Assembly

Sergey Lavrov mocked journalists with restricted visas who were only allowed to travel within a limited area of New York. "Go for a walk. You're allowed to be 40 kilometers away," he said with a smile.

At a meeting with the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Lavrov sarcastically joked that Russia's only problem now was 'isolation'. The secretary-general appreciated the joke, noting the large number of people trying to sit down with Lavrov in his negotiating room.

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🇧🇾 The Belarusian Armed Forces will conduct training exercises in the Brest, Grodno and Minsk regions from September 22 to 26, which will be based on ''experience of modern armed conflicts'' and ''modern approaches to the use of troops,'' the Belarusian Defense Ministry reported

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📹 The Russian peacekeeping contingent continues to perform its tasks on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh

Russian peacekeepers have already evacuated up to 5,000 civilians from three districts of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Earlier, hostilities broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan after Baku launched an "anti-terrorist operation" to "restore constitutional order" in Nagorno-Karabakh.

On Wednesday, the parties to the conflict agreed to a total ceasefire in the region, mediated by the command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.

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📹 The Strategic Missile Forces carried out large-scale command-and-control exercises with Yars complexes in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region

Over 3 thousand military personnel with over 300 units of heavy military equipment are taking part, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

The Yars ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) is a modern nuclear missile that is designed to be launched from a mobile platform.

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Industrial enterprises are burning in the Kiev region after morning explosions, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs reported.

Ukrainian Railways also reported that a number of trains were delayed due to a power outage.

A fire reportedly broke out at an industrial plant in the Lvov region.

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🗣 They’re trying to cover their tracks by suspending the lunatic spokesman and saying he went rogue

Popular American blogger and attorney Rogan O'Handley, also known by the pseudonym DC Draino, has commented on the dismissal of transgender Ukrainian Armed Forces spokesman Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, who recently called to hunt down Russia's journalists.


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Due to NATO maneuvers near the Russian borders, the risk of unintentional incidents and aggravation of the situation multiplies, the Russian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik

NATO is not hiding the fact that it is practicing actions to repel Russia's "attacks" in the course of their military drills. The exercise, like all other maneuvers of the Defender series, involves the deployment of US troops and equipment to Europe and working out the logistics for such actions, the ministry said.

The ministry recalled that Russia has repeatedly offered the bloc various initiatives to de-escalate and abandon provocative steps and has voluntarily moved its exercises inland.

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