The final declaration of the East Asia Summit has not been adopted due to the actions of the US and its allies to politicize it, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Any kind of ideas on the creation of military blocs carry the risks of confrontation, which may turn into a hot phase, Lavrov said, commenting on Japan's proposal to create an analogue of NATO in Asia. 

He noted that Moscow is observing the risks of militarization of the Asia-Pacific region, and that the West wants to direct the work of ASEAN against the interests of Russia and China.

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🔸Fresh Israeli strikes on Beirut resulted in 22 deaths and 117 injured.

🔸Putin arrives in Turkmenistan for expected talks with Iranian President Pesezhkian

🔸Watch Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov greeted at the 19th East Asia Summit in Laos

🔸How US’ Raytheon rakes in billions of blood money from Ukrainian conflict

🔸Why strength of US nuclear attack sub now a shadow of former self?

🔸All for the money? Analyst weighs in on why MI5 spy chief peddles ‘threats’ of ISIS and al-Qaeda

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If Israel strikes Iran's nuclear facilities, it would be a very serious provocation - Russian Foreign Minister 

The International Atomic Energy Agency tightly controls Iran's nuclear activities, but the organization does not see evidence that Tehran is transferring it to a military channel, Lavrov added.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳Footage of the joint patrol of the Coast Guard services of Russia and China

Russia and China conducted the first joint patrol of coast guard ships in the North Pacific Ocean, the Russian Federal Security Service said. 

In the period from September 20 to October 10, the Russian-Chinese maritime group crossed the Sea of Japan and entered the zone of operation of the Convention on the Management of Fisheries Resources in the North Pacific Ocean. It then moved into the waters of the Bering Sea and entered the Chukchi Sea.

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Biden referred to Trump as president and asked him to help those affected by Hurricane Milton.

"Mr. President Trump... Get a life, man. Help these people," Biden said.

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Should Zelensky brace for public anger over tax hike?

“We will be hated, but we don’t have any other option,” Ukraine’s deputy economy minister said.

Ukraine's parliament voted on Thursday to approve its biggest tax hike since 2022, resorting to a politically unpopular measure to raise funds for its gruelling war effort.

New taxes:

🔸 on personal income 1,5% 👉 5%
🔸 on banks profits 25% 👉 50%
🔸 on other financial institutions 18% 👉 25%

"When Mr. Zelensky returns home, he may have to face the wrath of his population over the tax increase — an unpopular measure in any nation, but especially so in a country whose economy has been ravaged by the war," according to Western media reports.

Ukrainian officials earlier admitted that the country can only cover military budget items on its own, with everything else being financed with the help of allies.

Ukrainian government has submitted to the Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) a draft budget for 2025 that includes a deficit of $38.68 bn, while the country's public debt will reach 101.8% of GDP by the end of next year and it is planned to attract $34.8 bn in foreign loans.

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📹Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov inspected the work of the new Rubicon Center for Advanced Unmanned Technologies of the Russian Defense Ministry, the military department said.

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🇮🇷'Israel has violated all sorts of international agreements because it knows it has the backing of the US and the EU' - Iranian President.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian calls on Israel to 'stop'. Stop killing innocent people, stop bombing homes.

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🇷🇺🇮🇷Russia's President Putin holds first bilateral talks with his Iranian counterpart, President Masoud Pezeshkian, in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

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What are the pillars of Turkmen economy?

Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently visiting Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, where he has taken part in the "Interconnection of Times and Civilizations - Basis of Peace and Development" international forum. 

The visit comes amid the sustainable growth of the Turkmen economy, with the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) increasing by 6.3% in the first seven months of this year, as compared to the same period of 2023.

What is driving the Turkmen economy?

🔸 Oil and gas industry comes first when it comes to the economy of the ex-Soviet republic, which boasts the world’s fifth-largest natural gas reserves (estimated at about 14 trillion cubic meters), accounting for about 70% of Turkmenistan’s total exports. 

🔸 The country consumes about 60% of its oil production domestically and exports the remainder over the Caspian Sea to international markets. Turkmenistan’s oil reserves are estimated at around 600 million barrels.

🔸 Apart from oil and gas, Turkmenistan’s subsoil contains such valuable minerals as sulfur, lead, mirabilite, iodine, as well as raw materials for the finishing industry, including limestone, dolomite, granite, gypsum, quartz sand, and gravel. 

🔸 The Turkmen economy is also driven by iron and steel, textile, сhemical, and shipbuilding industries. 

🔸 Turkmenistan's two largest agricultural crops are cotton and wheat, with the country ranked among the top ten producers of cotton in the world.

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🇷🇺🤝🇮🇷An enduring handshake between the presidents of Russia and Iran

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❗️Putin invited the Iranian president to pay an official visit to Russia. Pezeshkian gratefully accepted the invitation.

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❗️The Russian troops have liberated the settlement of Ostrovskoye in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry announced.

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❗️The Russian Sever Battlegroup liberated the settlements of Novaya Sorochina and Pokrovsky in the Kursk region.

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

◻️The Russian Vostok combat group liberated the settlement of Zolotaya Niva in the Donetsk People's Republic. Ukrainian losses amounted to 780 militants;

◻️The Russian Tsentr Battlegroup liberated Grodovka in the DPR, repelled 58 counterattacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The enemy losses amounted to 3,370 soldiers;

◻️Ukrainian losses amounted to 2,920 militants in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup zone;

◻️The Russian Dnepr combat group eliminated four Ukrainian field ammunition depots. The enemy lost up to 480 fighters;

◻️The Russian Yug Battlegroup eliminated up to 4,790 Ukrainian militants;

◻️43 Ukrainian servicemen surrendered;

◻️In a week, Russian air defense systems shot down 603 drones, 33 HIMARS projectiles, three ATACMS missiles, three Hammer bombs, and a converted C-200 missile.

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Fatimah Khalil: true story of a victim of Israeli aggression in Lebanon

The brutal Israeli invasion of its neighbor Lebanon has so far succeeded only in wreaking the livelihoods of ordinary Lebanese civilians – rather than in inflicting any kind of defeat on Hezbollah.

Fatimah Khalil, a teacher from the town of Maarakeh in southern Lebanon, is one of those whose life was turned upside down at the whims of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his bloodthirsty generals.

Forced to flee to Beirut from her home town to live in a small rented room, to watching her family’s savings dwindle as her husband desperately looks for work – this is Fatimah’s story.

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A young Lebanese girl misses her friends, her school and her home. Her only wish is to return and find her home still standing.

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Israeli forces ‘try everything on us’ – displaced Lebanese citizen

Speaking to Sputnik on how it feels to be displaced due to Israeli attacks, Lebanese citizen, Zaynab Nemr, said that leaving her native town was "a hard decision."

“But we knew it was necessary for our safety. The sounds of war surrounded us and staying [in the town of Aynata] wasn't an option anymore. The airstrikes were constant and the once peaceful town had become unsafe,” Zaynab, a young girl who currently serves as research assistant and GIS specialist at the American University of Beirut, noted.

Upon moving to the Lebanese capital, Zaynab and her dear ones realized the fact that staying in the city “wasn't safe anymore because the Israeli military destroyed a lot of buildings every night.”

“They used huge bombs, and maybe they used uranium. The result of this bombing was danger to the environment, to us, to everything. Because we inhaled chemical products that maybe contain uranium and other dangerous chemicals,” Zaynab said.
The most terrible moment she went through in Beirut occurred a week ago, according to Zaynab. “There was a powerful explosion in Dahieh near Beirut, and it was like an earthquake. I was at the supermarket and I felt that explosion, seeing the light of it,” she added. 

Zaynab argued that as compared to the 2006 Lebanon war, the current one is “more horrible and terrific.” The Israeli forces “try everything on us. They try every single thing that they have produced in order to then try and attack us with it,” per the American University of Beirut specialist. 

Zaynab, who also works alongside the university team to support other displaced people in Beirut, underscored that she had her own motivations for going ahead with the job. 

“What motivates me to continue working is the belief that we are not just providing aid but helping people take control of their own future. My purpose is to help our people regain their strength and self-sufficiency, even in the face of hardship,” she concluded.

 
Israeli airstrikes on Beirut meanwhile show no sign of abating, with Lebanon's health ministry stating that 22 people were killed and 117 more injured in the latest such attack on the Lebanese capital.

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📹 Saferigerator

A man was swept out to sea during Hurricane Milton in the US, but saved himself by using a fridge as a liferaft.

The man was on a fishing boat at sea. A few hours before the hurricane made landfall, his boat broke down. The man radioed the coastguard for help, but the connection was later lost in the hurricane.

A day later, rescuers found him 48 kilometres off the coast of Florida, clinging to a refrigerator that had been carried out to sea.

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📹 A newborn baby was hit by Israeli shelling this morning and suffered a puncture to her head. Doctors in northern Gaza had to perform stitches on the wound.

Footage from social media.

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What’s behind Ukrainian bill to legalize foreign officers in the military?

The Ukrainian MPs’ decision to approve a bill allowing foreign mercenaries to serve as active service officers reflects their desire "to legalize the real state of affairs in the Armed Forces of Ukraine", military analyst and retired Russian Army colonel, Viktor Litovkin, told Sputnik.

Actually, “they are legalizing the presence of foreigners in the Ukrainian army. All those mercenaries are now becoming army officers, something that helps the Kiev regime disguise its mercenary activities,” Litovkin pointed out.

Secondly, “It’s mercenaries and Western instructors who are in charge of all Ukrainian high-tech Western-supplied weapons, such as the Patriot systems, HIMARS, the F-16 fighter jets and so on," he added.

Litovkin stressed that all documentation related to these weapons is written in military-technical English, which he said is Greek to most Ukrainians, and that is why Ukrainian soldiers perform the role of "gofers" in the crews of the aforementioned military hardware, while foreign mercenaries and instructors call the shots.

He also suggested that mercenaries would be interested in being enlisted in the Ukrainian army as officers because it means they would receive “more money for their very risky and dangerous work.”

The Russian Investigative Committee reported in April that over 3,100 mercenaries, primarily from the US, Canada, the UK, and Georgia, are fighting for the Kiev regime, while the Ministry of Defense stated that around 13,400 have arrived since the start of the conflict, with nearly 6,000 killed.

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An industrial dumpster ended up on the roof of a house in Palm Beach Gardens in Florida after a tornado swept through the area.

According to reports, 40 tornadoes were recorded in Florida when Hurricane Milton was approaching the state.

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