📹 In Rome, the road near the Colosseum is still flooded after heavy rains, making it difficult for people and vehicles to move.

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The United States is preparing $8 billion in additional security assistance packages for Ukraine in light of Volodymyr Zelenksy's visit to the White House this week, Reuters reported

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he is planning to announce a series of actions aimed at accelerating support for Ukraine’s military.

Russia has repeatedly warned NATO countries that arms supplies to Ukraine would be considered legitimate targets. Moscow has accused NATO countries of "playing with fire" by arming Ukraine, emphasizing that such actions hinder the possibility of Russia-Ukraine negotiations.

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Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon on Wednesday killed at least 72 people, injuring 392 others, the Lebanese Health Ministry said

Israel began carrying out massive strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday. The death toll from the bombardments reportedly exceeded 560. Hezbollah fighters, in turn, fired dozens of rockets toward northern Israel. This escalation was preceded by a series of explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon from September 17-18, which killed over 40 people and injured nearly 3,500 others.

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US President Joe Biden has authorized $375 million in additional military assistance for Ukraine, the White House said in a memorandum

The new aid package includes additional cluster and HIMARS munitions, Javelin missiles and artillery shells, among other weapons, the State Department said in a separate press release.

US media reported that the United States is expected to announce another $8 billion in security aid packages for Ukraine later this week.

Western countries have provided hundreds of billions of dollars worth of aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia's special military operation in February 2022. Aid shipments began in 2022 with artillery munitions and training and have escalated to include tanks, advanced air-defense systems, missiles and cluster munitions. The Kremlin has consistently warned against the West's continued arms deliveries to Ukraine, saying that they only prolong the conflict.

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🛒 South Korea has invented hovering carts

Engineers from Seoul have presented Palletrone, a drone-loader that can be pushed like a regular warehouse cart.

It is too weak and loud for now, but Korean specialists are working on replacing carts with it in the future.

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‘Let's extinguish him for good’ – Harris campaign surrogate calls for decisive action against Trump

Kamala Harris supporter and Biden administration Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo called for former President Donald Trump to be "extinguished for good" during a televised interview Wednesday less than two weeks after a second attempt on his life.

"Let's just get it done," said Raimondo in comments that some have claimed appear to condone violence against the Republican candidate.

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🗺 Out of place: Biden welcomes guests to another city

US President Joe Biden mistakenly welcomed world leaders to Washington while speaking in New York Wednesday, representing yet another concerning gaffe following the decision to end his campaign for a second term due to growing concerns over his mental acuity.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you. Welcome to Washington,” the president said at the InterContinental New York Barclay hotel.

Biden confidently continued his speech, seemingly unaware of the mistake.

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US House Speaker demands Zelensky fire Ukraine’s ambassador to US - letter

US House Speaker Mike Johnson sent a letter to Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, urging him to fire Oksana Markarova as Ukrainian ambassador to the United States.

"I demand that you immediately fire Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova," the letter said.

Johnson accused Markarova of influencing US domestic politics by organizing a trip for Zelensky to Pennsylvania to aid Democrats. The trip constitutes election interference and has caused Republicans to lose trust in Markarova’s ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat, the letter said.

Johnson will also not meet with Zelensky during his time at the US Capitol this week due to a scheduling conflict, the speaker said.

"No, I wasn't able to schedule a meeting with Zelensky this week because I had a very busy one, as you all might have noticed, and I don't even think I'll be in town tomorrow," Johnson clarified.

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😯 An unusual volleyball court has been discovered in the Darai Sufi Bala area of Samangan province in Afghanistan.

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Sanctions against Russia make no sense – Hungarian FM

Sanctions against Russia make no sense, just like any sanctions in the history of mankind, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

"Economic sanctions are totally useless in this regard. They absolutely do not work out, they put much more harm on some European economies than on the Russian economy. Many Western countries and Western economies do evade the sanctions. So, I think it is no wonder that we cannot recall any successful sanctions mechanism in history. These sanctions do not make any sense as well," Szijjarto said while speaking at the general debate during the UN General Assembly's high-level week.

Western countries are lying when they say they have stopped purchasing Russian energy resources because they continue to do business with Moscow, the minister highlighted.

"Many Western colleagues of ours like to say that they got rid of the energy resources of Russia, for example. This is one of the biggest fake news ever. Because the Western countries continue to do business with Russia just like others, they just simply deny it," Szijjarto emphasized.

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Promises, promises: What tax reductions do Trump and Harris offer in their quest for presidency

Eager to woo as many voters as possible ahead of the impending presidential election, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are seemingly pulling out all the stops when it comes to campaign promises, including tax cuts.

Trump’s proposals include:

🔹removing taxes on tips for service workers;

🔹removing taxes on social security for retirees;

🔹making permanent the tax cuts he introduced in 2017 (that involved lowering the corporate tax rate to 21% from a previous 35%), which are set to expire in 2025;

🔹lowering corporate tax rate further to 15%.

Harris’ proposals include:

🔸tax credits for first-time home buyers;

🔸tax credits for the builders of homes for first-time buyers ($25,000);

🔸making permanent the increase of child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,600, as Joe Biden previously proposed;

🔸$6,000 tax credit for families with newborns - Increasing tax deduction for business startups from $5,000 to $50,000.

How the candidates would be able to afford all these measures is another matter entirely.

🔻Trump’s proposals, for example, would cost the budget some $11 trillion, with $4.3 trillion of them due to the proposed 2017 tax cut extension, according to Tax Foundation think tank.

🔻At the same time, Tax Foundation warns that Harris’ proposals would lead to a decrease of the “long-run GDP” by 2% and of the “employment by about 786,000 full-time equivalent jobs.”

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Israel's UN envoy says no peace in region until Israel dismantles ‘Iranian threat’

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told members of the UN Security Council that Israel believes there can be no peace in the Middle East region until the “Iranian threat” is dismantled.

"Every drone launched by Iranian proxies, every act of terror on foreign soil, places back to one source: the Islamic regime of Iran," Danon claimed. "It is the spider at the center of this web of violence, and we have to fight this web of violence. There can be no peace in the region until we dismantle this threat."

At the same time, the Israeli ambassador claimed that Israel does not seek a full-scale war against Lebanon's Hezbollah movement.

"Israel does not seek a full-scale war," Danon explained.

The ambassador claimed that Israel has been conducting precise strikes in Lebanon against Hezbollah command centers, launch sites, missile and weapon storage units, and their leadership.

Israel began carrying out massive strikes on Lebanon on Monday. The death toll from the bombardments reportedly exceeded 620, according to Al Jazeera.

This escalation was preceded by a series of explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon on September 17-18, which killed over 40 people and injured nearly 3,500 others.

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‘Suicide pod’ sees its first American user in Switzerland

A criminal case has been opened in Switzerland over the “alleged assisted suicide” of a 64-year old American woman.

The deceased was killed via what was may be the first use of a so-called Sarco pod designed by Philip Nitschke, a former physician from Australia and founder of a pro-euthanasia group called Exit International.

Upon activation via a button located on the inside, the human-sized Sarco pod fills with nitrogen and thus kills the person within by hypoxia.

The deceased, who was suffering from immune system-related issues, supposedly passed a psychiatric evaluation prior to her death, CNN reports citing the Last Resort, a so-called “assisted dying” group behind the pod.

The death took place in the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen where authorities have already made several arrests on suspicion of “inducing and aiding and abetting suicide.”

The Last Resort’s co-president Florian Willet, who was the only other person present when the woman died, was among those detained.

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Iran FM says Israel doesn't deserve UN membership, threatens global stability

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said during a UN Security Council meeting that Israel does not deserve membership in the United Nations and poses a threat to international stability.

"Now more than ever, Israel has become a serious threat to international peace and security," he emphasized. "This regime does not deserve membership in the United Nation."

The Iranian foreign minister also said Israel must understand that their actions will not go unanswered. The region, he added, stands on the brink of a broader conflict due to Israel's aggression.

The Lebanese movement Hezbollah is capable of defending itself and Lebanon, and makes its own decisions, Araghchi emphasized.

"Hezbollah decides for itself, and it is completely able to defend itself and to defend Lebanon and Lebanese people," the Iranian top diplomat said in response to a question whether Iran could influence Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel.

Araghchi added that the UN Security Council must stop Israel's war and enforce a ceasefire.

The Iranian top diplomat warned of regional escalation and placed responsibility for such an outcome on Israel's supporters, particularly on the United States.

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🥴 It all comes down to one topic…

At the UN General Assembly, UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, claimed that Russia is trying to return the world to imperialism. 

Lammy drew such a conclusion based on the Ukrainian conflict: allegedly, Russia enslaves Ukrainians, in the same way black people were once taken in chains from Africa and oppressed.

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‘The way Brussels is behaving is a serious breach of our security’ - Hungarian FM

The European Union is seriously violating Hungary’s sovereignty by compelling them to let migrants into the country, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told RIA Novosti on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.

“The way Brussels is behaving now is a serious breach of our security and sovereignty, because they want us to let in people whom we don’t want to let in. We don’t need people who attack our police. We don’t need people in our country who attack our border guards, who cannot comply with our regulations, and who show no respect for our people, our way of life, or our laws,” Szijjarto said.

The ability for a country to protect its own borders and decide who is granted entry is a matter of sovereignty that no organization has the right to take away, Szijjarto emphasized.

Earlier this year, the EU’s top court fined Hungary 200 million euros ($216 million) and imposed a daily one-million-euro penalty for "failing to follow the bloc’s asylum laws". Hungarian PM Viktor Orban described the court’s decision as “outrageous and unacceptable”.

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