Israeli president denies Tel Aviv's role in Lebanon pager attack

Israeli President Isaac Herzog denied on Sunday Israel's responsibility for this week's deadly attacks in Lebanon caused by exploding pagers and walkie-talkies.

"I reject out of hand any connection to this or that source of operation," Herzog told Sky News, adding that "there are many enemies of Hezbollah out there, quite a few these days."

ABC News reported on Friday, citing a US intelligence source, that Israel had a hand in the manufacturing of the pagers that exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday and that the operation took it at least 15 years to prepare.

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Ukraine begs West for Gripen and Eurofighter jets

Ukraine expects to receive two more fighter jet types, the Gripen and Eurofighter, from its Western allies, and negotiations are currently underway, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said.

"Consultations are underway for the Gripen and Eurofighter," Umerov said, adding that Ukraine would soon be able to report on the results of these negotiations.

Umerov recalled that Ukraine's Western partners promised to supply the country's armed forces with US-made F-16s and French Mirage-2000s.

The possibility of transferring Swedish Gripen planes to Ukraine back in the summer of 2022 was announced by US Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Brown Jr.

However, in 2023, the Swedish authorities noted that they needed the aircraft themselves before the country joined NATO.

Russia believes that arms supplies to Ukraine and training personnel directly involve NATO countries in the conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine would be a legitimate target for Russia.

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Volodymyr Zelensky is set to begin his visit to the US on Sunday by touring a factory producing ammunition for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of President Joe Biden, reports the Associated Press, quoting unnamed officials.

According to the schedule, Zelensky is expected to address the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. On Thursday, he is scheduled to visit the White House in Washington for a meeting with Biden.

Guess what he's going to ask for?

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‘Ukraine assistance largesse’, self-harming sanctions helped push battered Britain’s debt to 100% of GDP milestone

“Unlike the US, the UK can't simply print its currency with relative impunity. The hard decisions are now very near, and they will include both spending cuts, which are hard for socialist politicians to be pleased with, and ever-unwelcome tax increases, in this case rather liberally spread throughout the demographic and income spectrum,” financial analyst Paul Goncharoff told Sputnik, commenting on the news this week that Britain’s debt had hit 100% of GDP.

“The UK budget deficit has been steadily widening since 2018, when it was at 81.8% of GDP,” Goncharoff pointed out, noting that a perfect storm of Brexit, Covid, self-harming sanctions, weakening trade ties with China and “Ukraine assistance largesse” helped push London over the top into the present mess, with spending ramped up on energy subsidies, social services, public sector salaries and interest on debt amid the downturn.

Alistair Jones, De Montfort University associate professor of politics, says that while the 100% of GDP isn't critical, pointing out that Britain's debt reached 250% of GDP in the post-WWII years, there's certainly plenty of blame to spread around for the UK’s current debt debacle.

“If people are looking at who to blame for the size of the debt and all the ensuing problems, they may look at the current Starmer government who are overspending. They may be looking at the Sunak government, which made a lot of commitments. They may look at the Johnson government and the spending during the COVID period,” Jones said.

The question now is what to cut, Goncharoff said, stressing that British and other Western politicians’ stiff upper lipped support for Ukraine and the conflict in Russia is starting to mean “real damage to their economies” – which could get worse if Kiev defaults on its debts and leaves its patrons holding the bag.

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📈 Homeless numbers skyrocket as US set to break all the wrong records

There are now 550,000 homeless people in the US, preliminary data collected by The Wall Street Journal shows.

Not only is this a spike of 10% from last year’s figures, but it is the highest number since the US started publishing such data in 2007. Data was provided by over 250 homelessness charities monitoring cities, metro areas and rural areas.

If the trend persists, the US may pass the 2023 estimate of 653,000 homeless people. The surge in homelessness was most acute in cities including Seattle, San Francisco, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Miami.

There are a number of factors behind the epidemic of homelessness:

◻️ Migrants have continued to illegally infiltrate the US border, with over 124,000 crossings recorded in January, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

◻️ Both house prices and rents have skyrocketed amid soaring inflation.

◻️ The US is facing a mental health crisis with suicide one of the leading causes of premature death, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many people become homeless due to mental illness.

◻️ Substance abuse, including the fentanyl crisis, also contributed to homeless numbers. 68% of US cities report addiction as their single largest cause of homelessness. More than 74,000 deaths were attributed to fentanyl by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Last year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) counted 653,104 homeless people in the US in its annual point-in-time report. It defined homelessness as including both people living in emergency shelters or safe havens and those sleeping outdoors, in cars or in derelict buildings.

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Estonia: Nurturing atrocious legacy of Nazi collaborators in neocon-driven rewrite of WWII

Estonia may prefer not to remember that it owes its liberation from the atrocities of Nazi troops in WWII to the USSR/Russia, but history’s stark facts and figures cannot be swept under the rug.

September 22 is one such date, as 80 years ago, the Soviet Red Army liberated Estonia’s capital Tallinn. By November, the Red Army's successful Baltic operation had driven the Nazi German invaders out of all Estonian territory.

◻️ Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, and in July the battles of World War II reached Estonia. German troops unleashed genocide and terror on civilians with the help of Estonian collaborators.

◻️ Over 5,000 volunteers signed up to join the Estonian SS Legion, while close to 7,000 joined the ranks of the Wehrmacht.

◻️ Mass murder of civilians, especially Russians, Jews, and Roma, was carried out by the Nazis together with so-called self-defense units, such as the Omakaitse.

◻️ After Nazi troops occupied Tallinn on December 19, 1941, the Estonian Political Police arrested 4,365 people in the capital and its suburbs. Days before the Soviet liberation of the capital, around 1,000 prisoners were executed.

◻️ Practically all of Tallinn’s male Jews over the age of 16 were arrested and executed by the so-called self-defense squads. Estonian police units also executed Jews deported from Nazi-created ghettos in Europe.

◻️ During the Baltic operation from September 14 to November 24, 1944, Soviet losses in terms of killed, wounded, and missing amounted to 218,000. More than 6,000 Soviet soldiers and officers were killed and 24,000 wounded during the liberation of Tallinn by the Red Army.

The criminality of the SS (including the Estonian SS Legion) was recognized by the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal. However, eager to march in lockstep with American neocons rewriting the history of WWII, Estonian officials have glorified Nazi criminals.

For more than 60 years, September 22 was marked as the Day of Tallinn's Liberation from Nazi Occupation, only to be rebranded in 2007 by Estonian policymakers as Resistance Day against “occupying Soviet forces.”

Today’s Estonian leaders nurture the atrocious legacy of the country’s SS legionnaires, have no scruples over demolishing tombs of Soviet soldiers, and sacrilegiously digging up for relocation mass graves of those who fell while defending their country from Nazism.

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The traditional National March for Life is taking place today in the city of Košice in eastern Slovakia. Organizers are expecting a large turnout—up to tens of thousands of participants.

Preliminary estimates indicate that around 40,000 people have already arrived.

The aim of the march is to promote the protection of every human life and to support traditional values and the family.

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The Russian Sever battlegroup destroyed a Ukrainian stronghold with a direct hit from a first-person-view drone.

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🐔 San Francisco police play chicken to keep pedestrians safe

San Francisco police are using an unusual tactic to stop drivers from breaking traffic laws — dressing as giant chickens!

Lieutenant Jonathan Ozol donned an inflatable chicken costume at a busy crosswalk, catching drivers who failed to yield for pedestrians. Those ignoring the law were promptly flagged down by officers nearby.

The eye-catching scheme is part of the city’s efforts to reach "vision zero," a target of zero fatal traffic accidents.

The costume is no mere joke: it’s meant to grab attention. Police Captain Amy Hurwitz explained that the bright outfit ensures officers stay safe and drivers can't claim they didn’t see the pedestrian.

Since these "chicken crossings" started, San Francisco police have issued dozens of tickets, hoping the quirky method makes drivers more alert and improves pedestrian safety across the city.

What costumes do you think San Francisco police should wear to clean up human feces and get homeless people off the city's streets? 🤔

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Hezbollah announces new phase of confrontation with Israel

Hezbollah has entered a new phase of confrontation with Israel, group's Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem said on Sunday.

"We have entered a new phase called The Battle of Settling Scores," Qassem was quoted as saying by Al Mayadeen broadcaster.

Earlier on Sunday, Hezbollah said that its fighters had struck the Israeli military industrial complex Rafael, north of the city of Haifa, in retaliation for this week's explosions of electronic devices that the Lebanese movement blamed on Israel.

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Biden admin is mulling a ban on Chinese smart car software in spiraling trade spat

The Biden administration is peddling security concerns as it moots a ban on Chinese-made software in connected and autonomous vehicles, Bloomberg reports.

Proposed phased-in regulations would reportedly affect driver-assist and autonomous vehicle systems, software that tracks vehicles by using mapping and satellite location and hardware for vehicle communication systems.

The ban is driven by “security concerns” as Washington claims that cars that can connect to the internet or cloud services are vulnerable to hacking attacks. The ban on software could come into effect in the 2027 model year, with a moratorium on Chinese hardware applied in January 2029.

The new US trade restrictions against China would come on the heels of tariff hikes on Chinese imports introduced on Friday. The levies include a 100% duty on electric vehicles as well as new hikes on EV batteries and key minerals. The move was driven by US claims that China purportedly conducts a policy of oversupply.

China, a leader in electric vehicles and components for smart cars, has insisted it respects both the security of its foreign customers and the principles of fair competition.

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War is peace? US officials claim to fear full-scale Lebanon conflict but hope Israeli strikes will bring Hezbollah to heel

US officials have told Axios that although the Biden White House is “extremely concerned” about the escalating cross-border airstrike, missile and rocket attack campaign sparking an all-out war, the administration is also hopeful that Israeli “military pressure” on Lebanon’s Hezbollah can end in a “diplomatic deal” which would allow evacuees on both sides of the border to return to their homes.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that there was a “real and acute” risk of the increasingly violent strikes – triggered by the deadly suspected Mossad pager and walkie-talkie attacks inside Lebanon last week, turning into a full-scale conflict, and that US is “working” to prevent that from occurring.

Anonymous US officials told Axios that the Israeli air strike strategy is aimed at “pressuring” Hezbollah toward a diplomatic deal, echoing sentiments expressed by PM Netanyahu in a cryptic 10-second X video about returning Israelis to their homes in the north. The US officials said they agree with Israel’s rationale, but said the “extremely difficult calibration” could trigger an uncontrollable escalation.

“One of the key messages” of recent talks between US and Israeli officials “was that we want to keep a path open to a diplomatic resolution and therefore don’t want the Israelis to take steps that will close such a path,” one official said.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah characterized this week’s pager blasts as an “act of terror” and a “declaration of war,” vowing “just punishment” for its perpetrators. Nasrallah emphasized that the group’s military wing “will not stop” its cross-border strikes, and that Israeli evacuees will “not be able to return” to their homes, “until Israeli aggression in Gaza ends.”

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CERN’s ‘politicized’ plan to ban Russian scientists threatens West with ‘scientific slum’ status

The EU’s “absolutely irresponsible” plans to “erase” Russia from the international scientific process will inevitably boomerang against them, political scientist and nuclear energy expert Alexei Anpilogov told Sputnik.

He commented on the CERN’s intention to bar up to 500 Russian scientists from its facilities, including the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator, effective December 1.

How can it backfire to the West?

1️⃣ The Russophobic decision will result in a situation where “all countries will be extremely cautious about international science megaprojects,” with the understanding that they could be nixed at any time for “absolutely political reasons,” the observer warned.

2️⃣ The LHC infrastructure was largely made possible thanks to Russian scientists, who have long played a leading role in elementary particle physics, quantum physics and astrophysics – fields giving birth “to big science that will be demand 100 years from now,” Anpilogov pointed out. If Russia’s contribution to world science is diminished, “this will stop progress, or at least slow it down quite significantly,” he said.

3️⃣ Western attempts to wall themselves off from Russian science, taken to levels unseen even during the Cold War, threaten to turn the West into a “scientific slum,” according to the observer.

4️⃣ Russia and the countries of the Global South, who make up the global majority, will inevitably create their own science megaprojects, based on the principle of the non-ideologization of science.

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CERN's move to cut ties with Moscow paves way for Russia to build world's most advanced research infrastructure

Mikhail Kovalchuk, the head of Russia’s Kurchatov Institute, told Russian media on Saturday that as “difficult” as it may be to lose the scientific connections built up over the years with CERN, “for Russian science this is a positive development, since the megaprojects being developed in Russia today will require many scientists and engineers.”

Kovalchuk’s comments came following CERN’s announcement that Russian scientists will no longer be able to access its facilities, including the France and Switzerland-based Large Hadron Collider, effective December 1, as the organization formally ends its cooperation with Moscow. The decision is expected to impact close to 500 scientists.

Russia is in the process of building an array of scientific nuclear megaprojects:

◻️ The PIK research reactor in Gatchina,

◻️ NICA Collider at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna,

◻️ the Sila synchrotron laser in Protvino outside Moscow,

◻️ The SKIF 4th gen synchrotron radiation facility in Siberia,

◻️ the RIF synchrotron on Russky Island in the Russian Far East,

◻️ the unique X-Ray lithography synchrotron in Zelenograd,

◻️ the Kurchatov Institute’s own Tokamak nuclear fusion research reactor.

“In other words, over the next five to seven years, we will have the most advanced, most modern, most powerful research infrastructure in the world,” the scientist assured.

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◻️ ‘Ukraine assistance largesse’, self-harming sanctions helped push battered Britain’s debt to 100% of GDP milestone

◻️ Estonia: Nurturing atrocious legacy of Nazi collaborators in neocon-driven rewrite of WWII

◻️ CERN’s ‘politicized’ plan to ban Russian scientists threatens West with ‘scientific slum’ status

◻️ Scramble to tighten Europe’s borders shows politicians are playing ‘catch up’ with raging public concern – analyst

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Biden claims US “pushing hard” in Middle East, but to what end?

US President Joe Biden expressed concern Sunday over rising tensions in the Middle East.

"Yes I am [worried]. We're going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out. And we're still pushing hard," Biden said as quoted by the White House press pool.

Earlier in the day, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem said the group has entered a new phase of confrontation with Israel, the broadcaster Al Mayadeen reported.

Previously on Sunday, Hezbollah said its fighters had struck Israeli military industrial installations in Rafael north of the city of Haifa in retaliation for this week's explosions of electronic devices that the Lebanese group blamed on Israel.

Israel responded with strikes on approximately 20 settlements in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese news agency NNA said.

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When reality kicks in: Macron flipflops on future relations with Russia

Europe will need to reconsider its ongoing relations with Russia for the sake of peace and stability on the continent, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

"We must think about peace in Europe in a new way. It is necessary to take into account the reality of Europe's geography, which is not limited to either the European Union or, most definitely, NATO. We need a new approach to European organization and to rethink our relations with Russia in the future, as well as peace on this continent," Macron said at a conference in Paris broadcast by the Elysee Palace.

Macron claimed he believes it is necessary to create a new world order because the current one is "incomplete and unjust," as it was designed after World War II and does not take into account new challenges.

In February, Macron refused to rule out the deployment of troops to Ukraine, an idea that was widely rejected by many NATO members, including the US, the UK, Finland, Germany, Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Italy. Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also assured that there were no plans to send combat units to Ukraine.

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🤐 A man of few words

US President Joe Biden said that he had not yet granted permission for Ukraine to use US long-range weapons to launch strikes deep into Russia.

"No," Biden was quoted as saying by the White House press pool when asked whether he had made the decision to permit the highly provocative escalatory move.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that NATO countries are currently discussing not only Kiev's possible use of Western long-range weapons, but are essentially deciding whether to directly engage in the Ukraine conflict. Direct participation of Western countries in the conflict will change its essence; Russia will be forced to make decisions based on the new threats created for it, he said.

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Scholz's SPD wins Brandenburg elections; AfD close behind – electoral commission

1️⃣ German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD) secured victory in Brandenburg state elections, winning 30.9% of the vote, according to official results released by the electoral commission.

2️⃣ The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) followed closely, finishing second with 29.2%.

3️⃣ The newly-formed Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – Reason and Justice (BSW) came in third with 13.5%.

4️⃣ The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) took fourth place with 12.1%.

Both of the SPD's federal coalition partners — the Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP) — failed to meet the 5% threshold and will not be entering the state parliament. The Left Party (Die Linke) also fell short of the required threshold.

Voter turnout reached 72.9%, according to the commission.

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