Trump asked Putin for advice on whether the US should arm Ukraine – Western media

During his first year as president, Donald Trump sought Vladimir Putin’s advice on whether the US should provide Ukraine with weapons, The New York Times reported.
Trump reportedly told the Russian president that his administration was considering giving weapons to Ukraine during the first face-to-face meeting between the two in Hamburg in 2017.

“What do you think?” Trump asked, to which Putin said it would be “a mistake,” adding that whatever the US would give the Ukrainians, they would ask for more, according to the newspaper.

Trump had been primed for the meeting by his advisors, and armed with “hawkish talking points,” but he “never pushed back,” according to cited US officials who attended the summit.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is described as telling anxious White House aides: “We’ve got work to do to change the president’s mind on Ukraine.”

As the final weeks of the 2024 presidential campaign play out, Republican candidate Trump has repeatedly said he would put an end to the Ukraine conflict “in 24 hours” if elected. Critical of the US aid funneled to the Kiev regime, Trump has also mocked Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky as “the greatest salesman,” while elaborating that “every time he [Zelensky] comes into the country, he walks away with $60 billion.”

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The death toll from Israel's strike on a mosque sheltering displaced persons in the city of Deir al Balah in the central Gaza Strip has risen to 24, Palestinian news agency Shehab reported.

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US to become a 'single-party socialist state' if Trump doesn’t win the presidential election – Musk

“If [Donald Trump] doesn’t win, the 'Democratic' Party will legalize so many illegals that there will be no swing states! America will become a single-party socialist state, just like what happened to California, where they just made requiring voter ID illegal,” US billionaire Elon Musk wrote on X.

On October 5, Musk spoke at the former president's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

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❗️The Russian Armed Forces have hit a Ukrainian fuel base near Odessa, along with infrastructure at the Starokonstantinov airfield in Ukraine's Khmelnitsky region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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❗️Ukraine's losses in the Russian Battlegroup Tsentr's combat zone amounted to up to 460 militants.

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

▪️ Ukraine lost up to 530 militants and four ammunition depots in the Russian Battlegroup Yug's combat zone.

▪️ Ukraine's losses exceeded 120 militants due to combat operations by the Russian Battlegroup Vostok.

▪️ Ukraine lost up to 50 militants in the Liptsy and Volchansk directions.

▪️ Ukraine lost up to 400 militants in the Russian Battlegroup Zapad's combat zone.

▪️ Ukraine lost up to 60 militants in the Russian Battlegroup Dnepr's combat zone.

▪️ Russian air defense forces shot down 3 HIMARS rockets and 68 drones.

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📹 Watch Russian Battlegroup Sever Marines destroy Ukrainian equipment and infantry in the Kursk region border area

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❗️ Russian troops repelled two Ukrainian attempts to break through the state border, as well as four counterattacks in the Kursk region over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

🪖 More statements from the Russian Mod briefing on the situation in the Kusk region:

◻️ Russian forces in the Kursk region repelled two attempts by Ukrainian militants to breach the border near the settlement of Novy Put, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

◻️ The Russian Battlegroup Sever repelled four counterattacks near Plekhovo.

◻️ Ukraine's losses amounted to around 200 militants, with one captured, and seven pieces of equipment destroyed.

◻️ Since the start of the fighting in thу region, the enemy has lost more than 20,800 militants and 136 tanks.

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New details of Mossad's deadly pager operation emerge

The exploding pagers that targeted Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon in September were crafted and booby-trapped by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, The Washington Post has reported.

New significant details of the operation gleaned from interviews with Israeli, Arab, US, and Lebanese officials, politicians, diplomats, and people close to the Hezbollah movement suggest:

▪️ The first part of the plan to target Hezbollah with a “communications Trojan horse” dates back to 2015, when booby-trapped walkie-talkies containing a hidden explosive and transmission system began being inserted in Lebanon. They allowed Israel to eavesdrop on Hezbollah communications.

▪️ The main idea for the pager operation originated at the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv in 2022.

▪️ Hezbollah was offered a batch of AR924 pagers in 2023 by a former unidentified Middle East sales representative for Apollo. The Taiwanese company itself reportedly had no knowledge of the plan by Mossad to use their trademark. The marketing official who made the sales pitch was unaware that the pagers were assembled in Israel under Mossad oversight.

▪️ Mossad’s pagers contained a battery pack with a tiny amount of powerful explosive that was virtually undetectable, even if the device was taken apart.

▪️ Concealed remote access to the devices could trigger the explosion of the pagers simultaneously. The blast could also be triggered by a two-step procedure required for viewing encrypted messages.

▪️ Since two buttons needed to be pushed simultaneously to read the message, most users would be holding the pager with both hands. When it detonated, the explosion would “wound both their hands,” one insider said, and “be incapable to fight.”

▪️ Most top Israeli officials were unaware of the plot until Mossad officials finally revealed it on September 12 at a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his intelligence advisors. By then, the booby-trapped pagers were already in the hands of thousands of Hezbollah operatives.

▪️ Despite some officials citing risks, Netanyahu approved triggering the devices while they could inflict maximum damage and had not been detected.

▪️ The US was not informed of the booby-trapped pagers, American officials claimed.

▪️ On September 17, thousands of pagers exploded as Hezbollah operatives received an encrypted message. Less than a minute later, thousands of other devices were triggered remotely. On September 18, hundreds of walkie-talkies blew up in the same way.

▪️ Over 40 people were killed and nearly 3,500 injured in Lebanon.

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