🇺🇸 US urges Israel to defer Gaza ground offensive, according to reports

Washington wants Israel to delay its ground offensive into the Gaza Strip in order to buy time for talks on hostages and to allow more humanitarian aid into the territory, unnamed US sources were quoted as saying by an American newspaper.

The sources claimed that the “fast-moving events” since the Palestinian militant group Hamas freed two American women last week “have spurred the Biden administration to more urgently suggest that the Israelis allow time to negotiate the release of 212 other hostages.”

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📉 Shekel shaken as crisis with Hamas further batters Israeli economy

The Israeli New Shekel was trading at 3.86 to the US dollar on October 7, the day the armed wing of Hamas launched a surprise rocket and ground attack from the besieged Gaza Strip. It now stands at 4.06 to the dollar, continuing a slide that began during a wave of domestic protests this summer against attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to shake up the supreme court.

The Bank of Israel has sold some $30 billion-worth of bonds and shares in a bid to prop up the shekel. But that has been undermined by ForEx speculators 'shorting' the currency — borrowing money short-term, exchanging it on the market and then buying it back after the exchange rate falls, pocketing the difference as profit.

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📹 TOS-1A heavy flamethrower crews wipe out enemy's strongholds

The system is armed with 24 thermobaric shells. Upon impact with the target, the projectile disperses and ignites an explosive mixture, generating temperatures of several thousand degrees and significant pressure. TOS-1A has a firing range of approximately 6 kilometres.

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🇷🇺🇮🇷 A meeting took place in Tehran between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi

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How Melitopol's crucial 'little Stalingrad' offensive enabled Crimea & Odessa's liberation

The Melitopol offensive has been likened to the Red Army's "Little Stalingrad." Recapturing the city from the Nazis required intense urban combat, and the victory essentially provided the key to liberating Ukraine's right bank and Crimea, Mikhail Myagkov, the scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society, told Sputnik.

Exactly 80 years ago, on October 23, 1943, the Red Army freed Melitopol, which had been under Nazis' brutal grip since October 1941. The city endured two years of harsh occupation, marked by curfews, executions of civilians and forced labor of its youth in Germany.

Check out Sputnik's article to find out

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The Foreign Ministers of the EU countries were unable to agree on the allocation of the 8th package of funding for military assistance to Ukraine, Josep Borrell said.

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🗣️ On the global shift to the east:

“I think the world power and momentum, even the global economy is shifting east than west, and we see the decadent nature of the West and Western leadership. And it's almost a caricature of some of the terrible things that have gone on the past and an Orwellian nature of Western governments who have waged war, colonialism based for decades and centuries, based on the claim that they're going to civilize the natives, are going to spread democracy, and really they create a hellhole, whether it's Iraq or Vietnam or Libya... More and more people are waking up around the world and countries are more and more seeing a future with China, with Russia,” Jeremy Kuzmarov, managing editor of CovertAction Magazine and the author of several books, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Kuzmarov’s analysis in our podcast Fault Lines

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📹 The crews of MiG-31 aircraft continue to perform air patrol missions in the special military operation zone.

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IDF: Since the beginning of the war, the IDF, directed by the ISA, eliminated five commanders of the Hamas Aerial Array

"The Hamas Aerial Array operates a variety of weapons against the State of Israel. The array took a significant part in the attack against Israel at the start of the war, and in recent days the IAF has eliminated a number of commanders in the array," the IDF claimed.

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Red Cross to receive 50 hostages with dual citizenship

According to Israeli media, the Red Cross are on their way to receive a group of about 50 of those who were kidnapped with dual citizenship. Qatar is said to be playing a crucial role in mediating. Israel will not be an official party in negotiations for the release of hostages with a dual citizenship.

The Israeli media reports that there have been no Israeli airstrikes on Gaza during these recent hours in order to allow Red Cross personnel to reach the area safely.

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🔘The ‘Axis of Resistance’ refers to the informal Shia’ armed alliance and is reportedly comprised of Iran, Syria, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthis militant groups along with any anti-Western or anti-Israeli militias in the region. Numerous members have expressed their readiness to support Hamas, and not just in words.

What militant groups are in the Axis of Resistance and who could join the Palestinian-Israeli conflict?

🔺Gaza Strip: Hamas and PIJ
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have traditionally been the core of the Resistance, and regularly engage in genuine hostilities with Israel, unlike other members.

🔺Southern Lebanon: Hezbollah
Hezbollah is one of the most powerful parties in Lebanon, which in fact has its own armed forces and controls Southern Lebanon, as well as the country's border with Israel.

🔺Yemen: Ansar Allah
Ansar Allah, also known as Yemeni Houthis, last week announced the readiness to join the hostilities. Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Ansar Allah movement, during his speech on October 10 stated Yemenis are ready to “perform their sacred duty to stand by the Palestinian people”.

🔺Iraq: Kataib Hezbollah
Since October 18, Kataib Hezbollah has repeatedly claimed credit for several drone attacks on the Ain al-Assad and Al-Harir US military bases in Iraq, as well as Al-Tanf and Koniko US bases in Syria.

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🇪🇸 On Monday, firefighters from the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain staged a protest, as reported by media. The demonstration sparked clashes with local police, that resulted in several injuries.

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Bird's eye view of Gaza destruction from Israeli strikes

Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip shows no signs of abating amid reports that nearly 50 percent of Palestinian housing units have been partially or completely damaged by IDF attacks on the Palestinian enclave.

The Israel military has announced that they are ramping up its aerial bombardment of Gaza as part of their Operation Swords of Iron that was launched in retaliation against a surprise large-scale attack on the Jewish state staged by Hamas militants on October 7.

Take a look at Sputnik's photo gallery to see the extent of the destruction in the Palestinian enclave.

Warning, some photos contain graphic images.

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❗️"In comparison to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Russian President Vladimir Putin looks like Mother Teresa” - Simeon Boikov (@AussieCossack)

The awkward moment Western media actually realise that more civilians have been killed in last 16 days between Israel & Palestine than in 600 days between Russia & Ukraine.

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🗣️ On how Western leaders have become dictators to their public:

“We live in a kind of semi-dictatorship in Europe now. It's time when I have never lived, and I have never seen throughout my entire life something similar where the European values and the Western values have completely vanished and gone. And I start wondering if they ever existed. So people today are oppressed by the leaders. And the leaders, preventing them from having access to information to the point that if you take in Europe today, many people I know, they don't think there is anything happening in Gaza at all. And they only talk about the Israeli victims on the first day of attack, of Hamas,” Elijah Magnier, veteran war correspondent and writer, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Magnier’s analysis in our podcast The Backstory

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❗Israel has confirmed the release of two hostages held by Hamas

📹 Dnepr Cossack Brigade holds combat cohesion drills at training ground of special military operation rear area

Cossack volunteer detachments of Russian Cossack Forces in coordination with the Russian Armed Forces continue to repel attacks of Ukrainian nationalists in the special military operation zone.

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What is Israel's Iron Sting mortar munition?

On Sunday, the Israeli military reported the destruction of a Palestinian rocket launch site by members of the IDF's elite Maglan unit. The strike was carried out using the new precision-guided mortar shells, known as the Iron Sting.

According to local media reports, the attack became the first known “operational use” of the Iron Sting by Israeli troops.

So what exactly is this new mortar munition, and what are its capabilities for the Israeli military, who seem poised to launch a full-scale ground assault on the Gaza Strip?

Check out Sputnik's article to find out

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🇨🇳 Fantasy or future? World Science Fiction Convention kicks off in China

The 81st World Science Fiction Convention, also known as Worldcon, is a prominent annual event being held in Chengdu, China this year, from October 18-22, 2023. Each year, the convention takes place in a different city, serving as a platform for celebrating and nurturing global interest and a passion for speculative fiction.

As the world's largest and most influential science fiction carnival, Worldcon 2023 brought together a global community of science fiction enthusiasts, writers, and creators. Among the distinguished guests of honor were notable writers like Cixin Liu, Sergey Lukyanenko, and Robert J. Sawyer.

Check out Sputnik's gallery to learn more about the 2023 World Science Fiction Convention in Chengdu.

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🇨🇩🇬🇧 Human zoo almost 120 years later: Remains of Bambuti infant off medical study list in the UK museum

Despite the removal from the Hunterian Museum's available objects for medical research list, the infant's remains are still in possession of the London museum, with no plans in place for repatriation to its home country almost 120 years after the baby's death.

The move comes after criticism from Nadifa Mohamed, an author shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and a production team of the forthcoming documentary on the history of "human zoos" in the UK.

The museum's spokesperson stated to the media that they will guarantee no authorization is given for legitimate medical study on the remains of the stillborn infant until the Bambuti representative contacted by the documentary makers can take action.

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🇺🇸 US President Joe Biden invoked the language of a “new world order,” saying Washington has the ability in the next few years to ensure that it will remain the dominant global power for the next several decades.

“For Biden, the new world order that he's contemplating is basically, the US will make up the rules as it goes along, everyone else will have to go along. So that's not really a rule of law, that's more the rule of the mighty … Given the emergence of the multipolar world, I think, the US ultimately is going to have to find a way to comply more with the wishes of other countries. It's not going to have the same ability to dictate to the world. I think those days are over,” former adjunct professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh and author Dan Kovalik told Sputnik.

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