More than 25 people have been killed, with many others injured, following the resumption of Israeli airstrikes since midnight Friday, according to Lebanon’s Minister of Health.

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Russia proposes international gas bank to fund new energy technologies

Russia's Ministry of Energy and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) have discussed creating an international gas bank to finance gas-related technologies. 

The ministry asked the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to join the initiative, Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev announced. 

"We decided that we need to establish an international gas bank to finance technologies in the gas sector," Tsivilev said at a Russian Energy Week session on ‘Russia's Fuel and Energy Complex: The Future Begins Today’. 

Tsivilev also highlighted the joint communiqué adopted during the BRICS energy ministers' meeting, which stressed equitable access to energy transition technologies and opposed discrimination. 

The Russian Energy Week runs from September 26 to 28 in Moscow.

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Who is Shigeru Ishiba, set to become Japan’s new prime minister? 
 
Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has picked former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba as the country’s new prime minister. He will assume the post on October 1 after the National Diet Parliament convenes.
 
What are Ishiba’s policies?
 
◻️ The veteran politician was placed on Moscow’s sanctions list in July 2022 in response to the Japanese government's hostile policies, including baseless accusations against Russia over its special military operation in Ukraine. Ishiba is banned from entering Russia. 

◻️ The new PM is against a Ukrainian scenario unfolding in Asia. During a visit to Taiwan, he quoted his predecessor Fumio Kishida’s mantra since February 2020. “We have a saying in Japan that ‘Today’s Ukraine can become tomorrow’s East Asia’,” Ishiba said, adding that “we have to rack our brains” to prevent that. 

◻️ Ishiba has called for Japan to lead the creation of an “Asian NATO.” Russia has repeatedly warned that such an alliance would destabilize the region. 

◻️ He has also argued in favor of Ukraine's membership in NATO, which Russia opposes as a bid for military encirclement of its territory and a threat to its national security. 

◻️ On US-Japan defense alignment, Ishiba wrote in his 2024 memoir that “Japan is still not a truly independent country” due to the “asymmetry” of Japan’s reliance on Washington for its security. He advocates more oversight over Washington’s use of its bases in Okinawa and questioned whether the US would come to Japan’s defense. “Biden gives weapons and intelligence to Ukraine but refuses to fight alongside Ukraine,” he told online magazine The Diplomat. “In which situations will the United States deploy nuclear weapons in Japan’s defense?” 

◻️ Ishiba has backed revisions to the post-war constitution’s ban on offensive military action, earning himself a reputation as a "hawk." “I believe that as long as this clause is in place, Japan’s security policies will never be aligned with reason,” he said.

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Finland offers up border town next to Russia to host NATO ground forces HQ

The Finnish Defense Ministry proposed on Friday to place the headquarters of the NATO ground forces in city of Mikkeli near the border with Russia.

"Finland's defence administration proposes Mikkeli, the town where the Finnish Army Command is based, as the location for NATO's Multi Corps Land Component Command (MCLCC)," the statement read.

According to Finnish TV channel MTV, this proposal has already been approved.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russia eyes China's model for ash waste processing near coal plants

Russia could benefit from China's approach of building ash processing facilities near coal power plants, said En+ CEO Vladimir Kolmogorov.

During the Russian Energy Week session 'The Beginning of the Ash-Slag Era: Technological Sovereignty,' Kolmogorov lauded China's example.

China Energy showcased a coal-fired power plant with 30 kilometers of conveyors that supply coal to the furnaces, with ash removed for disposal.

Kolmogorov revealed plans to build a similar facility at coal mines in Tulun or Cheremkhovo in the Irkutsk region, combining electricity generation with waste processing to make the project both economically and environmentally viable.

Andrey Yatskin, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council, noted that Russia is focusing on developing ash waste processing which could help better manage federal resources.

Irina Zolotova, Director General of the National Association for Secondary Raw Materials (ARVIS), said discussions on using ash waste began several years ago.

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Who’s attacking Russia’s Kursk Region? Hackers dox mercenary network spanning 15 countries

The Russia-based RaHDit hacker group has leaked info on more than 800 Ukrainian militants involved in the assault on the Kursk Region, which includes around 200 foreign mercenaries.

What is the geographical distribution of mercenary involvement in Ukraine's campaign of aggression against Russia?

◻️ The list compiled by Russian hackers includes representatives from 15 countries.

◻️ The majority of the mercenaries who attacked the Kursk region were Israeli citizens. This group consists of both repatriates from former USSR countries and native Israelis, as well as Arabs who possess Israeli citizenship.

◻️ The second-largest contingent of mercenaries is composed of Syrian citizens. Reports indicate that several dozen militants from the Syrian province of Idlib have entered the Kursk region. Idlib is currently occupied by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham*, a jihadist group that actively collaborates with the Kiev regime.

◻️ Approximately a dozen individuals on the list are Jordanians.

◻️ The roster from the Russian hackers also includes mercenaries from Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Poland, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, India, and Turkiye.

*Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.

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📹 Israel has sent two reserve brigades and several battalions to the border with Lebanon to raise the readiness level, IDF says

Video published by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

This comes amid ongoing escalation between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

According to the latest figures, the number of casualties in Lebanon since the start of Israel’s bombing campaign has exceeded 1,500, with more than 5,000 wounded. Moreover, thousands have been forced to flee Lebanon amid the bombardment.

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How much does Ukraine pay 72-year-old US pensioners to make them fight against Russia?

Strange as it may sound, 72-year-old American Stephan Hubbard finds himself on trial in Moscow for fighting on the side of Ukraine. Offered a monthly sum of $1,000, Hubbard signed on with the Kiev regime’s territorial defense battalion in the Ukrainian city of Izyum, trading in his quiet American retirement for a violent armed conflict in a war zone.

After being equipped with weapons and military gear in February 2022, this senior citizen did what many would consider insane, he stepped onto a foreign battlefield far from home. Now, he faces the grim reality of a potential prison sentence ranging from seven to ten years.

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What skeletons does the new Japanese Prime Minister have in his cupboard?

Netizens wondering about who Shigeru Ishiba is, except for the upcoming PM of Japan, found out that... he opened a figure museum as one of the Dragon Ball characters.

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Zelensky is expected to meet with the former US president in the Trump Tower in Manhattan soon.

The skyscraper has been transformed into an impregnable fortress with fences and barriers, and reinforced with a large number of police and special services officers.

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🇷🇺 Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev inspected drone detection and countermeasure systems, including new technologies, at the Kapustin Yar training range.

Kapustin Yar, located in the Astrakhan region, is one of Russia’s key military testing grounds. Founded in 1947, it served as a test center for the first Soviet – and later Russian – ballistic missiles.

Earlier this year the site hosted the successful launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a mobile ground-based complex as part of state tests of advanced missile systems.

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Zelensky's entourage arrives in New York amid a heavy presence of police, special forces, riot cops and medics to meet with Trump.

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Several delegations left the UN General Assembly hall in protest at the start of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech.

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Don't mess with China's People's Liberation Army

A statement made by Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang at a press conference has gone viral among Chinese netizens.

“Taiwan is China's territory and Chinese fighter jets can fly there whenever they want, so there's no need to make a fuss about it,” the officer said.

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Battle of the kebab: why Turkiye and Germany are in a dust-up over street food

The knives are out as a spicy row heats up between Turkiye and Germany over what can legally be called a doner kebab.

Let’s sink our teeth into the meaty arguments presented by both sides.

🔸 The word doner comes from the Turkish verb "dönmek" which means "to turn." The dish is made by grilling seasoned meat for hours on a turning vertical spit. It is then carved off in razor-thin strips and paired with vegetables, rice, spices, and sauces.

🔸 The dish was brought to Germany in the 1960s by Turkish migrants, but to appeal to the Germans’ tastebuds, the original recipe was tweaked. Additional ingredients and hallmark sauces were added. For convenience’s sake, the meat was served wrapped in pita or thin flatbread. In Turkiye, the dish was traditionally made of lamb and served on a plate.

🔸 In a bout of national pride, Turkiye applied to register the name doner kebab as its “guaranteed traditional speciality” across Europe.

🔸 The application threatens to bar businesses from using the name unless it meets a host of specific criteria, such as using lamb or beef (from cattle that is at least 16 months old). There are provisions regarding the marinade, spices, and even thickness of the meat slices. Turkey and veal kebabs, which are hugely popular in Germany, would have to be ditched.

🔸 Germany is dismayed that Turkiye’s application would be sure to drive up costs. Germans have already been skewering Chancellor Olaf Scholz since May over “donerflation,” as short-sighted anti-Russia policies have taken a bite out of their favorite snack, with prices doubling in two years.

🔸 Germany accounts for two-thirds of doner kebab sales in Europe, worth around €2.4 billion ($2.6 billion) a year, according to the Association of Doner Manufacturers in Europe (ATDID). The German government has lodged an objection to the Turkish application, with the European Commission giving the two nations six months to reach a compromise.

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❗️❗️❗️BRICS is "the hope": Equatoguinean leader backs creation of new BRICS-backed currency that could challenge US dollar and euro

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo expressed strong support for the development of an independent payment system and trade in national currencies spearheaded by BRICS nations. He argued that the current global economic system, with its "unjustified embargoes" and restrictions, unfairly disadvantages many nations.

🗣 "I believe that BRICS is the hope of the countries of the Global South that they will reach a [high] economic level in transactions, accelerate trade and economic transactions, transfers, which are very difficult today," he told Sputnik Africa on the sidelines of the 7th Russian Energy Week in Moscow.

Pointing to the fact that there already is a common BRICS financial institution, the BRICS New Development Bank, the African leader proposed the creation of a "convertible [BRICS] currency of international scale, which can become a counterweight to the dollar and the euro".

👉Although Equatorial Guinea is not currently a member of BRICS, President Obiang expressed his readiness to participate in the group's upcoming summit in Russia in October, saying he would attend if invited.

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Russian Aerospace Forces vet on F-16 vulnerabilities: there's no place in Ukraine the jets can hide from Kinzhal missiles

“An airplane is not a needle in a haystack that’s hard to find. It’s a metal object that can only be shoved into a protected aircraft shelter, if available," Major Andrei Krasnoperov, a Russian Aerospace Forces veteran and flight instructor, told Sputnik, commenting on reports by the underground in western Ukraine this week that a Russian strike on an airfield in Starokonstantinov, Khmelnitsky region may have targeted or even destroyed multiple Ukrainian F-16s.

"But again, this concrete shelter offers light protection. If one of our Kinzhal missiles were to detonate nearby, the shelter would collapse like a house of cards,” Krasnoperov emphasized.

Planes are a delicate thing, Krasnoperov stressed, pointing out that even shrapnel damage from a nearby blast could put an F-16 out of action, and require costly repairs, carried out by foreign or foreign-trained specialists which aren’t easy to come by.

“As far as I’m aware, Ukraine [received] only six F-16s to date. They lost one themselves, shooting it down by accident using a Patriot and killing their own pilot. As for strikes against our territory, sending F-16s to destroy our ammo depots situated far from the border zone requires coming closer to our air defenses – of which we have plenty along the front, both Pantsirs and various SAMs, as well as fighters, capable of destroying air targets at distances up to 300 km,” the observer said.

“In other words, they’ve launched an ordinary PR campaign designed to improve their military’s fighting spirit, and perhaps someone will succumb to it psychologically,” Krasnoperov said. But the hard “reality” is that “knowing the coordinates, it’s possible to destroy any target at any airfield. The Kinzhal, which flies ten times the speed of sound, is impossible to shoot down…The fact that we have now [reportedly] destroyed two of these planes [at Starokonstantinov, ed.] is only the first shot in the battle.”

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