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

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❗️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.

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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.

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😮 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.

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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.

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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.

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❗️❗️❗️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.

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❗️❗️❗️‘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.

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

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❗️❗️❗️Beirut father praises Lebanon’s strength as bombs fall: Our strongest weapon is our unity

Every night over the past two weeks, Beirut residents have been living under the thunder of bombs, loud enough to shake their homes. The walls tremble, and every pane of glass rattles, Jaafar Zalzali, a father of five, told Sputnik, sharing the agonizing reality of life in the Lebanese capital. “The last two nights were very hard. And we expect more and more hard nights."

Although he has an evacuation plan, he cannot simply take his family and escape the tragedy that has befallen their country, because, according to him, and war is part of Lebanon's history and way of life.

"My children need to know that this is part of our history and this will be part of our future, or I would need to take them out of the country, I have to say that I don't care. But I can’t do it. Really, I can do it. I am Lebanese."

It’s hard for Jaafar to fully express the depth of emotions he feels. "They [the Israelis] are very strong in making this genocide inside Lebanon and to kill people, to make the community afraid. And that's not happening. The community is supporting each other, but one meter since yesterday till now, did not go back to our enemy, and I see what’s happening. This is our people, our heroes that fighting Lebanon."

Jaafar believes that the unity among the Lebanese people, across all regions and faiths, is their greatest strength. "This is our strongest weapon against the enemy," he concluded.

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From satellites to missile defense: Role of Russia’s Space Forces

Russia is celebrating Space Forces Day. By marking the day, Russia pays tribute to the first-ever launch of a Soviet manmade satellite into space on October 4, 1957. What are Russia’s Space Forces and what do they do?

Being part of the Russian Aerospace Forces since 2015, Russia’s Space Forces are tasked with:

▪️monitoring space objects and identifying threats to Russia in and from space, and, if necessary, countering such threats;

▪️providing top brass with reliable information on detection of ballistic missile launches and warning of a likely missile attack;

▪️launching spacecraft into orbit, controlling military and dual-purpose satellite systems in flight and using some of them to provide Russian troops with relevant information.

What are the staples of Russia’s Space Forces?

▪️unique Rokot light three-stage rocket with multiple-use engine;
▪️state-of-the-art Soyuz-2 carrier rocket;
▪️Fazan and the Taman-Baza command and instrumentation systems;
▪️Voronezh-M radar;
▪️Angara – a family of modular heavy-lift carrier rockets with oxygen-kerosene engines, designed to launch various types of spacecraft from Russian soil. Modifications include:
▪️Angara-A5 – a three-stage rocket capable of delivering up to a 24.5-ton payload into low orbit thanks to its powerful RD-191 engines.
▪️Angara-A5M – the A5’s upgraded version can carry up to 27.7 tons of cargo because of its improved RD-191M engines that generate 10% more thrust than the RD-191.
▪️Angara-A5V – still under development, the rocket is expected to ferry up to 37.5 tons into orbit and it features a different rocket engine, RD-0150, which runs on liquid oxygen and hydrogen.

According to President Vladimir Putin, the new Angara system will “play a key role in providing Russia with independent and guaranteed access to outer space.”

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US pays top dollar for Red Sea operations but can't stop Axis of Resistance

The US Department of Defense (DoD) will receive $1.2 billion to maintain warships deployed in the Red Sea and restock missiles and drone interceptors used to repel attacks from Iran and its Axis of Resistance allies, according to the DoD’s two September 6 budget documents, first reviewed by Bloomberg.

The request includes:

▪️$300 million for "incremental depot maintenance costs" on the USS Bataan and the USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group which "returned from operations in support of DoD's response to the situation in Israel." It was earlier reported that the warships had been deployed in the Red Sea;
▪️$190 million for the replacement of the RTX Corp. Standard Missile-3 Block 1B which were "extended in support of Israel"; each advance model SM-3 Block IB costs around $9.7 million;
▪️$276 million for the replacement of Standard Missile-6;
▪️$57.3 million for Tomahawk cruise missiles;
▪️$6.7 million for Enhanced Sea Sparrow self-defense missiles;
▪️$7.2 million for General Purpose Bombs;
▪️$20 million for BAE Systems' Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS) rockets;
▪️$25 million for Boeing's Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM);
▪️$7.4 million for Boeing Small Diameter Bombs;
▪️$26.4 million for the replacement of RTX Coyote Block 2 drone interceptors;

The Red Sea crisis

The Red Sea crisis began on October 19, 2023, seeing the Houthis, a Yemeni Shiite group, launching drones and missiles at Israeli-linked ships to force Tel Aviv into halting its Gaza war.

In January, the US and UK started joint operations against the Houthis as part of the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian with non-operational support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands.

🔸An intelligence report seen by Axios in June revealed that the US Navy had expended $1 billion in munitions to counter Houthis in the Red, but failed to stop the Yemeni group, whose stockpiles appear nowhere near exhausted.

🔸The cost of ammunition used by the US to repel attacks from the Houthis in and around the Red Sea between October 2023 and mid-July 2024 equated to 1.16 billion, Business Insider revealed in July, citing a US Navy source.

🔸The figure covers the cost of 770 munitions launched by the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group during its nine-month deployment in the region. The War Zone provided a breakdown of the types of munitions:

▪️155 Standard-series missiles;
▪️135 Tomahawk cruise missiles;
▪️60 air-to-are missiles;
▪️20 air-to-surface munitions.

How much has the unplanned military buildup in the Middle East cost the US?

▪️According to the Pentagon's January 2024 estimates, the US spent $1.6 billion between October 2023 and January 2024, whereas a full year of operations was estimated at the time at $2.2 billion. These figures don't include the cost of missiles fired to shoot down Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea or to attack Houthi positions in Yemen.

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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have reported the deaths of two more officers on the northern front at the border with Lebanon, including Sergeant Daniel Aviv Haim Sofer and Corporal Tal Dror

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Saying no to ‘woke’: Europeans flock to Russia to embrace traditional values

About a dozen Danish citizens have recently applied for Russian residency, Russia’s Embassy in Russia’s embassy in Copenhagen says.

The wave of Europeans seeking to move to Russia gained steam after President Vladimir Putin’s August decree, authorizing foreigners, who do not accept moral policies of the countries of their origin, to apply for temporary residence in Russia.

As the West shows no signs of slowing down the rise of questionable neoliberal morals, there are still those who seek to pursue a life in accordance with traditional centuries-long ideals. That’s where Russia comes in handy to embrace anyone interested.

The residency route, dubbed the Shared Values Visa (SVV), simplifies relocation to Russia, as the effort doesn’t require passing Russian language, history, or legislation tests.

So, where do other applications come from?

▪️As per the Russian Embassy in London, more than 30 UK citizens have shown interest in moving to Russia since August. So far, the number of applications to the Russian Embassy in the UK has reportedly increased by 226%;

▪️As per UK media, 17 Scots have applied for Russian residency wanting nothing to do with the woke culture.

▪️According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, “thousands of people” come to Russian embassies in NATO countries to get relevant documents,” as said by Maria Zakharova, adding that people want to protect their kids “from having their genitals twisted and rearranged”;

▪️The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has said that most applications come from Germany, US, Australia, Romania, Latvia, and Lithuania, the Main Directorate for Migration Issues reported;

▪️Russian media in turn reported that 30 Italians have sought relocation to Russia due to their resentment of the woke agenda.

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Israel will never win a ground operation, Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said.

Iran does not want to send its troops to another country, Lebanon is capable of defending itself, the ambassador said, adding that Iran's strikes on Israel have been successful and Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system is "leaky.”

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📹 Social media video of fires in northern Israel after rocket attacks from Lebanon

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Attacks on Iran oil infrastructure to send oil price over $100 - Mideast energy researcher

"The damage of Iran crude facilities will certainly have repercussions and cause pressure on the worldwide energy markets," Marc Ayoub, Lebanese energy policy researcher and non-resident fellow at the Tahir Institute for Middle East Policy, told Sputnik, commenting on a possible Israeli strike.

He noted that in the past few days, oil prices went up and could reach $80 per barrel even before an Israeli attack. Ayoub's comment comes at a time when Israel is considering a response to the Iranian retaliatory missile strike. One of options is to hit Iran's oil infrastructure, American and Israeli media say, citing Israeli officials.

US President Joe Biden's remark that the option is being "discussed" by Washington and Tel Aviv triggered uncertainty in the markets. "This could be similar to what happened when Iraq invaded Kuwait in the 1990 depending on the size of the strike, which might lead us to prices above $100," the pundit continued. "Around 1.5 million barrels per day are expected to be lost."

Iran can also go nuclear and block the Strait of Hormuz. Around 20 million barrels of oil and petroleum products pass through the strait daily. "The use of the Hormuz strait will be another escalation, and particularly for some Gulf countries, as around 27% of world oil flows pass through it, including Iran's shipments to China," Ayoub said. "And this will put further pressure on supplies and markets."

Meanwhile, a pressure on Biden to tighten oil sanctions on Tehran from US politicians is growing following Iran's missile attack. Earlier, in September, a bipartisan group of lawmakers urged Biden to ban Iran's oil sales to China.

The US doesn't seem willing to raise stakes in the region prior to the November election, according to the expert. "The risk is currently there, but it doesn't seem there is a will for further escalation," Ayoub concluded.

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