The General Organization of Radio and TV (ORTAS) reported its anchor, Safaa Ahmad, has died as a result of the Israeli strike on the Syrian capital, Damascus.

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The head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Shigeru Ishiba, was elected the new prime minister by the lower house of the Japanese parliament.

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Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that he had submitted a petition to the Cabinet of Ministers for the dismissal of his deputies and the secretary of state of the department.

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🇷🇺🤝🇨🇳Putin congratulates China’s Xi on 75th anniversary of PRC’s founding

Russia's President Vladimir Putin sent congratulations to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, highlighting that Russia values friendly relations with China.

The volume of mutual trade is growing, despite the difficult international situation, Putin added.

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❗️The special services of NATO and Ukraine are preparing a provocation with the use of chemical weapons in Syria, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) reported.

The goal is to launch a campaign to discredit Syria and Russia at the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Their plan is to involve the White Helmets organization, whose activists will engage in video recordings of the "consequences of the incident."

The operation plan provides for the militants to dump a booby-trapped container with chlorine from a drone during strikes on terrorist positions in the Idlib de-escalation zone, the SVR said.

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‘Targeted raids’: What’s known about Israel’s ground operations in Lebanon so far?

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have launched what they called “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. In the latest developments under the Operation Northern Arrows:

🔸This comes after hours of Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire across the Israeli-Lebanese border, which took place as Israeli authorities restricted civilian movements in some border communities;

🔸The strikes killed 95 people and injured 172 more, the Lebanese Health Ministry said;

🔸The IDF reportedly has about five brigades currently on standby, but not all of them are expected to move across the border. The Israeli operation forced Lebanese troops to retreat three miles (about five kilometers) from their positions along the country's southern border with Israel, sources claimed;

🔸Hezbollah in turn stated it “targeted” Israeli soldiers carrying out “movements” in orchards near the border;

🔸In neighboring Syria, three people were killed and nine more injured as a result of Israel's “air aggression with warplanes and drones” against Damascus, Syrian state media reported, citing a military source;

🔸US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant agreed during their phone call on “the necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure” along the Israeli border to ensure that Hezbollah cannot launch an attack on northern Israel, according to the Pentagon;

🔸UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged British nationals to leave Lebanon immediately, warning that the conflict could “escalate in a major way”;

🔸Hezbollah's deputy leader, Naim Qassem, stressed that his group was ready for an Israeli ground offensive and that the battle “may be long.”

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🔸What’s known about Israel’s ground operations in Lebanon so far?

🔸Watch: Israel carries out several strikes targeting southern Lebanon

🔸Pentagon agrees on 'necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure' on Israel-Lebanon border

🔸Video: Russia’s Su-35 air maneuvers scared off US military

🔸Shigeru Ishiba becomes Japan’s new prime minister

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Julian Assange has arrived at the Council of Europe building in Strasbourg, where, for the first time since his release, he will talk about his years in prison.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has refused to accredit Sputnik's correspondent for Julian Assange's speech, despite the timely submission of an application.

The Wikileaks founder will testify before the committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on October 1. This is his first public appearance since his release.

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Zakharova brands Blinken as 'scoundrel' over his remarks on Babi Yar tragedy

Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of false plans to denazify Ukraine, recalling the Babi Yar massacre of 1941 when the Nazis killed 34,000 Jews.

"Only a scoundrel could say that, because Russia denazifies those who became the successors of the crimes of the murderers of the victims of Babyn Yar — Russia denazifies Bandera followers, who glorified the collaborators, Bandera and Shukhevych," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman responded.

Zakharova also drew attention to the fact that it is in the United States that there are monuments for fascist collaborators.

She recalled that those who shot innocent Soviet citizens in Babi Yar were, among others, units of the Ukrainian auxiliary police from the western occupied Ukrainian regions. These units were subordinated directly to the SS, "the symbolism of which modern Ukrainian followers of Bandera and Shukhevych are so fond of using."

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📹 The Israeli army released footage of its troops preparing to take part in a ground operation in southern Lebanon

“The forces of the 98th Division, including the forces of the Commando Brigade, paratroopers and armored vehicles of the 7th Brigade, have been preparing over the past weeks for a ground operation in southern Lebanon, which began last night," the Israeli army said.

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CIA 'campaign of retribution' against Assange 

WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, said that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) organized a "campaign of retribution" against him, demonstrating to the world the capabilities of intelligence organizations for extraterritorial repression.

"The CIA drew up plans to kidnap and to assassinate me within the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and authorized going after my European colleagues, subjecting us to theft, hacking attacks, and the planting of false information. My wife and my infant son were also targeted," Assange said. 

"The CIA's targeting of myself, my family, and my associates through aggressive extrajudicial and extraterritorial means, provides a rare insight into how powerful intelligence organizations engage in transnational repression," he concluded.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russian and Chinese warships begin joint patrols in Asia-Pacific

Russian and Chinese warships have begun joint patrols in the Asia-Pacific following joint drills, Russia's Pacific Fleet said in the recent statement.

"Russian and Chinese navies' warships replenished supplies in the Sea of Okhotsk after participating in the 'Beibu/Interaction - 2024' exercise, formed a tactical group, and began carrying out patrol missions in the Asia-Pacific region. The ship group crossed the Bussol Strait and entered the northwestern Pacific Ocean," the statement read.

During joint patrols, the crews will:

🔸 Conduct training and combat exercises;

🔸 Improve anti-submarine defense;

🔸 Practice sea rescue.

The Russian tactical group includes large battleships. Chinese destroyers, a frigate, and an integrated supply ship are also taking part in the patrol.

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Western world slowly accepts Ukraine's defeat

Ukraine is becoming more open to discussing a ceasefire and possible concessions to resolve the conflict, reports the Financial Times.

The publication quotes European diplomats attending the UN General Assembly.

“We’re talking more and more openly about how this ends and what Ukraine would have to give up in order to get a permanent peace deal,” says one of the diplomats, who was present in New York.

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❗️Russian troops liberated Vishnevoye in the Kharkov region and Krutoy Yar in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry announced.

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🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:

◻️ Russia’s Battlegroup Vostok repelled two counterattacks. Ukrainian losses reached a total of 125 troops.

◻️ Enemy losses in Russia’s Battlegroup Yug combat zone came to 900 militants and an ammunition arsenal.

◻️ Enemy losses in Russia’s Battlegroup Sever combat zone came to 95 servicemen.

◻️ Russia’s Battlegroup Zapad repelled two counterattacks. Ukrainian losses reached a total of 410 troops.

◻️ Russian air defenses shot down three ATACMS missiles, three HIMARS rockets and 31 Ukrainian drones over the day.

◻️ Ukrainian losses reached a total of 60 militants and three ammunition arsenals in Battlegroup Dnepr's area of responsibility.

◻️ Enemy losses in Russia’s Battlegroup Tsentr combat zone came to 635 troops.

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No need for Russian hackers when the Joker is in charge

California has passed a law banning ID verification from voters before casting a ballot.

"They just made preventing voter fraud against the law. The Joker is in charge," Elon Musk commented on the integrity of the US elections.

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The Russian Marines of the Pacific Fleet destroyed a ten-man reconnaissance group of the Ukrainian forces in the Russian Kursk region, law enforcement agencies told Sputnik.

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Stoltenberg officially hands over the powers of NATO Secretary General to Mark Rutte

Sputnik has recalled some of the memorable remarks Stoltenberg made during his NATO stint:

◻️ Russia’s victory in the Ukraine conflict would be “not only a big defeat for Ukrainians, but it will be a defeat and dangerous for all of us," Stoltenberg stressed in October 2022. The statement could be considered recognition of the fact that NATO is fighting in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time.

◻️ Supporting Ukraine “is not a charity, it is an investment in our own security," Stoltenberg started out 2024 by saying.

◻️ The NATO chief egged on allies to let Kiev use long-range Western weapons to strike deep inside Russia. "There have been many red lines declared by him [Russia’s President Vladimir Putin] before, and he has not escalated," Stoltenberg told reporters.

◻️ Stoltenberg refused to admit that Ukraine had coordinated its attack on the Russian border region of Kursk with its Western proxies. "In this respect, NATO played no role," Stoltenberg said in a German media interview.

◻️ Stoltenberg famously accused Russia of "trying to meddle in and undermining the trust of democratic institutions in several NATO allied countries and also elsewhere” during a speech at the Center for Strategic Studies in New Zealand in 2019. In fact, the US and NATO boast a track record of senseless and bloody wars.

◻️ The Crimean Peninsula was reunited with Russia as a result of increased "great power competition," Stoltenberg said. In effect, Crimea voted to rejoin Russia in a 2014 referendum after a US-instigated coup ousted the legitimate Kiev government and became a catalyst for the Ukraine conflagration.

◻️ Stoltenberg doubled down on the fact that “NATO’s door is open. Ukraine will join,” during a speech in Berlin on September 19.

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