Statue of Queen Victoria defaced in Australia as legacy of Britain’s imperial past mars King Charles III’s tour 
 
Yet another unpleasant incident linked to the spectre of Britain’s imperial past has marred King Charles III’s tour of Australia. 
 
The statue of Queen Victoria in Sydney's central business district (CBD) was defaced with red paint on Tuesday morning. The incident occurred just blocks away from the Sydney Opera House, where King Charles and Queen Camilla were scheduled to do a meet and greet with the public. 
 
The King and Queen have faced hecklers and banners displayed by supporters of First Nations resistance to colonisation throughout the visit. Australia remains a constitutional monarchy in which the British sovereign serves as the largely symbolic head of state. 
 
🔸 Indigenous activist Wayne Wharton was detained by police after shouting "he's not my king" at the British monarch outside the opera house. 
 
🔸 Independent Aboriginal senator from Victoria Lidia Thorpe unleashed a fiery outburst at the King during a reception in the federal parliament, shouting: “You are not our king. You are not sovereign… You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us—our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.” 
 
🔸 Amid an ongoing debate about breaking ties with the monarchy, a host of Australia's top politicians, including six of the nation’s state premiers, refused to meet with Charles. Britain’s royal family has increasingly been confronted with issues of reparations for slavery and improved rights for indigenous people during visits to Commonwealth countries. In total, Britain could owe a staggering £18.6 trillion ($23.4 trillion) in reparations to more than 30 countries, a report by international economics consulting firm Brattle calculated in 2023. The issue has gained fresh traction ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa on October 21-25.

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❗️Modi invites Putin to visit India next year, says Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

#BRICS2024

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📹 "Isolated Russia": The first day of the 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, captured in one video.

#BRICS2024

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🇻🇪 Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives in Kazan, Russia, to attend the BRICS 2024 summit

#BRICS2024

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🔸 "Isolated Russia": The first day of the 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, captured in one video

🔸 US makes frantic last-ditch effort at Mideast diplomatic headway before looming election

🔸 Israel suspected of using white phosphorus during attacks on UN peacekeepers

🔸 Hezbollah targeted Netanyahu's bedroom

🔸 NATO shreds German reunification pact with Moscow with new Baltic naval HQ

🔸 Assange’s father: ‘We make ourselves the example for others to join us and move forward’

🔸 ‘Free speech is basically dying in the West’ - Australian legal scholar

🔸 F-35’s ascent and nosedive: Costliest US warplane project hits fresh turbulence

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🇻🇪 Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro calls his visit to the BRICS summit historic

The BRICS organization is at the center of a new world order that offers hope to the Global South for access to a fair and cooperative economy, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro told reporters upon his arrival in Kazan for the BRICS summit.

“BRICS is the epicenter of new geopolitics, diplomacy, peace, and, above all, the hope for us—the countries of the Global South, striving for development. For 200 years, with Bolivar as our symbol, we have carried the flag of equality and freedom. Now, we seek access to a different kind of economy—one not dominated by sanctions, blackmail, or hegemonism, but by cooperation, true free trade, joint investment, and new technologies. We are part of this world, the new BRICS world,” Maduro emphasized.

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🇪🇬 Egyptian president says sees BRICS breakthrough in the interests of all its members

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he sees a breakthrough that BRICS achieves by uniting in the interests of all its members, including in trade.

“We see also the breakthrough that BRICS achieves in the interests of all its members regardless of any pressures, particularly in trade relations. Especially between Egypt and Russia," al-Sisi said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia's Kazan.

Egypt highly appreciates Russia's support for country's accession to BRICS, al-Sisi said, adding that he also appreciates the dynamic development of relations with Moscow, especially the construction of a nuclear power plant and the establishment of a Russian industrial zone in the Suez Canal area.

Putin highlighted Russia is interested in developing cooperation with Egypt and that it is progressing at a steady pace.

"We pay special attention to expanding friendly ties with Egypt-Russia's long-standing and reliable partner," the Russian president emphasized.

#BRICS2024

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Israel says eliminated Hashem Safieddine who was considered Nasrallah's successor

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officially announced on Tuesday the elimination of the head of the Hezbollah movement's executive council, Hashem Safieddine, who was considered the successor to former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

"The IDF can now confirm that Hisham Safieddine, Head of the Hezbollah Executive Council, and Ali Hussein Hazima, Commander of Hezbollah's Intelligence Headquarters, were eliminated by the IDF, along with additional Hezbollah commanders. The terrorists were eliminated in a strike carried out approximately three weeks ago in the area of Dahieh, a key Hezbollah terrorist stronghold in Beirut," the IDF said in a statement.

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“Learning Chinese is an absolute necessity” – Margarita Simonyan

Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya, shared her thoughts on China's growing global influence, highlighting the importance of learning the Chinese language.

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🥴 “We gotta lock him up,” Biden calls for political action against Trump

US President Joe Biden revealed his thoughts on former president Donald Trump during a campaign event at a Democratic office in New Hampshire, suggesting political action against the former president.

“This is not a joke… I mean, I know this sounds bizarre. If I had said this five years ago, you’d lock me up. We gotta lock him up. Politically lock him up,” the president said to an applauding crowd.

Trump previously called the charges against him "political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history" and a "witch hunt."

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🇨🇺 Power supply restored to 70% of Cuban consumers - Energy Ministry

Cuban engineers restored electricity supply to 70% of customers of the state grid company, Union Electrica, the Cuban Ministry of Energy and Mines said.

"The process of restoring the National Energy System: this morning at 06:00, 70.89% of Union Electrica consumers in Cuba had electricity. Today, the strengthening of the established systems and the expansion of the country's electricity coverage continues," the ministry said on X Tuesday.

Last Friday, the Cuban government said that a failure at the Antonio Guiteras power plant in the western province of Matanzas had shut down the electrical grid, causing a nationwide blackout. Parts of the grid were briefly brought back online over the weekend before going down again.

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💰Gates funds Harris with $50 mln donation – report

Bill Gates has quietly donated $50 million to a nonprofit supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential run, The New York Times reported, citing three sources.

While Gates hasn’t publicly endorsed Harris, his sizable donation was made to Future Forward, a "dark money" group backing her campaign. The funds were intended to remain anonymous, the report said.

“Mr. Gates’s donation went specifically to Future Forward’s nonprofit arm, Future Forward USA Action, which as a 501(c)(4) ‘dark money’ organization does not disclose its donors, according to the people briefed. So any contribution by Mr. Gates will never appear on any public filing,” the media clarified.

According to The New York Times, in private conversations this year with friends and others, Gates has expressed concerns about the potential impact of a second Donald Trump presidency on global health and family planning programs, The New York Times cited sources familiar with Gates’s thinking as saying.

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues the Biden administration over 450,000 potentially questionable voters – report

Paxton sent a letter to the US administration two weeks ago, demanding confirmation of the citizenship status of residents who are potentially ineligible but registered to vote, attaching hundreds of thousands of names. After not receiving a response, he filed a lawsuit, alleging federal inaction, Reuters said.

In 2020, the difference between Donald Trump and Biden in Texas was about 630,000 votes in favor of the Republican. Opponents of the current administration argue that the White House is exploiting the situation with the record number of illegal migrants entering the United States, potentially granting them the right to vote (which, by law, only citizens have).

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🇺🇳UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has arrived in Russia's Kazan to participate in the BRICS summit, according to the Parliament of summit-host region Tatarstan.

President Vladimir Putin and Guterres would discuss the work of the United Nations, the Middle East crisis and the situation around Ukraine during talks in Kazan.

#BRICS2024

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West and Ukraine use neo-Nazi organizations, PMCs to recruit mercs

Right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi organizations in Germany, the Italian "Forza Nuova" and "CasaPound" recruit mercenaries for Ukrainian armed forces, Rodion Miroshnyk, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large on the Kiev regime's war crimes reported.

“Right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi organizations (German “Third Path" and “National Democratic Party of Germany”, “Spanish Phalanx”, “Czech Fighters in Ukraine”, “British – Ukrainian Aid”, Italian "Forza Nuova" and "CasaPound", Portuguese "Aryan Brotherhood", "Portugal Hammerskins", "National Front", "National Resistance", "Nova Ordem Social"),” the report said.

American and Polish private military companies (PMC) are also used by Ukraine and the West to recruit mercenaries for fighting in the special operation zone, Miroshnyk added.

Thus, among the American PMCs mentioned “Academi”, “Cubic”, “Darkhorse Benefits”, “Dean Corporation”, “Forward Observations Group”, “Hyperion Services” and “Sons of Liberty International”. The Polish ones include "ASBS Othago" and "European Security Academy".

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