US lags behind Russia on European gas supplies – analysis 

Russia has once again overtaken the US in terms of gas supplies to the EU in the third quarter, while taking the highest market share in nine quarters, according to Sputnik’s analysis of data from the Bruegel think tank that specializes in economics.

🔸 Over the past three months, Russia has delivered 13.3 billion cubic meters of gas to the European market, compared to 13 billion the country supplied there in the second quarter and 11.5 billion, delivered in 2023 within the same period. 

🔸 As a result, the share of Russian companies in the EU’s energy imports increased to 19.4% from 17.2% in April-June, reaching a maximum since the second quarter of 2022, the analysis showed. 

🔸 Russia’s quarterly and annual pipeline gas deliveries to Europe grew by 8% and almost 13%, respectively, while the volume of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports in the last quarter stood at 4.7 billion cubic meters, a 21% increase as compared to the third quarter of 2023. 

🔸 The US has reduced its LNG deliveries to Europe to 9.5 billion cubic meters, becoming the third-largest LNG supplier after Russia. 
Sputnik’s previous review of Eurostat data discovered that EU countries had to pay some €185 billion ($204 billion) extra on natural gas over the past 20 months after cutting themselves off from cheap, Russian pipeline gas amid Western sanctions that were introduced shortly after Moscow began a special military operation in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the EU's "suicidal" and "absolutely political" decision to halt the purchase of Russian energy supplies would come back to bite the bloc.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ Ukraine continues to play with fire, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, commenting on the attempted attack by Ukrainian forces on the Kursk nuclear power plant.

More statements from Dmitry Peskov's recent briefing:

◻️ Putin has no plans for contacts with IAEA chief Grossi.

◻️ The Russian defense minister reported to the president on the liberation of Ugledar.

◻️ There has been no talk, and there are no preconditions for a possible meeting between Putin and Biden.

◻️ No decision has been made on Putin's trip to the G20.

◻️ Putin will meet with CIS leaders on his birthday (7 October), with a working meeting planned.

◻️ Putin will hold a working meeting with the permanent members of the Security Council on Friday.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

US Senator Lindsey Graham calls for more support for Israel even as a hurricane devastates his home state of South Carolina

"I've been going all over South Carolina, like most people, I haven't slept much. But look what's going on in Israel... We have to help our friends to keep the war over there from coming here," Graham said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russian troops have liberated six settlements over the past week, the Russian defense ministry reported.

The losses of Ukrainian militants over the past seven days amounted to 16,650 people, according to the weekly report.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The Russian Tsentr Battlegroup repelled 48 Ukrainian attacks over the week. Ukrainian formations lost up to 4,210 militants

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's weekly briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to more than 3,000 militants over the week in the area of responsibility of the Russian Sever Battlegroup;

▪️The Russian Armed Forces carried out 29 group strikes, including Kinzhal missiles, on Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises, energy facilities and military airfields;

▪️The Russian Air Defense Forces shot down seven ATACMS missiles, six Hammer aerial bombs, 22 HIMARS shells, and 540 Ukrainian drones over the week;

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 2,900 militants over the week in the area of responsibility of the Russian Zapad Battlegroup;

▪️Ukrainian losses amounted to 5,100 militants over the week in the area of responsibility of the Russian Yug Battlegroup.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

About 32 missiles (icons) struck Israel's Nevatim Air Base during the October 2 Iranian attack, according to the head of the CNS research centre at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

"Universe, give me a sign"

Sign:

A video showing road signs with Trump all over New York City has gone viral.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Slovakia’s PM Fico pledges to restore relations with Russia after Ukrainian conflict ends

“If the war ends during the [2023-2027] mandate of this government, I'll do everything possible for the renewal of economic and standard relations with Russia,” Fico said during a press conference on Thursday.

Fico also believes that Ukraine should remain a transit country for the fuel Europe needs. The prime minister pointed out he has been under “extreme pressure” from the European Commission to stop buying gas and oil from Moscow, adding that he sees no reason in buying energy resources from alternative suppliers because "it is still the same Russian oil, just with higher transit charges."

Fico, who survived an assassination attempt earlier this year, has repeatedly advocated for enhancing ties between Russia, the European Union and Slovakia, and in particular opposed sending troops to Ukraine.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Iran will strike Israeli oil refineries and gas fields if Israel attacks Iran, according to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Iran does not plan to continue attacks, but if Israel takes any action against Tehran, the response will be tougher, the Iranian foreign minister said.

Iran will support the ceasefire initiative, which stipulates respect for the rights of the Lebanese people and a simultaneous truce in the Gaza Strip, the ministry added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Iran’s True Promise 2 operation and retaliation against Israeli military sites

In retaliation for Israeli attacks that killed Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, and Iranian commander Abbas Nilforoushan, the IRGC launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israeli military sites on October 1.

Missiles like the Ghadr, Emad, and Fattah hypersonics were used, with 90% hitting their targets, according to the IRGC. Dubbed True Promise 2, the operation, lasting a few hours, caused significant damage to military and intelligence facilities, although casualty reports are yet to be confirmed.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

😮 A 111-year-old hermit who spent his entire life in meditation was brought out of an Indian cave

At first, it was claimed that the old man was 188 years old. Allegedly, in a state of trance, his aging process had slowed down, and his real age was revealed only afterwards.

According to the Indian media, his name is Siyaram Baba. Although he speaks very little, devotees flock to seek his blessings as they regard them as a saint. Baba resides in Bhatyan Ashram, located on the banks of the Narmada River in Khargone district, Madhya Pradesh.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

What are Iranian oil reserves?

Oil prices jumped by 5% after US President Joe Biden said Washington is discussing whether to support potential Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities following the Islamic Republic’s recent missile attack on the Jewish state.

So what does Iranian oil infrastructure consist of and how much oil does Iran produce (according to open sources)?

🔸About 70% of Iran's crude oil fields are located onshore, with the remainder mostly situated offshore in the Persian Gulf. The Islamic Republic also holds proved oil reserves in the Caspian Sea, where exploration has been at a standstill.

🔸Iran’s oil reserves are the world’s third-largest (after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela) amounting to a whopping 208,6 billion barrels, which is tantamount to 12% of total global reserves.

🔸The Islamic Republic’s oil production capacity currently stands at about 3.2 million barrels of crude per day (bpd), which makes Tehran the third-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The Iranian government earlier this year made it clear it has a plan to boost oil production to 4 million barrels per day in the near future.

🔸The production is spread across 10 main locations, including the biggest refineries such as Persian Gulf Star refinery (450,000 bpd), Isfahan plant (370,000 bpd), the Abadan refinery (360,000 bpd), the Bandar Abbas site and (320,000 bpd) and the Kharg Oil Terminal, which is capable of containing up to 28 million barrels of crude.

🔸In the first five months of 2024, Iran reportedly exported 1.65 million bpd, a significant increase as compared to 1.194 bpd exported in 2023 within the same period.

Experts have meanwhile warned that if regional tensions escalate further, Iran may block the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important energy transportation routes, a move that will ride roughshod over global oil shipments.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

EU slaps tariffs up to 45% on Chinese EVs

The European Union has voted to impose tariffs of up to 45% on electric vehicles imported from China.

“The EU and China continue to work hard to explore an alternative solution that would have to be fully WTO-compatible, adequate in addressing the injurious subsidization established by the commission’s investigation, monitorable and enforceable,” the European Commission reported.

Experts believe such action might trigger a wider trade conflict with Beijing, which has already vowed to defend its domestic industries.

The EU's decision follows an investigation which found that China has been allegedly 'unfairly subsidising its electric vehicle sector'. In response, Beijing has vehemently denied the allegations and threatened to retaliate with its own tariffs targeting European dairy, spirits, pork and automotive sectors.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️❗️❗️A father’s burden: protecting the family through the chaos of Lebanon’s bombardment

“We’ve heard the hardest bombs these past two weeks,” Jaafar Zalzali, who lives with his wife and five children in Beirut near the devastated Dahieh district, told Sputnik.

Even though his family lives in a slightly safer area of the city, they have witnessed every heart-stopping Israeli air raid that has pounded the Lebanese capital in recent days.

“I am a human being. Of course, I get scared too,” Jaafar says. “It’s impossible to move around Lebanon right now. We don’t know what’s waiting on the roads. We’re living in constant fear—air raid sirens, bombs falling from all directions.”

Jaafar has prepared an evacuation plan, ready for when the time comes, but his family is paralyzed by trauma. “Maybe one day we will move all together out of this area when it would not be safe enough,” he acknowledges, with his voice heavy under a burden no parent should bear.

As a father, Jaafar feels it’s his duty to help his family make sense of the chaos. His older sons are starting to understand the grim political realities unfolding in Lebanon, but his younger daughters? They just need hugs, he says, they need to see their parents – strong and unbroken, guiding them through the nightmare.

“This what we can make it as a father and mother to support our children,” he concludes.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️❗️❗️‘You never know where they’ll bomb next’: Beirut resident speaks of families uprooted by unpredictable airstrikes

“Every day is a tragedy [in Lebanon]. Every day [brings] hard news for us as a family,” Jaafar Zalzali, a father of five from Beirut, tells Sputnik. For him, every Lebanese family is his family, and their suffering is his own.

Jaafar describes the devastation to the city. His aunt, his father’s sister, lost everything – her house, her belongings, everything she had built over the years. “But she’s safe,” he says, as hope for the better is the only solace in the world falling apart around them.

“You never know where [Israel] will bomb next,” Jaafar says. “People are forced to move, again and again,” he noted, uprooted with no warning or no time to prepare.

The toll is staggering. The number of displaced families grows daily. According to the Lebanese government, 1.2 million people have been forced from their homes by Israeli airstrikes, their lives shattered, and left to wander in search of safety.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The head of Palestinian movement HAMAS in the West Bank has been eliminated, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt